In the Blink of an i

Life is full of moments: good, bad, happy, sad. Full of colour and breadth or detail and depth. We have a personal and unbreakable connection with a memory but we make our own judgement of an image. Thanks to the phone camera in our pockets, we are all photographers and this makes us individually responsible for capturing the most incredible moments.

I used to be a dedicated SLR photographer. Having pursued an education in photography (if not a career), I had progressed from several film-based SLR’s to the digital variety. I loved the feel of a full-sized camera, the perceived quality and the flexibility the lens selection and manual controls offered.

The reality was, my eldest daughter Olivia began life with a set of ‘perfect’ photos. I would painstakingly photoshop food from her face and unwanted toys, pieces of furniture or poorly shaped friends and family from my photos – just to aid composition!

By the time my other daughter Hattie arrived on the scene, I had ditched the cumbersome D-SLR and replaced the full digital darkroom with the iPhone in my pocket.

This was a revelation.

I moved from the selection of perfection, to a lifetime of moments. Rather than hoping to capture something whenever I had my camera, I would take 100 casual shots for one visual memory – and that is why I’ll never turn back.

I find being able to photograph the unexpected a far greater reward than a staged set piece. You know when a smile is real, because the rest of the face wasn’t expecting it.

That doesn’t mean I’ll ever stop being a ‘proper’ photographer at heart, or a designer. I love to create, so the moments I capture are the ones I’d like to see – and I have a critical eye. Most shots are edited in Snapseed or Black and many never reach a public audience.

It has never been easier to share great photography with the world. That doesn’t mean I haven’t got myself into trouble trying to do just this during my world travels. I was detained at gunpoint in Beirut for snapping architectural photos where I shouldn’t, I ventured into the most dangerous parts of Moscow to capture street lighting and walked back out – thanks to ignorance rather than travel awareness and I have taken risks for great automotive shots by hanging out of a few car windows, off-roading a Bentley GT and many more.

Smartphone technology moves on every year, but I still use an iPhone 7 Plus. The phone isn’t slow, the battery life is acceptable, and the camera is great. Do I need a new phone? No. Would I like one? I’m an Apple fan, so of course.

Will an iPhone 11 Pro make me a better photographer? Absolutely not. It will deliver greater detail and perform better under lower light conditions. But a phone doesn’t make a moment…

…we do.

You can find all my photo highlights on Instagram if you’d like to follow the journey.

The Art of NOW

First Meerkat showed its face. Now Twitter has mounted an offensive in the live streaming wars and Periscopes have been popping up all over the place! We all have something to say at some time, but what’s the future hold for the risky ‘always-on’ culture?

We store thousands of photos and hours of video on our mobile devices and an unlimited extension to this in the cloud. Social trends are highlighting how we’re moving on from a world of storage to a society of streamers.

Snapchat conversations flash by in the blink of the eye, Spotify and Jay Z's relaunched Tidal encourage us to own the subscription rather than the music and most relevant channels attempt to capture the moment and the audience to be truly effective.

We live in an increasingly time-poor society, not because we have less time, but because we have more demands on every waking moment from many areas. It’s one of the reasons the world of ‘traditional’ advertising is now a lumbering dinosaur. We have a seemingly endless array of options to distract us from the ad break and billboard or the ability to fast forward almost any digital channel, so why stop to absorb something that doesn’t deliver immediate gratification?

It’s not hard to imagine how coverage of world events is likely to evolve now live video streaming sits at our fingertips. Incredible opportunities for live reportage have opened up for those equipped simply with a smartphone and a selfie stick. Last week’s collapsed building in New York’s East Village (on the very day Periscope launched) handed us the perfect case study.

News organisations have struggled for a number of years to reach ‘breaking news’ situations as quickly as the people on the ground armed with Twitter and a smartphone. Previous criticism levelled at Twitter reportage has focused on misleading conversations and the lack of facts. Professional channels wouldn’t push such unsubstantiated punditry on an audience for fear of legal ramifications and a loss of professional credibility, although not something that appears to bother Fox News.

Now the man and woman on the street can present the situation as it unfolds – the still camera does in fact lie but video is less malleable.

A whole world of opportunity lies beyond news of course. This is evident in most of the content generated on Periscope and Meerkat to date. I have just live streamed my home office, generating followers and likes with something as mundane as an untidy desk, a collection of tech kit and some books. Last week, I attempted simultaneous streams from Meerkat and Periscope on my iPhone and iPad Mini live from Apple’s HQ in Cupertino. Slightly more exciting, resulting in a few extra followers.

Periscope currently has the jump on Meerkat with the ability to point an audience at previously streamed video, whereas Meerkat simply saves the footage to your camera roll.

The marketing and promotional opportunities lie in live events of all shapes and sizes – from movie premieres to emerging music acts to car launches to product reveals to political debates to celebrity interviews. The list goes on and on…

Frames from my Meerkat stream of Meerkat Founder Gary Vaynerchuk and Rory Cellan-Jones at the Guardian Changing Media Summit. — Frames from my Meerkat stream of Meerkat Founder Gary Vaynerchuk and Rory Cellan-Jones at the Guardian Changing Media Summit.

The next step? VR live streams. Why settle for a small screen image of someone’s life when we have the power to experience events as they unfold as if we were actually there! Once the realm of science fiction, now science fact. Facebook bought Oculus Rift for many reasons, but the addition of Meerkat to their folio would bring the two digital stars into perfect alignment.

In the future we’ll all be able to see anything we want, be anyone we want to be, any time we want. There have never been so many broadcast channels available to designers, marketers and the ad industry. The greatest challenge lies in capturing attention… then monetising the moment.

Oh, and we’re going to need a bigger battery!

You can follow me on Meerkat and Periscope by searching for @activrightbrain or Dean Johnson

A Tale of Two Brains

Never has Louis Armstrong’s song ‘We Have All The Time in The World’ been more poignant. I’m sorry, we simply don’t. The sad death of Robin Williams brings this into stark focus and highlights exactly how every second counts.

I have never held any religious beliefs and never will with my focus on achieving as much as possible in this life as we never know when the whole ride is going to end. We’re still in control (I’m sorry, I don’t believe in fate either) but it’s difficult to line everything up to fall perfectly into place.

Robin Williams battled with his own personal demons and his fight with depression ultimately lead to his decision to close the book on his life as he’d completed his final chapter. We feel cheated and we wanted another book, more of his comic and creative genius and feel sad about the personal tragedy and loss to us all.

I never met Robin Williams so I’m not lining up to add a personal story – just that he was always on my fantasy dinner party list and now I’ll have to leave that place empty. It was a big seat to fill.

He brought an extraordinary energy to all he pursued but those incredible highs were matched by shattering lows. As with many of the world's greatest entertainers, visionaries and creative individuals, depression and often a compulsive personality go hand in hand with the visible public results. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Alexander McQueen, Ernest Hemmingway and many more have fought to maintain control. Thankfully the genius of Stephen Fry is still with us.

It’s a criminally unfair balance but one that exists for many nonetheless – but we only hear about the topflight personalities. All the more reason to be aware of those around us and take enough interest in loved ones and colleagues to notice changes in attitude and behaviour.

I’m writing this whilst sat in the gardens of the Kremlin in the centre of Moscow, having given a lecture in a stunning open air auditorium at the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design last night. I spoke about incredible future opportunities for creative technology to change our lives (both good and bad) and some of the stunning projects we’re working on at Brandwidth to shape this.

Am I lucky? I’ve engineered that luck and I’ve pushed well beyond my comfort zone. There have been a few happy coincidences but they wouldn’t have happened without years of groundwork.

I used to be petrified of public speaking but I created situations where I’d have to ‘perform’ in front of an audience. As a fourteen year old, I attended a business seminar with my Dad (I was running the business – you all know I’m not normal) where I had to stand up, Introduce myself and explain why we were there. It may seem a small thing to do, but it was a massive step for me. Even though I’d been on TV the previous year, the live audience was an entirely new experience!

As if my regular radio, podcast, TV and conference appearances weren’t enough, I’m smashing more personal barriers at Silicon Beach in September by co-presenting with Apptain America (one of my many alter-egos), including a musical number and Oculus Rift light saber battle. What could possibly go wrong?

Speaking of comfort zones, I’m a pretty hopeless traveller as I’m geographically challenged, to the point of struggling with route-planning on UK roads and trains – even with satnav! But here I am, in Moscow, following speaking engagements and business trips to Poland, America and Dubai.

My active (with an e) right brain fights with my left on a daily basis but the right side’s always going to win. If I let the rational, sensible and ultimately safe side take control, I’d never push beyond my boundaries, take chances or leave my comfort zone.

Lisa Edwards wrote a great blog post last week on pushing boundaries, so it’s good to see more personal barriers being breached – although I’m not attempting Tough Mudder any time soon.

I'm raising a last vodka to Robin. Goodbye you wonderful man.

Goodwood Festival of Speed: The Greatest (Motor)Show on Earth

It's the show that offers the lot – motor racing, new model reveals, celebrity drivers and guests, stunts and the Red Arrows. Goodwood Festival of Speed is everything modern motor shows aren't... because it's actually a show.

If like me, you share more than a passing interest in cars, particularly fast ones, you'll either have already have visited this iconic event or it's written in engine oil on your automotive bucket list.

This year's show was as popular as ever and visitors flocked to the live action around the garages to sample the sound and smell of F1 and supercar models of present day and yesteryear. It's a spine-tingling experience that the digital world is a long way from effectively simulating. I hope this event keeps the memories alive long after the petrol engine is legislated off our roads.

I wanted to capture as much of the passion and action of the event this year so my Twitter, Vine and Instagram feeds were working overtime. Audi builds the largest stand by far, but Goodwood isn't all about scale, it's about intimacy and a genuine connection between fans and brands. Nissan won the day for me, revealing their incredible Concept 2020 supercar, the stunning IDx Nismo and IDx Freeflow design studies, Nismo GTRs (one driven up the hill by Sir Chris Hoy, who also made a guest appearance on the stand), a raft of new models and Oculus Rift VR simulations. All this on a relatively small stand. No Audi, bigger is not better.

To illustrate the popularity of Nissan's Concept 2020, my Vine video has received 1100+ Likes and 500+ reVines. With no social replies to this from official #FoS and @Nissan channels, an opportunity has been missed to be part of the conversation.

The only disappointment for me this year (apart from my Dad being unable to attend as my regular Goodwood track buddy) was the overhyped promise of social channel interaction – otherwise known as Twitter and Instagram coverage. As with previous years, this remained largely one-sided – with the official #FoS channels being particularly guilty of blatant 'broadcast' with very little engagement (apart from conversations with the manufacturers).

Notable social highlights were a Twitter acknowledgement from @MercedesBenzUK for this shot...

...and a regram by @McLaren for my photo of the M7C (currently on over 3000 likes).

This is an amazing show, year after year. Long may it continue, perhaps with the virtual social experience to match the physical extravaganza next year.

My full photo stream is available on Instagram, but here are my highlights.