Category Archives: Uncategorized

Defining goals is a pain in the neck, BUT…

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via Seth Godin

A good one, to (re)start properly the new year with some inspiring quotes from Seth!

Having goals is a pain in the neck.

If you don’t have a goal (a corporate goal, a market share goal, a personal career goal, an athletic goal…) then you can just do your best. You can take what comes. You can reprioritize on a regular basis. If you don’t have a goal, you never have to worry about missing it. If you don’t have a goal you don’t need nearly as many excuses, either.

Not having a goal lets you make a ruckus, or have more fun, or spend time doing what matters right now, which is, after all, the moment in which you are living.

The thing about goals is that living without them is a lot more fun, in the short run.

It seems to me, though, that the people who get things done, who lead, who grow and who make an impact… those people have goals.

Vincent Laforet is just great!

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via Marc Silber

Marc Silber, who is regularly bringing very interesting information and inputs concerning photography and visuals (his blog, his portfolio, his press-room), has posted a link to a video from Vincent Laforet.

I haven’t known the work of Vincent before and … what for a visual shock! This is a MUST-HAVE-SEEN to my mind. Very innovative, fresh, emotional, and just beautiful at the end.

“Waiting for the swell”

 

http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf

The absolute must-seen HD (720p) version

 

“Taking off”

 

http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf

The absolute must-seen HD (720p) version

 

Who is Vincent Laforet

 

From his blog, impressive bio!

Vincent Laforet is a New York based commercial and editorial photographer who is regularly commissioned to work on a variety of fine art, advertising, corporate and editorial projects. His approach to aerial photography has been singled out as one of the most unique and interpretive amongst photographers today.

At the age of 33, his work has been published in most major publications around the world and he has been sent on assignment by Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek, and Life Magazine. In 2006, Laforet modified his staff position at The New York Times to become The Times’ first national contract photographer. 

Vincent’s fine art prints are exhibited in galleries internationally including the International Center of Photography in New York City, and Visa Pour L’Image in Perpignan, and are part of numerous private collections.

Vincent was recognized as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Photography” by American Photo Magazine in 2005 and was named one of the “30 photographers to watch under 30″ by PDN in 2002. He and four other photographers were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography for their post-9/11 coverage overseas in 2002. His work has been recognized in the Communication Arts Annual, PDN Annual, The SPD Magazine Cover of the Year, The World Press Photo Awards, The Pictures of the Year Competition, The Overseas Press Club, The National Headliners Awards, The Pro-Football Hall of Fame. Vincent is a Canon Explorer of Light and Canon Printmaster and serves as consultant to companies such as Apple, Bogen, Lexar, and X-Rite.  He and his work have been profiled on CNN and Good Morning America.

Vincent has been invited as a keynote speaker by a variety of organizations and universities from around the world. He has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and the International Center of Photography. Vincent is represented by the Stockland Martel Agency. He resides in Manhattan with his wife, Amber, and son, Noah.

What you should look at

 

A lot of great visual material are available online on the portfolio website of Vincent Laforet.

Have a look, for example, at the Paniolo cowboys Hawaii in the Adventure section, or at the Golf digest in the Sports section.

Firefox Add-on – ScrapBook

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I am not using so many Firefox Add-ons but this one – ScrapBook – is just great!

You can download it here.

What is ScrapBook

ScrapBook is a Firefox extension, which helps you to save Web pages and manage the collection. Key features are lightness, speed, accuracy and multi-language support.

Functionalities

Major features are:

Good tutorial here (pdf, 692KB)

Screenshot

 

scrapbook

HD Video from Saint Barth

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I have published my first HD video (720p, i.e. a 1280×720 resolution) on SmugMug, with our last Saint Barth winter break in February 2008 as “topic”. I will continue to regularly publish some short sessions about this travel in the coming time.

The embedded version below is the so-called DVD version (640×480 resolution).

You may like to have a look at the HD version here.

http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf

I am using Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 as a video editing software (yes, I have a license…) and my Sony Handycam HDR-HC3.

The music used to illustrate the video is coming from ccMixter.org, very nice source for good-quality Creative Commons licensed tracks!

All the best for 2009!

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Some thoughts concerning 2008+ and wishes for 2009.

Looking back to … 2008+

Actually, 2008 started for me already in 2007 :-)

Difficult to make the cut in January 2008, as we have started Innoveo in October 2007…

So, below, some pictures which are representing my 2008+, a mix of private and professional stuff, as usual.

And, without explanations, for sure ;-)

All in all, 2008 was again extremely “different” and “stable”.

  • Different, because I could learn a lot of new stuff, a bit more about myself, meet a huge amount of persons, very smart and people-oriented. A lot of new experiences, in so many different fields, wow :-) And, on top, a strong and deep feeling of being very lucky to be able to lead our own company with Nick . Different also, because it is the first time that I feel so clearly the quite high pressure, even positive, of leading a company and being “responsible” for this company!
  • Stable, because I had the chance, first, to work with and for the same great people! I like very much this ecosystem! Stable, secondly, because my family and private life is solid, full of happiness and great private moments. I don’t like stability, excepted in these two fields ;-)

What about 2009?

Looks interesting, isn’t it? As during all the downturn and crisis time, we will all have our ups and downs.

Hopefully with more “ups”, and not too deep “downs”!

Flexibility will be essential, as speed.

I wish you and your beloved ones all the best for the exciting coming year, a lot of fun, good wines and meals (!), success in your new business(es), and a lot of new learnings!

And keep dreaming :-)

Take care, Didier

[click on the calendar-zone to enlarge]

2007-2008

Lake Wobegon effect

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via vowe

We all have – at least one time ;-) – the impression that we are delivering better outcome/results/outputs than the “average”. At work, during our education, by making sports, etc.

I haven’t know, as Volker, that this kind of positive illusion or overestimating was studied and has a name. Actually it is called the “lake Wobegon” effect. Have a look at the Wikipedia’s description.

The Lake Wobegon effect designates either: the human tendency to overestimate one’s achievements and capabilities in relation to others (in academic sources this is more usually called the above average effect or the better-than-average effect); or the finding that in many educational tests a vast majority of participants achieve results above the norm.

It is named for the fictional town of Lake Wobegon from the radio series A Prairie Home Companion, where, according to the presenter, Garrison Keillor, “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” […]

The above average effect or better-than-average effect is one kind of positive illusion. It describes the tendency for people to evaluate themselves as ‘better than average’ on desirable skills, characteristics or behaviors. It is a characteristic bias of social comparison where people usually compare themselves to an unspecified peer and, despite the mathematical odds, en masse judge themselves to be better than their average peer.

I am learning every day! Or is that also a “lake Wobegon effect”?

;-)

My new lens: Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

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canon EFS 28 200

I am using a Canon EOS 20D since April 2005 (!) with 2 lenses:

I have taken a majority of my pictures with the 17-40mm, which is really very nice. Now, for travelling, and specially when you are in a “non-safe” atmosphere (humidity, dust, sand, etc.), it is quite difficult to change your lens. Without speaking about the transport ;-)

Canon has released this autumn a new lens, which is to my mind the “perfect” compromise between an ultrawide-angle and a zoom lens, the Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6, with Image Stabilization, but without the USM (Ultra Sonic Motor). Perfect compromise for the usage means also automatically … some optical compromises! Which “forces” me to start to use a “post-production” software, to be able to correct some very visible optical aberrations (barrel distortion, chromatic aberration, softness, etc.) with this lens. I am using DxO Optics Pro, but I will talk about that in a coming post!

Good summary from Wikipedia

Reviews indicate that the 18-200 does not compare to the 28-300L in terms of image quality, though this is understandable since the latter is priced much higher, due to it belonging to the L-series line. Most reviewers have criticised the lens for high levels of barrel distortion at the wide end, and chromatic aberration and softness evident at all focal lengths and apertures. The lack of an UltraSonic Motor has also been noted by reviewers, and along with the 18-55 IS has given rise to concerns that Canon may be moving towards removing USM from their lower-end lenses. It has generally been rated higher than Sigma and Tamron’s offerings however, and has gotten generally positive reviews with the caveat that it is designed for convenience rather than image quality.

Some detailed reviews

Forget the traditional 4 “P”s!

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via Seth Godin

Seth is, as usual, suggesting a new “out-of-the-box” structure to represent the different marketing elements and mechanisms. So, forget the  traditional 4 “P”s (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) coming from the commonly accepted definition of Marketing Mix (Jerome McCarthy). For Seth, we should have a look at 5 elements:

five marketing blocks
© Seth Godin

So now, let’s have a look at the definition of these 5 elements:

  • DATA is observational. […] Data is powerful, overlooked and sometimes mistaken for boring. You don’t have to understand the why, you merely need to know the what.
  • STORIES define everything you say and do. The product has a myth, the service has a legend. […]
  • PRODUCTS (and services) are physical manifestations of the story. […]
  • INTERACTIONS are all the tactics the marketer uses to actually touch the prospect or customer. […]
  • CONNECTION is the highest level of enlightenment, the end goal. Connection between you and the customer, surely, but mostly connection between customers. Great marketers create bands of brothers, tribes of people who wish each other well and want to belong.

Interesting, isn’t it? Try to have a look at your marketing reality through this new prism.

Three essential questions you can ask yourself:

  • Does this interaction lead to connections?
  • Do our products support our story?
  • Is the story pulling in numbers that demonstrate that it’s working?

I like Seth Godin exactly for this kind of disruptive inputs ;-)

New U2 album announced – March 3, 2009

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via U2log.com

No Line On The Horizon

 

U2

Mark your calendars! U2.com reports that ‘No Line on the Horizon’, the new studio album from U2, will be released on Monday 2nd March, 2009.

More on U2.com:

No Line On The Horizon, the new studio album from U2, will be released on Monday 2nd March 2009.
Written and recorded in various locations, No Line On The Horizon is the group’s 12th studio album and is their first release since the 9 million selling album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, released in late 2004.
Sessions for No Line On The Horizon began last year in Fez, Morocco, continued in the band’s own studio in Dublin, before moving to New York’s Platinum Sound Recording Studios, and finally being completed at Olympic Studios in London.
The album calls on the production talents of long-time collaborators Brian Eno and Danny Lanois, with additional production by Steve Lillywhite.

Actually, the new album is already available for pre-order on amazon.com!

Wow, that’s a *very* good news.

The oldest dot-com domains

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via PC World

PC World published the list of the 100 oldest dot-com domains registered.

This first one was reserved on March 15, 1985 – symbolics.com.

Below the Top20:

  1. symbolics.com: March 15, 1985
  2. bbn.com: April 24, 1985
  3. think.com: May 24, 1985
  4. mcc.com: July 11, 1985
  5. dec.com: September 30, 1985
  6. northrop.com: November 7, 1985
  7. xerox.com: January 9, 1986
  8. sri.com: January 17, 1986
  9. hp.com: March 3, 1986
  10. bellcore.com: March 5, 1986
  11. ibm.com: March 19, 1986
  12. sun.com: March 19, 1986
  13. intel.com: March 25, 1986
  14. ti.com: March 25, 1986
  15. att.com: April 25, 1986
  16. gmr.com: May 8, 1986
  17. tek.com: May 8, 1986
  18. fmc.com: July 10, 1986
  19. ub.com: July 10, 1986
  20. bell-atl.com: August 5, 1986

Also interesting to notice that Microsoft first reserved its domain in May 1991, Yahoo in January 1995, and Google in September 1997!