• Mid-April is a personal ritual for me to follow the latest developments from the annual NAB Show in Las Vegas. Originally a convention and tradeshow for the television broadcast industry, NAB Show is now a wholly encompassing event for media and entertainment technology.

    In particular, NAB Show is the big confab for content creators eyeing the latest video, audio, and lighting gear from companies like GoPro, Insta360, RØDE, Blackmagic, Amaran, DJI, Neewer, Godox, Hollyland, and so many others. It’s also become the event for big camera launches, especially with the demise of photography tradeshows over the years.

    I always enjoy following the spontaneous show coverage, right on the floor as it happens, from content creators who not only talk about the gear but have documented years of experience using them in their productions.

    The video above is a great example. But there’s also something quite remarkable. The picture quality is fantastic, shot with the wildly popular DJI Osmo Pocket 3, a lightweight, super-compact, consumer-grade video camera with integrated gimbal. In fact, DJI just launched the Pocket 4 in the runup to NAB. (Unfortunately, US availability is uncertain at this point.)

  • For my new blog, I’m taking on a new approach with what I would refer to as “stream-of-consciousness” or “rapid-fire” blogging.

    Previously, I would approach each new blog post as basically a separate writing project – planning, researching, drafting, and refining over several rounds before scheduling the post to go live.

    The problem is that over time, this becomes a mental drag on your desire to just write and express your thoughts, which is what blogging is all about. The multiple steps involved in creating a new post leads to a lot of procrastination and ultimately, delays as you develop the mental resistance due to the perception of having to go through a new process.

    So now, I’m hoping to just write out whatever sparks my interest at a given moment, and then just put it out there. Let’s see what happens.

  • A new foundation

    This is the first blog post published on my new personal website, which recently went live and replaced the previous site in place since 2018. After eight years, I made the move to a new website foundation while retaining much of the essential design.

    I built up the majority of my old site from the ground up, coding by hand. That was deliberate, with the intention of creating new learning opportunities. The notable exception was the blog, which was designed on WordPress.

    All the learning and experimentation efforts certainly paid off, as I was able to acquire a lot of good and lasting knowledge for use in subsequent projects. In the process, I got into the habit of keeping up regularly with the latest web-related developments, something I maintain to this day.

    My new website is 100% built and running on WordPress. I decided long ago that with really good, no-code site building platforms out there (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and Webflow), manual coding doesn’t make sense anymore unless there’s a specific reason for it.

    The one thing I’m really excited about the new site is the fact that maintenance, site updates, and design tweaks will all be a breeze ⎻ that is, low effort, zero (or near-zero) code, highly intuitive, and very easy to expedite. Much faster and simpler than the previous website!