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Shot for the Day (25 October 2015)

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Finland 1

Some shots from a recent trip to Finland.  The weather was hovering around zero but the skies were generally blue and the ground frost intermittent.  Finland is a truly beautify place and I have been there several time.  I was only an hours drive north of Helsinki in Karkkila but it felt like a million miles away from London or Singapore.

Finland 2

For this trip, I took along my new Nokia 1020 to shoot on.  These are the low res files I downloaded and did not even colour balance or amend.  Very impressive result from a mobile phone.  Then again, it does have a 41 Megapixel camera…

Finland

The last shot was taken on the return journey from Finland, where I enjoyed a 2.5 hour long sunset as we flew south west from Helsinki to London.  This image reminds me of how people often envisage the entrance to heaven.

Nokia Gulp – Work from the archive

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Back in 2012, my team at Wieden + Kennedy created Nokia Gulp, shot solely on a Nokia N8 handset.  The plot as based on a Jonah-style adventure of a fisherman getting caught in a belly of a giant fish.  It was the successor to Nokia Dot, the smallest animation ever, which W+K also made with Sumo Science and Aardman, again using a Nokia N8 handset.

Here is a look behind the scenes how the world’s largest animation is shot on a Nokia phone handset.  We needed an army of locals to help us prepare the beach everyday for the shoot.

The advert was release across Europe initially and then globally.  It has since become a favourite on Vimeo and still enjoys good ratings years after making it.

Useful links:

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulp_(film)
Wired: http://www.wired.com/2011/08/gulp-stop-motion-animation/
Creative Review: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/august/nokia-gulp-wieden-kennedy
DesignBoom: http://www.designboom.com/art/gulp-worlds-largest-stop-motion-animation/

Bring on the Green

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O2 Ireland Rugby mobile site

Today marked the first of the Six Nations rugby games.  O2 Ireland commissioned my team at Tribal DDB to create a mobile optimised site as a second screen game companion. Utilising a highly detailed statistics feed, we create an application that would translate the raw data into meaningful graphics that would not intrude upon the live game experience.  We also incorporated a Twitter feed from the social team at O2 Ireland and Rugby fans

The data was updated at least every 30 seconds throughout the game and covered everything from tries and conversions to substitutions, penalties, red and yellow cards, plus comparative data such as the power of the Irish pack.

With incredible narrow timelines, we managed to deliver a great mobile optimised site (desktop and tablet versions also available) with a very short lead time.

Here are some other screen grabs of the application.

Screen grab 1
Screen grab 2
Screen grab 3

Useful links:
O2 Ireland Rugby blog: http://www.o2online.ie/o2/rugby/blog/
O2 Rugby mobile site site: http://bringonthegreen.ie/

One day to go

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I would have to admit at this point in time, I am a little nervous – nervous in a good way but nervous nonetheless.

Tomorrow is the day I leave for Lands End. Pete and Mary are due to catch the ferry over from Guernsey this afternoon. For them, the reality and enormity of this adventure is even more immediate.

Strangely enough, the most poignant thing I am concerned with is not fitness or the route but weight. I have packed my bags and they were heavy. So, I ditched a load of stuff, repacked and guess what, they are still heavy! One of the most common things I have read from other cyclist’s blogs and books is that they wish they had taken less stuff. However, we are likely to see all types of weather along the way and the last thing you want to be is cold, wet or uncomfortable.

Having to wash kit pretty much every day to keep the latent weight down reminded me of my time in South America, whilst on an Operation Raleigh expedition. Though the day was far less complicated in terms of activities vying for one’s attention, it was the necessities that were first and foremost: Collecting wood, building a fire, cooking, sleeping and chores. Long evenings were spent entrenched about the campfire, regaling the collective with stories and jokes. Mercifully, there were no ‘Kum Ba Yah’ moments.

We hope to maintain this blog on a regular basis, provided Orange can get their act together and deliver my new mobile phone to me today. It has been fantastic not having a phone for a month but I think the poor bugger who was passed on my old mobile number will probably be thankful if I manage to get reconnected so people stop pestering him.

Stay in touch and keep reading!