Video didn’t kill the radio star
This originally appeared as part of my weekly Prime Lenses Newsletter. You can sign up for a weekly update here.
The kids are on holiday this week and if you follow me on Instagram you know that we’ve decided to fill the time by taking them somewhere sunny, Καλημέρα (Kalimera) from the Greek island of Rhodes.
We’re enjoying our stay but getting here was an adventure. Early on Friday, about 4 hours before we had to leave for the first of two flights, BA helpfully cancelled our first leg so 2 hours on a plane became an 8 hour and three train voyage with large suitcases, small boys, much colouring in, comics and Nintendo Switches. Thank goodness for my colleagues and their excellent work on Minecraft Dungeons, I realise I’m biased but despite my being in the credits I have purchased it 4 times on various platforms for myself and the kids. It’s worth it. I’m not just saying that. 😂
Anyway, despite eating two meal deals in one day and being sat down for most of it there was an upside. Travel like this is one of the few times I can indulge guilt free in a good book and this meant I finally caught up with something I’ve been meaning to read for decades, Frank Herbert’s Dune. It’s brilliant. I wish I’d tried this when I was a teenager instead of Asimov. As good as the Foundation series and Robot books were, I never loved them and fell off pretty quick. Dune had me from the jump and the influence this book from 1965 had on George Lucas’ later Star Wars films is very clear. If you’ve not read it, do. It’s an exercise in the effortless sci-if word play I associate with the time. So much specific in universe language right from the start but it all works. It reminded me a bit of 1984 and Clockwork Orange. In short, reading became the first great companion while travelling and I should make time to do it more.
My second and constant travelling pastime has been podcasts. This week The Verge celebrated tech and trends from 2004 which have shaped 2024. There’s some great stuff in there about Digicams and the audio blogging that became podcasts. Revisiting 2004 has reminded me that radio is probably the medium I love the most, hence my podcast I suppose. My most satisfying connections to media are through my ears in the form of audio books or radio shows and podcasts. Whether it’s Kermode and Mayo’s movie show that I’ve listened to in one form or another since the 90s, various incarnations of The News Quiz, The Vergecast or Marc Maron’s WTF. The imagination you employ, the conversational nature of it and the way that you get to know hosts over time really nourishes me. Recently podcasts have been enjoying a boon on YouTube and Google has just rolled out an update to the TV versions of the YouTube app that allows play of content just through the speakers with the screen off which for me is the final admission, albeit quietly, that radio was always better. Julien Pasternak talked about the power of audio when I spoke to him earlier this year. If people let you into the their ears that’s a very personal space and I am conscious that the fact that anyone listens to what I make at all is a real privilege.
Which brings me to travel companion number three. Of course it’s my camera. A camera is an amazing thing to take with you when you travel. It means you always have something to do and it occupies your hands, which to be fair a book can also do, but a camera is a creative tool signalling to others that you’re busy but in an outward looking way as opposed to a book, broadcasting an interest in your surroundings which often leads to a passing conversation or two. The light and scenery in a new place are a fresh photographic puzzle to solve and that really energises me. I can see why the big brands bring folks to far away places to preview new gear. It makes you feel like there are opportunities for photos everywhere in the unfamiliar shapes, colours and faces. With that in mind I contacted Victor Henning of Fjorden before this trip to see if I could loan a grip for my trip and he offered to send me one so the Fjorden grip will be the topic the newsletter next week once I’ve spent this week using it.
No spoilers but three days in it has really changed the way I think about using my phone for photos.
I’m off to make more images before my flight home. Have a great week and if you haven’t already, go and listen to this weeks audio blog.