Benjaminfeenstra.com

Post Show Syndrome #festival316

benjamin — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:08:05 +0000

One festival, 4000 people, hundreds of volunteers, seven bands, dozens of technicians and I was there being part of a great camera crew…

It’s been four days, but I guess I still suffer the Post Show Syndrome… luckily my next project starts tomorrow… Square 2012!

Teamwork

benjamin — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:30:27 +0000

I was director, but without the superb quality, focus and dedication of my assistant and four camera operators, the broadcast wouldn’t be as great as the videoclip (above) shows. This is what I call teamwork-as-it-should-be.

Gran Canaria

benjamin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:45:44 +0000

Not so long ago I was in Gran Canaria, Spain. For about two weeks I enjoyed warm temperatures (25+ degrees Celsius) and biked all over the island.

I’ve never been to the moon, but I guess the center of the island of Gran Canaria looks a lot like it. It’s dry, desolate, desert-like, there’re (almost) no trees but plenty of giant rocks and best of all… no tourists (which contrasts the very touristic city Playa del Ingles). The highest mountain of the island is 1950 meters while the island itself is fairly small (diameter of 50 km). This makes Gran Canaria perfect for people who love to bike, which includes me. Needless to say, I had a great time. Enjoy the photos.

Weekend-on-ice

benjamin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:52:34 +0000

This past weekend, winter said goodbye. For the last time, thousands of people enjoyed the frozen canals and lakes. Including me. I went ice skating near the famous Bartlehiem tile bridge (Dutch). And I crossed the official Bonkefeart finish line of the Elfstedentocht.

Winter in Friesland

benjamin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:50:28 +0000

I almost wanted to write nothing beats winter in Friesland. Just in time, I figured out that I don’t even like winter so much. Anyway, enjoy these new photographs.

“We’ve lost our tolerance for complexity”

benjamin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:45:09 +0000

Because of the Internet and big-box stores, we get access to a lot of information, products and services, thus giving us more choice and freedom. While this sounds great, it isn’t always. Since we have more choice, choosing anything gets more difficult. A lot of complexity is added.

Last week Ron Johnson presented the new retail concept for JC Penney, a large department store. He said shoppers are done with wading through “an endless sea of racks,” which he believes is a larger industry trend. “In a world where the product we want is just a key-word search away, we’ve lost our tolerance for complexity,” Johnson said.

Yesterday I read something about Visa trying to popularize electronic payments (by smartphone). The report noted that “Visa’s hoping to make itself the go-to point for this solution, so ‘handset manufacturers don’t have to deal with 26.000 banks.’”

This is interesting. So just as JC Penney wants to get rid of an endless sea of racks, Visa wants to get rid of an endless sea of banks. In both cases, they’re trying to remove complexity for it’s consumers. In case of JC Penney, it’s us, the average shopper. In case of Visa, it’s businesses.

I’m curious which endless sea of … is next, and will have its complexity removed.