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Karan Chadda

Global digital marketing and communications leader

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December 18, 2012

Light doesn’t travel in straight lines

I popped over to a party by Brick Lane this evening. The warren of streets between Spitalfields and Brick Lane is wonderful. Cleaned up, brick built, tightly packed little buildings crammed into small, dimly lit lanes. It can uniquely be described as gentrified Dickensian.

The scene made a wonderful setting for an experiment with light. It wasn’t a very successful experiment. Partly because I had limited time and partly because I’m not the most gifted snapper. The only photo I am able to share is below. The building should be in sharper focus, but it is not far off. The light waves brilliantly. The photo is unedited.

20121218-225448.jpg

December 13, 2012

News highlights of 2012

The work Christmas eCard with a 2012 year in review twist via bit.ly/HanoverXmas

Hanover's news highlights of 2012
Hanover’s news highlights of 2012

December 11, 2012

Glowing in the mist

When confronted by icy cold temperatures and thick fog, most people would turn their collars up and head home as soon as possible. I decided it was a good moment to stop and take a snap or two.

I’ve been really concentrating on light recently and the warm glow of the street lights cutting through the mist really inspired me.

Of this set, I think my favourite image is the one where the lights cuts diagonally across the image. I’ve dubbed it ‘Sliced by light’. It’s the featured image in the gallery below.

Sliced by light
Sliced by light
From glow to shadow
From glow to shadow
The path and the light
The path and the light
Heading toward the light
Heading toward the light
Asymmetric glow
Asymmetric glow

 

As an aside, if anyone has feedback on the gallery style I’ve used for this post, I’d love to hear it. Please do comment or drop me a note on twitter.

November 28, 2012

From Instagram to Printstagram

I love printed photos. There’s something about holding a photo, framing it and putting it up on a wall that is satisfying. It provides a different experience to viewing a picture on a screen.

Above all, a printed photo is final. There’s no more editing, retouching or cropping to be done. You have what you have.

I also love Instagram. I love its simplicity, its beautiful filters and its square proportions that force you to crop images and think about layout.

Some of the images I’ve created using my iPhone and Instagram are priceless to me. They’re memories that only exist electronically and I’ve longed to print and frame them. Well, thanks to Metro Print, I can.

The geniuses there have played and tested and have developed a wonderful Instagram printing service that I’ve clunkily dubbed Printstagram.

They take your beautiful Instagram images and print them in lovely 5×5 squares. I collected my first order today and the results are brilliant.

http://instagram.com/p/SkuHXHS7U6/

If, like me, you love printed photos and Instagram, I think you’ll love this Metro Print service.

*as an aside, this post has been typed on my iPhone using the WordPress app. Like Instagram it’s a real testament to how much we can now do using our phones.

November 16, 2012

The age of muscular regulation

At $4.5bn BP’s fine for the Deepwater Horizon disaster is huge but unsurprising; the company had set aside a larger sum for this liability. The fine’s magnitude may, however, shift our focus from some recent developments that show the increasing boldness of regulators across all industries.

I’ve written before about the more muscular approach taken by regulators since the crash of 2007 and that trend has continued. Recent examples include the fines and continued investigations around Libor manipulation, this week’s launch of probes into alleged rigging of the UK gas market, and JP Morgan’s six-month ban from trading electricity in the US.

The change in regulation hasn’t just been seen in the actions of regulators. There is a new boldness in the comments they are willing to make to, and about, the industries they regulate. Last month, Andrew Haldane, an executive director at the Bank of England, spoke of morality and of “deep and rising inequality” when he addressed a gathering of the Occupy movement in London. Such comments would be almost unthinkable for a central banker only a few years ago. Similarly, this week, in a move that closely reflects the current political and public zeitgeist, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) told banks that it expects them to show bonus restraint this year.

This newfound boldness among regulators is not manifesting itself solely in the form of pressuring, pounding and punishing industry. The FSA, which on the one hand is warning banks about bonuses, investigating alleged market fixing and cracking the whip over PPI, is also easing capital and liquidity rules for the UK’s largest banks in an effort to boost lending. This move falls under the banner of macroprudential regulation, which is the current big thing among global regulators. The idea is appealing: regulators adjust how they manage an industry with the aim of providing benefits for the wider economy.

All these examples point to the dawn of a new age of muscular regulation, where industries find themselves increasingly challenged and guided by regulators. This is a big change from the light-touch regulation of previous years. Although the impact of this new era is hard to predict, there is a danger that as regulators become emboldened in using their powers, they may find themselves under pressure to respond to political and public opinion. It is a pressure regulators must resist if they are to strike the right balance between intervening to ensure a market is working efficiently without manipulating it for short-term, populist reasons.

This article originally appeared here on the Huffington Post.

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