Crank it up to 11: pictures from my 10-year retrospective. Why not?
I felt there was a little flaw in my ten years of Instagram posts, which is being corrected.
Monday, 24 February 2020
Because I decided to choose a picture from each of the calendar years in my ten-year Instagram retrospective, a quirk of my plan is that there really should be a picture from 2020, even though that would make eleven pictures. There are a lot fewer pictures in my feed this year for obvious reasons. Being stuck indoors for much of the year means that I have felt that there are fewer opportunities to snap something interesting. I wonder what the numbers are for posts?
Anyway, I decided I should commemorate 2020 regardless. One of the year’s most joyous moments was captured pre-lockdown at the little show lounge at Brasserie Zedel. La Voix interviewed choreographer Arlene Phillips. I’d never seen La Voix before and the evening was fabulously entertaining. This one was, really, an Instagram story, so it’s supposed to expire after 24 hours. It did make one of my 2020 Instagram Story highlights because, well, it really is. La Voix’s Instagram feed has become a regular source of entertainment during the lockdown, but this moment in February, with some original members of Hot Gossip who had been in the audience too, is a joyous moment that could not foretell what was to come just a month later.
And that’s my retrospective. I wonder what the next few years will bring and if they will also be documented on Instagram. One way to find out is to follow.
In the third part of my epic 10-year time-travel adventure, I’m off to California, King’s Landing, and the London Palladium.
I’ve really enjoyed looking back at 10 years of my photographs on Instagram. I realise there is a massive amount of sentimentality involved in writing this. On this blog, I’m unashamedly sentimental in December. So, let’s get to number ten …
Thursday, 12 October 2017
We had a team meeting in Palo Alto, and everyone travelled for it. We held them in different locations each quarter to bring people together to discuss plans for the next 13 weeks or so. I think this was the last time it would have been held in California because most of our team, and our management, moved to London sometime after this. Our immediate team didn’t work together much; each of us was spread across other projects, so these regular meet-ups were a chance to share ideas. There was always a great deal of thought in the planning. I don’t recall what everybody else did on the Thursday night, but from memory, the people in this picture were working on video advertising projects and we, therefore, had our own breakaway group evening. We went bowling at Cloverleaf Family Bowl. I’ve since read that it has closed, being unable to survive the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. Back in 2017, it was a lot of fun.
Saturday, 9 June 2018
As the caption on this picture says, I didn’t watch Game of Thrones, but I was reliably informed the view of old Dubrovnik was, at least in part, King’s Landing in the series. This was taken on our first day there. We’d stayed at a Gatwick Airport hotel the night before as the flight was 8:30am. The aim was to get a good day looking around Dubrovnik before we got on a boat on the Sunday for a holiday around the Croatian islands. So, we had rented an apartment in the old town, checked in in the pouring rain, then walked the walls of the old town as the sun came out. I thought this was a great view over the iconic rooftops. Turns out it’s a pretty classic tourist shot. It was a great start to what turned out to be a beautiful holiday.
Wednesday, 6 November 2019
PY first took me to see Shakespears Sister in July 1992; they were one of his favourite bands. He had been waiting from 1993 until early 2019 to hear that Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit would reform and perform again – he was straight in when tickets went on sale. We had the full meet-and-greet package for their November London Palladium show, and it was an unforgettable night. While standing in line for the meet, I remember having no idea what to say, and even now I can’t recall what we talked about. But they were friendly, and the fans were thrilled they were back together, making for a wonderful atmosphere. The show, which was actually on the Tuesday night, was a triumph. I must have posted these when I got home, and the clock must have tripped into Wednesday.
And, that’s ten years. It feels odd not to include this year. Maybe tomorrow?
Looking back at my Instagram pictures, this one is all about travel. But where did I go?
Yesterday we had Christmas, a Royal wedding, the Olympics and Nico Rosberg to sum up my first 4 years on Instagram. Let’s dive into the next few years and see what we can find.
Wednesday, 12 March 2014
From late 2012 through March 2014, I spent some time in Australia. The company that was a start-up in the 2010 picture had grown and been acquired in the years since, and one of our largest customers was based in Melbourne, a city I fell in love with over the time I was there. I spent weeks on-site with them – one of the nicest organisations I had the pleasure of working with – right up until we turned on the software about 10 days before this picture. I feel blessed to have been able to visit Australia and see some wonderful things: Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, Sydney for the Opera House and Mardi Gras and the Great Barrier Reef. By this point, I’d completed the project and, deep down, I knew this would be my last visit, as I was pretty certain I’d accept a job offer from another company when I got home. Looking back, the caption hints at it. It was my first ever Uber ride, booked from the hotel to the airport, and as I saw a view of the Melbourne skyline behind me, I knew I should take a picture to capture the memory.
Saturday, 28 February 2015
We used up our holiday allowance early in 2015 with a trip to Vietnam (including time in Cambodia and Hong Kong). Hoi An was our third stop. It’s beautiful and was quite different to Hanoi, where we’d started the visit. One unexpected find was a teahouse in the heart of Hoi An, staffed by speech- and hearing-impaired people. Nobody really speaks; there are these little blocks and a notepad to communicate your order. It’s a tranquil oasis and, even though there were some memorable assaults on the senses elsewhere on the holiday, the peace and quiet of this teahouse, with a view of the street, really sticks in my mind.
Friday, 22 April 2016
I went to France to give a presentation about native advertising on Facebook. I recall the team arrived fairly late in the day on Thursday and went straight to the office for a rehearsal and equipment check. I think this was my first big presentation for them, so I was a little nervous. As we were leaving for the evening, a group of people were pulling apart a section of the office reception. We went to dinner and didn’t think much of it. The next morning, a car, props and a video backdrop had appeared, seemingly from nowhere. After we had finished our presentation and could all relax a little, I got to wear a silly hat while waving in a static car. It was the first video I posted on Instagram. I remember the talk went reasonably well, the lunch in the canteen was excellent, but I most remember everybody on the team having a go in this car.
Right, I’m only doing three years this post, which is, primarily, a reason for another post tomorrow, but also because today was my last day in the office for the year, and I’ve already had a glass of wine, so I don’t trust myself to sit here and go through any more.
Christmas, a Royal wedding, the Olympics and Nico Rosberg in a single blog post. Really.
Last week I noted that it’s been 10 years since I first posted on Instagram and that I was going to spend a little time finding one picture from each year that evoked a memory. Here goes:
Friday, 24th December 2010
2010 was a year of change. I moved jobs and went from a company with thousands of employees in the UK, based in Victoria, to one where there were 2 of us working in Britain for a US adtech start-up. We based ourselves in a small serviced office just off Tottenham Court Road. We put up some magic whiteboard so we could scrawl on the walls without damaging them. We didn’t hang Christmas decorations because they would also damage a wall we couldn’t afford to pay to fix, so as PY & I spent Christmas in London and I worked Christmas Eve in the office alone, I drew a Christmas tree to make it feel more festive.
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Prince William and Catherine Middleton’s wedding was to take place the next day at Westminster Abbey. Wedding Day, the Friday, was declared a UK holiday and we’d all have the day off, which made for a nice long bank holiday weekend. While my Dad was working away, we invited my Mum to come to London and be a little closer to the action. She arrived just after 2pm on Thursday, and after I met her at Euston, we strolled through the city to soak up the pre-wedding atmosphere. I remember walking through Green Park to Buckingham Palace and seeing TV crews from around the world preparing to cover the main event. We walked along The Mall, chatting to the crowds already camping out for a front-row view. People from all over the world were there, and some wore Royal family masks. I recall it was a lovely, party-like atmosphere.
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
I have so many pictures from 2012. The Olympics came to the city, and for two months there was an incredible buzz everywhere in London. When reviewing my feed, I thought it might be hard to select an image from 2012, but this jumped out. As 2012 progressed, I’d taken a few pictures of the Trafalgar Square countdown, but every time I saw that clock, the Olympic events still felt a long way from happening. My morning commute was a train to Waterloo and a walk across the Thames, up Charing Cross Road to the office. This was the morning I saw the first signs that would guide visitors to Olympic events: they’d put them up at Waterloo, and on my way to work I snapped a picture. And it was the first time I’d really seen the Olympic pink in such a huge block. Suddenly it all started to feel quite real and, therefore, exciting. In many ways, this was the beginning of the amazing summer.
Friday, 28 June 2013
Every year, for about ten years, I went to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. Each year, bar the year I only went for the day, I was on a campsite opposite the circuit. Except for 2013, when we paid a stupid amount of money to stay in a Snoozebox (a kind of prefabricated, portable hotel) that was erected – almost on the circuit – for the event weekend. That year we were grateful for the shower, power, and shelter at this point in the weekend, when it was still very wet (I recall the race itself was dry). Seeing F1 live is different to watching on television: the smell of rubber at the start and the noise of the engines, which can not be conveyed in a broadcast. First practice, on the Friday morning, is always one of the best experiences for the pure joy of seeing – and hearing – the cars on the track for the first time. I spent years trying to perfect a picture of an F1 car at speed. I am not sure I ever succeeded, but on a wet Friday morning, a Mercedes turns the corner at Luffield, and I thought the picture was worth posting. Nico Rosberg went on to win (I think this is Nico, but the picture is a little blurry).
So, my ten-year review is taking longer than I imagined, the next three will be tomorrow (I hope).
It was a suburban snowy view: housing, parked cars and the occasional bare tree branch. It was also the first picture I posted to Instagram.
It was Saturday, 18th December 2010. I don’t remember what time I woke. I do know that I’d been to see Lady Ga Ga at the O2 arena the night before, so I don’t imagine I got up that early (I don’t have many specific memories of the concert except that she played the piano at one point and I remember that, whatever the song was, it was incredible).
A blanket of snow greeted people that morning in Earlsfield. At some point before lunch, I looked out the window and snapped a picture of an undisturbed car park outside the house where we lived then. The cars had a couple of inches of snow covering their windows – still to be swept away. I was heading to the Southbank for a Christmas meet-up, and I wanted a picture of the white carpet before it was disturbed by feet. It was a suburban snowy view: housing, parked cars and the occasional bare tree branch. It was also the first picture I posted to Instagram.
I’ve always liked Instagram. The filters were ideal in an age of early mobile camera technology when most pictures were really not that good. But, somehow, it’s just become an interesting snapshot of ten years. Back in 2004, I wrote something about the pictures taken on a mobile phone presenting a different perspective on your life when compared to those taken on a camera. In the intervening years, the phone has become the camera, but my Instagram timeline reminds me of early mobile camera rolls: a collection of pictures taken in moments when, perhaps, once upon a time, I would never have pulled out a camera.
The world has moved on. For me, the intervening ten years have been full of wonderful people and places, and a lot of them have been recorded on Instagram. Instagram has changed from being a place to post classic square pictures: it’s added video, it’s got stories and reels, and now it has added shopping too (big-up the Instagram PMM team working on this). But the feed is still here, and all ten years are recorded.
Next week (because I think there is some effort involved here), I intend to try to pick one picture from each year to sum up that year as seen through the Instagram lens. It’s pure sentimentality, but if you can’t be a little sentimental in December, then when can you be?
