Артем Ляшанов: Як синхронізувати інновації з людськими цінностями
Артем Ляшанов (Фінтех-інвестор)
Чи замислювалися ви, чому одні фінтех-гіганти зберігають лідерство десятиліттями, а інші зникають після першого ж гучного скандалу з витоком даних чи дискримінаційним алгоритмом? Відповідь криється не в обчислювальній потужності серверів, а в архітектурі довіри.
Відповідальний штучний інтелект?
Це не просто відсутність помилок. Це свідоме впровадження систем у такий спосіб, щоб вони приносили користь суспільству, активно запобігаючи будь-якій шкоді. Це створення технологій, які обслуговують людські потреби незалежно від того, чи це складна медична діагностика, чи миттєві транскордонні платежі.
Мій підхід до Responsible AI базується на шести фундаментальних принципах:
- Етичність;
- Справедливість;
- Прозорість;
- Безпека та стійкість;
- Приватність;
- Підзвітність.
Ці принципи створюють універсальний фундамент, на якому ми будуємо інновації. У сучасному фінтеху, де довіра клієнта є головним капіталом, дотримання цих стандартів дозволяє масштабуватися на міжнародні ринки, оминаючи регуляторні пастки та репутаційні кризи.
Етика як бізнес-стратегія: Кейси глобальних лідерів
Щоб зрозуміти, як етика переплітається з прибутком, варто подивитися на рішення гравців, які диктують правила гри. Сьогодні етичність це не благодійність, а форма довгострокової конкурентної переваги.
- Apple. Впровадження методу диференційованої приватності в iOS дозволяє компанії збирати аналітику, математично гарантуючи анонімність кожної окремої людини;
- Amazon. Коли ШІ-інструмент для рекрутингу продемонстрував упередженість щодо жінок, компанія не стала його модернізувати, вона його повністю ліквідувала, щоб уникнути несправедливості;
- Google Health. Система виявлення ретинопатії детально пояснює лікарям, які саме зони знімка вплинули на вердикт, що дозволяє фахівцям обґрунтовано довіряти алгоритму;
- OpenAI. Реліз GPT-4 відбувся лише після багатомісячного червоного тестування для виявлення потенційних сценаріїв зловживань.
Ці кейси доводять, що технічні рішення можуть і повинні балансувати бізнес-користь та права людини. Відповідальний підхід часто вимагає мужності відмовитися від інвестованих ресурсів заради збереження етичного вектора, але в перспективі це завжди конвертується у лояльність ринку.
Чому відповідальність стосується кожного?
ШІ перестав бути внутрішньою справою лише ІТ-департаментів. Сьогодні його вплив має планетарний характер і торкається базових механізмів функціонування суспільства.
Сфери, де відповідальний підхід є критичним:
- Інформаційне середовище;
- Соціальна рівність;
- Культурний зв’язо;
- Автономне майбутнє.
Ми маємо розуміти, що це не просто питання комплаєнсу чи юридичних звітів. Це про стратегічне налаштування технологій на службу найвищим прагненням людства. Відповідальність – це запобіжник, який не дає інноваціям перетворитися на загрозу.
Артем Ляшанов
Фундамент майбутнього
Справжня відповідальність тримається на глибокому розумінні людської гідності та справедливості. Технологія має розширювати автономію людини, спрощуючи доступ до послуг, а не ставати цифровим бар’єром.
Приклади втілення в життя:
- Цифрова автономія (Естонія). Система «Kratt» спрощує взаємодію громадян з державою, але залишає фінальне рішення за людиною у всіх критичних питаннях;
- Цифрова інклюзивність (Індія). Голосові ШІ-інтерфейси регіональними мовами відкривають доступ до державних сервісів людям, які не володіють англійською або мають труднощі з письмом.
Такі засади дають чітку відповідь на питання, у якому світі ми прокинемося завтра. У фінтеху ми прагнемо такої ж інклюзивності: фінансові інструменти майбутнього мають бути зрозумілими, безпечними та доступними для кожного, незалежно від соціального статусу.
Замість висновку
У 2026 році відповідальність у сфері штучного інтелекту перестає бути опцією, вона стає ключовим інструментом захисту капіталу, репутації та приватності користувача. Ми не просто захищаємо дані, ми формуємо правила гри, за якими цифрова економіка працюватиме наступні десятиліття.
Фінтех майбутнього – це простір, де інновації синхронізовані з цінностями. Тільки обираючи шлях прозорості та справедливості вже сьогодні, ми завойовуємо право на успіх у завтрашньому дні - Артем Ляшанов.
Artem Lyashanov: How artificial intelligence changes the rules of the game in banking compliance
Can a modern bank survive in the conditions of regulatory pressure, endless lists of PBC and threats of financial criminals, relying only on manual labor?
In 2026, the answer is obvious: no. While the industry faces the outflow of young talent and the complexity of legislation, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming the lifeline that not only automates reports, but also fundamentally changes approaches to security and transparency.
Artem Lyashanov, an expert in the field of fintech innovations, emphasizes that the transition to AI compliance is a necessity for maintaining competitiveness. In this article, we will consider how algorithms help in fraud detection, document management and risk forecasting, and we will also understand real cases of world banks.
Detection of fraud and monitoring of transactions
Outdated methods often create a huge amount of noise, due to which real threats remain unnoticed among thousands of false positives. This not only overloads security departments, but also annoys honest customers whose accounts are blocked unnecessarily.
AI offers a fundamentally different approach, for example, instead of static lists, it uses machine learning to analyze huge arrays of data in real time. This allows not only to catch fraudsters faster, but also to significantly reduce the number of errors, making life easier for honest users.
Banks get the opportunity to see anomalies where the human eye or old software cannot see anything.
Key advantages of implementation:
- Algorithms are constantly being improved, learning new tactics of cybercriminals without the need to manually update the rules;
- AI more accurately distinguishes atypical customer behavior from real theft of funds;
- Transaction processing and issuing a verdict on its security take place in milliseconds.
HSBC uses AI to monitor credit card transactions, which allows it to block suspicious activity before it causes significant damage. Standard Chartered has implemented an anti-money laundering (AML) system that analyzes communications between senders and receivers around the world.
Automation of PBC documentation and lists
One of the most difficult stages of the audit is the preparation of PBC (Prepared By Client) lists - documents that the client must provide for verification.
Previously, this process required hundreds of hours of searching for papers, correspondence and endless reconciliations, which demotivated employees and lengthened the period of inspections. The human factor with such a volume of work inevitably led to errors.
Instead of flipping through hundreds of pages, a specialist can simply request the necessary figures or contract terms from the system. This allows the team to focus on validating data and making strategic decisions.
New generation instruments:
- DocuMine allows you to upload arrays of documents and instantly receive answers to compliance questions with links to specific paragraphs;
- UpLink automates PBC requests, centralizing the process of collection and preliminary verification of documents;
- Intelligent reporting – automatic generation of text reports based on analyzed data.
After the implementation of such systems, banks note a radical reduction in preparation time for inspections. Freed resources are directed to a deep analysis of risks, which significantly increases the quality of the audit.
Risk forecasting
Thanks to predictive analytics, banks no longer just record the facts of violations, but try to predict their probability on the basis of indirect signs.
Analyzing market reports and even social networks, AI helps to form a clear picture of potential threats and future regulatory changes.
In addition, routine employee requests are now processed by intelligent chatbots, which significantly speeds up internal processes. They help to quickly understand complex procedures, fill out forms correctly, or get clarifications on new laws such as GDPR.
Development directions:
- Virtual assistants advising staff on regulatory issues 24/7;
- Modeling scenarios of legislative changes and their influence on the bank's business processes;
- Constant monitoring of systems for compliance with security standards without waiting for scheduled inspections.
"Banks using predictive models are the first to adapt to the new rules of the game, avoiding huge fines and reputational losses. AI becomes the foundation of trust between the financial institution, the regulator and the client."
Artem Lyashanov
Calm over the horizon
Many years ago, I worked for my parents who own a video production company. Because it is a family business, you inevitably end up wearing many hats and being the czar of many different jobs. I mainly managed projects and worked as a video editor. On production, there were times that I was called on to work as an audio tech and was made to wear headphones on long production days. In those days, having a really good set of headphones that picked up every nuance of sound was essential to making sure the client got what they needed.
First impressions.
Naturally, my first impression of these headphones is based off of the look of them. They have a classic over-the-ear style that is highlighted by a blue LED light that indicates the power for the noise canceling. The padding on the ear pieces seems adequate for extended usage periods.
They are wired headphones, but the 3.5mm stereo mini-plug cable is detachable. Something else I noticed right of the bat was the very nice carrying case that comes with them. It has a hard plastic exterior with a soft cloth interior that helps to protect the surface of the headphones from scratches. I never truly appreciated cases for headphones until I started carrying them from place-to-place. Now I can’t imagine not having a case.
A perfect fit.
Once I gave the headphones a thorough once-over exam, I tried them on. As I mentioned, they have a classic over-the-ear style and just looking at them, the padding on the ear pieces seem adequate and the peak of the headband seemed to be a bit lacking, but you don’t really know comfort unless you try on the product. So, I slipped the headphones on and found them to be exquisitely comfortable.
Quality.
Now that I had the headphones on my head, I was finally ready to plug and play some music. I plugged the provided cable into the jack on the headphones and then the one on my iPhone 6. Then I called up Pandora. I tend to have a very eclectic music purview and have many stations set up for different moods. From John Williams to Fallout Boy, the sound quality of these headphones was remarkable. There is an amazing depth of sound and incredible highs and lows that make listening to music a truly breathtaking experience.
It’s safe to say that because of my unique professional experiences, I’ve tested out a lot of headphones.
In order to test how voices sounded, and the overall art of sound mixing, I pulled up Netflix on my iPad Air 2 and watched a few minutes of a movie to hear all the nuances of the film. None of them were lost. In fact, I ended up hearing sounds that I hadn’t heard before. Echoes…birds chirping…wind blowing through trees…breathing of the characters…it was very impressive what the headphones ended up bringing out for me.
I would highly recommend these to any sound mixing specialist.
Inspired by clouds
Take your time.
I’ve got a Fujifilm X100s. It runs about $1300. It’s easily the best camera I’ve ever owned. I take care of it as best as I can, but I don’t let taking care of it impact the photography. Let me elaborate on that a bit better. You’ll get better at each section of what we talked about slowly. And while you do, you’ll be amazed at how much easier it all is and how the habit forms. The best way to get better at photography is start by taking your camera everywhere. If you leave your house, your camera leaves with you. The only exception is if you’re planning for a weekend bender — then probably leave it at home. Other than that, always have it slung over your shoulder. It would probably help to get an extra battery to carry in your pocket. I’ve got three batteries. One in my camera, one in my pocket, one in the charger.
When it dies, swap them all.
For me, the most important part of improving at photography has been sharing it. Sign up for an Exposure account, or post regularly to Tumblr, or both. Tell people you’re trying to get better at photography. Talk about it. When you talk about it, other people get excited about it. They’ll come on photo walks with you. They’ll pose for portraits. They’ll buy your prints, zines, whatever.
Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.
— Rabindranath Tagore
Breathe the world.
I’ve got a Fujifilm X100s. It runs about $1300. It’s easily the best camera I’ve ever owned. I take care of it as best as I can, but I don’t let taking care of it impact the photography. Let me elaborate on that a bit better. You’ll get better at each section of what we talked about slowly. And while you do, you’ll be amazed at how much easier it all is and how the habit forms. The best way to get better at photography is start by taking your camera everywhere. If you leave your house, your camera leaves with you. The only exception is if you’re planning for a weekend bender — then probably leave it at home. Other than that, always have it slung over your shoulder. It would probably help to get an extra battery to carry in your pocket. I’ve got three batteries. One in my camera, one in my pocket, one in the charger. When it dies, swap them all.
For me, the most important part of improving at photography has been sharing it. Sign up for an Exposure account, or post regularly to Tumblr, or both. Tell people you’re trying to get better at photography. Talk about it. When you talk about it, other people get excited about it. They’ll come on photo walks with you. They’ll pose for portraits. They’ll buy your prints, zines, whatever.
Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.
— Christopher Morley
Enjoy the morning.
The best way to get better at photography is start by taking your camera everywhere. If you leave your house, your camera leaves with you. The only exception is if you’re planning for a weekend bender — then probably leave it at home. Other than that, always have it slung over your shoulder. It would probably help to get an extra battery to carry in your pocket. I’ve got three batteries. One in my camera, one in my pocket, one in the charger. When it dies, swap them all.
For me, the most important part of improving at photography has been sharing it. Sign up for an Exposure account, or post regularly to Tumblr, or both. Tell people you’re trying to get better at photography. Talk about it. When you talk about it, other people get excited about it. They’ll come on photo walks with you. They’ll pose for portraits. They’ll buy your prints, zines, whatever. I’ve got a Fujifilm X100s. It runs about $1300.
It’s easily the best camera I’ve ever owned. I take care of it as best as I can, but I don’t let taking care of it impact the photography. Let me elaborate on that a bit better. You’ll get better at each section of what we talked about slowly. And while you do, you’ll be amazed at how much easier it all is and how the habit forms.
There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds and this is real.
— Gilbert K. Chesterton
Free your mind.
The best way to get better at photography is start by taking your camera everywhere. If you leave your house, your camera leaves with you. The only exception is if you’re planning for a weekend bender — then probably leave it at home. Other than that, always have it slung over your shoulder. It would probably help to get an extra battery to carry in your pocket. I’ve got three batteries. One in my camera, one in my pocket, one in the charger. When it dies, swap them all.
I’ve got a Fujifilm X100s. It runs about $1300. It’s easily the best camera I’ve ever owned. I take care of it as best as I can, but I don’t let taking care of it impact the photography. Let me elaborate on that a bit better. You’ll get better at each section of what we talked about slowly. And while you do, you’ll be amazed at how much easier it all is and how the habit forms.
For me, the most important part of improving at photography has been sharing it. Sign up for an Exposure account, or post regularly to Tumblr, or both. Tell people you’re trying to get better at photography. Talk about it. When you talk about it, other people get excited about it. They’ll come on photo walks with you. They’ll pose for portraits. They’ll buy your prints, zines, whatever.
Photography is better shared.
Make it clean and simple
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Just the other day I happened to wake up early. That is unusual for an engineering student. After a long time I could witness the sunrise. I could feel the sun rays falling on my body. Usual morning is followed by hustle to make it to college on time. This morning was just another morning yet seemed different.
Witnessing calm and quiet atmosphere, clear and fresh air seemed like a miracle to me. I wanted this time to last longer since I was not sure if I would be able to witness it again, knowing my habit of succumbing to schedule. There was this unusual serenity that comforted my mind. It dawned on me, how distant I had been from nature. Standing near the compound’s gate, feeling the moistness that the air carried, I thought about my life so far.
This is what has happened to us. We want the things we have been doing forcefully to fail. And then maybe people around us would let us try something else or our dreams. We are accustomed to live by everyone else’s definition of success. We punish people for the things they are passionate about, just because we were unable to do the same at some point in our life.
I was good at academics, so decisions of my life had been pretty simple and straight. Being pretty confident I would make it to the best junior college of my town in the first round itself, never made me consider any other option. I loved psychology since childhood, but engineering was the safest option. Being born in a middle class family, thinking of risking your career to make it to medical field was not sane. I grew up hearing ‘Only doctor’s children can afford that field’ and finally ended up believing it. No one around me believed in taking risks. Everyone worshiped security. I grew up doing the same.
Control fonts, background, size, parallax and overlay...
‘Being in the top will only grant you a good life’ has been the mantra of my life. But at times, I wish I was an average student. I wish decisions would have not been so straightforward. Maybe I would have played cricket- the only thing I feel passionate about. Or maybe I would have studied literature (literature drives me crazy). Isn’t that disappointing- me wishing to be bad at academics. It’s like at times I hate myself for the stuff I am good at.
I feel like these concrete buildings have sucked our desires and our dreams. We are so used to comfort that compromise seems like a taboo. We have lost faith in ourselves. If we can make through it right now, we can do the same in the days to come. You only need a desire to survive and nothing more- not money or cars or designer clothes.
Staying locked up in four walls have restricted our thinking. I feel like our limited thinking echoes through this wall. We are so used to schedules and predictable life that we have successfully suppressed our creative side.
When you step out of these four walls on a peaceful morning, you realize how much nature has to offer to you. Its boundless. Your thoughts, worries, deadlines won’t resonate here. Everything will flow away along with the wind. And you will realize every answer you had been looking for, was always known to you.
It would mean a lot to me if you recommend this article and help me improve. I would love to know your thoughts!
Real time design tools
Just the other day I happened to wake up early. That is unusual for an engineering student. After a long time I could witness the sunrise. I could feel the sun rays falling on my body. Usual morning is followed by hustle to make it to college on time. This morning was just another morning yet seemed different.
Witnessing calm and quiet atmosphere, clear and fresh air seemed like a miracle to me. I wanted this time to last longer since I was not sure if I would be able to witness it again, knowing my habit of succumbing to schedule. There was this unusual serenity that comforted my mind. It dawned on me, how distant I had been from nature. Standing near the compound’s gate, feeling the moistness that the air carried, I thought about my life so far.
I was good at academics, so decisions of my life had been pretty simple and straight. Being pretty confident I would make it to the best junior college of my town in the first round itself, never made me consider any other option. I loved psychology since childhood, but engineering was the safest option. Being born in a middle class family, thinking of risking your career to make it to medical field was not sane. I grew up hearing ‘Only doctor’s children can afford that field’ and finally ended up believing it. No one around me believed in taking risks. Everyone worshiped security. I grew up doing the same.
This is what has happened to us. We want the things we have been doing forcefully to fail. And then maybe people around us would let us try something else or our dreams. We are accustomed to live by everyone else’s definition of success. We punish people for the things they are passionate about, just because we were unable to do the same at some point in our life.
I feel like these concrete buildings have sucked our desires and our dreams. We are so used to comfort that compromise seems like a taboo. We have lost faith in ourselves. If we can make through it right now, we can do the same in the days to come. You only need a desire to survive and nothing more- not money or cars or designer clothes.
Staying locked up in four walls have restricted our thinking. I feel like our limited thinking echoes through this wall. We are so used to schedules and predictable life that we have successfully suppressed our creative side.
When you step out of these four walls on a peaceful morning, you realize how much nature has to offer to you. Its boundless. Your thoughts, worries, deadlines won’t resonate here. Everything will flow away along with the wind. And you will realize every answer you had been looking for, was always known to you.
It would mean a lot to me if you recommend this article and help me improve. I would love to know your thoughts!
Time is passing by
CSS selectors all exist within the same global scope. Anyone who has worked with CSS long enough has had to come to terms with its aggressively global nature — a model clearly designed in the age of documents, now struggling to offer a sane working environment for today’s modern web applications. Every selector has the potential to have unintended side effects by targeting unwanted elements or clashing with other selectors. More surprisingly, our selectors may even lose out in the global specificity war, ultimately having little or no effect on the page at all.
Any time we make a change to a CSS file, we need to carefully consider the global environment in which our styles will sit. No other front end technology requires so much discipline just to keep the code at a minimum level of maintainability. But it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s time to leave the era of global style sheets behind.
It’s time for local CSS.
In other languages, it’s accepted that modifying the global environment is something to be done rarely, if ever.
In the JavaScript community, thanks to tools like Browserify, Webpack and JSPM, it’s now expected that our code will consist of small modules, each encapsulating their explicit dependencies, exporting a minimal API.
Yet, somehow, CSS still seems to be getting a free pass.
Many of us — myself included, until recently — have been working with CSS so long that we don’t see the lack of local scope as a problem that we can solve without significant help from browser vendors. Even then, we’d still need to wait for the majority of our users to be using a browser with proper Shadow DOM support.
We’ve worked around the issues of global scope with a series of naming conventions like OOCSS, SMACSS, BEM and SUIT, each providing a way for us to avoid naming collisions and emulate sane scoping rules.
We no longer need to add lengthy prefixes to all of our selectors to simulate scoping. More components could define their own foo and bar identifiers which — unlike the traditional global selector model—wouldn’t produce any naming collisions.
import styles from './MyComponent.css';
import React, { Component } from 'react';
export default class MyComponent extends Component {
render() {
return (
<div>
<div className={styles.foo}>Foo</div>
<div className={styles.bar}>Bar</div>
</div>
);
}
The benefits of global CSS — style re-use between components via utility classes, etc. — are still achievable with this model. The key difference is that, just like when we work in other technologies, we need to explicitly import the classes that we depend on. Our code can’t make many, if any, assumptions about the global environment.
Writing maintainable CSS is now encouraged, not by careful adherence to a naming convention, but by style encapsulation during development.
Once you’ve tried working with local CSS, there’s really no going back. Experiencing true local scope in our style sheets — in a way that works across all browsers— is not something to be easily ignored.
Introducing local scope has had a significant ripple effect on how we approach our CSS. Naming conventions, patterns of re-use, and the potential extraction of styles into separate packages are all directly affected by this shift, and we’re only at the beginning of this new era of local CSS.
process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development' ?
'[name]__[local]___[hash:base64:5]' :
'[hash:base64:5]'
)
Understanding the ramifications of this shift is something that we’re still working through. With your valuable input and experimentation, I’m hoping that this is a conversation we can have together as a larger community.
Note: Automatically optimising style re-use between components would be an amazing step forward, but it definitely requires help from people a lot smarter than me.
Hey DJ play that song
Many years ago, I worked for my parents who own a video production company. Because it is a family business, you inevitably end up wearing many hats and being the czar of many different jobs. I mainly managed projects and worked as a video editor. On production, there were times that I was called on to work as an audio tech and was made to wear headphones on long production days. In those days, having a really good set of headphones that picked up every nuance of sound was essential to making sure the client got what they needed.
Keep me dancing.
Naturally, my first impression of these headphones is based off of the look of them. They have a classic over-the-ear style that is highlighted by a blue LED light that indicates the power for the noise canceling. The padding on the ear pieces seems adequate for extended usage periods.
They are wired headphones, but the 3.5mm stereo mini-plug cable is detachable. Something else I noticed right of the bat was the very nice carrying case that comes with them. It has a hard plastic exterior with a soft cloth interior that helps to protect the surface of the headphones from scratches. I never truly appreciated cases for headphones until I started carrying them from place-to-place. Now I can’t imagine not having a case.
All night long...
Once I gave the headphones a thorough once-over exam, I tried them on. As I mentioned, they have a classic over-the-ear style and just looking at them, the padding on the ear pieces seem adequate and the peak of the headband seemed to be a bit lacking, but you don’t really know comfort unless you try on the product. So, I slipped the headphones on and found them to be exquisitely comfortable.
Play me something for me and my darling, want you to make everything.
Now that I had the headphones on my head, I was finally ready to plug and play some music. I plugged the provided cable into the jack on the headphones and then the one on my iPhone 6. Then I called up Pandora. I tend to have a very eclectic music purview and have many stations set up for different moods. From John Williams to Fallout Boy, the sound quality of these headphones was remarkable. There is an amazing depth of sound and incredible highs and lows that make listening to music a truly breathtaking experience.
In order to test how voices sounded, and the overall art of sound mixing, I pulled up Netflix on my iPad Air 2 and watched a few minutes of a movie to hear all the nuances of the film. None of them were lost. In fact, I ended up hearing sounds that I hadn’t heard before. Echoes…birds chirping…wind blowing through trees…breathing of the characters…it was very impressive what the headphones ended up bringing out for me.
Me Myself and I
Many years ago, I worked for my parents who own a video production company. Because it is a family business, you inevitably end up wearing many hats and being the czar of many different jobs. I mainly managed projects and worked as a video editor. On production, there were times that I was called on to work as an audio tech and was made to wear headphones on long production days. In those days, having a really good set of headphones that picked up every nuance of sound was essential to making sure the client got what they needed.
First impressions.
Naturally, my first impression of these headphones is based off of the look of them. They have a classic over-the-ear style that is highlighted by a blue LED light that indicates the power for the noise canceling. The padding on the ear pieces seems adequate for extended usage periods.
They are wired headphones, but the 3.5mm stereo mini-plug cable is detachable. Something else I noticed right of the bat was the very nice carrying case that comes with them. It has a hard plastic exterior with a soft cloth interior that helps to protect the surface of the headphones from scratches. I never truly appreciated cases for headphones until I started carrying them from place-to-place. Now I can’t imagine not having a case.
A perfect fit.
Once I gave the headphones a thorough once-over exam, I tried them on. As I mentioned, they have a classic over-the-ear style and just looking at them, the padding on the ear pieces seem adequate and the peak of the headband seemed to be a bit lacking, but you don’t really know comfort unless you try on the product. So, I slipped the headphones on and found them to be exquisitely comfortable.
It’s safe to say that because of my unique professional experiences, I’ve tested out a lot of headphones.
Quality.
Now that I had the headphones on my head, I was finally ready to plug and play some music. I plugged the provided cable into the jack on the headphones and then the one on my iPhone 6. Then I called up Pandora. I tend to have a very eclectic music purview and have many stations set up for different moods. From John Williams to Fallout Boy, the sound quality of these headphones was remarkable. There is an amazing depth of sound and incredible highs and lows that make listening to music a truly breathtaking experience.
In order to test how voices sounded, and the overall art of sound mixing, I pulled up Netflix on my iPad Air 2 and watched a few minutes of a movie to hear all the nuances of the film. None of them were lost. In fact, I ended up hearing sounds that I hadn’t heard before. Echoes…birds chirping…wind blowing through trees…breathing of the characters…it was very impressive what the headphones ended up bringing out for me.
I would highly recommend these to any sound mixing specialist.
My tech travel setup
MacBook Pro
Robert Capa, a famous photojournalist once said, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” It’s not just about zooming in with your lens, either. It’s about getting physically closer to people and getting to know them better. It’s also about spending a little time with a stranger before taking their photo. That helps build the trust and comfort that’ll come through in your pictures. Walk up to your subject with a simple wave and a smile to help communicate that you mean no harm.
Ask permission to take a photo if they speak the same language as you. If you don’t share a language, try learning some basic phrases ahead of time, gesture at your camera and ask through expression. Of course if someone doesn’t want their picture taken, it’s imperative to respect their wishes and move on — people are always more important than photographs. National Geographic writes that “making great pictures is primarily a mental process.” What makes you want to photograph the person or place? How might you describe it to a friend, and what adjectives would you use? Are there details you can focus on that tell a story?
iPad/iPhone
Maybe it’s a dry, arid desert, captured by focusing on the patterns of cracked earth. Or a prairie that’s photographed with the horizon at the bottom of the frame, to help create a sense of the open sky and tranquility. Or maybe it’s the story of a deft artisan, fingernails covered in wet clay as she molds a pot. When you’re on the road it can be tough to eat right and make sure you get all the right nutrients. I started taking daily supplements of Multi-Vitamin, Fish Oil capsules and Vitamin D and it helps a lot. Especially the Vitamin D since I don’t get to see the sun a lot during the winter in Sweden.
Sennheiser HD-25 Headphones
It’s difficult to recreate the grandeur of a vast landscape in the confines of a picture frame. But one way to add a sense of depth to your photos is to compose them with objects in the foreground that support the scene. It can be as simple as a winding road through a national park, or some rocks to show off the local geology.
If you’re taking photos of people during normal daylight hours, a quick way to get more flattering light is to move the person out of direct sunlight. The light is much “softer” and doesn’t cast stark, unflattering shadows across their facial features. Even better, have someone stand next to an open door or window as the single source of light.




