A quick post today to share with you a great video from a TED talk by David Griffin, former Director of Photography, at National Geographic. It’s a few years old now but it’s well worth your time to watch, in case you missed it the first time around.
From TED: “The photo director for National Geographic, David Griffin knows the power of photography to connect us to our world. In a talk filled with glorious images, he talks about how we all use photos to tell our stories.”
I, like many others, are shocked and saddened by the events that have occurred in Japan over the past 36 hours. I lived in Japan for a year and feel desperately sad for the Japanese people and those affected by the recent earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
Some of the footage that has come out of Japan has been quite incredible, although disturbing to watch. Having been glued to my computer, watching updates from those on the ground and the news agencies covering the crisis, I decided to collate some of the most striking videos that have emerged. A selection are below.
This view was one of the first I witnessed via Al-Jazeera. The terrifying tsunami washing over coastal lands, swallowing houses and farmland…
A rather terrifying ground-level view of the tsunami rushing down high streets towards the camera…
National Geographic have just released a series of very interesting articles in their latest issue, on the status of humanity’s population. As part of their interactive features, they released the video above titled ‘the face of 7 billion’, depicting what is the most common face on the planet. Do you have it?
It seems that there have been a few of these kinds of graphic’s coming out recently, most notably one which was going around the internet a few weeks ago of composite images of women from different countries in the world. It’s quite an interesting technique.
The National Geographic series of articles on population are up to the very high standards you would expect from them. They have some fascinating graphics which break down the current statistics surrounding our global population. It’s well worth taking time to explore.
Quick post today. As Beijing is my Chinese adopted hometown, I couldn’t resist posting this video when I came across it.
‘Live the Language’ seems to be a new series of advertisements for English First, a language training school. I like the feel to these videos and suspect that they have been shot on a DSLR. Many shots throughout the video have that very shallow depth-of-field feel to them that typifies video shot with a DSLR.
Watching this video is also a test of your Chinese knowledge! How many characters can you recognize?
NGC 2841 Galaxy - NASA - http://www.spacetelescope.org/
I thought I’d start the week with something spectacular. I wish I could claim that this is my picture, but alas, it belongs to NASA shot with the famous Hubble telescope. What you are seeing is NGC 2841, a spiral galaxy that is located some 45 million light years away. I’m captivated by astrophotography sometimes and like to peruse astronomy blogs and dip into the Hubble-archives to peruse some of the amazing images out there. This one caught my eye and I thought it would be a great image to start the week with.
As an added extra, I thought I’d throw in a little Carl Sagan for futher inspiration too. Have a great week.
Continuing along the aerial viewpoint theme from yesterday, I thought this video was a fitting follow-up to the somewhat depressing image of pollution hanging over Beijing, taken from one of NASA’s satellites. It also connects nicely in the NASA theme, as this video is of Thursday’s Discovery Shuttle Launch. This is not just any video of a launch but one taken from the window of a passing commercial airliner!
Now the video isn’t the most amazing quality in the world but the quick-thinking passenger who shot it, pulled out their video camera just in time to get a very unique viewpoint indeed.
I am fascinated by astronomy, so am thrilled to see this new vantage point. Shame it will be Dicovery’s last launch. It also seems to mark the beginning of the end for the US space shuttle program. What will the future hold for manned missions from the US? I have a feeling China will have something to say on this matter soon. Stay tuned…
Discovered this great little documentary from the BBC this week, that I thought was well worth sharing here on the blog. The subject of the documentary is about China’s increasing influence and role within the economies of many African nations and the subsequent impacts on the people of those countries.
The Chinese Are Coming | BBC
I think the documentary gives a good overview of some of the issues at play and outlines the key challenges Africa is facing with its new friendship with China. If you weren’t aware of China’s inroads into Africa, this is a a great documentary to start with to get you up to speed with the basics.
Thanks to Danwei for originally posting this on their blog.
This is a really interesting video and one which deserves a few minutes of your time to watch. The footage in the video has been shot by BBC for a new series called ‘Human Planet’ and coincides with Survival International’s new campaign to protect some of the last untouched tribes in the world. The video is shot on the border between Brazil and Peru and briefly records an isolated tribe of Indians.
A whimsical soundtrack and celebrity voiceover help to heighten the emotional pull of the video and I think it works perfectly for the aim, which is to raise awareness of this important issue.
According to the website…
“The Indians’ survival is in jeopardy as an influx of illegal loggers invades the Peru side of the border. Brazilian authorities believe the influx of loggers is pushing isolated Indians from Peru into Brazil, and the two groups are likely to come into conflict.
Survival Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘The very dangerous future for uncontacted tribal peoples should be of worldwide concern.”
To learn more, head to the Uncontacted Tribes website. There are more fascinating videos on the challenges facing various tribes.
Men standing on the side of a highway running through the North Korean countryside. 2009
“Starving North Korea Send out SOS for Food Aid” is one of the headlines that reads on the Daily Telegraph’s website this week. This week also marks the birthday of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Il. I have chosen to mark this day with a video that was released a few months ago on the Telegraph website, secretly recorded by North Koreans dissidents, in attempt to show some of the frightening conditions in the country. It’s disturbing to watch.
As readers of this blog will know, I travelled to North Korea in the autumn of 2009 on assignment for the Globe & Mail. We had a very limited view of the real North Korea. Our 5-day trip was state-controlled and we were whisked across the country from one official tourist destination to the next. When our private mini-bus passed though rural areas, we were expressly told not to take any photos. I, of course, tried to get some. One of which is below. It’s only a fleeting glance, however.
[vimeo width="570" height="320"]http://vimeo.com/16018786[/vimeo]
This is the second in my series of Multimedia pieces for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, produced from the body of work I created this summer on China’s current wetlands crisis. These pieces take a lot longer to produce than your average photo essay but I feel they add a whole lot more to the general understanding of the issue. Hope you agree. Please find the synopsis of this piece below:
“Since the end of World War 2, the world has lost approximately 50% of its mangroves, mainly as a result of destruction by humans for coastal developments.
Found mainly in the tropics and subtropics, mangroves are a unique species of trees and shrubs that thrive in saltwater. They are valued for their ability to protect coastlines, harbor wildlife and have a nutrient base on a par with the rainforests.
Photographer and videographer Sean Gallagher, travels to South-East China to report on a project aiming to save the remaining pockets of mangroves in China, on assignment for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
To learn more, visit http://www.threatenedwaters.com “
