As the models of journalism have changes in the past year or two, more and more independent journalists are going online to crowd-fund their stories. A number of sites have sprung up giving you, the reader/viewer, the chance to help contribute and actively fund investigative reporting. It’s proving a successful model for some with many projects getting fully-funded and contributing to an excting new way that you can become part of the reporting process.

I was browsing one of these sites, Kickstarter, when I came across a story by a China-based journalist called Jocelyn Ford. She has a really interesting new project that she is seeking funding for which I thought I would try to help spread the word about here on the blog.

Tibet holds an almost mythic place in the minds of everyone, but what are the real stories taking place there? What are the stories beyond our stereotypes? Jocelyn is trying to show you one. Take a look.

This is a really nice little video/slideshow if you are looking for a little inspiration today and insight into the mind of one of the world’s leading photographers, Maggie Steber. I first became aware of Maggie and her work when I was lucky enough to listen to a presentation of hers, when I attended Look3 in 2008. It was a really interesting talk and I wanted to take this opportuntiy to share this video here and share some of her insights into photography.

Thanks to the ever thought-provoking Duckrabbit for posting this over on their blog earlier this week.

Saturday 26th March 2011 marks this year’s ‘Earth Hour’, a global event aimed at raising awareness across borders about the effect we have on our climate and inspire action to manage humanities impact on climate change.

According to Earth Hour’s website: “On Saturday 27 March, Earth Hour 2010 became the biggest Earth Hour ever. A record 128 countries and territories joined the global display of climate action. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Asia Pacific to Europe and Africa to the Americas switched off. People across the world from all walks of life turned off their lights and came together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet.”

China has embraced Earth Hour with gusto with advertisements popping up everywhere in Beijing recently promoting the cause. Last year I headed out the the Bird’s Nest, Beijing’s centerpiece for the 2008 Olympic Games, to capture Earth Hour using timelapse video. The resulting piece shows the crowds who were there to witness the turning off of the lights at this magnificent stadium. In real-time, the change wasn’t quite so dramatic but speeded up to one minute, makes for more interesting viewing.

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…

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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.