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Abundance – a photofilm

Ciara Leeming — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:32:09 +0000

What a wonderful idea.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Abundance is a fruit harvesting and distribution project that started in Sheffield and since has inspired similar projects across the country.
“It’s basically legal scrumping. Tree owners call Abundance, Abundance round up the volunteers, they harvest the fruit, returning some to the owners, and distributing, pickling, or making chutney with the rest. All is given away, with the chutneys sold to cover the basic costs.
“Sheffield is one of the greenest cities in Europe. It is also pretty radical at times. Such a simple, honest idea as Abundance could easily become much more commonplace” – Gemma Thorpe

Saving a nation’s memories

Ciara Leeming — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:57:25 +0000

As well as being the 10th anniversary of 9/11, tomorrow also marks the six-month anniversary of the devastating Japanese earthquake and tsunami. And there, an army of volunteers have spent recent months working to restore and return photographs damaged in the March 11 disaster in order to save the nation’s memories. Click below for the Guardian’s film.

ht to @russellphoto.

“I have four babies, beautiful, gorgeous, why should I ever think about suicide? I had these thoughts in my mind. I was messed up.”

WOW WOW WOW. The most beautiful timelapse photofilm I have ever seen.

duckrabbit — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 12:34:39 +0000

WOW. No Really. WOW.

WOW.

One day someone will make a photofilm as beautiful as this and combine it with a story and blow everyone’s minds …this will blow your mind anyway and I guess the story is MOTHER NATURE.

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

More On The Future

diederik-meijer — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:14:37 +0000

Some interesting thoughts by Claudia Hinterseer of NOOR Images in this BJP article:

“The present is (roughly) making stories on spec and selling pics for publication in print, online and so on, the future is in initiating projects, multimedia, grants and foundations. To survive you have to do both for a period of time.”

Hinterseer will be boosting the NOOR foundation, turning it into a platform that can initiate and realise projects such as books, exhibitions and talks.

“For the sake of simplicity, I think it is safe to say that the present is closely related to Noor, the agency; the future is Noor, the foundation.”

I emailed Hinterseer with some additional questions, which she kindly answered, here is the Q and A with some insightful information:

Q. Do you belief the print and online media market for editorial documentary work will continue to shrink?

A. Yes, I believe and experience it so. Unless you mean with “online media market” also iapp’s and social media, in those fields I see plenty of opportunities we’re currently developing (with the help of a grant of a Dutch foundation called Stichting Democratie & Media, amongst other financial supporters).

Q. Will that become the lesser important source of income for NOOR?

A. As for the print market for editorial documentary work, yes. At this moment the editorial market is still a very important market for NOOR.

Q. You are also quoting to say that the future is in initiating projects, multimedia, grants and foundations. Do you expect grants, lectures, books and exhibitions to be NOOR’s main revenue source in the near future?

A. You’re mentioning many things… already now, grants, lectures, books and exhibitions are amongst NOOR’s main revenue sources. The printed media are far from dead and still offer opportunities that are worth pursuing. But in a changed (and still changing) media landscape the printed media have become less attractive, both as a platform for independent in depth visual reporting and as a source of income. Alternative sources and platforms should be developed to counteract this development. Projects, exhibitions, workshops, print sales, multimedia, apps and more.

Q. Will that revenue stream be mostly government or NGO-based?

A. A combination, plus corporate sponsoring, plus collaborations with media outlets, plus educational institutes etc.

Q. As an example, I believe the Consequences project has had NGO support, how important was that support?

A. Mistake. Consequences by NOOR was produced with financial support by a corporate sponsor: Nikon Europe. For us that was very important. After the work was produced, we made money with it thanks to wide editorial publication (print and online). In collaboration with NGO’s we developed exhibitions and a social media campaign. NGO’s were only involved in the level of outreach/presentation, not production. We are continuing our Climate Change group project this year, again with thanks to Nikon. Nikon is the only partner involved at this stage. We’re looking for and talking to potential additional partners, aimed at the outreach again (educational projects, street art, online campaigns etc.).

Photog Bites Off Video (and chews)

duckrabbit — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 08:40:39 +0000

Making the transition from still photography to videography is bloody hard. There are no short cuts. But rarely has someone made the transition so convincingly as Chinese based photographer Sean Gallagher. Armed with a grant from the Pulitzer Centre he’s been investigating the plight of the Chinese alligator.

Watch his short film and then read Sean in his own words about how he trained himself to become a film-maker. Hats off to you Sean, you did a great job.

As China continues its rapid economic development, the wetlands of the country are increasingly coming under threat.

Many of the species that inhabit these wetlands are being pushed to the brink of extinction, including the Chinese Alligator. Only 120 individuals are now estimated to be left in the wild, as a result of wetlands reclamation since the 1950′s.

Photographer and Videographer Sean Gallagher travels to Anhui Province in central China to document the crisis facing this species, for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

http://www.threatenedwaters.com (Coming Oct 2010)

“My first experience with video came when working on assignment in North Korea in August 2009. At that time I could only use a touristy camcorder because of the restrictions we were under and the fact I was posing as a tourist, however after producing three short videos for The Globe & Mail (Canada’s national newspaper), I became hooked on the possibilities video could give me for new ways in visual storytelling.

I was very excited to see video come out in Canon DSLRs in late 2009 and was blown away by the quality of the footage. Rather than rushing out to buy one however, I actually headed to Amazon and bought a bunch of books about how to shoot, edit and produce documentary films. I knew I had a lot to learn, so rather than rushing into it, I decided to take my time and try to learn the fundamentals of video to try to give myself a solid base from which to build on.

I think by taking this approach, it has facilitated a smoother transition for me to shooting video. Video really is a whole different world compared to stills, so rather than being overtaken by my initial enthusiasm and trying to ‘learn on the job’ say, I forced myself to take a little more of a planned approach to learning this new skill.

In terms of books, I highly recommend “Directing the Documentary by Michael Rabiger. It’s a bit of a tome but is my ‘go to’ reference book. With regards to websites, I think DSLR News Shooter has been very useful to in terms of the technical side and seeing what has worked (and what hasn’t) for other professionals, in these teething stages we are in with DSLR video.”

For your viewing pleasure: The Big Caption

Adam Westbrook — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 12:14:00 +0000

As you’ve probably read over the last week, we’re big fans of photo-blogs like the New York Times’ Lens blog, which showcase some of the best photography from around the world each and every day.

Alongside Lens, there’s also the Big Picture, run by the Boston Globe. Again, it shows big images every day from somewhere on the planet.

It’s now got it’s own spin-off, in the rather hilarious The Big Caption. Each day, someone takes the Globe’s Big Picture, and sticks an off the wall Big Caption all over it, to create a new piece of art altogether. The man behind it, Ian Collins clearly has a good grasp of graphic design and typography, as well as a great sense of humour making this concept a brilliant cheer-me-up to stick in your Google Reader, not to mention being occasionally profound.

MUSTAFA OZER/AFP/Getty Images)

ADAM WESTBROOK

duckrabbit:

These are great, but I think there is a real issue about the copyright of these images. I don’t think it will be very long before the lawyers at Getty send The Big Caption a Big Bill!

Boston Big Picture vs BP

David White — Mon, 24 May 2010 19:25:47 +0000

I tried to think of something clever to put here. Pointless.

LOOK.

raw beauty – Iceland’s volcano

Ciara Leeming — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 07:21:53 +0000

Sometimes you have to just sit back and marvel at the power of Mother Nature.

These photos by Icelandic photographer Ragnar Th. Sigurdsson of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano – currently causing so much misery for air passengers, airlines and not forgetting fruit, veg and flower growers in many developing countries – are quite incredible. First seen on the New York Times Lens blog.

Why Context Matters

duckrabbit — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:14:36 +0000

Answers to the following questions will not be found here or here:

Who are these villagers?

What are their lives like?

How do they know how to strip an elephant?

What use is made of its bones, meat etc?

Why are they ’starved of meat’?

What makes the elephant a valuable commodity?

What is the relationship of man to beast in this region?

WOW WOW WOW

duckrabbit — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:57:29 +0000

Watch this video featuring National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen … really do!