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The danger of a single story

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. Source:TED...

Adventures in replying to spam

James Veitch has spent years doing the tireless, thankless work of  replying to spam emailers so you don’t have to. He returns to TED to  tell the tale of yet another spam email adventure, this time with a vital lesson attached: How to annoy your way off any spammer’s mailing  list. Source: TED Archive...

How to Shoot Better B-Roll

B-Roll is used to spice up your films. It is the visual material that helps show the viewer what your narration or your experts are talking  about. In our films, we use a TON of B-roll. If you're just getting started, we thought we'd give you a few useful things to think about as you're filming.Source: 52Things: Rob & Jonas...

How to find inspiration on location

Join the Practical Photography team on location as they go head-to-head  in a creative camera showdown. They've got five words to inspire them  and five images to create...Source:Practical Photography...

Um Hashem’s Story

Um Hashem lives in the Fayoum oasis south west of Cairo. When her husband got ill, the pressure to marry off their daughter mounted. Um Hassan felt that her daughter was too young and with the support of her neighbors and the friends she knew from the Arab Women Speak Out (AWSO) program she put forth the case to her husband. This short film is one in a series of portraits of village women, designed to be shown to other women as a way of inspiring them to take make positive changes in their lives...

A simple guide to "Back Button" focusing!

Here we go, a simple guide to back button focus, get on it! Remember  this is the same on a DSLR or mirrorless, its no different other than the fact im using the rear screen instead of the viewfinder.Source: Chris Turner...

Poverty Of Perception

Throughout southern Africa, the San have lived a deeply connected life to their land and cultural practices. In the 1970's the government initiated land restrictions that forced the San to move from  their ancestral lands into government conservancies with limited hunting, gathering and water access. Today, the San continue to fight for their cultural existence, land rights and the freedom to return hometo their desired way of life.This is a film about their way of life and one woman's expe...

Landscapes - Learn the rule of thirds

Love landscape photography? Practical Photography's Tim Berry and Louise Carey have 100 hours to visit and photograph Britain's five most iconic landscape locations. In part 4, our intrepid duo head further north to  Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands to shoot classic landscapes using  foreground interest to add depth and interest. Source: Practical Photography ...

Life Lessons From 100-Year-Olds

Three centenarians were asked what their most valuable life lessons were, and also their regrets. The conversations that followed were remarkable. They talked about the importance of family, people, relationships and love. Their view on life, as an elderly citizen with a lot of experience is truly an inspiration and motivation.Source: LifeHunters...

The Unspoken

A confronting look at a filmmaker's personal journey to reach out to his dying father.Second Place of Tropfest Australia 2011Directed by Jason van GenderenSource: TROPFEST...

How to photograph wild birds

Practical Photography joins wildlife expert Simon Roy at a Yorkshire  nature reserve to find out how he shoots incredible images of blue tits, great tits and robins.Source: Practical Photography...

13 Video Editing Techniques

Once you master these edit types and learn why each one is important in  different circumstances, you can make your projects more entertaining  and your editing more efficient, and you can create a whole editing  style of your own that reflects your creative side. In this video1. standard cut 2. fade in/fade out3. jump cut 4. montage5. cross dissolve 6. wipe7. J/L cuts8. cutting on action 9. cutaways10. cross cut parallel editing 11. match cut12. smash cut13. invisible cut Source:...

10 Videography Tricks

These quick tips and hacks will help you to achevice more interesting video sequences without having to invest in a load of professional equipment.Source: Dhika Adrain...

The power of citizen video to create undeniable truths

Could smartphones and cameras be our most powerful weapon for social  justice? Through her organization Witness, Yvette Alberdingk Thijm is  developing strategies and technologies to help activists use video to  protect and defend human rights. She shares stories of the growing power of distant witnesses -- and a call to use the powerful tools at our  disposal to capture incidents of injustice.Source: Ted Talks Yvette Alberdingk Thijm...

Should you donate differently?

Technology allows us to give cash directly to the poorest people on the  planet. Should we do it? In this thought-provoking talk, veteran aid worker Joy Sun explores two ways to help the poor.Source: Ted TalksJoy Sun...

The Roots of Leadership and Social Justice

A tree has to have strong roots in order to grow, prosper, and be successful in its purpose. This metaphor explains that those who want to pursue leadership and social justice needs to have purpose. One must set a strong foundation of support, knowledge, motivational forces, and love, so that they can grow, prosper, and be successful in their field of leadership and/or social justice. This idea can be applied to almost every aspect of our lives, but when it comes to leadership and social justice...

A Changing Landscape

In the Gobi Desert, things are changing. Mining has  come to Mongolia. Next to the world's largest gold and copper mine, Oyu  Tolgoi, is the town of Khanbogd . Exploration and preparation of the  mine has caused a boom in this once sleepy town. While the population  has more than tripled, resources in the town remain scarce.The mine has created jobs and great impact on Mongolia's economy, but other impacts of the mine are still unknown. A Changing Landscape  examines bot...