Visual Content

The Sacred Story - Ethical Story Catching

The Sacred Story - Ethical Story Catching

We all can recognise and celebrate the power of story, however is the same recognition given to the ethical responsibilities of the story catcher?  I believe that story is sacred and attention must be given to the ethics of collecting and sharing the individual and community’s story. 

The Authentic Story - Stories for Purpose

The Authentic Story - Stories for Purpose

Authentic storytelling highlights issues and encourages people to share information. Few would deny that authentic stories have the potential to drive considerable social impact. These stories are stories for purpose.

Over the next couple of blogs I will be taking a look at ‘Stories for Purpose’; what are they, how do we capture them, and how and when do we use them.

 

The 6 Elements to the Magic of Storytelling

The 6 Elements to the Magic of Storytelling

Stories are native to us all. It was how we first learnt about the world, and our place in it. Stories are more powerful than facts or figures alone. They are a great way to share your ideas, successes and learning’s.

 

The 15 things that happy people do - International Happiness Day - 20th March

The 15 things that happy people do  - International Happiness Day - 20th March

The last few months has seen the entire world enraptured by Pharrell’s “Happy,” and they’re dancing it out in joyful videos from Paris to Hong Kong -- just in time for March 20th's International Day of Happiness.

The song got me thinking what is it that happy people do differently.

I think happy people are happy because they make themselves happy. They do and think differently - they have formed happy habits, heres a few of them.

Inspiring our Indigenous youth and transforming their lives.

There is a large employment gap between Indigenous and other Australians. In 2008, the employment rate of Indigenous men of working age was 59%, compared with 85% for all Australian men. For Indigenous females, the employment rate was 42% compared with 69% for all Australian women.[i]

At the end of last year I worked with the Indigenous Lands Corporation to capture the stories of the individuals that participated in last years inspirational and life transforming training to employment program at the Merriman Shearing School.

The students all graduated with a certificate in horticulture and an industry benchmark of shearing 80 sheep a day. Over the past 12 months, around 20 out of the 30 graduates have found full time employment. 

The Training to Employment program is funded by the Indigenous Lands Corporation and is producing some amazing results by transforming lives and opening up new possible futures for our nations indigenous youth.

“Boof” from out the back of Bourke in New South Wales is probably not aware of these precise numbers, however this indigenous sheep shearer of some 40 years is probably doing more to reverse these numbers than most.

Not one to mince words Boof believes in the power of truth, hard work and giving the kids a go. For the past 3 years Boof has been putting indigenous young men and women through their paces running a shearing school at Merriman in the interior of New South Wales, some 400 km from the nearest town.

“The first thing that you gotta teach these kids is how to get out bed and go to work. When the kids first get here – they don’t look at ya and by the time they leave here they’ve learnt to stand up and say that I’m here to work and I’m proud of what I am – and when they have done that, I know that I have won those kids for the rest of their lives”.

[i] Increasing Indigenous employment rates, Issues paper no. 3 produced for the Closing the Gap Clearinghouse - Matthew Gray, Boyd Hunter and Shaun Lohoar, March 2012 http://www.aihw.gov.au/uploadedFiles/ClosingTheGap/Content/Publications/2012/ctg-ip03.pdf

Community Storytelling Part 1 - Tell stories with images using your smartphone or tablet

Community Storytelling Part 1 - Tell stories with images using your smartphone or tablet

 Sharing stories is possibly one of the most important ways we have of communicating with each other. It is how we share our hopes and fears, dreams, and passions and what we believe and value as well as what we do not. 

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing the with you the next two sessions. These Prezis will only be up for a very limited time so please share these sessions with your community.

2013 - The year that was - as documented on my iPhone

As a photographer I take 1000's of images every year.

In 2013  I took over 4000 images on my iPhone alone.

What an amazing way to document my life. So heres my year in images and wow what a year it was - I travelled across the country a few times for work (which is my pleasure) had some crazy adventures, met some awesome people, saw some amazing things, hung-out with some beautiful friends and family and learnt some really cool stuff. 


So heres to life - and what an amazing life it is.

2013 - The year that was - as documented on my iPhone

 

The Power of Visual Online Content - Pictures verses Words

The Power of Visual Online Content - Pictures verses Words

Images are powerful

For me a great image can convey thoughts, ideas and events, when words alone sometimes cannot do justice.

Images can inspire me, shock me and thrill me. They can be heartbreaking or can outrage me.

Images can bring tears to my eyes, lift my spirits, or stir a well of compassion.