The past few days I have been exploring the new world of recording video using a Digital SLR camera (Canon EOS 5D Mark II). I've been taking pictures for the past 20 years & been dabbling in video over the past years for SikhNet, but only recently has video been added to these types of digital cameras with this level of quality. The results are awesome! There are some technical hurdles that I am trying to overcome, but once I get the right hardware I should be good to go.
As a photographer it's really cool to see video that is taken with this type of camera. The colors and the perspective that you get with the focus/aperture creates some beautiful video.
A friend just forwarded me a link to some beautiful videos by Jason Taylor who also shot many videos on the same camera. Not only are these videos visually beautiful, but the message needs to be heard by more people.
This first short video gives you an overview of his project "The Source" which has to do with farming, sustainability, seeds & food for all. The videos are all set in India and so you see many clips relating to the Sikhs in Punjab. Take the time to watch the below three short videos.
Thank
you Jason for devoting so much time an effort to share these videos,
which hopefully will make many more people aware of what is going on in
the world with our food.
"Sixty years ago India had more than 100,000 varieties of rice. Today there are little more than 3,000. The demise of seed variety is just one of the many issues farmers around the world are fighting against. Agriculture has become Agribusiness and more than a billion farmers livelihoods and environments are now being threatened worldwide, from Europe to Uruguay. This film is one minute with one of the millions of farmers who truly understand sustainable agriculture. This is The Source" - www.thesourcefilm.org
Here is a longer video with Natabar Sarangi talking about seeds and farming in India.
"Natabar
continues to find, save and share his indigenous rice seed with local
farmers. To date he has managed to re-introduce over 350 varieties. But it’s
not just about the indigenous rice seed of India or about the survival
of a sustainable agriculture system with the knowledge of over ten
thousand years. It's about a global phenomenon taking place where a
non-sustainable system systematically destroys a sustainable one, where
short term profit has the power to overwhelm common sense and the
consciousness of many millions, where progress is not progress but the
wanton destruction of an eco-system and environment we will never be
able to replace.
Natabar Sarangi is just one of a growing number of farmers
throughout the world who realise that if we do not begin to repair the
damage taking place to our agricultural systems and our environment, we
will lose not just our cultural identity but our fundamental right to a
truly sustainable system of food security." - more information on the Indian agricultural crisis
This last beautiful video is a scene that most of us are familiar with: Langar being served at the Harimandir Sahib, in Amritsar.
"From a culture of sharing we have become a culture driven by possession and profit. The century of self. This short film comes from the kitchens of the Golden Temple (Harimandir Sahib, Amritsar) where every day around 100,000 people, regardless of colour, caste or religion, donate, prepare, consume and clean for nothing more than compassion. Are we really moving in the right direction? This year the world will produce enough food to feed twice the world's population, yet every day almost one billion people will sleep hungry. "
You can watch more videos by Jason Taylor on Vimeo or visit his website: The Source