Positive Communication

Photography Connecting People

Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything. - Aaron Siskind

Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man. - Edward Steichen

Photography has always been one of my biggest passions. As photographer, it is a way to connect with the object (person, animal, or any object) I'm photographing, to fully experience its beauty and presence. When I'm lucky, the resulting photo indeed shares that beauty with others.

In this TED talk the photo director for National Geographic, David Griffin, shows that power of photography to connect us to our world. With amazing images, he demonstrates how we all use photos to tell our stories. Sometimes touching, sometimes confronting and some extremely funny.

The Wonders of Nature: What are Your Favorites?

The best things in life are free: sunshine, songs of birds, the blue heavens, sunrise, the sea air, the field full of flowers, the wonders of nature, the magenta sunset, love, joy, peace of mind, the wonders of nature, the warm rain, the dew of the roses, the love of God, are all here for our enjoyment.
Alfred Montapert

Part of the Niagara Falls (copyright of www.niagarafallslive.com)

Don't you want to vote what Beauties of Nature will become the official '7 Wonders of Nature', or simply take the time to enjoy the amazing Wonder of Nature Nominees? Visit the website The New 7 Wonders, and cast your vote for your personal favorite!

Boyoma Falls - Congo

The New 7 Wonders of the World campaign was a resounding success, which took democracy to a global level. The New 7 Wonders of the World, as declared on July 7, 2007 - 07.07.07 - represented the first time that people worldwide joined together and chose symbols of a common world!
Now, in the second campaign, you can give your vote to define The New 7 Wonders of Nature! To quote Bernard Weber, during the announcement of the New 7 Wonders of Nature campaign:
"If we want to save anything, we first need to truly appreciate it."

Jaegala Fall (Laheema National Park) - Estonia (Europe)

Of course, the commercial interests at stake are huge (some countries have already started campaigning to be voted on the top of the list). In some cases, the photography used is a bit disappointing in depicting the nominees at hand. However, it is wonderful to take the time to take a tour around the world's most amazing nature.

Grand Canyon, United States

Personally, I had a hard time choosing between all of my favorites. They include the U.S. canyons, many waterfalls (honestly, almost any waterfall is priceless to me), the volcanic cliffs of Santorini (Greece), and a number of beauties in Indonesia and Australia.
I would really love to hear your favorites, nature you visited or would like to visit because of its shere beauty! Please, feel free to share them in the comments below! 

As a reminder of a few of those great sites, the current Top 20 consists of:

Beauty in Photography

It's important to be heroic, ambitious, productive, efficient, creative, and progressive, but these qualities don't necessarily nurture soul. The soul has different concerns, of equal value: downtime for reflection, conversation, and reverie; beauty that is captivating and pleasuring; relatedness to the environs and to people; and any animal’s rhythm of rest and activity. - Thomas Moore (via Way Cool Quotes)

A few weeks ago, I published some Stunning Photography by Rarindra Prakarsa. If you haven't seen them yet, please click here to take a look. They really are amazing! Taking the time to fully appreciate the beauties that photography can bring is to me indeed a way of 'nurturing the soul'. Therefore, I would like to regularly feature photography on this blog, photography that in one way or the other really touches the soul. If you have any tips for me, just let me know okay!

This week, I came across Gale Rainwater's photography, and (with his permission), I'm glad to share with you a few of his amazing pictures. Do visit his blog for more, since this is only a small (and personal) selection!

Sunrise glow at Mesa Arch, Island in the Sky, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Autumn on Frog Bayou

Antelope Canyon, Arizona Art

Ocean Life: The Wonders of Nature

Here's a weekend challenge for you: Can you spot the octopus in this picture? I guarantee you it's there!
Take a look at this sort, 5 minute TED Talk (click here), for this and other amazing footage of newly discovered sea creatures. E.g. this octopus, but also a shape-shifting cuttlefish, and a gallery of fish that light up the blackest depths of the ocean.
David Gallo's talk is funny ('The female squid only sees the nicer, kinder site of him. I'm told that's not just a squid phenomenon'), beautiful and amazing, and will surely give you another impression of the wonders of nature:

Today we have only explored 3% of what's out there in the ocean. Already we have found the world's highest mountains, the world's deepest vallies, underwater lakes, underwater water falls. But in a place that we've thought that there was no life at all we find more life, we think, and diversity and density than the tropical rainforest. Which tells us that we do not know much about this planet at all. There is still 97% that we no nothing about..97% that can be empty, or full of surprises.

In his talk, David Gallo focuses on the work of two scientists: Edith Widder at the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, and Roger Hanlon at the Marine Biological Lab.

Give A Hand to Wildlife: Amazing Handart

Do check out the video below for more amazing 'Handimals' by Guido Daniele, I'll promise you (and your kids!) will love them!

via Osocio and AdsoftheWorld

Fair Trade Photography - Fairmail's Gift Cards

Looking for original gift cards? No famous photographers this time (not famous yet anyway!), but beautiful photos in a Fair Trade concept: Fairmail. The Dutch Janneke Smeulders started with this simple, inspiring idea: conquering the Peruvian and Western cardmarket with beautiful and fair photocards made in Peru.

The photos are creatively made by Peruvian underpriviledged teenagers: former street children living in a boy´s home and teenagers living in extreme poverty as garbage recyclers at the city dump of Trujillo. These teenagers also pack the cards and assist in the local promotion of Fairmail.

Fairmail guarantees a fair salary, medical insurance and good working conditions for its teenage employees. Working for Fairmail they learn new skills, get job experience and learn to see beauty in their poor surroundings. Furthermore, 50 % of Fairmail profits goes to an education fund: guided in making their personal development plans, the teenagers can use this fund to finance the education they need.

Do check out the site www.fairmail.info for other great photography, and the webshop where you can purchase gift cards for any occasion!

Credits: Part of the text is derived from the project's description for the Business in Development Network, where Janneke won 12,000 euros to start her business. All photo's are made by the Fairmail photographers themselves; the two portraits by Rosita Plasencia Gonzalez, this last photo by Luis Gomez Rodrigez.
Via Ode Magazine's Exchange

Weekend Special: Stunning Photography by Rarindra Prakarsa

A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.
Ansel Adams

Sunday Morning - Rarindra Prakarsa

Photopgraphy has always been one of my biggest passions. Taking photographs myself, trying to capture people's deepest emotions or the beauty of nature. To me, taking the time to try and capture those moments is also a way of taking the time to fully appreciate that beauty.

Enjoying the work of the great photographers like Matthieu Ricard or Frans Lanting can inspire me just as much. Recently, I came across the stunning work of Rarindra Prakarsa. Photography like I personally haven't seen before, using a sense of beauty and serenity that is really amazing. I had a very hard time making a selection of Rarindra's photography to share with you; so please, please take the time to visit Rarindra's gallery here. I promise you it will be worth your time!!

Mr Prawiro, a fortune teller - Rarindra Prakarsa

Morning Hope - Rarindra Prakarsa

Habits of Happiness - Mattthieu Ricard

Simplifying one’s life to extract its quintessence is the most rewarding of all the pursuits I have undertaken. It doesn’t mean giving up what is truly beneficial, but finding out what really matters and what brings lasting fulfillment, joy, serenity, and, above all, the irreplaceable boon of altruistic love. It means transforming oneself to better transform the world.
Matthieu Ricard

Matthieu Ricard left science behind to move to the Himalayas and become a Buddhist monk to pursue happiness, both at a basic human level and as a subject of inquiry. Achieving happiness, he has come to believe, requires the same kind of effort and mind training that any other serious pursuit involves. Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill is his latest book on happiness, where he addresses that pursuit - by strengthening of the inner conditions that lead to genuine happiness.
Next to this, Matthieu Ricard is also one of my favorite photographers, publishing books like The Buddhist Himalayas, Tibet: An Inner Journey, and Monk Dancers of Tibet. Here you'll find a slide show with some of his stunning photos, including both the incredible Tibet scenery, as well as the monks that live there.

In this beautiful TED talk, he combines both his photography with his view on achieving happiness. One of the additonal beauties of this speech is the fact that you can actually sense his serenity. The serenity which is, according to Matthieu Ricard, one of the key elements to achieving that state of happiness.
Matthieu Ricard, French translator and right-hand man for the Dalai Lama, has been the subject of intensive clinical tests at the University of Wisconsin, as a result of which he is frequently described as the happiest man in the world. (Robert Chalmers, The Independent).
(Via TEDBlog)

Women Who Light The Dark

Another profound quote from the Dalai Lama's Vision of a Compassionate Future:
To promote greater compassion, we must pay special attention to the role of women. Given that mothers carry the fetus for months within their own bodies, from a biological point of view women in general may possess greater sensitivity of heart and capacity for empathy. My first teacher of love and compassion was my own mother, who provided me with maximum love. I believe that the time has come for women to take more active roles in all domains of human society, in an age in which education and the capacities of the mind, not physical strength, define leadership. This could help create a more equitable and compassionate society. - Dalai Lama

For the past twelve years, Paola Gianturco has worked as a photojournalist, documenting women’s lives in forty countries. All of Gianturco's books, including Celebrating Women and In Her Hands: Craftswomen Changing the World are philanthropic projects, for which she donates her royalties to carefully-selected nonprofit organizations that relate to each book's content.
For Women Who Light the Dark, Gianturco is giving 100% of her author royalties to the Global Fund for Women, which advocates for and defends women's human rights by making grants to support women's groups around the world. You can buy her book here, or check out the The Women Who Light the Dark website. It covers a special item Shine YOUR Light, where you can find out how YOU can Make a Difference.

A Journey Through Time

Seven years ago I stood at the tide line of an estuary and began a personal journey trough time.
It is humbling to imagine the immensity of time covered by the history of life on Earth, but that is what I plunged into, with curiosity and wonder.
Frans Lanting

To start of the weekend, Frans Lanting's incredibly beautiful Journey Through Time. He has created an amazing way to experience his pictures, and even gave a TED talk about it.
I really want to urge you to sit back, and enjoy this one.. I promise it will be worth your time!!Click here, or on the photo above to watch the Journey!

Natuurlijk recyclen

Sinds begin juni een mooi nieuw Social marketing and fundraising blog BL'ONG": a creative sharing area for fundraising. Daarop o.a. deze campagne van WWF Roemenië 'Natura nu e reciclabila'. Agency Ogilvy & Mather, Romania.

Maar ook deze zeer creatieve campagne van the Salvation Army in Argentië. Deze posters hangen in pashokjes van de grotere warenhuizen. De klerenhaakjes zijn vervangen door de 'uitgestoken wijsvinger'. Buiten de hokjes staat een bak om je oude kleding eventueel te doneren.

Dan liever een officieel verbod..

Designers against Aids (DAA) is een project van non-profit organisatie Beauty without Irony dat is opgericht om aids awareness te verhogen.
Het billboard dat door Erwin Olaf (zie ook zijn website!) is gemaakt voor Designers against Aids hangt echter niet buiten, maar binnen het Arnhemse café Dudok.
De plaatsing van het billboard ín het café is volgens HP/De Tijd (8 juni 2007):
Een autonoom besluit van de Arnhem Mode Biënnale, bezweert een gemeentewoordvoerder. Onzin, schampert DAA-voorzitter Ninette Murk, de gemeente wilde het niet op straat hebben en heeft de Biënnale-organisatie onder druk gezet. "Een dringend advies is soms even effectief als een officieel verbod."
En tja, da's dan wel weer heel erg zonde. Terwijl kortgeleden een commerciële afbeelding van een dame in een gouden bikini tot enorme ophef heeft geleid. Dit de lingerieketen in kwestie zeker geen windeieren heeft gelegd. En dan verdwijnt dit prachtige, ideële billboard zonder veel publiciteit binnenskamers. Heeft de politiek er toch wat van geleerd. Jammer.. Erg jammer.

Stunning views of Asia

Tja, ik schreef het al eerder. Sec fotografie hoort misschien logischerwijs niet helemaal thuis op een marcom blog, maar is soms te mooi om niet te noemen. Al was het alleen maar omdat het me weer even een dosis inspiratie geeft.
Inspiratie door de rust die deze foto's uitstralen, de schoonheid, maar ook de technische perfectie van de foto's. Stunning views of Asia toont 19 van zulke foto's. Met zwaar onrecht aan de andere 18 hiernaast één daarvan.

Het gebruik van rampen voor het gewenste effect

Een paar maanden geleden een aardige discussie op Adfoblog over onderstaande advertentie 'For nature every day is 9/11'. Strekking: gaat het gebruik van rampen om het juiste effect te sorteren nu wel of niet te ver. Ik moet zeggen, ik blijf het ongepast vinden om dergelijke rampen in te zetten om een communicatieve doelstelling te bereiken. Boeiend om te zien dat een soortgelijke advertentie nu ook wordt gebruikt door Unicef: '1.5 Million Children die every year from drinking polluted water'. (via) En eerlijk is eerlijk: effect heeft het wel. Het ongelooflijke hoge aantal kinderen dat hierdoor jaarlijk sterft wordt zeer veelzeggend geillustreerd..

De helende werking van muziek

Op Houtlust, een interessante site over non-profit advertising en social campaigns, het artikel Music also cures over deze prachtige campagne van het Spaanse Sant Joan de Déu Hospital. De campagne, voor de muziek-therapie sessies van het ziekenhuis, is gesponsored door Fundación Ilusiones. Het inspirerende Fundación Ilusiones is een organisatie die dromen van zieke kinderen waar maakt. Vergelijkbaar met de Nederlandse stichtingen Doe een Wens en de Opkikker.

De allermooiste foto's..

Tja, niet echt behorend tot marketing of communicatie, maar eigenlijk gewoon heel erg mooi:

De Zilveren Camera's zijn weer uitgereikt, aan een aantal prachtige, en soms opzienbarende foto's. Laurens Aaij was de overall winnaar.

Maar, er is meer, zoals de slideshow van Frans Lanting: Life through Time. Niet alleen prachtige foto's, maar ook nog eens mooi weergegeven.