Judge for yourself. These guys take incredible risks with their own lives to document tornados in the Midwest. I came across this one not too long ago, and the footage just blows my mind. I got hooked on watching that Discovery channel show as well, so while I would never do this myself, I find it incredibly compelling.
If you read my last entry on video blogs, you’ve probably given some thought to doing your own video blogs, but may then have gotten confused on where exactly to put those videos. You could just upload the un-encoded “raw” videos to your website and use some type of Flash or CMS plugin to display it. Or… take your pick of any of the following free video hosting websites:
Of the six, Vimeo is my favorite. Flickr’s primary focus is on photos, Zoomr is a Flickr knock-off, YouTube is too commercialized, and I’m not too into the ads and commercialism of Revver and Photobucket. Vimeo is also the easiest to use, with a pretty, clean, minimalistic and easy-to-navigate layout.
Worth noting: while Vimeo accounts are free, there are upload & album/group limitations. To get a 500GB/week upload limit and unlimited albums and groups, as well as quicker video processing, you’ll definitely want to upgrade to a “plus” account ($9.95/mo or $59.95/yr)!
Video blogging is simply recording a video of yourself talking, instead of just typing out a blog entry. If you’ve purchased a laptop in the last three or four years, then chances are it has an integrated webcam. And even if it doesn’t, or if you’re using a desktop computer, there’s no reason why you can’t pick up an external, USB-powered webcam. I personally love Logitech webcams, as they seem to have the best picture quality, and are also quite durable.
You can also use your cell phone’s video recording capabilities or a general video recorder, so long as you can transfer the created video to your computer. From there it’s just a matter of uploading your video to the internet, and then you’re ready to publish it on your blog!
