Trending is better these days than it was, as some curation accounts make sure it gets mixed up a bit. most of the people who are there commonly deserve to be there from a community perspective, but not all. I think looking at the comment counts is not a bad way to evaluate and if you see stuff there with not much often - it is probably a circlejerk.
Videography sounds awesome. I have always wanted to capture a "travel video" of my crappy city here to see if I could make it look attractive - but never got around to it.