Camp Photography

This is a post I've been meaning to write for a while. This summer I was a photographer at Camp Lebanon. I have also talked to other people that have been the photographer at a summer camp, and we all seem to come to the same conclusion.

Camp photography is something very unique. Even if you are a photography, camp photography is something completely different then what you are used to.

It's different in the sense that you can't time to take pictures. You can pose pictures, everything is happening so fast, you don't have time to really think, you just have to shoot. You may also be used to shooting in manual, taking a single shot at a time, and saving it to a raw file. This will not work for camp. You have so many things you need to take pictures of, you can't really shoot in manual (certain times are a must though) or take just one frame at a time. You also have so many pictures to go through, and you need to have those pictures usable by people that may not know how to process raw, so you need to shoot in jpeg.

Another thing is picture ownership. You slave all summer trying to get the best shot you can, and then you really don't have much ownership in that picture. That picture is used for promotional stuff, it's given (or at least we did) to people who bought the weekly slideshow, and to any of the staff that may ask for pictures. While I am completely for open source, Creative Commons type stuff, it does get a little annoying to have that one picture you slaved for (example a sweet lightning picture I spent 4 hours to get, in the rain, it killed my camera, hardest shot I have ever got) and then you use it in a slideshow. Then it gets all over Facebook, without any credit to you. With a shoot I slaved to get, it's really annoying that I don't get any credit.

Another annoying thing, I posted small sample images to the web, and put a watermark on it. People would take that picture and put it on Facebook, or print it off. The whole point of the watermark was so people wouldn't do that.

I could go more into copyright stuff, but I'll save that for another post maybe.

Even though I've seen my pictures posted all over the place, I always can tell which ones are mine. That's because I have a certain style. If you've seen my pictures from the summer, you know what I'm talking about. That makes it a little better because my pictures are very unique, so when they are in an album with a bunch of other pictures they may have taken, mine stand out.

But overall. Camp photography is one of the hardest jobs.

Discoraged

I got really discouraged this past week. I tried to get some of my code on an online market place to make a couple bucks, but all my code got rejected. Then I wrote an article for a blog about jQuery and making your pages pop with animation, but that got rejected. Everything was good, but not to the quality they wanted.

This frustrated me because that was pretty much the best I could do.

Then I remembered something. I'm only 19 years old. I haven't really had any schooling on this stuff, I've learned it all by myself. I'll grow. I've already seen some since getting this job.

So what if I don't stand up to the quality of people who have been doing this for 15 years? I've really only been doing this for a couple.

- Matthew Loberg

Look at this Piece of Equipment!

This came out this past week. I went to Guitar Center and tried it. And I walked away saying "Wow!". This DJ controller is awesome. Before I tried this out, I was going to buy Traktor Scratch Pro (which requires turntables and a DJ mixer for it to work), but after I tried this out, I was sold to it.

First of all, Traktor software is awesome. I have the trial version of it and even without any controllers, it's rock-solid. And this has a special version of Traktor designed just for it. The controller is designed is such a way that you don't have to touch the computer. You can browse all your songs on it. You can add effects, set cue points, loops, everything you could do on the computer, without touching it.

It's also got built in jog wheels so you don't need anything else to scratch, but in a near update they will be adding timecode support so you can scratch with a real turntable. And talking about turntables, not only can you mix mp3's from it, it has two analog inputs for CDJ's or turntables. These two features sold me.

All the big DJ's today are doing their mixing digitally using Traktor, Serato, or another program, but only true DJ's are still using vinyl. I wanted to stay true to DJing and also learn on vinyl, while being able to use all my mp3 (because vinyl is fracken expensive).

But all these features came with a cost. For the controller itself, it was $900. Plus a two year warranty (which knowing me would probably be a good idea), it was over $1000.

That is a lot of money, but how much would it cost to match a system like that?

Traktor Scratch Cost

• $300 for Software
• $300 for a decent mixer
• $300 a piece for decent turntables (x2)
• $200 for a controller for effects (x2 if I wanted to utilize it to it's full potential)

That adds up to be $1600. That's a lot of money, but so is $1000.

When I left (I had accountability there to stop me from buying it), Guitar Center (nationwide) got 400 units, and had 50 left. They had sold 350 units in the matter of 3 days. At that Guitar Center they got 4 and had one left.

Then I went back on Wednesday because I had a few more questions about it, and somehow I left buying it, actually putting it on lay-away.

Yeah, I spent $1000 on this. I'm pretty excited to get it, but finances are going to be a little tight now.

Risky

Today I realized that I'm too cautious. I don't like to take risks. I take the easy way.

Today I realized that my life is meh because I don't like to do things that are uncomfortable, different, or would require me taking a risk. I do have a good life. I have a job I absolutely love, and it pays the bills and then some, but I think I could be living a much more exciting life if I said screw it and just did things. But even as I wrote that, something inside of my was yelling no.

This summer was really my first time saying, I don't give a hell, I'm doing it. I became more adventurous, but I still was cautious when I was doing that. I made a big step when I said I'm moving out, I'm living on my own. If I wouldn't have taken that risk, I would be stuck doing nothing, or at least not doing what I am right now. That decision to move out was hard. It was tough living on my own when I didn't have a job. Then I took another chance and put my application in to a web design firm, and now I am working on web sites and loving it.

Looking at those few risks I took and the good that came from them makes me wonder what would happen if I would take more risks.

Looking back, have I made any decisions that have made a negative impact on my life? Not really. I mean, I've made decisions that hurt, or went wrong, but if I wouldn't have made those, my life would be completely different, and I don't think in a good way.

There are things in my life that aren't going the way I wanted them to. I tried to control them by being passive, but it didn't work. What if I would have been active? At the very least it would have been no different at all. So really I lost because I was being passive.

Most of my decisions are also based on other people and what they think of me. Even if I don't know them or haven't seen them before. I've held back a lot just because I want people to think highly of me, or at the very least, not think I'm an idiot. I also don't say a lot of what I think I should say, just because of the chance it might offend someone.

What am I trying to get at with all this? (sorry for my language) Don't give a damn. Screw being comfortable, if other people don't like me, oh well. Don't be so cautious to the point it's hurting you instead of helping.

This is a scary thought to me. I know it's what I want to do, but my logical self says no. But I am rebelling against my cautious side and taking risks.

What does this mean? Well, it first means not giving a damn about what other people think about me. This is going to be the hardest for me as I like to please other people. The second means saying what I want. I often don't say anything because I don't want to sound dumb or because it may have the chance of offending someone. Third it means taking risks. It means doing things I maybe normally wouldn't do and doing things that may be a little uncomfortable. Overall it means being active in getting what I want. Sure things aren't always going to go my way, but at least if they don't I can say I tried.

Watch out for a new me. One that takes risks.

Web Design, Photography, and Music

All that, plus film making sums up my life.

I work doing web design, then I get home and most nights I do some coding for personal projects. For example, I updated some of the information on my personal site, mloberg.com, plus rewrote some of the scripts and made the site load faster the other day. Now I am working on a Flavors.me clone through Tea-Fueled Design, plus making a site for Tea-Fueled Design.

The next thing that makes up my life right now is photography. In the past week, I've been out 3 nights taking pictures. I am trying to buy another lens for my camera (a Canon 30D), because all I have is a 50, and that doesn't work well in a lot of situations.

I have been playing with HDR. Photographers seem to hate HDR, and I can see why, but I love the results. I have one HDR image right now and hope to have more when I get my new lens.

The last thing that makes up my life right now is music. Not so much in playing it (though I do it every Wednesday), but listening to it. I am currently on a Young Adult Contemporary/Pop kick, which consists of a lot of Paramore, plus Sherwood and The Fray.

One other thing that's been big in my life is film. I haven't got a chance to do that because 1) I no longer have a good camera that will take video 2) I have no time with all these other things 3) I don't have a good plot to work with.

That's my life right now. What items/hobbies/activities are big in your life right now?

-Matt Loberg

Paramore

I've been listening to Paramore a lot lately. My favorite songs right now are Misery Business, Ignorance, Brick by Boring Brick, and Decode.

I've also enjoyed Ground Beneath My Feet by Sherwood.

You should check out those songs if you haven't heard them.

Internet Facts

I found this video real interesting. http://blog.kissmetrics.com/internet-statistics/

Here are some of the interesting things I got from it.

• I own 0.0000034% of the web sites on the Internet.
• I also own 0.0000095% of all blogs on the Internet.
• On average, I send 0.0000073% of all tweets on Twitter a day.
• Vimeo was started before YouTube.

Coffee Table Computer

This was an idea I came up with last winter, and forgot about because of a lack of money. Then I found this, and the idea came back.

The idea is to put a computer into a coffee table. The screen would be underneath a piece of glass, so when it's off, it looks like an ordinary coffee table, but you could turn it on and play a movie, play a game, or have a big digital picture frame.

I'm starting to sketch out the details of it. If I had no budget for this thing, it could be the sweetest thing next to the Microsoft surface, but since I am not rich by any means, this project is going to be tough to do, even if I tone everything down.

Now my idea to help fund this project is to sell it, make a little profit, and build more. Does this sound like something people would buy?

-Matt Loberg

Stripped Clean

This is the book that I am currently working on. This book is a devotional book, but takes a different approach then normal. With each page you tear it out and do something with it. Now I have a hard time with that because I'm the type of person that likes to save things. But I am going to follow every word that it says.

Why did I pick this book? Well it was one that was in the store at the mission trip I was on. It was also on sale. It also looked very interesting. I do have a small struggle with materialism, and I hope that this will help me break that.

So I will be going through this and I will let you know if I would recommend this book.

Community

Why do we think we are alone? Why do we think that we have to life on our own? Why do we think we are the only ones that have problems?


Guys especially seem to really deal with this. We feel like we have to be tough. We feel that we have to give off the appearance that we have everything together. Especially those in authority roles, like pastors.


I think this thinking gets us in trouble. God designed for us to be in community with each other, to help carry each others burdens. But people don't do that. People hold it inside and others don't help carry burdens and are judgmental about it.

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

-Galatians 6:2

So my charge to people is to come along side each other share burdens, and help carry them. I'm also working on this.

Mike Yaconelli

We watched this a couple days ago, and I thought it was amazing.

How He Loves

We sang this last night and it's been stuck in my head since then. It's a great song and a great message, He loves us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCunuL58odQ (I couldn't embed it)

School

I have 5 days of high school left. I'm am super excited about this. But I am also very stressed at the same time. I've got a business plan that I need to write for my Intro to Biz class and those can be anywhere from 15-20 pages. That's due Monday. I've got an English project where I compare a book to the movie, then I have to write 7 essays on it. Plus a project that's a bit past due (it's almost done). Then I have a final in American Gov (the easiest class ever).

I'm so glad I took some really easy classes this semester. I'm also looking forward to next fall. I will be one of the first people to go through the video production program at Central Lakes College Staples Campus. I got registered today and got to meet the instructors and I'm looking forward to it.

I'm also excited for staff training and the summer.

Really I'm just excited for everything.

The Great Controversy Of America - The Growth of the Presidential Powers

Image via Wikipedia

This was a paper I wrote for American Government. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out for the amount of time I put into it (less then 10 minutes).

Throughout our years as a nation, we have had a couple constants. The Constitution, a Congress, and a President. The Constitution never changes, but how people view it does. So with that comes changes in the congress, the judicial branch, and the Presidency. One of the biggest inconstant constant is the Presidency.
The Presidency has no doubt changed over the years of America being a country. At times, it was a very powerful position, and at others, a position of power, but with a lot of checks and balances. The shift of the Presidential powers from strong to weak beg the question of "What were the framer's intent for the power of the President?" Some believe it was their intent to create a powerful head so it can act quickly in times of need. Others believe that it was the intent to create a semi-powerful leader where it was checked and balanced, but could still perform swiftly in times of need. And others believe it the intent to create a leader as only another check in the system of checks and balances.

Why is there such a great controversy over the Presidential power? If the President becomes too powerful, it could become a dictator. If the President is too weak, it can't act quickly in times of need. But what is the right balance of power and balance? That's what people are trying to figure out.
If you have a group of people, there will no doubt be differing views. And that's why the Presidential power is so controversial. Some people think it should be strong, some people think it should be weak, and some people think it should be strong in times of need. Finding a point where everyone is happy will never happen. That's why it's a controversy from the beginning of our nation, and that's why it will be so until the end.

False Advertisement and the Truth About Apple Care

I bought an iPhone 3G a while back. I have a history of being rough on phones, so I bought an "indestructible" case and Apple Care for it. It cost me more then I paid for the phone, but I planned on having this phone for two years, so I thought it was worth it.

A couple weeks later I decided I wanted to upgrade to the 3Gs, so I sold my sister my old phone and got a 3Gs. I didn't buy Apple Care for it because I didn't have the money at the time. My plan was to buy it later.

My sister's iPhone had an issue where it would not go into silent mode, so we sent it to Apple and got it fixed. Then no less then 24 hours of having the phone she drops it and the screen cracks (picture). So she called Apple and external or water damage is not covered by Apple Care.

I would be fine with that, (pause) if that's what I was told. But that's not what I was told by the salesperson at AT&T when I bought the phone.

I asked what Apple Care covered. She said if it gets broken. "Like the screen gets cracked, you can send it back to Apple and they will repair it or send you a new one." I then specifically asked if it covers water damage (because I have a history of losing electronics to the lake). She said yes. The only thing she said it didn't cover was lost or stolen.

Then my sister calls Apple and they say they only repair internal problems. Not external ones, and not water damage. So I'm pretty ticked right now. If I would have known that, I wouldn't have bought Apple Care, and I'm sure not going to buy it for my phone now.

Tomorrow I'm going to the AT&T store and talk to her about it. They better replace it, because they lied to me about Apple Care.

Released a Web Site Template

I'm really excited about this. When I was working on the design for my current web site (view it in action), I didn't think it was going to be that good. Then I learned a pretty sweet JavaScript library (jQuery), and it was turning out pretty good. Then I published it and I got some really good comments. Then I decided I was going to release it as an Open Source template. It was really easy licensing it under a Creative Commons license, but writing the documentation was going to be a pain.

I was originally going to hand code all the documentation, but that was taking forever. I installed MediaWiki (the same thing that powers Wikipedia), and I am so happy with my choice. It's so easy to make pages and edit them. I can spend more time writing documentation and less time coding.

Today all my work has payed off with the release of Narcissist.

What's next? Well I'm learning Java and PHP. I have already implemented some PHP in Backyard Studio's web site and hope to make it so I can make it a CMS.

I will also be making a template out of Backyard Studio's design and releasing a SilverStripe theme.

Web Site Template

I've gotten a lot of really good feedback on my web site over at http://mloberg.com. I really like the design, but the idea was not my own. It is based off of flavors.me. I really liked the look, so I set up an account, but didn't find it all that useful as a replacement for my personal site. So I took the design idea and coded it by hand. To make all those cool animations I used jQuery, which is a JavaScript library. It allowed me to code all those sweet animations with really easy to understand code. Because of the simplicity, I was able to make the first version of the site in a couple hours. I also got all the major bugs out for IE7 and 8. I still have to do a little work with 6, but it shouldn't be that much.

I've gotten so much good feedback on it, I am going to make it a template and put it out there as Open Source, so it's free. So watch for that, if you want a pretty sweet looking web site. You will need to know the basics of xHTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but I will be adding a ton of comments to help you out.

I am also adding a couple of services to my site. One of those is Web design and hosting, another is photography, and another is VHS to DVD conversion. So if your interested in any of these, contact me or wait until I add that to my site.

School

This semester I am back at Pequot High school. My GPA at the college fell below a 2.0, so they could make me come back to regular high school. At first I was pretty ticked about this. Now I am fine and almost happy about it.

Except for one or two things. One is the fact that I have to take a writing class. As a senior you have to take effective writing or College Comp. I took College Writing last semester. Apparently there is a difference. But it fits with my nice and easy schedule.

The second thing I am not to happy about is the fact that I have to get up at 7 in the morning. Before I could get up at anytime I wanted, now I have to get up. I am so tired some days. Going from 10 hours of sleep to 8 may not seem like much, but I can tell.

My schedule is pretty easy. I have Intro to Metals first block. I am taking this class with freshmen and like three sophomores. The first day I walk in and they ask me if I am the sub... My next class is creative foods, which has been really fun and have a great group. Then it's off to Intro to Business. So far it's been intro to econ, which I already took college econ, so it's been really easy.
My next class is effective writing, which is still pretty easy. Then Web Design. Last semester I took College HTML and JavaScript, so I already knew more then what we were going to be learning, so I am now doing an Independent study on iPhone Application Development. I'm looking forward to that, but it may turn out to be my hardest class yet. My last class of the day is American Government, which is my hardest and most boring class of all.

I am really looking forward to May 28th, Graduation Day! But before that, I need to figure out what I'm doing in the fall.

Right now, I am looking at moving to Roseville and attending Minneapolis Community and Technical College for Cinema Production.

And that is what has been up with me.

-Matthew Loberg

P.S. I will be resurrecting my Tumblr page. Just a place for me to rant and ramble. Feel free to read it. http://mloberg.tumblr.com/

How we gather information

One of my recent posts was about the attention and information ages. I recently had a talk with my friend about Twitter. I am a fan of Twitter, and he is not. I don't like to push things on people, but I do like to know why they wouldn't join. His response is because it is 140 characters of "look at me! Look at me!". Now I agree that most of Twitter is like that, but there are a few people out there that pass on information. He agreed with me on that, but he says it's the way that information is passed on. It's quick and short, but can link to something more in depth. That's what I like about it.

When I read something, first of all it has to be on a topic I find interesting. It can't be about fashion. Second, it has to have an interesting title. Now it could be something very descriptive, short to the point, or cool sounding.
If the article fits those two requirements, I will then scan it. I will read parts of it or the bold points. If I don't find that interesting, or feel like I've got what I wanted out of the article, I'll move on to another article. If I find it interesting or useful, as long as it's not too long, I'll read it. My friend is almost the opposite.

That got me thinking about how we gather information. Some people go through a lot of articles, but don't read it all and others read just a couple articles, but take time to read them.

Which one do you fit in with best?

I fit in best with the first group, but the way I write is geared towards the latter group. If I was a subscriber to my blog, I don't think I would read very many of these articles. I don't like articles that are heavily oppiniated, and mine is. So can our writing style and reading style be complete opposites? They are with me.

-Matt Loberg

Launching a Blog This Morning

I am getting ready to launch a blog that I am pretty excited about. It's called Everyday Hacker, http://everydayhacker.com. I've been preparing for a while, got WordPress installed, a ton of plugins, a Twitter account (@everydayhacker), and a pretty sweet theme. The hard part is going to be going from one theme to another as quickly as possible. The theme I'm using is from WooThemes (there amazing), and it has a ton of options, so I need to go through all of them and change them so they are just how I want them. I then need to go and activate and configure plugins, so it's going to be pretty hectic.

But, I'm excited about it. Check it out and tell me what you think (when it's up).