Things to Consider When looking for a Videographer.
March 31, 2011
Minnesota Timelapse
March 28, 2011
I love where I grew up, southeast Minnesota. Minnesota is absolutely beautiful in the summer. Lots of sunshine, rain when we need it, and beautiful clouds. I shot this time-lapse this past summer while visiting Minnesota to shoot a wedding. This is the view from my parents garden on the back side of their house.
Minnesota Timelapse 2010 from Luke Goodman on Vimeo.
Minnesota Timelapse 2010 from Luke Goodman on Vimeo.
Beer: Brewing and the Keggerator
March 21, 2011
I have not shot my first wedding for the year, but I absolutely can't wait for this season to start! My first wedding is April 8th down in San Diego (Hi Clare and Doug!) Then the season is going to be picking up momentum quickly. I have a few great shoots planned in the next month or two (if this rain will ever stop), and I'll be sharing them as they come back from the lab. In the meantime, a bit about one of my hobbies.
Keggerator: Keg+Refrigerator. In other words, a convenient way to serve beer in your home. My setup works just like a tap at any bar you might go to (although mine is MUCH cleaner). About three years ago I helped my longtime childhood friend George and his father brew a batch of beer in their Minnesota kitchen. At that point I had already loved beer, but I found that this was only the beginning. Shortly after this event, I purchased my own kit similar to this at morebeer.com. Morebeer has a location in Los Altos, and the staff is very friendly and helpful. I found that it was surprisingly easy to get started brewing!
A brewing overview:
Brewing consists of malting grains (think of making tea with grains), adding malt syrup, adding hops for flavoring and bittering, cooling the grain tea (now called wort) and then pitching (dumping) yeast in a fermenter. The yeast then ferments, eating the sugars and creating C02 and alcohol. The beer is then bottled or Kegged, aged and ready to be served. This process is no more difficult than baking a batch of cookies or making bread. You can make any style of beer, and it's usually phenomenal! I have brewed 28 batches of beer in three years, and I have yet to have a beer that hasn't turned out.
Here's a short clip of my Keggerator with my homebrew being poured off the tap. Thanks to Pamela for being my hand model!
Currently I have the following beers either brewing or in keg in my home:
Simcoe Pale ale Dry hopped
Honey Wheat ale
Simcoe India Pale Ale
Seduction Stout
Russian Imperial Stout
Rye India Pale Ale
English Traditional Bitter
Irish Dry stout
...and a keg of Drakes Denoggonizer
I encourage anyone who loves beer to try brewing, as it's been a really great hobby in the last few years. Here is a great book on brewing from amazon, it has all the information you could possibly need.
Keggerator: Keg+Refrigerator. In other words, a convenient way to serve beer in your home. My setup works just like a tap at any bar you might go to (although mine is MUCH cleaner). About three years ago I helped my longtime childhood friend George and his father brew a batch of beer in their Minnesota kitchen. At that point I had already loved beer, but I found that this was only the beginning. Shortly after this event, I purchased my own kit similar to this at morebeer.com. Morebeer has a location in Los Altos, and the staff is very friendly and helpful. I found that it was surprisingly easy to get started brewing!
A brewing overview:
Brewing consists of malting grains (think of making tea with grains), adding malt syrup, adding hops for flavoring and bittering, cooling the grain tea (now called wort) and then pitching (dumping) yeast in a fermenter. The yeast then ferments, eating the sugars and creating C02 and alcohol. The beer is then bottled or Kegged, aged and ready to be served. This process is no more difficult than baking a batch of cookies or making bread. You can make any style of beer, and it's usually phenomenal! I have brewed 28 batches of beer in three years, and I have yet to have a beer that hasn't turned out.
Here's a short clip of my Keggerator with my homebrew being poured off the tap. Thanks to Pamela for being my hand model!
Currently I have the following beers either brewing or in keg in my home:
Simcoe Pale ale Dry hopped
Honey Wheat ale
Simcoe India Pale Ale
Seduction Stout
Russian Imperial Stout
Rye India Pale Ale
English Traditional Bitter
Irish Dry stout
...and a keg of Drakes Denoggonizer
I encourage anyone who loves beer to try brewing, as it's been a really great hobby in the last few years. Here is a great book on brewing from amazon, it has all the information you could possibly need.
Fraud Protection and Stolen Credit Card Number.
March 14, 2011
Three weeks ago we took a trip to Las Vegas for WPPI, the worlds largest photography convention. Pamela and I had a great time seeing friends, meeting new people, learning from other photographers and most importantly being inspired for the coming wedding season. We are booking up, and very excited to work with all of our new clients!
Three days after our trip, some odd charges started showing up on my credit card. I never lost it, and I'm very careful with it online. I am also careful with my passwords for my online accounts. I use a piece of software called 1Password and it's absolutely a life saver. 1Password allows you to store ALL of your passwords, credit cards, and account info in one place, where it is encrypted online and accessible from all of your computers and devices. Have you ever forget one of your passwords? 1Password sets this up perfectly, not to mention you can have it generate very secure passwords along the lines of: "th37fqrtlmp89043ngk."
More to the point of this post, I believe someone in Vegas pulled my number, and started using it overseas. Five unauthorized charges showed up in Europe which prompted Capitol One to give me a call. They seem to have a good fraud protection department. They sent me a list of transactions online, which I verified as authorized or not, then closed out my account and sent me a new card.
Through this process I learned that by federal law you are only liable for $50 maximum, as long as the charges are reported in time. Many card companies will even cover the $50 (as mine did), and the card user ends up liable for nothing at all. This is the way it should be, as credit card companies make a fortune from their users.
My advice? Watch for credit card skimmers (which scan your card as you use an ATM), and keep a close eye on your transactions each week, if not bi-weekly. Use a website like Mint.com, a completely free tracking software that allows you to view all of your accounts at once, such as auto/house/student loans, bank accounts, credit cards and more!
Three days after our trip, some odd charges started showing up on my credit card. I never lost it, and I'm very careful with it online. I am also careful with my passwords for my online accounts. I use a piece of software called 1Password and it's absolutely a life saver. 1Password allows you to store ALL of your passwords, credit cards, and account info in one place, where it is encrypted online and accessible from all of your computers and devices. Have you ever forget one of your passwords? 1Password sets this up perfectly, not to mention you can have it generate very secure passwords along the lines of: "th37fqrtlmp89043ngk."
More to the point of this post, I believe someone in Vegas pulled my number, and started using it overseas. Five unauthorized charges showed up in Europe which prompted Capitol One to give me a call. They seem to have a good fraud protection department. They sent me a list of transactions online, which I verified as authorized or not, then closed out my account and sent me a new card.
Through this process I learned that by federal law you are only liable for $50 maximum, as long as the charges are reported in time. Many card companies will even cover the $50 (as mine did), and the card user ends up liable for nothing at all. This is the way it should be, as credit card companies make a fortune from their users.
My advice? Watch for credit card skimmers (which scan your card as you use an ATM), and keep a close eye on your transactions each week, if not bi-weekly. Use a website like Mint.com, a completely free tracking software that allows you to view all of your accounts at once, such as auto/house/student loans, bank accounts, credit cards and more!
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