Remember one of my summer goals was to shoot more pictures and video with my camera. Well I put it into action…I had this idea the other day for a short video, nothing too fancy and actually quite simple. I just wanted to film my view as I drove out to Mindy’s house to hang out. I actually went to fix the faucet and help move furniture for carpet installation, hah. I drive this path a lot, and I’ve actually biked it 3 times in the last week. It’s only around 4 miles, nothing big! I had good timing luckily and the sun was just setting as I drove across town. It’s about a 10 minute drive depending on traffic in the big town of St. James, it also only takes 16 minutes on bike according to my rides. But to spare you sitting and watching 10 minutes of footage, I’ve sped it up in a mock time lapse fashion which is always fun to do, so check out a quick glimpse into the beautiful sunset drive as I go across town.

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It’s been awhile since I’ve posted something new. I’ve been busy, I’ll tell you all about that in another post. But I wanted to give you something that could help you be productive today. As the title says it’s a quick tutorial on how to setup Google Calendar with iCal. I’ve been using it for awhile now and really love that it works and syncs as it does. It’s definitely something for you to consider if you have a small group or organization to keep everyone up to date on new events and etc…

So first check out the video to see how easy it is done. The video is right around 5 minutes long. If you still have questions or issues I’ll type out the steps, and you have leave comments or email me or something and I’ll help you out.

Related posts:

1. Cat And Robot Video

I know it’s been a few days since 2009 ended, but I still wanted to compile a list of my favorite stuff from 2009. For my life, and from my perspective, it was a great year. Somehow I continue to be blessed by good health, great friends, and awesome opportunities to do what I love.  2009 didn’t always go the way I wanted. My girlfriend for the most part is always about 386 miles away from me. My family situation is always frustrating, I got a few bad grades, etc… But those negative things of the year didn’t keep me down, and they sure didn’t outweigh the positive. I turned 22, a wise old age… got to travel quite a bit with John Tibbs and company, made our own cd, t-shirts, etc…  He’s got a lot going for him. I continued to be able to film and take pictures, exploring more and getting to push my creativity to new ends. You can see that soon in my porfolio that’s being built at the moment. Met new people from all over the country and am glad I can call them friends.  Growth is happening continually for me, and I’m glad I haven’t become stuck in a rut physically, spiritually, mentally, etc… I thirst for all of these things. So what encapsulated me in 2009? Read on to see.

I wanted to sum up the year in music, film, photos, events, trends, etc… I’ll post all of my favorite things of the year 2009, and I expect for you to comment and agree or disagree with me on these topics. Here’s my best of 2009

The Best of 2009

Album : Fun – Aim and Ignite

Easily album of the year for me because it really is all around fun. I’ve been following The Format and their lead man Nate Ruess for a long time. I was saddened at their end, but excited for what could come from new beginnings. The Format was my favorite band, now of course Fun is. Their bright and light pop sound and fantastic melodies sealed the deal for me. In fact I’m going to listen to this album right now. Thanks guys for getting their songs stuck in my head again! Be sure to check out their music video HERE.

Song : Arcade Fire – Wake Up

This song by Arcade Fire is permanently burned in my head, no thanks to the Where The Wild Things Are trailers I listened to this song ALL YEAR. It never ceased to perk up my mood if I was down or increase my good mood if I was already in one. It’s raw and I like it. Watch their video HERE.

Movie : 3 Way Tie (Avatar : Inglourious Basterds : Where The Wild Things Are)

Why did I end in a 3 way tie? Obviously all 3 of these movies are great, at least in my humble opinion. I feel they also cover almost all styles that anyone could like. A Sci-Fi thriller, a Wacky WWII, and a great childrens story. I chose these three as my best movies of 2009 because I’ll be watching them again and again long into 2010. They are addicting, visually awesome, and fun to watch. I recommend you watch them all!

Photo : Foreclosure and Eviction

This pretty well summed up America this year to me. Financial problems everywhere, especially in the housing market. This is a police officer making sure the house is vacant. It’s often they find after evicting people that homeless people or drug dealers get into the houses, hence his gun is drawn. 2010 will hopefully turn this financial crisis around. It’s at least taught people to be more aware of their money. That’s never a bad thing.

Event : Iran Elections

This is the event of the year for me as it was and still is an ongoing issue. The worlds relations with Iran are all on thin ice, Iran’s people’s relationship with their government is on even thinner ice. That green color will always be burned in my mind during the summer of 2009. I don’t know how to help but I hope it all turns out for the good. Click on the picture to see more pictures from the riots. WARNING the few at the end are graphic.

Internet Trend : FML, People of Walmart, MLIA

These types of sites were probably my favorite thing happening on the internet this year. These sites aren’t complex, nothing fancy about them, but they provide hours and hours of entertainment. Also it’s a plus if they have an iPhone app to compliment their site. I love to waste time reading FML’s and looking at People of Walmart. Click HERE and HERE to check out those websites, as a bonus check out Awkward Family Photos HERE

App of the Year : 2Do

This app wins for me because it is the mother of all my life. It keeps my todo’s, schedules, events, alarms, notes, shopping lists,  and more all together! Even better yet it syncs with iCal on my iMac. It’s beautiful but not free, well worth it’s weight in gold though. Whatever that means! It’s got a slick interface, and is password protected to boot. If you want to learn more about the app then here is the iTunes LINK.

That wraps up my 2009, great music, great films, issues relevant to me, etc… Let me know what you think of my choices, and also leave some of your choices. Different album, favorite movie, picture? Thanks for reading!

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1. Spring Break 2009 My Pictures
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What more is there to say, this is the first video taken from my 7D. It looks great coming straight from the camera. It has a sensor just shy the size of a real 35mm film camera, so your shots are going to naturally feel really great. I shot in full HD, 1080p that is, on this clip. So be sure if you want to see that click through to YouTube. Otherwise enjoy the video and I’ll be writing more about the camera after learning and playing more with it. Watch the video after the break

The YouTube info is posted below.

This is a video from my new camera! It has been a dream so far.

I went out in the 25 degree weather and wanted to shoot some of these plants at magic hour. Plus I was dying to use my new 7D! It turned out pretty good.

Imported the video within Aperture into a folder where I put all my film. Dropped it right into Final Cut Pro, edited my timeline. Used Color to treat it.
Exported it for YouTube/Vimeo HD settings.

Lenses:

Canon 50mm 1.8
Sigma 10-20mm 4-5.6

Post:

Final Cut Pro
Color

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1. 7D Initial Thoughts
2. From R to M
3. Cat And Robot Video

Well if you weren’t aware, I’m now a proud owner of a Canon EOS 7D camera. This bad boy shoots both great still pictures and up to full 1080p HD video. I just received it yesterday so I’m still making friends with him, and adjusting to all of the new things I can do with this bad boy. My last camera, the Rebel XT, has a nice new home and we may be re-united every once and awhile. Perhaps even this Sunday.

Before I can write up a full review I obviously have to use the camera quite a bit. That’s what I’m trying to do right now. The frigid temperatures are not helping, but I got out today for about 20 minutes maybe. I walked just right in front of my apartment and started shooting the magic hour tones. The other pictures were of the day I got it and whatever was there to shoot, just FYI. I brought out my handy nifty fifty. That’s the Canon 50mm 1.8 (hopefully getting the 1.4 soon), and a Sigma 10-20mm 4-5.6 lens. That’s a nice variety to test some shots out with. Just playing around is helping me get use to the menu setup, changing settings as I shoot in Manual, setting up the wireless sync, etc… I also experimented with some beautiful looking video on the camera. I have a Rode Videomic that I didn’t bring out today, but shooting at 1080p 24fps was great. The video will be up tonight shortly after this post.

Overall I am already digging on this camera. It’s only drawback, it’s not full frame. That’s quite alright with me at the moment, that’ll be my next upgrade to a super great full frame camera. Anyway, here are my test shots. Let me know what you think about this 7D!

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1. My Thoughts on The Canon 50mm f/1.8 Lens
2. 7D Video
3. Maryville Summer ’09

Today I turned 22 years of age. Double deuce, it’ll be a good year that I’m sure of. It’s been incredibly busy thus far, nothing new there. I’ve been evaluating my online presence, and will be undergoing some changes in the near future. Besides being busy, that’s also why I haven’t updated in awhile. You’ll see the changes I hope in the coming two weeks. It’s really going to simplify everything, not to mention look a little better. That is once I can settle on a personal identity for awhile. Onto the video

I made this short video for Madison Park Church of God. It ties into one of their ongoing series called “Hackers,” this one features the Cat and Robot falling in love. Once the Robot musters enough human courage to ask the cat out. It turned out to be a great date, as you can see below. Let me know what you think, hope you are looking forward to the coming changes.

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1. 7D Video
2. Shredding At The DC Skate Plaza
3. Google Calendar and iCal

Finally today we’re going to have a video that is about something else other than skateboarding. I love skateboarding and all, it’s just time to diversify my podcast a little. So as you found out earlier in another post I went out, “Chasing The Sun”, as I’ll call it. I’m working with a fellow named John Tibbs who I also play drums for. We’re going on a short tour and you’ll hear plenty about that, no worries. On his project we want to first create a great Myspace layout for this tour. We recorded one song during the winter and it’s titled “Glorious Morning” hence my need to find a great spot for a sunrise and/or sunset. I’ll explain more of that later, but it’s what inspired me to do this post. I went and paid a whopping $4 to get into Meramec Springs State Park, and drove up to the scenic lookout. I realized I was a little late for the sunrise, but I’d try shoot some stuff I’ve never tried before. With that said I shot an HDR and a Panoramic shot.

If you are unfamiliar with what an HDR shot is, then read this HERE for a great explanation. Flickr always has great knowledge from it’s users, plus you can then see their great HDR work. Be sure to check mine out first as I’m new to the game and my shot is MUCH worse than their work. In my own simple words HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is simply taking anywhere from 3-5 photos at different shutter speeds and exposures. For instance the shots you will see below from both Photoshop and Photomatix are a combination of 3 images. When I was shooting I first set it at -1 in the light meter, then at 0, then at +1. As you can infer this captures all of the highlights, lowlights, and then a normal exposure. It’s when they are combined that the picture get’s really interesting.

Since my image was such a crap shot anyway I went for a real plasticky, cartoony, whatever you want to call it effect. I know some people ABSOLUTELY HATE that effect from HDR images, but it’s fun to experiment with so please quit whining that I don’t do everything the way you want me to. I used Photoshop CS4 and Photomatix to compare results. Hands down Photomatix HDR functions work a lot better than Photoshops, especially for an HDR novice like me. One surprising tidbit is that I had to combine to HDR images from Photoshop to get the same effect from the one in Photomatix. I’m sure there is some more complex steps to make it work great in Photoshop, but why do that when Photomatix is simple and works great. Now I’ve created a video for you that will quickly show how to get started in the world of HDR using both Photoshop CS4 and Photomatix. First here are my two images.

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Sadly and probably for anyone who reads this gladly, this is the last skateboarding post I have for awhile. It’s true, I’m just out of skateboard footage…that is unless I find some laying around somewhere. So I’ll no longer have skateboarding videos to post, I’m sad

Anyway I’ve got a short little video to summarize our trip and skating to the DC Skate Plaza which is located in Kettering, OH if anyone wants to go. We took a short 2 hour drive and had some really bad carthritis when we got there. The park itself is great and is mirrored for any type of skater to hit all of the stuff in the park. Some of the videos on YouTube have some great skaters in them at this park, we aren’t that great but we are getting there. We hit some rails and gaps and pads, just check it out for yourself

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First I’ll apologize that there seems to be a lot of skateboarding posts to start off the new site. If you aren’t a fan of skateboarding I’ll try and make it interesting for you soon! It’s been incredibly nice here in Anderson the past few weeks despite the constant rain that seems to be coming down this week. My friends and I randomly ditched our homework and went to skate at one of the local skateparks near us. This one is one of our favorite in Chesterfield. I just so happened to break my board during this session, and it was about time. I got a pretty jank setup last spring before leaving school for the summer. The board was the worst part of my setup. As a warning don’t get character boards, it wasn’t a fun board to skate. Luckily I’ve been learning kickflip boardslides, which cracked my board in the first place. I was trying them again on this day and it finally put the board over the edge. After the initial crack I tried in so many different ways to break my board the rest of the way. Only to finally give up and stomp it. My good friend Josh then finished her off for me with a boardslide that broke her in to. Good riddance to that character board. Enjoy

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