Chris Kara and Ruthie Wensink

This story is all too real for my wife and I.  In February of 2010 we adopted our daughter Ruthie from Ethiopia.  Ruthie is the absolute joy of our lives, but we too realized early on that Ruthie has a more mild version of Autism called “Sensory Processing Disorder.”  Essentially Ruthie sometimes has trouble communicating what she wants effectively.  Instead of saying “I want ____” she will give off a high-pitched squeal and bury her head in a pillow.  Despite this early challenge, she has always adapted well to technology, and seems to identify with buttons and interactive screens.  At age 2 she now can turn on my LG Plasma TV and load up Netflix and play an episode of one of her favorite shows, like Horseland.  She also has really enjoyed interacting with my Sprint EVO 4G playing card games and Angry Birds.  There is something about the clear-cut rules, and the symmetry of an electronic device that just makes sense to her.  I also observed that loud noises and lights has a tendency to get her overwhelmed very quickly environments such as having Dinner at Texas Roadhouse and in a loud daycare room when we go to Church.

This past weekend we attended the wedding of a friend and we observed Ruthie dancing, and loving every minute of it.  On the dance floor of a wedding reception, this 2-year-old thrived, dancing with a big crowd of people all crowding around her.  I find it particularly interesting that the music and the lights were very coordinated and organized in this environment, and she loves it.  When noise and lights are unorganized, everything is chaotic and she can’t seem to be able to turn off or tune out the ‘noise.’

Thankfully, through speech, physical and occupational therapy, she has made amazing leaps in her physical and mental development, and is growing up to be an incredibly intelligent, effective communicating adorable little girl.  As she grows older I hope to see her grow and learn about more technologies and thrive in our connected world.

Panasonic continues to be the leader in broadcast quality camcorders, with over 80% of the NCAA Tournament being recorded on Panasonic camcorders.  P2 based camcorders now have surpassed 250,000 units shipped worldwide since the format was released to the public approximately 9 years ago. Panasonic announced some interesting new products at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 2012.  The annual conference was held from April 16-19, 2012 in Las Vegas, NV and seeks to serve the diverse broadcast needs of sports networks, TV broadcast stations, and professional videographers across the world.  Each year this conference brings exciting developments to the world of professional video, and this year was no different. As high-speed, high-capacity formats continue to evolve, SD cards have surpassed P2 Cards as the standards for storage.  To continue the camera revolution for this new format and style, Panasonic has introduced a format, called the MicroP2 Card format.  The MicroP2 card format is a format that continues to build on the rock solid abilities of older P2 cards, withstanding

high vibration, temperature and humidity reliability, all now being delivered in the same form factor as a standard SD card slot. To allow higher capacity cards to be used in order P2 based cards, Panasonic also has announced the availability of the new MicroP2 Adapter, which is simply a P2 card that’s fitted with the new MicroP2 slot inside the card, to allow higher capacity 32GB and 64GB SD cards to be inserted into P2 based cameras.  This format change will ease the transition from P2 card based workflow to SD card based workflow for many broadcast stations all over the country. As Wedding video producers, we already have adapted the SD card workflow as our primary medium of choice.  We use the Panasonic ag-hmc40 as our primary camera.  The HMC40 uses SDHC cards up to 32GB in size, which allows us to shoot and record nearly 4 hours of video without changing cards.  We have enjoyed the high quality and stability that these pro-sumer camcorders have provided for our growing business. Do you have a thought or a question?  Leave a comment below!

As I was browsing youtube the other day I came across this amazing video production that was put together by Devin Graham. Devin and a group of friends took a trip out to Moab Utah at Corona Arch, a natural rock formation in the Utah Desert and constructed and flew on a giant rope slide! Check out the amazing result here:

Worlds Largest Rope Swing and Killer Videography

Filming the Event

The entire ordeal took two days to film, with many parties involved to rig up a harness that was safe, with many different anchors into the rock. Tests were also done on the rope by filling a bag of rocks up and throwing that over the edge in order to make sure the rope and the whole system would hold. The Rope swing itself was 150 feet above ground, with a 130 foot free fall, and at the lowest point you were 10 feet above the ground.

In my opinion this was a great video that took a lot of time and effort to set up, but completely worth it in the end, in order to effectively show how great equipment, film making skills, and amazing stunts can come together and create content that is as good, if not better than some of the best hollywood action scenes in movie theaters today.

Video Equipment

Some of the equipment that was used in the making of this shoot, included A Canon 5D Mark II, a Canon 7D, a Canon 60D, an IPhone 4S for one shot, multiple GoPro HD 1 cameras
and an Epic Red One camera. A Glide cam 2000 was used for a lot of the floating video shots, such as the introduction shot of one of the guys looking over the cliff.

One special moment on that day was Austin, one of the guys who help set things up, actually proposed to his girlfriend there. She took the plunge swinging down, and as she was dangling 10 feet above the ground after the swing, he lowered himself down, and proposed to her in mid-air. She said yes!

If you take a look at the quality of this video, compared to the quality of some of the other videos on youtube at the Corona Arch, you can clearly see that the quality of this video is far away better in many ways. The video angles, the music, the color correction and lighting all come together to make an amazing production. Congratulations Devin and keep up the great work!

Have you ever seen a disclaimer about a video that’s been “newly digitally re-mastered?”  Videos have to be re-mastered to be presentable in modern standards because over time, magnetic tape degrades and fades.  AVCHD is quickly becoming the bedrock standard among video professionals because video footage does not degrade over time, nor does the medium expire or lose quality when used for recording over and over again.

As a wedding videographer, I’ve chosen to use AVCHD for recording my events because it has proven to be reliable choice that is cost effective and concrete when trying to get a project done on time.  For more information about the products that we use, check out our Panasonic AVCHD Professional Camcorder Review and our review of the new Apple 15″ Quad Core i7 Macbook Pro.

How does AVCHD work?

Do you remember the look of classic cartoons such as Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and many others from years ago?  In a lot of cartoons, the main characters seem to have more color inside of them, and the background scene of the wild west seemed to be colored with a more faded color, and it didn’t change much.  Animation back then was accomplished by artists drawing just the characters.  AVCHD essentially works the same way.  The Camcorder will capture one full frame to start, then moving forward, the camcorder will simply record what in the frame changed, compared to the original frame.  When your recording a high action scene such as a football game, the picture will be changing constantly, and that kind of video will require a high bit rate format, such as Panasonic’s PA shooting mode, capturing video at 24Mbps.  Softer scenes where the picture doesn’t change much, such as recording a wedding from the balcony of a church can be recorded in the HE format, which is capturing footage at 6Mbps.  For more of an in depth understanding of how the AVCHD standard works,visit the official AVCHD web page.

What are the benefits of using AVCHD?

The first benefit of using AVCHD over other camcorder standards such as DV and HDV is the cost.  As a wedding video professional, I chose to use the Panasonic AVCCAM AG-HMC40 because I’m able to produce full 1080p High Definition Videos for my clients at a fraction of the cost of my competitors.  5 Years ago the standard technology that was used with camcorders was either HDV or P2 cards.  P2 cards are larger flat cards that fit into a PC card slot in computers.  P2 Cards use flash memory as a storage medium, and are basically a bunch of flash cards that are compressed together to fit into a standard PC card (PCMCIA) slot.  Just to give you an idea of how technology has changed, the Retail cost of a typical Professional P2 card Camcorder on Amazon is $2995.  Compare that to the AVCHD based Panasonic HMC40 at $1700, and these are today’s prices, which have come down tremendously compared to prices in the past.  The entire infrastructure cost for our entire operation using this camcorder standard, is less than $10,000.  If you compare our operation with other video studios in town, you will find their infrastructure costs were $80,000 – $100,000 and are based on standards from 10 years ago, or longer.

Another Advantage of AVCHD is that video clips can be recorded, then burned directly onto Blue-ray disks, with a blue-ray disk burner.  High Definition clips can even be burned on to Standard DVD disks and played back in DVD players and game station consoles such as the Sony PS3.

Taking the next step – AVCHD Product Reviews

If you enjoy camcorder technology and you want to know a good solution for producing a constant stream of professional, HD video clips, then take the next step and read our detailed Panasonic HMC40 Camera Product Review.  The next key product you need to invest in is a quality Apple Quad Core Macbook Pro.  For recording your videos on the camcorder, I recommend taking a look at the Transcend 32GB Class 10 SDHC Card.  After editing and producing your video, I recommend you use a good quality LG HDTV to review your footage before sending it out to the internet or your customers.    Finally, it’s absolutely essential to be backing up your video footage to a second source, so you don’t lose any of your video files.  A simple and reliable solution for backing up HD video files is the Western Digital 2TB External Hard Drive.  Review these products today to find a cost affordable solution to producing professional videos for your business today.

Back to Basics Lesson #1 – How to hold a camera.

Without a doubt all of us have seen a shaking video that someone has held up to us as their pride and joy, showing us how they “captured the moment.”  Unfortunately they didn’t know how to hold a camera and the picture is bobbing around so much it’s starting to make you feel sick.  If you want to properly film something then there are a few proper ways to hold a camera.

1.  Don’t hold it all all.  Use a Tripod.  A tripod is a metal stand with three legs that’s used to hold a camera flat and steady.  Tripods come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from 3 inches tall to Tripods that stand feet 15 feet or more in the air.  By using a tripod, the camera doesn’t move and the result of your video is a flat, smooth, stable clip that’s much more pleasant to look at.

2.  If you don’t have a tripod, then hold the camera with both hands.  Using a second hand will steady your shot, and give a consistent feel.  Hold the camera on the bottom and the top and this will stabilize your video horizontally and vertically.  Another tip, do NOT zoom.  By staying zoomed out in a shot, there are some pretty terrific software features that can stabilize your clips later, but it involves a little bit of cropping of the edges of your shot.  By staying zoomed out, you give yourself more room to work with in the editing process later.

3.  Whenever possible, hold the camera close to your body, do not stretch your arms out.  As you properly learn how to hold a camera, your arms naturally get tired, especially if your filming a full event like a basketball game or long catholic wedding.  By keeping your arms in, you naturally use your body as another resting place for the camera which generally produces a much more stable shot.

By using these three tips, you will have a much better idea of how to hold a camera, and produce a better video.

Homework:  Take your camcorder out to a public place and try filming a dog, some ducks, or other birds.  Practice holding the camera with two hands on the top and bottom, and work on different ways to hold the camera.  Practice using a tripod and compare the footage you get with that with footage you get just holding the camera.  The more experience you get when it doesn’t matter, the more you can earn when it does matter.

Most digital camcorders capture sound in stereo, and older camcorders capture mono sound.  Capturing camcorder sound using a mono microphone, simply means that there is one microphone, and one sound perspective that the camcorder is capturing for all the action.  A Stereo microphone refers to two different sound perspectives that the camcorder is capturing with each frame of video, which are usually set up as a left and a right perspective.  Camcorder manufacturers build in stereo microphones because they realize that most people are going to film the school play or birthday party, then immediately hook up their camcorder to a stereo TV for immediate playback.

If you choose to plug in an external microphone to your camcorder, then it’s important to know the differences between mono and stereo, and which solution will work best for what your trying to capture.  If your capturing a special event such as a wedding where your filming from the back of the church or from the balcony, chances are a highly directional mono microphone might work great for your needs.

If your filming a high action event where there’s a lot of sound moving left to right or right to left, such as a soccer or basketball game, then a stereo microphone might be a better way to go.

If you choose to use a a mono microphone, keep in mind that when you begin to edit your footage, you may have to ensure that both audio channels, (left and right) are filled with sound, and you may have to copy the single mono audio source over from the left channel to the right.  Otherwise, when you burn the final DVD product, you may have sound only coming out of one speaker on the TV the footage is played back on.

Here are some tips to capture great audio for your next video:

• Whenever filming, try to pick a room without any other noise or distractions going on, The camcorder captures everything and the less distractions you have, the better
• Whenever you move a camcorder around, the noise you make moving the camera usually comes in the loudest, so try to do it quietly
• When you are filming in a loud room with a lot of people talking, try to use an external microphone such as a simple hand microphone, so that your only capturing the audio of the person speaking, and not of the crowd behind you
• Whenever possible, try not to let other other people or objects making noise get between you and what your trying to film.
• Finally choose the right microphone to capture quality camcorder sound for the environment that your filming

It doesn’t matter if your filming a wedding, a birthday party or a professional sports event, capturing quality camcorder sound is essential when making a good video, and it should be something that your constantly thinking about.

Happy Filming!

If your filming an independent film, or an informal news broadcast, where your interviewing someone then having a portable light to take with you can be a real difference maker in the quality of your shot.  I personally don’t have the the luxury of using a lot of camera lighting techniques because most of the time I film weddings, and my approach to wedding videography is to always be present, while being as invisible as possible.  I often lurk in the shadows (not in a creepy way) in order to get the shot of the bride and groom kissing, and for their first dance, and for all the key moments of a wedding that makes that day special. By introducing camera lighting that’s artificial, it takes away from that bride and groom’s special moment, and it deteriorates from their special day.

That being said, filming speeches, corporate events, and trade shows have all benefited from a little bit of strategic camera lighting placed at my feet, as I’m filming that particular special event or situation.  One popular and portable light to consider is the NEEWER 160 LED Dimmable Light solution, which is currently the #2 lighting solutions for digital camcorders on Amazon.  By utilzing an LED based lighting system, the mounted light is very light (as in low weight), portable (it mounts right to most camcorders and digital SLR’s) and it’s inexpensive.  The current selling price for this lighting system is about $45.

No matter which camcorder or digital SLR that you use, consider investing in a light to brighten up your shots, and bring a whole new warmth and excitement to your video shot.  Happy Filming everyone!

Have you ever made a really important document or movie that you burned on to a disk, only to bring it over to the work computer to use in an important presentation and realize that the precious disk you burned didn’t work?  This situation has haunted me in school and once again out in the real world, which is why it’s important to identify quality DVD-R / DVD+R media when burning your important movie clips and documents to disk.

What is a DVD-R?

For those of you who are somewhat new to computers and the whole idea of making a portable copy of a video clip or files to take with you, a DVD-R is a disk format, that is written to once, and can be read many times.  DVD-R disks are capable of holding up to 4.7 Gigabytes of data, or 120 minutes of DVD quality video.  DVD-R’s are commonly used to burn home movies to disk, and then that disk can be taken to a home DVD player hooked up to the tv in your living room, and played for family and friends.  DVD-R’s can also be used to burn a backup of important word, excel, powerpoint or just about any kind of file that exists. The DVD-R format was first created by Pioneer in 1997, and a newer standard called DVD-R DL or dual layer, came out in 2005.  DVD-R DL disks can hold up to 8.5GB of data, or 240 minutes of DVD quality video.  If you would like to burn a home movie that you would like to play later on your home TV, then the DVD-R format is the best format to use, because it is the most commonly supported format on modern DVD players in your home.  For those of you who have Blue-Ray players, nearly ever Blue-ray player out on the market is backwards compatible with the DVD-R format, so you will still be able to play your old disks on a newer player.

Is the DVD-R name really important?

These days, not much.  Companies such as Memorex, and Imation to or a few often are outsourcing the manufacturing the production of their disks to third party companies in indonesia and malasia.  The Brand on the outside of the label is usually just a formality and is merely a marketing technique and price point that people have come to expect.

What makes a good quality DVD-R disk?

Essentially, the key factor that makes a high quality DVD-R disk is a low failure rate.  In other words, out of the 100 disks that come in a 100 pack of Memorex DVD-R’s that you burn on a computer such as a new i7 quad core Macbook Pro, less than 5 of them have errors or fail.  Generally speaking the higher the bulk of disks that are purchased, the higher likelyhood there will be failed burns in that spindle.  If you burning DVD-R disks, then buy individually wrapped DVD-R disks, unless your using a very high quality brand such as JVC Taiyo Yuden DVD-R disks.  Taiyo Yuden disks are known for their precision and high quality, and very low error rates when burning files to disk, and are an excellent choice for small businesses and individuals who make money with content burned to DVD-R’s.

The future of DVD-R and other forms of media

While DVD-R disks continue to be the most commonly available format on the shelves of stores today, there are several new standards that are now available.  One newer standard is the BD-R format.  BD-R disks hold up to 25GB of data per disk, and they can support video quality of up to 1080p, with multiple audio streams.  BD-R is also treated with a high quality finish that resists scratches a lot more than the standard DVD-R disk.  In order to burn a BD-R disk, you have to have a Blue-ray Disk burner, and you have to have a Blue-ray burner or Blue-ray player in order to play or view the BD-R disks.   Another trend in the world of video is eliminating the disk all together, and store your disks on a separate computer or hard drive in the other room, or even subscribe to a service that has many movies and tv shows already on their system.  The most popular company that is streaming content to day is Netflix.  Netflix offers over 15,000 movies and TV shows that can stream to your home TV, for only $11 / month.  No kidding!  A few years ago in order to save money and get the content that we want, my wife and I bought an LG 50PS80 50 inch plasma TV, specifically because the TV has the streaming Netflix interface built right into the TV.  As a result, we have cancelled our $60 / month cable TV service and we enjoy streaming content over the Internet any time we want.

No matter which format you choose to use for your home movies, make sure you do your research, and browse the different DVD-R formats on Amazon before you make your next purchase.  If anyone has questions, feel free to Contact us, any time.

In lesson 4 we’re going to be talking about frame rate, HD frame rate numbers, and everything you need to know in order to get started filming in the right ram rate.  To get started, we need to define a frame.  A frame is a single picture that a camera captures, over the course of recording a video clip.  The Rate is the amount of frames that are recorded per second.  Classic films that are displayed in movie theaters around the country that are not yet showing their films digitally, have several film reels that are on large metal spindles.  It’s common for a single movie to use 5 or 6 metal spindles that have to be changed out at precisely the right moment to continue a movie on.  Traditional films are recorded in 24 frames per second.  That means that when the camera is filming any particular scene, the camera is recording 24 pictures per second.  When you buy a standard DVD from the store, the frame rate that is produced is 29.97 or 30 frames per second.

It doesn’t matter if your interested in an HD frame rate (High Definition) or a Standard Definition SD frame rate (Standard Definition), the frame rate is a completely different measurement that a camera uses to capture the action.

Professional quality camcorders such as the Panasonic HMC 40 have the ability to adjust the frame rate for different scenes and shooting situations.  For high action scenes such as sporting events that you film, you want to be sure to use the fastest frame rate available.  If your using the Panasonic AG HMC 40 as I recommend, then shooting your action or sports scenes at 60 frames per second in order to capture every second of all of the action.  By shooting at 60 frames per second, you will be able to slow down the playback of the shot to 30 frames per second, and play the film back at 50% speed, or slow it down further to 15 frames per second, and play the film at 25% speed.  This is the same basic concept that professionals use to film NFL football games to slow down the play for review and determine if the play was a catch or a dropped pass.

No matter what camera your using, it’s important to know that camera’s abilities, and to know the frame rate that your using to make your video.  If you haven’t done so already, take some time to play with the settings of your camera, get to know what frame rate it’s using, so that you have the experience you need when the moment counts.

Happy Filming!

When choosing a camcorder to film with, I recommend a camcorder that is capable of shooting at the same resolution as your desired output format.  If your going to be making Standard Widescreen DVD’s with your camcorder, then you want a camcorder that can shoot video in a 720 x 480 resolution.  If you want to create Blue-ray disks as the final product format, then a high definition or HD camcorder video resolution would be more appropriate.  Many HDTV’s and Camcorders are advertised as shooting or displaying video in 720p or 1080i or 1080p.  For today’s lesson, let’s just focus on the camcorder resolution, or the number.  The full resolution of a 720 camcorder or HDTV is 1280 lines of horizontal resolution with 720 lines of vertical resolution, giving a full resolution of 1280 x 720.  The full camcorder video resolution of a 1080 HDTV Camcorder is 1920 horizontal lines by 1080 lines, for a full resolution of 1920 x 1080.  No matter what resolution you choose, try to match up the resolution abilities of the camera with the resolution of the end product.  Happy Filming!

In lesson 6 we’re going to be talking about shutter speed. The shutter of a camera small flap that controls long the image is exposed to the eye of the camera.  This is a different components than the frame rate of a camcorder.

The frame rate is the rate or the speed of pictures that a camcorder takes when making a video. The shutter speed is the time the eye or the iris of the camera is open, which determine the amount of light if that is let into the camera. In the Panasonic hmc 40 review that I wrote, outlining why I recommend people use that camera, the settings for shutter speed range from a rate of 1/2 second to 1/2000th of a second.  Each of these fractions is a fraction of one second.  A shutter speed of 1/2 will let a lot of light into the camera resulting in a very bright shot, which is useful for filming the stars or a night sky that moves very little.  A shutter speed of 1/2 will also result in a very wavy stringy look to your shots.  If your filming people it will make everyone looking a bit like a shooting star, with trails behind them.

Adjusting the shutter speed is an important thing to do depending I’m the lighting conditions that you’re filming in and the subject that you are filming.  To give an example, one time when you would want a very slow shutter speed is if you’re filming a night sky. By using a very slow shutter speed and a wide open iris, the shot you are filming will be much brighter.  A night sky can almost look like a bright day when the shutter speed is turned all the way down.  Images will appear to be much slower. If your filming a person walking around the room, then a shutter speed of 1/50 or 1/60 or faster would be best. For very fast moving scenes that are very bright, like water falling off of a waterfall, you would want the shutter speed to be very fast, such as 1/1000 or 1/2000, especially if you intend to film the action in a higher frame rate, then slow the frame rate down later for viewing.

No matter what kind of shot your trying to produce, try adjusting the shutter speed and play with the results.  The more experience you have playing with camera settings now, the better your shots will be later when they truly count.  Happy Filming!

In this Lesson we’re going to be talking about the Camera Iris.  The Camera Iris is the “eye” of the camera.  It is literally the component that is viewing or looking at the person or nature scene or whatever it is you’re trying to film.  Understanding what the camera iris is, and why it’s important will be key in using your digital camcorder to make a high quality video.

The Iris is adjustable on most modern digital camcorders.  On simple consumer camcorders it’s typically done from within the camcorder’s software, which you navigate using the flip out screen on the left side of the camera.  Each Camera’s software is a little bit different, and sometimes the wording can be different.  On the JVC Everio Series of consumer camcorders, there’s just one setting that’s called “electronically brighten” that can be on or off.  On the Sony Handycam series there is a horizontal slider to adjust the “camera brightness.”

On the Panasonic HMC40 there is a small wheel on the left hand side of the body of the camera that controls how open or closed the iris is.  This manual control wheel has a wide range of settings that can be adjusted at the flick of a finger.  For low light situations, there is a programmable setting that has an additional level of brightness or Gain that can be enabled through one of the user control buttons, then further turned up using the iris wheel. As a wedding videographer that’s constantly filming in lighting conditions that change every few minutes as the sun goes down, a manual iris control is simply amazing.

Having an easy to use manual control for the camera iris is one of the distinguishing features that makes the Panasonic HMC40 a professional digital camcorder.   If you’re not familiar with the different features of different camcorders, I recommend that you check out the Professional Video section of Amazon.

Adjusting the camera iris is relatively easy and a great way to make a better video clip no matter what you’re filming.  Happy Filming!

In this Lesson we’re going to be looking at analog zoom and digital zoom.  Just about everyone who’s ever used a camera with zooming abilities or a camcorder that has a zoom function has zoomed in to get a closer perspective of whatever they are filming.  The most simple cameras and camcorders on cell phones usually have some kind of a zoom function, in order to get a picture or video that appears closer to the action, without actually being closer to the action.  Zoom is everywhere, even in Mazda commercials.

When zooming into a shot, usually there is number in the corner of the digital screen that says 1x, 2x, 4x, 10x 12x, or a similar numbering system.  The x in this case is representing the number of times closer that the shot represents, compared the original angle and zoom level.  In other words, 1x is normal, and completely UN-zoomed.  Zooming to 2x represents a perspective that’s 2 times closer than the original angle.  In other words, if your trying to take a picture of a flower at 1x and your 10 feet away from the flower, then you zoom to 2x, that perspective is supposed to represent being 5 feet away from the flower, 4x would be 2.5 feet away, and so on.

Analog Zoom vs. Digital Zoom

I think it’s important to understand that there are two different forms of zoom, analog zoom and digital zoom.  Analog zoom is a process where the movement of a few lenses inside of the camera results in the magnification of the image, without compromising or deteriorating the quality of the image.  Analog zoom simply captures a perspective that is closer than the original perspective.  Digital zoom on the other hand is a process where the pixels of a digital image are stretched out, and the resulting picture is focusing on just one portion of the whole perspective of the lens.

I love the feeling of getting things done.  When I can go to sleep an night with a sense of accomplishment, I feel very satisfied with the work that I do, for my full time job or with other jobs around the house.  There’s a satisfaction I wake up each morning, do my devotions, take some medication, then I focus on a task list that I have in front of me to get done what I need to for that particular day, and nothing helps me stay on target for my goals for that day than a task list.

My task list is broken down into tasks that I need to do immediately when I wake up in the morning, then I have tasks for my full time job, then after that I list out things that I try to get done at night, such as working on laundry, taking out the garbage, etc.

Task Lists and your productivity

Taking on a task list is a simple way that anyone can be more productive and focused in what they do during the day.  I’ve tried using a few different forms of task lists.  I always have a spiral abound notebook on my desk and that traditionally has been the place where I list out my tasks.  Lately I’ve also experimented with the sticky notes application in Mac OSX, and also the task list applet that runs inside of gmail.  Each one has their positives and negatives.  I like the paper copy because it’s always in front of me when I’m at my desk, and there’s a sense of focus and accomplishment in taking your pen and striking through that item on the list.  At the end of the day, you can look through all of the things that are struck through and have a sense of accomplishment.

On the other hand, having a task list in a place like gmail, which 99% of the time I have open on whatever computer I’m on, allows me to synchronize and coordinate my tasks when I work on different computers, which I do more and more these days.

Task lists and co-worker productivity

A task list is also a great place to list out things that you want other people to do on your behalf.  For example, a task that I would list out for my wife would be to edit a wedding video that we just filmed for a couple, and by having it on my list, that keeps the job in the front and center of my mind.  One feature that I really wish that gmail tasks would give me is the ability to create tasks for other people so I can ensure that their getting things done that need to get done as well.  The closest I’ve found to this being possible is creating a calendar event of whatever thing that has to happen, then sending reminders to the person about how this task should be done by X time.   If the task takes multiple weeks to complete, then you could also set up sub-reminders on every Friday saying this task should be 25% complete, then 50% the next week, and so on.

Enterprise Task list applications

For enterprise level task and people and project management, a CRM or customer relationship management software is something to consider.  Sage ACT for example is a CRM that allows you to create business objectives, and functions, where multiple people are involved in a project, and a project manager can distribute tasks to each team member involved, and monitor the productivity of the entire project from a high bird’s eye view.  Tasks can all have due dates and times so that projects as a whole stay on time and on budget for getting things done, and each member of the team can then focus on their one niche specialty and do that well.

No matter which tool or service you use, I hope that adopting a task list helps you to get out there and accomplish the goals of your business.

In lesson 9 of this back to basics series, we’re going to be looking at progressive vs interlaced video frames, which solution is best, and how that relates to camcorder technology.  In the world of film, a frame is a single physical picture that would show for a fraction of a second on a theatre screen.  When showing many frames per second in order, this would give the illusion of pictures in motion, or a movie.  In the world of video and digital video, frames can be displayed a few different ways, depending on the abilities of the screen or TV that you’re looking at and the camera that you’re using to make the video.  When you look at a TV on the shelves of Best Buy or Wal-Mart, you will see a little number and letter next to all of the flat panels that will say 720p or 1080p or 1080i.  The P after the number in this case stands for progressive, and the i stands for interlace frames of video.  For more information on Resolution see Back to Basics Lesson 5.

Interlaced Frames

Frames that are displayed as interlaced show only 1/2 of the picture at one time.  In an interlaced frames, if you have 720 vertical lines of resolution, the first interlaced frame will show lines 1,3,5,7,9…All of the odd-numbered lines up to 719.  The second frame will show lines 2,4,6,8,10..All the even-numbered lines up to 720.

Progressive Frames

Progressive frames show all lines of resolution (1-720) in one sweep.  In the world of video editing, you may run across the term de-interlacing.  De-interlacing is the process of combining interlaced frames so the end result is progressive frames.  If you’re filming in 60 interlaced frames per second, and you use an editor to de-interlace your video, then the resulting progressive frame rate would be 30 progressive frames per second.  60i / 2 = 30p

Earlier HDTV’s didn’t have the processing power to show all of the lines of a frame at once for full 1920 x 1080 resolution broadcasts or movies, and so set manufacturers compromised by offering 720p/1080i HDTV sets.  Offering sets like this was also something that was done to drive down the price of HDTV’s, so that more people would buy them.

Why Progressive vs. Interlaced frames matter

Most HDTV’s that are 32″ and smaller generally don’t offer picture quality at 1080p because it’s very hard to tell the quality difference between 720p and 1080p on small TV sets.  When considering what resolution to film at and whether you want to film using interlaced or progressive frames, consider the output destination.  If your making a movie for the masses, then generally speaking, you want to film in the highest resolution and frame rate possible, such as 1080/60p.  It is a lot easier to scale down the resolution and quality of a picture for a smaller screen or lower bandwidth situation, than it is to try to upscale the picture to a higher quality.  Happy Filming!

Have you ever tried to shoot a video, only to have the camcorder focus go out of control right when you needed it the most?  That happened to me when trying to film a friend’s wedding back in 2008.  As a result I wasn’t able to use a critical shot that I needed during the grand march.  Learning to harness camcorder focus the right way can be the difference between a good video and a useless video.

Let’s start with the definition.  Camcorder focus is the ability of your camcorder to accurately and clearly view and record your subject.  When a camcorder focus is off, the resulting picture has the perspective of someone who doesn’t have their glasses on, or of someone who is extremely drunk.

Most handheld camcorders these days have auto focus, which essentially means that the camcorder will take care of making sure your picture is in focus at all times.  However, auto focus doesn’t always work correctly.  Remember the wedding I mentioned earlier?  I was using a JVC Everio handheld camcorder with auto focus enabled at the time, and when the DJ turned the lights down to get ready for the grand march, the Camera lost it’s ability to know what was in focus, and it spend the next 10 seconds focusing and re-focusing, trying to get a perspective on where the action was.

If your filming a dark scene or a scene with a lot of action or lighting changes, such as a wedding reception, then it’s absolutely essential that you use manual focus.  Consumer hand held camcorders focus settings are usually in a touch screen menu that’s accessed from the flip out LCD screen on the left side.  Because of the constant lighting condition troubles that we had at that wedding, we invested in Two Panasonic HMC40′s.  Since that time the manual focus ring of this camera has allowed us to get crisp clean video of all of the action from start to finish.  Auto focus settings are also much more accurate on Professional Camcorders like the HMC40.

One time when you may want to intentionally by out of focus is when creating introduction shots.  In our Wisconsin wedding videography business we typically take 20-30 introduction shots of everything around the site of the wedding such as flowers, trees, statues, shots of the church outside, shots of the rings, the bulletin, the scripture verse the couple chose, and all sorts of details.  One common technique that we use, is setting the focus to manual, then centering a shot of the rings sitting on or in the bride’s flowers.  Then I twist the focus ring out, so the shot is way out of focus, then hit record.  I then twist the focus ring slowly until the rings become in focus.  The result is a beautiful deliberate out of focus to in focus shot, that Brides and Grooms enjoy time and time again in our videos.  Happy Filming!

I’m proud of a lot of things that I’ve done in my life, and I also have regret, and today I want to talk about debt regret.  One of the biggest regrets that I have about the education that I chose and the business that I chose to start, is that I chose to go into debt for both of those items.  After all was said and done, my entire education to DeVry University when I graduated in 2004 totaled up to be about $37,000, and I ended up with about $18,000 of debt to pay back.  It’s now 2012 and I still have a few years to go to fully pay off the debt.

If I can offer one piece of advice to anyone looking to go off to school or start a business, I would strongly encourage you to do it debt free.  Here are some key sub-points to get started with your business:

1.  Learn to save $1000 to get started.  This is a point that I pulled from Dave Ramsey’s book, he calls it the “baby emergency fund” and it’s Baby step one on the road to financial success.  The same applies to a business, save $1000 for initial expenses, or enough cash to rent equipment to do enough jobs to triple your initial investment.  In other words, you should be able to make $3000 from the initial $1000.

2.  Keep costs low by working from the cart table.  In other words, work from home, the garage, the car, never take out a lease or buy property unless you can do it in cash.

3.  Borrow tools and resources, not money.  Friends and family can be a great resource when you need to borrow something like a circular saw, a carpet shampooer, or an old computer, until you can afford to buy one from profits in the business.  Grow slowly, spend slowly, get rich slowly.

4.  Craigslist and e-bay.  Craigslist.org and ebay.com are two great sites to test the waters on your business services, for virtually no investment.  99% of businesses can post to craigslist.org for free, and posting on e-bay w/ paypal takes only 6% of the total revenue of the transaction, so as long as your margins are high enough, you can make a profit on just about anything you sell.  Both sites are also great for purchasing slightly used or discounted computers, office supplies, all the way up to cars and properties.

5.  Rent equipment.  This is probably an obvious point, but any time you can get away with renting equipment for the day or for the week, that’s a much more effective way to keep costs down without going into debt.

6.  Learn from the wisdom of others.  One of the things that I did when I started my Wisconsin Wedding Videography business, is I called other videographers that did the same kind of work that had more experience in places several states away, and asked them a few questions for 10 minutes, just to pick their brains on what to do and what not to do.  Every single person I talked to on the phone was willing to give me 10-15 minutes, and who could be more helpful than people that do the exact same thing as you?  Local business associations and the local chamber of congress can be helpful too.

7.  Learn to find the sweet spot.  When we first started editing wedding videos, we edited on iMovie ’09, on a macbook pro laptop, with entry level handheld consumer camcorders.  Today we’re mostly editing on quad core Macbook pro machines using iMovie ’11 using well reviewed Panasonic HMC40 Camcorders.  The camera is where the investment needed to be made for the video quality and professional bit rate, but we were able to keep our videography packages priced very low because we didn’t have the $10,000 or $20,000 in equipment from the start.  To our surprise, iMovie has continually been good enough of an editor to get the job done, while keeping our costs low.

8.  Think about new marketing concepts.  When we started our business, we tried investing in marketing through wedding shows and associates, and they gave us almost no return or potential clients.  After learning at the school of life, and following the trends of our potential clients, we’ve learned that 90% of brides that search for wedding services start on Google.  Guess what, we’re there too.

9.  Find consultants to branch out.  Life happens.  As it turns out my wife and I are pregnant, so we are now planning our shooting and wedding schedule this year, we will need consultants for filming and editing from August – December.   Having people to go to when life happens is essential to keep a business running when your feeling 100% and when your feeling like blinking takes energy.

10.  Have patience.  Building a business and referrals and a network of people takes time, and it all may not come together in the first or second, or even the fifth year.  Stick with it, have patience and have fun!

In this lesson we’re going to be talking about video camera white balance.  White balance is important in a video camera because each room that you shoot in will have a little bit different lighting style.  You may be filming outdoors in daylight, or at night, or indoors under fluorescent industrial lights, or in a dark room that uses track lighting, or can lights.  The possibilities are endless.  Adjusting your video camera white balance will help bring a consistent look and feel to each of these different shooting conditions.  Another thing to realize is that a camera sees light different from the way a human eye sees light.  Sometimes the light in the room will seem yellowish, or blueish, but your eyes adjust accordingly.  The setting that changes a shot from looking blueish to truly looking white, is called white balance.

In order to fully explain white balance, I’m going to have to go a little geeky on you here.  Light Color is measured in degrees of Kelvin, which corresponds to what color a hunk of iron will glow at when heated to a certain temperature.  When heated to about 3200 degrees kelvin or 3200K, the iron will have a reddish / orange color, which is around the same color of the filament or tiny piece of metal that a light bulb glows at.  This is how light bulbs in your house glow with a light orange color.  When iron is heated hotter to 5600K, the iron begins to look more white/blue.  These colors correspond to the colors of the rainbow.  Daylight on a clear day averages out to be about 5600K but can drastically vary from 10,000K to 2900K depending on where you’re looking, how cloudy it is, and what time of the day it is.

Bringing this discussion back down to a basics level, there are two typical settings for white balance, other than “auto.”  On the Panasonic HMC40, the camera I recommend for entrepreneurs, business owners and videographers, those two settings are 3.2K, and 5.6K.  Generally speaking you want to use 3.2K when filming indoors under normal incandescent bulb lighting, and you want to use the 5.6K setting for fluorescent lighting or outdoor shots.

To white balance your shot manually, point your camera at a white wall, then adjust the settings so that the camera make the wall look white, in the same color white as you see the wall.  By going through this simple procedure, you have effectively white balanced your video camera.  Happy Filming!

In this back to basics lesson we’re going to tackle a topic that’s a bit more advanced, CMOS and CCD camera chips.  Inside of professional and consumer cameras across the industry there are two standards of camcorder chips.  CCD or Charge Coupled Device is a camera technology, where all of the processing power of the chip is dedicated to one path and one aspect of creating a high quality picture.  CCD Cameras have been the sworn choice for industry professionals for years because they have consistently produced a high quality picture, especially when converting light into electronic signals, and finally out to an analog format.  The positives of CCD Chips include producing a high quality, consistent, and reliable picture.  The Negatives of CCD Chips are price and potential additional post-production editing issues that have to be dealt with.

CMOS or Complimentary Metal Oxide Semi-Conductor chips are chips that captures light, and processes that light into electrical signals, and produces an output of a digital picture, but along the way the technology can include amplification, noise reduction, and other factors that can correct the captured image, during the capturing process.  CMOS cameras have become a recent favorite for video professionals because of the high quality images that they produce with minimal post production editing involved for issues such as rolling shutter and other faulty camera conditions.  The Positives of CMOS chips include low costs, high quality picture output and potentially less post-production work that needs to be done on the final image.

No matter what technology camera you choose to film with, be sure to research the compatibility of your camera, your editor, your computer, and your output destination, before investing in the products for your business.  Happy Filming!

Another example of when it would be important, would be when recording a special event such as a testimony of a witness for a court case.  When filming a testimony, it’s very important to make sure that the entire recording is present, and that the video has not been edited in any way, shape or form.  By providing a time stamp that’s embedded in the image that climbs up from start to finish with no breaks or gaps, proves that the testimony is authentic and accurate.

Another example of when a time stamp would be useful is in a security camera system, such as in the picture above.  Security cameras need to be synchronized with time when reviewing security footage in order to confirm the location of someone inside the building that shouldn’t be there, or to prove that someone is guilty if their charged.  Accurate records are a critical part of a court case, and having an accurate time line with a time stamp is an integral part of an accurate video recording.  Happy Filming!

In Back to Basics Lesson 14 we’re going to be talking about an older video format called 8mm film.  When film formats were first invented, nothing was digital.  Cameras and camcorders all captured images on film, which is a series of hundreds or thousands of still pictures that are wound together and stored and played on spinning round metal reels.  As each frame or single picture was exposed to light, the film would react to the light, and react, which would result in an image being burned into the frame.  This is an older standard, compared to digital video standards of today, where the camera captures the light of a picture, then electronically interprets that light into pixels and lines of resolution that result in a digital video in HDV or AVCHD format.  There are several different versions of 8mm film.  8mm standard, and Super 8.  The main difference between super 8 and standard 8, is that super 8 film had smaller gaps between the frames, and the gaps were spaced farther apart.  The result was brighter more crisp images.  8mm was a format that was largely used for close up and medium range shots.  Because the size of the film is so small, there is a limit to how far a way the projector can play back the film, and how far away the camera can be from the action, without a distorted and out of focus picture.  8mm film or super 8 film would not be a good solution for a projector that is played in a movie theater.  Despite these limitations, Super 8 is used by some wedding videographers today to give a unique look to their brides and grooms.  Here is an example 8mm film:

No matter what format you choose, be sure that the technologies line up between the camera you film with, the editor that your choosing to use, and the output format that your end product will be displayed in.  Happy filming!

Without a doubt I can say that I am a road warrior.  I work full time for a company based in Florida, yet I work out of my house and mostly out of my car, fixing computer systems in Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Upper peninsula of Michigan, and the eastern half of North and South Dakota.  It’s not uncommon for me to spend 4 or 5 or 6 hours on the road per day.

During those times I occasionally listen to music, but for the most part I’ve regularly been listening to podcasts.  For those of you who are not aware, a podcast is a pre-recorded show or event that is recorded and is published online in an RSS feed that is available for downloading on the internet.  Many podcasts are in a series for teaching on a particular subject, or are on a schedule such as a daily or weekly news show.  Some of my favorite podcasts include AC360 – Anderson Cooper’s CNN daily news show, The Dave Ramsey Show, 48 Days to the work you love by Dan Miller, SEO 101, the Affiliate Buzz, and the Smart Passive Income.

The term “podcast” is the merging of the term “broadcast” and the world famous “iPod.”  Steve jobs first introduced the term podcast at WWDC in June of 2005 when he announced the integration of Podcasts into iTunes 4.9.

As of today Podcastalley.com is reporting that 91,664 pocasts are available for download, listening and playing, and most podcats have many episodes.  Affiliate Buzz for example is the longest running podcast on the topic of affiliate marketing, currently hosting 319 episodes, that are all 30 minutes long.

If you have any kind of a commute, then I suggest that you give podcasts a try.  I challenge any of the readers of my site to listen to 3 episodes of a podcast and evaluate if the content is worth your time.  When I started listening, I wasn’t sure if they were right for me, but now I actually look forward to long rides in the car, so I can listen to more podcasts and learn something new every day.

Here are a few tips to help you get started:

1.  If you don’t have a car that’s manufactured in 2007 or newer, then your going to need a way to connect your iPod or cell phone or player into your car, and I suggest upgrading your car stereo to a cd player that has an auxiliary player.  When I was at best buy the other day, there was one car cd player model that was just $50, plus installation

2.  Choose podcasts that help you accomplish your goals.  For example one of my goals when I was reviewing the Panasonic HMC40 and other professional camcorders was to learn the art of wedding videography back in 2009.  Listening to Stanford’s Chemistry 101 podcast probably wouldn’t have helped much.  Focus on things that will help you accomplish your spiritual, physical, emotional, and financial goals.

3.  Give it time.  A lot of times it take several episodes to get into a series, before you can see the value of return that you get from them.

So go online and start learning!  You’ll never know what you can find until you try.  Have a great week everyone.

Chris

I myself have made some goals that I want to accomplish this year, mainly in business goals and accomplishments, but in the past I’ve I’ve tried to lose weight, through choosing to do something different.

Ironically the simplest solutions are sometimes the best.  I’ve had good success in losing weight safely and comfortably simply by drinking water.  I recently heard Dan Miller, author of 48 days to the work you love, share his simple formula for losing weight.  His concept is to eat only fresh fruits and vegetables, and drinking 1/2 of your body’s weight, in oz, of water.  In other words, if you weight 200 pounds, then you would divide that in 1/2 (100 pounds), then drink that amount of water in oz, so you would drink 100 oz of water per day.  That breaks down to a little over 8 – 12 once glasses of water per day, which should be easy to accomplish, if you stick to it.

What are your goals for this year, and do you intend to drink wanter in order to try to lose weight? What things have worked well for you?  I welcome all thoughts and comments.

American culture can be very interesting sometimes.  It’s Sunday night, at about 10:30PM and I’m relaxing with my wife watching American Idol, thinking about how much of a waste of time it is, to sit here and just numb out to the Boob tube.  Ironically I grew up doing what I was taught to, just watching sports, movies and tv shows, as that’s what evenings are all about right?

My favorite recent time wasters include Private practice, The event, Bones, Psych, and Monk.  Calculating the amount of time that I waste watching TV, I could probably have blogged about 10 times today, but all I have to offer is a few paragraphs, and a few questions.

How many hours of TV do you watch per day?

How do you invest in yourself?  Are you striving to learn something new every day?  How many books do you read or listen to each month / year?  Are you pursuing any form of higher education?

I’ve found success through listening to audiobooks and podcasts while driving on the road for my full time job.  By utilizing the time that I’m in the car, I can effectively learn for several hours per day as I’m driving to the Minneapolis area, during frequent commutes to various locations around Minnesota and Wisconsin.

If you find yourself watching hours and hours of television or playing tons of video games, them maybe it’s time to take a time journal, and document what your doing during each hour of the day.  By documenting what you do during each hour of each day, that can help you identify the time wasters, in order to focus on what it takes to be productive.

As always, I welcome any thoughts or comments.

The Country Inn Boomington West

Growing up my family decided to go on mini-vacations 2 or 3 times a year.  We went on budget vacations and went to hotels.  My Mother and Father with my brother and I, my Aunt and Uncle and their two daughters, and my Grandparents with their third daughter all got together, usually in winter and decided to go to a hotel for a weekend.  I grew up in Eastern Wisconsin, so common hotels that we stayed at were usually within an hour.  Sometimes in the Milwaukee area, and frequently in Fond Du Lac, WI.  Going to a hotel, and just chilling out, playing in the pool, and playing shuffleboard.  Here’s a video that outlines the Hotel.

Now that I’ve grown up and I have my own family, I”m starting to learn the neccesity of having min-vacations, even as our family is working hard to try to pay off debt.  My wife and I just had our 4th anniversary and we took a budget vacation staying at the Boomington West Country Inn and Suites.  Traveling and taking vacations on non-busy times helps you get a great rate.  We also were really blessed  We also enjoyed going to the Chanhassen Dinner Theater. It was one of the best experiences of our lives.

What I’ve learned from all of this is to Budget for vacations, but at the same time, don’t be afraid to spend money.  Taking a mini vacation has helped me to free my mind from all the business of work and getting things done, and I’ve learned to simply let go.

Ultimately I believe in giving Glory to God in all circumstances, and that means giving Glory to God through vacations, through budgeting and through finances.  What have you learned through vacations and budgeting?  I welcome all comments and thoughts.

The Brain’s Response to Gratitude

The human brain is really a remarkable organ. It has the ability to grow and evolve instantly in response to new stimuli in your environment. As your habituate behaviors that are negative, however, the brain can reduce its pliability and flexibility, limiting your ability to experience joy, health and wellness. One way to overcome this problem is to mindfully practice gratitude on a daily basis so that your brain can experience positive emotions and so it can respond physically in a more pleasing manner.

Ways to Practice Gratitude

There are several ways that you can practice gratitude on a daily basis without feeling forced to demonstrate insincere emotions. The first way is to simply think about everything that you have that you truly appreciate in your life. Think about your family, your job, your pets and possibly your health for five to ten minutes a day. You can also think about one blessing in your life for five minutes. For example, you can think about your children and all the wonderful moments that they have added to your life. Think about birthday parties, the first time that the talked or the first day of school. These happy memories will infuse your brain with positive chemicals that will reduce your stress level, increase your ability to think clearly and will make you feel happier and healthier overall.

Another way to practice gratitude is to be appreciative of what people do for you in your life. Each encounter that you have with someone in your life you need to think about their contributions. Think about the effort that they have made to provide you with something, even if it is as simple as offering you a cup of coffee. When they are with you tell them thank you, and actually mean it. Make this verbal interaction meaningful and purposeful.

If you own or manage a business, express gratitude to the people you work with on a daily basis. Tell your customers that you appreciate them.

The final way to practice gratitude is to simply write down five new things you are grateful for each day. Do not repeat items on your list. This will make you think about your life and really be aware of all of the good that surrounds you.

“Ethical Wills are now being implemented as a means of creating a wholistic vision and strategy,” explains Madeline Binder, the author of this article and Spiritual-Ethical Will.

Identify your Goals

One of the first things that has always helped me get things done, is to decide what it is I want to do.  In other words, you need to have Goals.  A goal should be specific and measurable.  For example, a bad goal is “I want to lose weight.”  This isn’t specific or measurable.  I want to lose 20 pounds, is specific, but not very measurable.  “I want to lose 20 pounds by June 1, 2012.”  That’s a specific goal.  Doing the math, 20 pounds in 6 months, equates to 1 pound per week, with a little wiggle room.   I’ve found that it’s helpful to break down goals into monthly, weekly, and daily increments just like that, so I have to know what I need to do.  For example, losing 1 pound per week equates to burning 2000 more calories than what I eat.  2000 calories / 3 days on the treadmill walking.  1 hour walking for my body burns about 400 calories, so in order to accomplish the goal of losing one pound per week, I need to eat only 2000 calories per day, and walk an average of 5 hours per week on a treadmill or outside, that’s one our per day for 5 days, or 3 days at 100 minutes / day etc.

Identify Productivity boosters and dampers

Another key point in the productivity world is to identify things that boost your productivity, or damper productivity.  Can you get as much done when you have 4 hours of sleep vs. 6 or 8?  Can you skip a meal and still be productive?  How is medication affecting you?  What drinks or foods have helped or hurt?  How about exercise?  Are their certain e-mail mailing lists that you need to unsubscribe from in order to have more focus?  Do you need to start saying no to friends and family members that are holding you back?

I’ve personally found that 2 big areas that help me stay focused, are to unsubscribe from everything so my inbox stays clear.  The occasional family member or friend e-mail is fine, but I’ve found that unsubscribing to every mailing list, unsubscribing to facebook and twitter notifications, and anything else that doesn’t directly contribut towards your goals on a weekly or monthy basis should be unsubscribed from.

Another effective way to De-clutter is to clean off your desk or workspace.  Toys from think geek are fun and all, but ultimately they don’t help you get things done, so why not just take them out of the equation.  If you need time to focus and write, turn all your phones on silent – not even vibrate.  Sometimes it’s even helpful to get out of your house and go to a quiet corner of a coffee shop, book store, or Applebees.  As long as your online, most businesses can function well.

Eat Breakfast

I’ve found that nothing tends to get me moving in the morning more than just simply taking the time to eat something.  It tends to get everything moving for the day, and often times gives me the brain power to function when I need to kick it into gear.

Enough talking for now, let’s all Get ‘er done!

One thing that most successful entrepreneurs always know is to never stop learning, growing, and changing with the flow of business. I’ve tried to adopt this principle to my business, and I’ve tried to continually learn and grow and change with my wedding videography business, and now with this blog.  Here are 6 great books to read for growing your business.

Inbound Marketing by Brian Hallegan and Dahrmesh Shah

This is a great book that really illustrates the philosophy of marketing concepts of the past, vs. marketing concepts for the future.  It’s a great read for anyone who wants to transform your marketing department from an interruption machine, to a teaching machine.  I’ve found this book to be helpful for it’s metaphor of how the internet is like a city.  It’s also a great resource to unlearn all the concepts that were in place before.

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

This is an essential read for some practical steps to get your personal finances in order, and to work on building wealth.  I love this book.  I bought the audio version to continually be reminded of what key concepts I need to learn in order to not spend, to save money, and to pay off debt.  Dave Ramsey has since come out with a business specific version of this book called Entre Leadership where he applies the principles that he’s learned and teaches people how to harness them to grow a successful business.

the New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott

This is a great book, that’s similar to Inbound Marketing that really breaks down the old concepts of marketing and re-explains things in a whole new way, including a great city analogy of how the Internet is like a city.

Increase your web traffic in a weekend by Jerry Lee Ford

This book is a little older, but it still has some practical information on understanding how to grow traffic.  The challenging thing about books like this that offer specific SEO advice, as that sometimes the advice can expire, because the Google algorithm is always changing.

the DNA of relationships by Gary Smalley

My wife and I read this book and it has definitely helped us look at our relationship in a whole new way.  Now we fight less, and communicate more.  This book can also be especially helpful for anyone who’s looking to understand the psychology of relationships and how no matter what, we are all in relationships with the people around us, no matter how big or small.  If you can understand the psychology of relationships then you have a much better perspective on how to learn and grow and communicate with colleagues and potential customers all around you.

Love and Respect by Emerson Eggrich

Here is another great book about relationships, I highly recommend it.  This book is geared more towards the relationship between a husband and wife, but the concepts of the crazy cycle and the concepts of how women need love and men need respect are Universal for all people in the world.  This is a great book to read for people who have been married for 50 years, or for those who haven’t even started dating yet.  This is another great book for understanding the psychology of people and where they are at.

Starting a business can be a dream come true.  One of the biggest gifts and opportunities that everyone in America, and in many other free countries around the world, is the opportunity to become their own boss and do their own thing.  However, being your own boss and running your own business can be tough, and here are some questions to ask yourself, before taking the plunge.

Can you keep a plant  and a dog alive?

It may seem like a silly question, but keeping a plant alive is a matter of having discipline, to water the plant, preferably once per day, and keeping it in your house near a place where it can get sunlight.   Many people have amazing dreams and are pumped up about a new business idea, then when the money doesn’t come in like they have hoped, the business fizzled out.  Take the test yourself, and see if you can water a plant once per day for a year.

A similar challenge to the plant is the pet analogy.  An easy pet would be a goldfish, a harder pet would be a dog.  Dogs also require daily food and water, and to be exercised, and played with, and loved.  I’m guilty of not always taking the best care of our pets.  Taking care of a dog is even more responsibility to a plant, and can be another simple measure of how much discipline you can have on a daily basis.

The art of Budgeting

If your capable of taking care of a plant, and a pet, then then you have the basic discipline built inside of you, for taking care of the daily tasks of life.  Doing simple tasks such as plant duty is a form of time discipline and budgeting.  Another key area is financial budgeting.  If you had to save $1000, could you do it?  Do you have the self discipline to save when times are good, so that when times are bad, you have a rainy fund?  In our Wedding Videography business this is especially true because business is booming from April – October, but November – March is very slow, so it’s important to budget for times of being slow in our summer service business.  Knowing where your personal finances are at, and knowing how to save there is a good sign that you have the financial budgeting abilities to start and run a business successfully.

Take your business for a test run

One thing you can do to test the waters before jumping in and starting a business, is to offer your services to some friends for free or at cost, then get their feedback on how good the end result is.  When we started Freedom Videography in 2008, it was the year of weddings, and my wife and I started by filming my brother’s wedding, and then we filmed 5 other weddings of friends and family that year, then collected their feedback.  Those key testing periods helped us evaluate our skills and it gave us a good perspective to see if we can run a business like this.

It doesn’t matter if your going to be a plumber, accountant, engineer, electrician or anything else, if you have the discipline to budget your time, and you can perform daily routine tasks, if you can budget your finances, and save when times are good, then test your services on some friends, then in my opinion, you have the basic ability to run your own business, so go do it!

Chris

Starting around high school my parents always thought it was a great idea to get together around the family table, on new year’s day and sit down and write out our individual goals for the year on an index card.  Most years I wrote down a few usual ones, such as “lose some weight” and “save for a new computer.”  After a few years, it got more specific such as “lose 20 pounds” and get a job making $10 / hour.

Over the last 10 years I’ve since learned from the few very wise business folks, such as Dave Ramsey, the author of Financial Peace, and The Total Money Makeover, and most recently, Entre Leadership.  I’ve also tried to be a sponge to the wisdom of Dan Miller, author of “48 days to the work you love” and “no more dreaded Mondays.”

One of the key points about goals that I’ve learned from these great men, is that a Goal should be specific and measurable.  A terrible “goal” is the first one I mentioned in this post, “lose weight.”  Marginally better, is “lose 20 pounds.”  This one is specific, but not measurable.  A good goal should be specific and measurable, such as “Losing 20 pounds by losing 1 pound per week for 20 weeks.”

As the new year is now here, see if you can come up with 5-10 specific measurable goals for your business and your personal life.  What goals do you have for the coming year?

Posting your goals in an easily seen place

One of the best ideas that I’ve heard about accomplishing your goals is to put them in a very visble place.  My parents for example, post their index cards on the bathroom mirror so they see them when they wake up and get ready every morning.  In the past I’ve kept my index card in the top drawer of my desk, and sitting on top of my desk.  Some more recent good ideas that I’ve heard lately include modifying a picture of your desktop to write your goals right on top of the picture, using a sticky notes application that’s open all the time, or to create a simple index.html “starter” page to open whenever you open a new browser. Wherever you post your goals, make them specific, measurable, and highly visible and you will drastically increase your likelihood of reaching them.  Instead of reaching for the ceiling, reach for the stars, and even if you never reach them, you will have reached farther than you ever have before.

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My daughter Ruthie is the absolute joy of my life.  Each and every day she wakes up and needs help getting dressed, and getting some help on the potty, and every day she wants a hug and a kiss from my and from my wife when she wakes up from sleeping overnight or from a Nap.   She loves reading books, watching Dora the Explorer, Sesame Street and spending time with us.  More and more recently, we’ve been asking her if she needs help with different things like getting a toy out, and she’s learned to ask for help.  Now her new phrase is, “Need  Help, Daddy.”

Sometimes the most simple messages can be the most profound reminders of the principles that we need to live by.  When you need help with something in your business, do you know where you need to go?

Asking for professional help

What if the help you need is outside of your business?  Having a good network of consultants and outside support staff is a key component for any business to execute the things that you do when there’s a high demand for your services.  For example, as a wedding videographer, our peak times for our services are between April and October, then through the winter it’s pretty slow.  During those peak times, it’s helpful to know where we can rent extra camcorders, where we can hire extra shooters, and extra editors to get things done when we really need to move.  It’s also important to know where the support resources are for your vendors.  If you have a Panasonic AG-HMC40 like we do, you want to have that Panasonic technical support number handy.

Looking for Educational Help

Do you know where you would turn if your industry took a drastic turn in another direction?  What resources such as local universities and online courses are available if you need an extra hand with things?  What online courses are going to give you the best information that you need in the next 72 hours to keep your business moving?

Understanding Spiritual Help

Sometimes things will go wrong no matter what you try, and it’s important to take a step back and realize who is ultimately in control of all things, God.  Staying involved with a local church and being involved in the community is a great way to keep your spiritually in check as your navigating the challenging environment of running a business.  Having a trusted accountability group or small group is also another great way to keep your pride in check and to continually carry yourself with humility in yourself and confidence in God.

Chris

As I am writing this I’m sitting in a Country Inn Hotel in South Dacota, relaxing, with 2 laptops in front of me, watching Anderson Cooper’s AC360 show in the background, knowing fully well that I will almost certainly not be attacked tonight.  on AC360 Syria seems to literally be falling apart from the oppression that appears to be coming directly from the Government.  Earlier I listened to a story about a 13 year old boy that was mutilated and tortured for seemingly no reason other than the government trying to strike fear into their own people.  It’s horrible.  It’s emotionally discouraging on an international scale, and every time a story like this comes on, whether it’s torture in Syria or drug wars in Mexico, I pray a prayer of thanks to God and say Thank You America

I would rather live in America with 50% unemployment than any other country with 99% unemployment, because that I believe that America is strong enough to endure the best of times and the worst of times.  As the Christmas season is upon us, let us all say Thank You America, and give thanks for the blessings around us for life, liberty, and the opportunity to pursue what makes is happy.  Let us be thankful for religious freedom, free from persecution, and let us be thankful for peace any and all times that we have it.

Merry Christmas and a wonderful happy year to everyone.

Youtube Live is a service that allows people to give an audioence exactly what it describs, a live stream of video content, of whatever.  The url for this new area is youtube.com/live  When you first login, the first thing you will see is a grid view of current live streams that are happening in real time.  Each stream has a red circle on a gray button indicating that the stream is live in real time at that moment.  Down below in other categories are streams that are coming up in the future.  When you click on a stream, the page you come to often has a chat box on the right, so you can chat with other people in the stream, and ask questions to the presenter.  This is a great medium for new companies to use to reach out to their customers and prospects, to provide a live Q+A session, or a live demo of some new software, or a live training session, or something like that.

The limitation for something like this, is that a stream cannot be privatized, or password protected, so that if a company wanted to have an all hands-on-deck meeting around the world, but only allow employees in on the meeting, that cannot be done.  That would be one welcome feature in my opinion, that way services like go to meeting or live webinar software that often times is very expensive would not have to be purchased.

Those are my thoughts, as always, I welcome your thoughts and comments below.

First we had Desktop wars, then laptop and notebook wars, then and continuing music player and cell phone wars, and now we have tablet wars.  The latest rumbling in this new go-between is the Amazon Kindle Fire, a 7″ tablet with a dual core processor, and cloud based browser acceleration, all sported at a price of just $199.  The real prize here in my opinion is the price.  at $199, bundled with the $90 Amazon Prime Service, gives you access to Amazon’s large streaming library, featuring, 18,000 movie titles and counting, for $213 less than the entry level iPad 2, and this is coming from a very strong Apple fan.

The Look and Feel of the Kindle Fire

I had the opportunity to pick up and play with one of these tablets at Best buy while Christmas shopping this past week, and the unit itself is, I must say, pretty nice.  The 7″ screen size fit a lot nicer into my large Columbia winter coat pocket, or my khaki side knee pockets, even with an optional carrying case.  The device itself has a rubbery feel, and feels much heavier compared to other kindle models.  The screen is very nice, and in my opinion the unit is good enough to view movies for a few hours, but I don’t know if I could type a paper on the unit.  The Kindle Fire also lacks any external video out ports, so I couldn’t hook up the Kindle fire to my 50″ LG Plasma TV either.

What the Kindle Fire does not do

When comparing the ipad to the Kindle Fire, the biggest difference in my opinion is the optional 3G service, which allows for data access while on the road.  I see a device like this being a true solution for entertainment for kids in the car on long trips, except it doesn’t have 3G data to stream movies or audiobooks to the devices.   If I take my wife and daughter to Florida to go to Disney World, for example, the Fire would be limited by the local storage on the device, except when stopping at a Starbucks with wifi.  Likewise a trip down to see my wife’s father who lives in Southern Illinois 10 hours away would go a lot smoother with my 2 year old holding a device with limitless entertainment possibilities. A few other noticeable shortcomings include no Bluetooth, and no ad-hock network support.  Essentially that means that you can’t use a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard for times when you need to be productive, and you can’t use Bluetooth, or ad-hock wifi networks for multi-player gaming with a few android devices.

Ultimately it comes down to what you need, and right now, I’m honestly just fine with my Sprint EVO 4G and my Mac Book Pro.

Yahoo Site Explorer, a favorite tool among online marketing companies to analyze backlinks and competing websites has now been officially shut down.  This has not come as a surprise, as the announcement of the merging of this tool with the Bing Webmaster Tools was announced more than a year ago. The idea behind the merge was to combine tools in order to compete against a much bigger brother, the google webmaster tools.

I’ve only recently started using the Bing tools, and I’ve occasionally used the yahoo tools, so I can’t really say that this is a fair comparison, but I’ve found that using the free version of the seo power suite tools to be a much more valuable tool set for analyzing good keywords to try to rank for, as well as a tool for analyzing on site optimization, and other tools to identify what back links are generating the high rankings.  For quick website and blog data I use Firefox with the firebug, page speed, and senSEO add-ons.   I also use the webrank SEO Toolbar to get a quick summary view of Google links cached, pages cached and Page Rank Stats.  I’ve also been listening to a lot of webmasterradio.fm podcasts for SEO content and concepts, and I personally like James Martell’s Affiliate Buzz concepts for link building the best.  What do you think?

It’s that time of year again, Cyber Monday.  The day after the Thanksgiving weekend, where the frenzy of shopping continues from the craziness of Black Friday.  Each year thousands of people stand outside the big box stores of Wal-mart, Target, Best Buy and many others, hoping to get the best deal that they can on the most popular televisions, computers, and video games.  In past years there have been reports of people getting trampled, kicked, and some people last year even getting trampled, and this year is no different.  In Porter Ranch, CA a suburb of LA, a Woman was eagerly waiting in line for hours, waiting for the 10PM horn to start the mad rush.  As the horn blew a huge surge of people came through the doors and flooded the electronics section, and after being overwhelmed by her competition, a woman pepper sprayed her crowd of competitors, including some children.  Here is a video posted by Fox News of the event.

According to police, about 20 people had minor injuries from this incident including throat irritation, besides some bumps and bruises from the chaos.

On the positive side, later Friday night around 8:30PM a woman turned herself in claiming that she was the one that pepper sprayed the crowd that night, admitting that she sprayed pepper spray into the crowd.  Police have since released her from custody while they are examining the video surveillance footage and receipts from that day of purchases.

A better Choice, shop at home on Cyber Monday

Rather than go through all of the pushing and shoving and chaos of the “biggest shopping headache” of the year, as my brother described it, when he worked at Shop Ko in Duluth, MN, why not stay home and simply shop online?  No lines, and you can wear whatever you want and you don’t have a risk of getting trampled or pepper sprayed.

So far the best deal that I’ve found is the Canon EOS Rebel T2i with the 18-55mm lens and the 75-300mm telephoto Zoom Lens for only $799, which is $250 lower than the normal retail price.  To check out this great deal, and many others on the best site to shop online, follow the button Below now.

I have a friend who’s name is Jon.  For years on Thanksgiving day he would get together with 2 or 3 of his buddies and they would load up his old Dodge Caravan minivan with a couch, a tv, and an X-box, and go park it outside of the local Best buy, and as the sun would go down, the fun would begin.  They had a tailgate party and stayed up all night waiting in line for the Black Friday deals at Best Buy.

Similar stories can be heard all around the US with shoppers looking for bottom dollar on the hottest electronics for each individual season.  I don’t expect this year to be any different.  With all the craziness that can come from excited shoppers looking to get bottom dollar deals.  Jon is now married and has since moved away, and I’ve also gotten married and I have a beautiful 2 year old daughter at home, so rather than basking in the yellow Glow of the Best Buy sign, enduring a red eye bachelor pad experience, I prefer to shop online for all of the deals around the web.  I prefer to watch the Amazon Black Friday Deals page to see what deals might be coming about on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as the days have aptly been named.  If you are looking for good deals on many electronics items, such as a Toshiba Laptop for just $549.99, then check out the Amazon Black Friday Deals page using the link below.  Happy Hunting!

Check out the Amazon Black Friday Deals Page Now

Youtube.com is now the 4th most popular search engine in the US, according to Alexa.  As the web continues to evolve and more and more consumers are getting broadband in the home, and as current broadband subscribers are getting speed bumps across the country, streaming video is becoming a more convenient, more affordable, more flexible medium for getting content that we all enjoy at home, making youtube more popular than ever.

Ever since my wife allowed me to get my current LG 50ps80 TV (see my LG50ps80 review here) which has integrated Netflix and Youtube streaming, we have cancelled our regular cable tv service and simply pay for Netflix.  This is saving my family about $50 / month, and we still get all the great content in our home.  We can also have more control in sensoring content by restricting streaming content in Netflix by the TV Maturity Rating, and by category and rating in my youtube account settings.

As more and more people continue to turn off cable, and turn on youtube and netflix as their primary entertainment sources, cable commercial advertising is going to become less and less relevant, and it will be more necessary for any business owner or individual who wants to make money to harness the power of youtube.  Does your company currently have an active youtube channel?  How many uploads per month do you currently have, and how many comments, how many subscribers and shares?  If you don’t know these answers or you don’t have a youtube channel, then I suggest you start today, your revenue depends on it!

I’d love to hear your thoughts, post comments below!