The Boogeyman Himself in 2011

It’s been a while since the last time I blogged and I feel it’s about time to yet one more time force my amazingly brilliant and incredibly interesting musings on life, the universe and all that stuff upon the Internet ;) Actually, this is more of a glorified Facebook status update than anything else. Here we go.

Clearly, since I’m actually writing this, I’m still around, kickin’, if not butt at least some gravel on the road. Life’s life, meaning it has its ups and downs, yet generally pretty good. I live, work and create, although photocreativity haven’t always been the first thing on my mind this winter, much due to changes in my personal life and relationship status.

Certain things have an uncanny ability to steal energy and draw focus to the extent where just getting by is what you have to do. Yet, it will pass as you are able process what’s going on and one could argue that it is necessary too, to let these things run their course lest you store up heavy matter that sooner or later will come back and dropkick you in the face. Luckily it was a fairly clean break and although not without inevitable complications, it was slightly less earth shattering than what I’ve experienced before. I attribute that to an overall more stable and content life-situation, sheer experience and perhaps some lost illusions along the way. It literally did hurt like a bitch, but life is to be lived, not to be spent grieving over what you’ve lost. At least that’s not how I want to live my life. Page turned, chapter finished and a new one begun.

I guess my perspective have evolved/degenerated quite a bit from the naive perception of the world that a teenage mind tend to sport. As you’ve lived for a bit you realize we’re only leasing our love(r)s and partners in life even if it should last until death do part. The important thing is what we give and receive while we’re sharing time. In this particular case she was the catalyst and muse behind my diving into what became the most important thing in my life, photography. We also shared perhaps the best period of both our lives so far. What more can you ask from another human being than to receive such a gift?

Thinking back I find I have been very fortunate to have known and loved some amazing women in my (short) time. I’ve never taken for granted that one will experience love in life and there’s so many that never do. Of course everyone should and deserve to, but in the game of coupling you don’t exactly get to freely choose the cards you’re dealt.

In terms of work things have ever so very slowly been picking up momentum. Early this year much time went into the design, layout and creation of a book. It came to be a pretty exhausting process with many more issues than initially anticipated (always..) and problems with the printing works but in the end we got a pretty good result. The book is illustrated by my photos but luckily someone else did the work on the text. I just pieced it all together and created the design which was to a certain extent based on the design profile I’d created for the initial stages of this project. The book is the finalization and summary of a conference on cochlear implants, something meant to provide a written and long-lasting source of information on this subject for users and professionals. Its print run numbers 1000 colorful copies, something which might not sound like much, but then again this is a very specialized field and it’s in Norwegian, thus not exactly of global interest.

The whole experience was very educational and for one I got to know InDesign on a whole new level. I’m self-taught in most if not all things related to photography, design and computing in general and this is no exception. Of course it’s great to be able to acquire new skills and knowledge but it require effort on your own part and the errors that you make may be your very best guide. The important thing is the ability to learn from your mistakes and not to be afraid to try again. Hmm…that actually sounds much like life in general ;)

This winter I’ve also had a number of shots in print in magazines and more are coming. It’s always a great feeling to see your photographs in print and I enjoy it very much, as long as I get paid of course :D In order to be able to do more work I also started  ”Falk Photo”, a single-person firm. This pic shows my logo/header-concept and business card. A website is in the works but got delayed by a accidental wipe and loss of all the work I’d done. Mindovermadness.org is a personal blog, not really a suitable “front” for a business, hence one more website to keep track of and running for me. Mindovermadness.org will be around and still be the primary online home of my more private photographic efforts. I hope to get my business website up and running during May. It will of course be in Norwegian but I consider making an English version too. I kind of doubt though, that I’ll be getting jobs in the US or UK anytime soon ;)

So, what’s coming up? Obviously more work, also hopefully a warm, cozy BBQ-flavored summer with a lot of nice images, happy moments and many a full belly. Quite simply put – I’m as optimistic as ever before.  No photograph and no amount of money can change the fact that my medical condition is inevitably creeping up on me, but it does not mean life can’t and shouldn’t be enjoyed and lived when it’s actually here. Our existence is so fragile, so easily torn asunder by factors outside our control that it is a crime not to try to make the best out of it or utilize our potential as human beings.

There’s much I do not know or am able to anticipate about the future, thus is the nature the human existence. Perhaps in some ways my future is slightly more complicated than the one of others, but I am privileged, not only to live in a country where mostly everyone got bread on the table, but also because I am lucky enough to know and enjoy the company of some truly wonderful people and at least occasionally do what I love, which is making images. I will keep tripping that shutter and do what I can while hoping things turn out okay, they mostly do anyway.

Be good, folks!

My latest foray into the ever expanding world of social media related services, I choose to make from sort of a photographic perspective. What can social medias offer for a hobbyist and enthusiast photographer like me that don’t do this for profit? My first venture was establishing a presence on Flickr, kind of the obvious place to go if you’re a photo nut. It’s the largest dedicated image hosting place on the Internet and offer a lot of different functionality. Ironically, I can’t say I care overly much for the browsing and picture viewing functionality of Flickr, I find it tedious and poorly designed. The discussion forums, groups, search function and ability to comment are however priceless functionality and very effective for building communities and connecting with other photographers and artists. All things considered Flickr is a great package, but it seems somewhat…contrived in certain areas, the functionality is not always that obvious or user friendly.

The next pass I made towards Facebook, which I do know from a couple years of use. I made a custom Facebook page which is a different beast from a personal profile or a group. A Facebook page allows me to separate the private snaps of my profile from the more “serious” work, while still being able to easily share it with others on my friends list. Also, a page allows others, that for some reason is interested in my photography, to keep an eye on my photographic efforts without having to be included in my small group of “friends”. I guess you could say separating business from personal life. I’ve seen a number of other photographers using Facebook pages and also some stating on forums that they are useful for their businesses, they get some extra customers and exposure. Considering the fact that Facebook, unlike Flickr, is not entirely populated by photographers, that seems very likely. There’s obvious potential in these kinds of medias.

Now, what if you cut this FB vs Flickr thing down to a purely user/visitor perspective? Well, I do find it’s easier to browse images on Facebook compared to Flickr and if I, who am rather computer savvy feel that, no doubt others do too. On the other hand, the low resolution (604×404 I believe) and heavy jpg compression of Facebook is brutal and seriously massacre many images. Frankly 1280px width/height is a bare minimum to get a rough idea of the technical quality and sharpness of an image and that is also what I generally post in the galleries here at Mind Over Madness. Even a 0.3mp cellphone picture can look nice if presented on or in a low-resolution screen or media. Yet, if you’re like me, always trying to achieve the best possible technical quality within the limitations of gear, skill and ability, these things matter. When you spend days, months and years dressing down pixels and looking up their most private and sensitive places, you tend to get very vary of the various flaws. JPGs are no matter how you put it, a format that compresses files, thus throwing away information. For most people though, low resolution web images are just fine and dandy. Facebook is thus likely the easiest for Joe Sixpack to browse, especially if they already use it and know it’s “logic”. There is no doubt though, that Flickr is the best network for photographers wanting to connect with other  photographers, with dedicated photography forums such as DPreview as a minor and not completely comparable exception.

Despite of the various quirks of Flickr and Facebook, they offer more arenas to show off my work and more chances to funnel people to my blog. Of course there’s a chance that my horrible photos will give them mental scars for life, but hey, what’s the point of having stuff on the net if you don’t want and try to show it to people? Admittedly, I don’t work very hard to promote Mind Over Madness, nor do I religiously update it twice per week and talk about subjects easily accessible to the great masses. I don’t have the surplus energy nor any interest in doing that. I write when I have something I need or want to say ;-)

Anyway, to speak more generally about social medias. However you put it, they are simply tools and frankly, I love tools, I’ll take all I can get! Social medias can be used for great benefit, or gloriously abused, I’m sure you know that, and the examples of both cases are numerous. One should approach them with care and common sense, think through what you post, say and link to. Don’t let the risks scare you away though!  These things ain’t going away, and trust me, you don’t want to be left out of the game. Likely both for personal and professional life, it is a good idea to at least understand what the fuss is all about. So, if I’m to make any statement to some old-school sceptic reading this, it would have to be that you should at least consider putting some time and energy into learning these things. With knowledge comes ability both to utilize but also connect the dots and see new possibilities. I’m not overly enthusiastic about social medias and the “always connected” phenomenon of modern life, but I reckon that if you know something ain’t going away, you’re best off figuring out a way to live with it.

Duckling in the Royal Castle Park

Well it’s time to face it, or rather publish it. I’m not going to win any prizes for the most frequently updated blog, always pushing interesting posts on recent events. I suspect mindovermadness.org have slid into the “rarely-updated” category it shares with at least 90 per cent of all other blogs. While I seriously love writing and using words, writing is for me, an all-out process,  demanding, taxing and time-consuming. Also, since last November my life has been about two things, 1. The missus, and 2. Photography.  In fact the only part of this site that really have been more or less frequently updated is the photo galleries.

Now, I don’t really shed any tears over my “failure” as a blogger. Been there, done that, simply another experience added to my CV. That said, mindovermadness.org will be up and running, and chances are that I will change the layout and style of the site to a more photo-bloggish kind, whatever that is. I also cherish the ability to write a post every now and then, regardless if I’m the only reader ;) I hope to use this domain to show both some of my “serious” photo work, and some laidback, private stuff. I spend a lot of time making images, and I simply want to be able to show some of them to people, yet, Flickr and similar does not really tempt me. Especially not when I have a domain. I could perhaps gain a larger audience, but let’s be frank, my photographic adventures are not likely to win any prizes anytime soon.

I photograph because the art and trade fascinates me immensely, and, well to quote Gary Winogrand more or less correctly “..to see how something looks like photographed.”. It’s also that one little thing….far from everything you do, allow you to clearly see the improvements you make. That is one great big plus on behalf of photography in my book. You can (hopefully) see that your skill and vision improve! I think everyone should be able to treat themselves with the feeling of accomplishment every once in a while.

The path to the level of technical and compositional quality I want to master, is long, but still I am confident that even if I haven’t got the greatest skill or ability, I will be fairly technically savvy and accomplished in time. Likely not an artist, but at least a decent photographer. Given my present life situation, time is what I got a lot of and using at least some of it for positive things soothe my consciousness. Besides, we all need passions in our lives, otherwise everything gets pretty dull. Nothing is better than having something you feel is rewarding to focus your energy on.

Now, I’d like to wish my readers a nice summer and a good time. When I’ll be back writing here remains to be seen. New galleries will be added regularly when I have something I’d like to show people.

Yours (whomever you may be),

My personal objective with this very blog, is mainly to provide a few, but consistent articles about subjects I find interesting, and the goal is to do so on a weekly basis. I love words and I love to write and I find it clears the mind and makes things easier to understand. I write, not only to explain to others my  personal understanding of things, but as much to gain increased insight and understanding myself. This blog is named Mind Over Madness, and a core element in that personal mindset of mine, is expanding one’s self-consciousness and continuously trying to achieve a greater overall understanding of life, the universe and everything.

Hence, I strive for a certain dept or substance in what I produce, rather than just mindless chatter. Not because there’s anything wrong with chatter, but the Internet is already full of it and I hardly think more is needed. If I can just give one person a new idea, or a new perception, then my mission is accomplished. This is also why some of my articles are rather lengthy and perhaps challenging to read. In the end, this is probably wasted efforts, considering the media I’m working with, but still I do it ;) It is a fact that most people will only read the headlines and stop there. If they find the text even remotely boring or difficult, they will surf on to some other site.

While it is always nice if people read what you write, I could personally hardly be less worried if they don’t. Getting someone to read what you write, is a privilege, not a matter of course. The reader should be treated with respect, yet there’s a difference between respect and just giving people what they want. The really great thing about a media such as a blog, is that you, unlike a journalist working in a newspaper or in a TV-channel, can totally ignore the economical aspect. You can get a blog up and running more or less for free, only requiring some of your time. You don’t have to worry about creating content people wish to read so that they will buy your publication.

Some will argue that journalists boast high ethical standards and strong internal justice, thus ensuring their objectivity, good research and quality content. Others might counter by pointing to the fact that journalists are human beings too, they need money to live, they are employed and have ideological sentiments like everyone else. It is hardly any secret that most medias have a certain political bias that may or will affect what they publish. The blogger may have no professional background, thus no ethical standards deriving from being a professional writer. Ultimately this means, for the reader, that no less care and careful scepticism should be used when considering the validity of the utterances of a blog compared to those of a news paper.

It is my personal conviction that an author has, at least to himself, a moral responsibility to provide content he is able to defend and back up. Nothing is worse than spreading lies and wrongful accusations, and you should remind the reader that this is your perception and not necessarily “the truth”, if a truth do exist at all. I think realizing that almost everything is a matter of perspective is a good starting point for whatever you wish to write and publish. The more sensitive and complicated the subject is, the more care and consideration should you employ when writing about it.

That said, in the end, it is not the writers but the readers responsibility to discern the truth from the lies. There are too many willing to bend and twist the truth to fit their own obscure uses. Source criticism goes for this blog as for any other blog or news-source. You’ve got a brain, use it!

The original Vrooom!-theme. Click to see demo.

I have not been vey productive in terms of content over the last few days and that is mostly due to the fact that I’ve had my head deep down into .php and .css files. I’ve redesigned my blog into something I, personally, find fairly pleasing and aesthetically decent. It’s sleek, its dark and it’s mine.

Before I begun the redesign-process, I used the theme deFusion by webdemar and I wished to carry on with at least one element from this theme, namely the drop down menu/nav-bar. That is, the functionality, not necessarily the looks. Yet, I also wanted a look that more closely resembles my other sites, ushersyndrome.info and roflmao.me. Looking through the themes-category of wordpress.org eventually gave me not only inspiration, but also code to borrow.

webdemars' deFusion theme. Click to see demo.

I don’t know if having an all-site fairly similar visual style makes any sense to others, but it’s got to be a fix idea for me. Anyway, the last few days have been an intense battle with tags and code, but also very educational, as I’ve begun to grasp some basic CSS, and PHP/HTML. I got some extremely valuable help from my eminent girlfriend, Annci, and also a crazy Finnish guy I know. Back in the days when I first learnt a little HTML (the 90s), there was hardly anything but, well, HTML. Sites where static and simple. Later innovations such as powerful scripting languages and style-sheets came, but I never followed the development. Now I’m finally starting to feel I’m catching a little bit up with what’s happened between the lines over the past 10 or so years and getting to a stage where I can produce at least moderately useful websites, but I do no doubt have a long way to go. Regardless, if you’re an Internet-addict like me, I feel it’s almost required to at least have some basic knowledge of the media you’re using so much…websites.

pacq's Tomorrow theme. Click to see demo.

The result of my latter-day coding frenzy, is a site that’s fairly unique, although obviously classic WordPress. It is also a real Frankenstein as it consist of two-three different themes. More specifically the Vrooom! theme by Rajaie AlKorani provides the bulk and body, the Tomorrow theme by pacq’s inspired the font-styles and the beforementioned deFusion the drop-down nav-bar/menu-bar. Now, I like simplistic design and dark colors, probably because it’s more pleasing and calm to my own eyes. Unfortunately it has some drawbacks too, which font-colors to use is one of them. If they are too solid and sharp it doesn’t look good. In the end I settled on a couple of different gray-tones and a soft blue for links. In the end, this is my site and I do whatever i want! There are still things that could be better, and I will probably make some minor changes and fine-tune a bit here and there, but overall I consider myself done and I plan to settle on this look for a while and rather focus more on content.

If you have any comments or suggestions to my design, feel free to drop me some lines. I might, or might not, take them into consideration, but generally speaking I always like to hear peoples opinions on things that concern me.

WordPress is an extremely popular blogging platform, both as stand-alone put-it-on-your-domain software, and as a service that offers hosting and the basic capabilities from wordpress.com. Since I’ve owned this domain for many years, and it was perfect for such use, I quickly got started and I’ve never looked back. There’s a multitude of info on the web about WordPress, and hundreds of thousands of blogs running on this software, so I will not go in-dept on its abilities and pros/cons. Enough said is that it’s a piece of software using mysql database technology and powerful PHP-scripts to form a foundation for building a blog. On top of that you can slap themes, thus changing the look and feel of your blog, as well as literally a truckload of plugins. The plugins add new abilities, customize both the public look of the blog and improve the admin interface. Although WordPress works just fine from a default installation, the ability to add functionality and customize it is what makes it really interesting. You can build virtually any kind of site with WordPress and because of the exceptional amount of plugins, you can always find something that suits your needs and fine-tune the usability of your site.

Bottom line, WordPpress is free, it works, and it’s amazingly powerful, even if you’re not a 1337 coder. Even a one-braincell barbarian such as me, can put up something fairly decent in a matter of hours, Mostly everything you need to know is easily figured out through some googling and reading at the wordrpess.org site. Thumbs up!