David Pollitt

Review: CM-Photographics

// March 23rd, 2010 // View Comments // Photography, Review

This is another post in my series of reviews.  I am sure much of the traffic for this post will come via direct Google searches for this company, and I welcome you to my site.

CM-Photographics is a photography studio based in the Minneapolis – St Paul area.  They specialize in Wedding photography, but also do a variety of portrait work.  The studio is led by Chris Meyer, who shoots with multiple different shooters alongside him at events.  I have first hand experience of the work that this business does.  I researched throughly and decided on CM-Photographics as my own wedding photographer.  I had been browsing their portfolio for months, and knew that they had exactly the style I was looking for.  After meeting with Chris, I knew that I had full confidence in the quality of his work, and decided to book him for the date.

Chris and his team on my wedding day(Chris Meyer + David J. Owen), did everything as planned and more.  They showed up when they said they would, were very friendly and fun with the entire group, and produced excellent results.  I even received multiple comments from family and friends who attended the celebration on how great they thought the photographers were.

This is where I will splash my blurb on why I find it worth it to hire a photographer such as CM-Photographics.  Sure, you can hire your friend from college, uncle, or weekend-warrior photographer to photograph one of the most important days of your life.  But, what you pay for in a studio like this is consistent, reliable results.  Yes, your friend with a new $500 SLR and a few sub $500 lenses can shoot very artistic and interesting shots when he/she is out and about in nature or at events.  Can they do the same thing 1000 or so times, in a dark chruch/reception hall, for each moment that will be important to you the day of your wedding?  I think it is very unlikely that you can find a photographer who can/will do this for you as an amateur.  There are always exceptions, and the weekend warrior who has 10k invested in equipment, has always had a good eye for photojournalism, and is coupled with a love of stressful situations – might do a great job at your wedding.  I just find it more comforting to know that my photographer is going to do an exceptional job.

The quality of the finished product was fantastic, I was very pleased with the completed images that I received.  A few weeks after the wedding we sat down with Chris at his studio, and watched a short video with his favorite images from the wedding.  It was a great first look at the entire event, and gave us a chance to really enjoy seeing them.  He sent us home with that video, as well as all of the original images on disc.  The images were also available online for our family members to look at and purchase.

That is why I choose CM-Photographics, and why I can whole heartily recommend them for your wedding and event photography.  If you are interested in learning more, check out their website at cm-photographics.com – Tell them David Pollitt sent you!

Why you should be using Google Chrome

// September 7th, 2009 // View Comments // Review, Software

Google Chrome

You may ask yourself, why should I switch from Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari to Google Chrome? Well, I think I have plenty of reasons for you to at least give it a try and maybe you’ll convince yourself.  One of the biggest reasons that I think Chrome rocks is the JavaScript engine behind it.  The JavaScript virtual machine that Chrome is based on, V8 – is one of the fastest on the block.  Give it a test for yourself on javascript heavy websites such as Gmail, Google Docs, or Facebook.

Some major features you’ll love-

• Automatic root URL highlighting
• Every tab runs independantly, so if one crashes, everything else will stay
• Drag any chrome tab out of the window and into a new one
• Drag and drop downloads out of Chrome’s status bar and onto your desktop to save them there, or into any Explorer window to save them there.
• Click and drag any textarea corner to resize it to your liking, such as in a comment box on a blog
• Extremely fast startup and loading of pages

If you are serious about testing out Chrome, I would strongly suggest trying the dev channel.  Google has three different versions of Chrome that you can try.  The first is the main public release(stable), then the beta, and finally the dev edition.  They are supposed to progressively become less stable as they push the newest features and test less as you go down the line.  I have been on the dev channel for a few months now and have had few issues.  So if you don’t mind being a bit risky with your browser, this is the way to go.

The Google Chrome Early Access Release Channels(beta/dev) can be found here:
http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel

If you want to try out the stable current release just head over to http://www.google.com/chrome

-DPollitt

Review – Mint.com

// August 14th, 2009 // View Comments // Review

If you aren’t familiar with it yet, Mint.com is an online finance management tool. It is similar to what people have used in the past such as Quicken desktop software or Quicken online. It could also be used as a replacement for balancing a checkbook, or using software like Microsoft Money.
The great thing about Mint is that it allows you to connect to your all of your financial accounts in one place. If you are like me and a bit obsessive about money management, you end up checking nearly 10 accounts every day or two for updated balances and transaction information. What Mint allows you to do, is go to one place to view all of this information in a combined and useful way.
Some people are afraid of is giving out this financial login information to Mint, and the possibility of it getting out to someone else. The way that Mint claims this is a safe bet, is by giving us bank quality encryption, meaning your data is safe while in transmission back and forth. Also, Mint does not ask for a users name, SSN, or addresses. Mint also only allows you to download bank information, you cannot process a movement of money or otherwise manipulate your finances. It simply allows you a view to your money.

It really only takes a few minutes to sign up for mint.  But trust me, once you sign up and add event two accounts, you will be hooked.  The amount of data you can pull from linking multiple accounts is amazing.  I like to break down my entire months food bill, showing me where I spend the money – Restaurants, fast food, gas stations, grocery stores, etc.  It really makes it easy to see where your money is going towards.

Mint.com really gets my full endorsement, I have been an obsessive user of the site for nearly a year now, and would be pretty lost without it as a resource.

-DPollitt

Review: Dick’s Sports Barber – Eden Prairie

// August 11th, 2009 // View Comments // Life, Review

Taking a bit of a sidetrack from my regular posts here on this website, I’m going to take some time to do a few reviews.  Hopefully people will find this content via Google since not much of it exists out there already.

Dick’s Sports Barber in Eden Prairie is a very well run barbershop that caters to just the type of guy I am.  Well, not just my type since I am not a huge sports fan, but it isn’t a requirement to have a great time at this place.  The location is great, right across the street from Eden Prairie mall, in a strip mall right next door to Applebee’s if you are familiar with the area.  The shop itself is very large, includes somewhere around eight chairs, plenty of seating, and tons of other fun stuff I’ll explain.  When I stepped inside I thought the shop was brand new, since it was very clean, and everything looked perfectly in order and in line.  Later I was informed that the shop is actually a few years old, which I was surprised about, but nevertheless it was in great shape.

Now on to the real treat.  This shop is filled with an enormous putting green, complete with 5 holes to test your skills.  It even has varying slopes on some of the holes to give a bit of variety.  If golf isn’t your thing, they also have an air hockey table, and an XBox with an MLB game ready to go.  This is all fun if you are waiting in line for your chair, but if you are already seated, there are also plenty of TV’s with Sportscenter or whatever game is on nestled right above the mirrors.

So the real reason I was interested in this shop was the fact that they do good old fashioned hot shaves.  This is the real shave, done with a straight edge razor and hot shaving cream straight from the managers personal machine.  The shave is the closest you will ever have, and it feels pretty good too.  First they start off with a hot towel wrap, and the hole process is made enjoyable.

For my wedding day, I invited my groomsmen and dad’s to spend the morning in this shop.  It was a great event and I would recommend anyone interested in a similar event talk to Josh at (952)943-2475.

Oh, and by the way, they do give you a great regular haircut.  So if you are living in Eden Prairie or nearby, be sure to give this place a try.  It is loads better then heading over to your nearest family discount haircut shop.  Plus, who doesn’t enjoy a nice putting green while you wait?

Dicks Sports Barber

8423 Joiner Way

Eden Prairie, MN 55344

All photos taken by CM-Photographics

-DPollitt