Shez Photography » General

Maxx

Jamie — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:23:44 +0000

I want to take a moment to formally introduce the newest member of our family, Maxx. We recently adopted Maxx from the same rescue we adopted Pearl from. Why did we decide to get another dog? Honestly I’m still not sure, I somehow got talked into it. The back story is that when we went to go see Pearl back in November at her foster house we had a multitude of dogs greet us at the door. One of them was Maxx, a three year old male Malamute/Shepherd. He ended up gravitating toward Bryan because he liked a good butt scratch. When it was time to decide if we wanted to get Pearl, Bryan turned to me and asked “What about Maxx?” to which I replied “I came here for Pearl.” Since getting a dog was supposed to be my Christmas present last year Bryan let me get Pearl and she has been a pleasure to have. About three weeks ago Bryan asked me if Maxx was still up for adoption, after checking Coastal German Shepherd Rescues website I told him that Maxx was still available. That’s when Bryan told me that he was still really interested in Maxx and would love to bring him into our home. Initially I tried to talk him out of it, I know people with multiple large dogs and I know it’s a challenge but Bryan made a very good case for getting Maxx and so later that week we brought him into our home.

Pearl instantly fell in love with him although he didn’t quite feel the same way about her. Mostly he ignores her while she tries to jump on top of him. But they nonetheless make a good looking pair, I have received many compliments while out for walks with both of them. You heard that right, little five foot tall me can handle both of them at the same time. I feel like a rock star. Although I can not say Maxx does not have his issues; he has chewed our blinds, he gets really excited when he sees other dogs and can’t be trusted off the leash at a dog park. I found out after adopting him that Malamutes are a very difficult breed to train and I pretty much experience that fact every day. I have never had much patience in my life and Maxx is teaching me how to have a lot of it. This goes to show that Cesar Millan is probably right when he says “You don’t always get the dog you want but you will get the dog you need.”

Picture of the Week 12-17-09

Jamie — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:06:06 +0000

As I was walking my dog around the Tustin Sports Park I noticed a few of the trees which inspired this week’s photo. Although fall is almost over there were still a few trees that still retained their brilliant autumn colors. I chose to shoot in the late afternoon which provided me with very warm light. I also tried to do auto exposure bracketing on all my shots but it was actually very windy when I was photographing. The photo below is an HDR image and as you can see the trees in the background didn’t line up perfectly when I put the images through Photomatix. I still love how the oranges, yellows and reds blend together and it reminds me that my favorite season of the year is coming to a close.

For more non-HDR shots of the fall foliage check out the GALLERY.

Photo Info: Shot with the 5D Mark II and made up of three images. Image 1- ISO 800 at F8 and 1/500 of a second. Image 2- ISO 800 at F8 and 1/1000 of a second. Image 3- ISO 800 at F8 and 1/250 of a second.

Pearl

Jamie — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:28:44 +0000

I haven’t posted anything recently for a couple reasons, one is that we haven’t been taking many pictures lately and the other is a bit more unfortunate. About three weeks ago we lost our family dog. She had gone from seemingly perfect health to her death bed in a matter of a week. Mimi wasn’t even really our dog, but she had been living with us for about 4 months. Despite her short time with us her loss was very hard to take. Before Mimi, Bryan and I had never owned a dog, we were fish people. Mimi was a ray of sunshine in our life and after her passing we realized that we could never go back to being just fish people, we were dog people. As a way to distract myself from the constant pain of thinking about Mimi, I browsed around the internet for dogs. I came across a site that rescues German Shepherds and that’s where I found her. Pearl, that is, a white German Shepherd. We recently adopted this beautiful dog and she has been amazing. I didn’t bond with Pearl the way I bonded with Mimi at first, but then again Mimi set the bar pretty high. Pearl has got her own weird personality with all the random quirks that you grow to love. Nonetheless she is our own perfect gem.

Picture of the Week 10-26-2009

Jamie — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:10:54 +0000

This week’s picture is yet another HDR image done in Photomatix. I shot this with a rented Canon 50D in Mission Hills during the Trail of Torment. While I was waiting at the finish line for the runners I noticed the beautiful foliage around me and the perfect golden lighting that the early morning sunrise was providing. I thought it would make for a perfect HDR image. The great thing about the 50D is it’s ability to shoot in high speed continious mode. Because I almost never use a tripod my HDR shots usually don’t line up right when I put them into Photomatix because I always shoot hand held. With the 50D in high speed continious this was not a problem, the burst was so fast it was like the wind didn’t have any time to rustle through the leaves.

Photo Info: This photo was made up of three images and shot with the Canon 50D. Image #1- ISO 400, F7.1 at 1/640 of a second. Image #2- ISO 400, F7.1 at 1/1250 of a second. Image #3- ISO 400, F7.1 at 1/320 of a second.

Gallery Search Tips

Bryan — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:36:01 +0000

If you are reading this it is because you want more tips on searching the gallery. The gallery is organized into albums and you can of course navigate to an album and browse through the images. Some albums however have hundreds of images and this become tiresome. You just want your photo so here is how you find it. Click “search” at the top. By default it will search the title, the description and the keywords. Also by default it will match only images which contain all the words you search on. This is great for most searches. However sometimes you need to change things up.

For instance let’s say your bib number is 2009. Well a keyword on all events from 2009 is (yes you guessed it) 2009. However the number is not in the title of the image so you can search on only the title to find your photo.

Occasionally you may also want to change the operator from “AND” to “OR” to be more inclusive and find images containing any of the words you type. I can’t think of an example at this moment but you might want to do it.

Lastly, experiment. If you can’t find what you are looking for just experiment. As a final resort you can email me at bryan@shezphoto.com and I will search the actual image archive for the photo you are looking for.

Good searching!

Picture of the Week 9-24-2009

Jamie — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:36:43 +0000

I am using an older picture that I’ve posted on my blog before to show how awesome Photomatix is. I’ve been taking a lot of old photos and making them into HDR images. I didn’t think I would get so obsessed with it, but it does make the images pop that much more. I’m actually going to show the three images that I used to create the final HDR image. I cheated a little bit by using only one image and saving it at different exposure instead of actually doing Auto Exposure Bracketing in my camera. But the result is still the same.

Photo Info: Photo underexposed by 1 full stop

Photo Info: Photo perfectly exposed at ISO 100, F16, 1/100.

Photo Info: Photo overexposed by 1 full stop

Photo Info: Three above photos combined to make HDR image.

Picture of the Week 9-15-2009

Jamie — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:25:59 +0000

Hey look what’s back, it’s picture of the week! I can’t believe it’s been more than a month since I posted one of these. Honestly my August was crazy and I just didn’t shoot that much. We recently purchased an Adventure Pass that allows us to get into many Orange County parks. One of our new favorite parks is Peters Canyon, located off of Jamboree Road and very close to our house. We have been hiking a lot lately which is a lot more fun when we bring Mimi the cattle dog along. Most of the time we hike after work which is when the sun starts to go down. The lighting during this time is beautiful and the past few days the clouds were being very photogenic. This week’s photo is a shot from one of our after work hikes. I’ve taken the liberty to put it through Photomatix and make it into an HDR. This photo was shot hand held which I don’t recommend when doing HDR because as you can see the objects don’t align perfectly but I still love the results!

Photo Info: Shot with the 5D Mark II. Comprised of three photos. Photo 1- ISO 500, F8 at 1/400 of a second. Photo 2- ISO 500, F8 at 1/800 of a second. Photo 3- ISO 500, F8 at 1/200 of a second. I also used a polarizing filter for a more dramatic effect.

Vivian Creek Adventure Hike

Bryan — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:21:31 +0000

A good friend of mine, Jay recently started what he terms “Adventure Friday”. See, he works Saturday but always gets Friday off. He already completed one major hike about a month ago and was looking to go on another. I took him up and we applied for a permit to hike the Vivian Creek trail which leads eventually to Mount San Gorgonio. As we set out on the trail I was excited and about as prepared as I thought I should be. I carried two liters of water plus an 8 oz chocolate Silk soy drink. Jamie made me two sandwiches and packed me trail mix, dried fruit, Shot Bloks, and Gu. Jay was even more prepared. He packed a full U.S. gallon of water plus he had trekking poles and a water filtration pump. More importantly, Jay is in much better shape then I am.

So we set out on our hike at a few minutes past 7AM. The trail starts flat, crosses a riverbed for Mill Creek and then shoots up into seriously steep switchbacks and loose rocky terrain. Jay and I were both feeling great as we crossed Vivian Creek and continued on a slight uphill. As we were going I mentioned to Jay that I smelled smoke but he couldn’t smell it at the time. We kept going and even though it was some seriously steep and technical hiking I was feeling great. We passed Half Way Creek feeling good. We continued up to another switchback which took us around to a great view of the valley. It was then that we could see the typical thermal inversion layer in the atmosphere and below it this cloud of thick black and orange smoke. This spooked Jay and concerned me as well. My first though was “let’s get away from the smoke”. I wanted to summit and then decide which side of the mountain to come down. If there was fire nearby we would see it and we could go down the other side. Jay reminded me that this would make it a 23 mile hike. “Good Point” I said and so we went down. We got about a mile and a half down or almost 1200 vertical feet and we happened across the first hikers we had seen on the trail so far. They didn’t know where the smoke came from but were not concerned. Then another couple came up and continued on. Jay and I decided it must be safe to continue so we went back up.

Smoke from the Santa Barbara County fires

Jay looking worried

The second time doing that ascent took it’s toll on me. We went slightly above where we turned around the first time and stopped to eat lunch. Then we continued on past High Creek. By this time I was really feeling it. We got a few hundred feet vertically above High Creek when I decided to call it quits. We could have reached the summit but we would have gotten back to the car around 7PM and I had no cell service to tell Jamie I would be late.

It felt really good to be going downhill and we made great time. Then my body just hit a wall and every step was a major effort. I had forgotten how steep the switchbacks above Mill Creek were. Jay lent me his trekking poles and that helped me get down. Then we crossed the creek and made it to the car. I was never happier to see a car in my life and I thought for a moment about kissing it’s steel skin; then I decided not to.

Be sure to check out my GPS information and the photos I took. Also make sure to check out Jay’s Adventure Friday blog here. Oh, by the way the fire was all the way up in Santa Barbara County and nowhere near us.

Part Dingo

Bryan — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:40:20 +0000

In the tradition of one of our favorite photographers I’m including adorable photos of my Dog as a way to boost traffic to this site. Ok, well it’s not really my dog as it is my family’s dog and I’m pet sitting. The dog’s name is Mimi and one thing which has always troubled me is to find out just what kind of dog she is. You see I heard she was pure bred but she looks like a mut. I also heard she was Australian Shepherd but she looks nothing like those dogs except that they are about the same size but her fur is much shorter and courser and her coloring is both spotted and mixed.

For a long while I just assumed she must be a mut. That is, she must be a mixed breed. So one day I was playing Fallout 3 and decided to research the game a bit. I happen across this page. It says there is a dog companion in the game. It also mentions it’s the same breed of dog that plays in Mad Max 2 and more importantly mentions this dog is an Australian Cattle Dog of the Blue Heeler type. This is important as a neighbor recently conjectured that she might be a heeler. So this sent me to this page.

From here I found photos which match almost exactly to what Mimi looks like. She is a “Blue Heeler” color with very little red mostly in her undercoat on her head and some on her back thighs. Otherwise Mimi is entirely black and white with an almost perfectly black face. I learned many interesting facts about Australian Cattle Dogs like the fact that they are considered in the top ten of most intelligent dogs. In addition I learned they were bred by combining Collies with Dingos then mixing in some Bull Terrier and finally Dalmatian. The Dalmatian is responsible for the unique coloring of the dog as it passed a long a gene with basically guarantees they will have multiple colored fur. You can see from straight on the characteristic ears from the Dingo. An interesting note about Dingo is that it was a once domesticated dog which has reverted back to wild in order to survive roaming free in much of Australia.

So there you have it. Mimi is a great dog and companion and now I know from whence she has come.

San Diego Photo Trip

Jamie — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:20:06 +0000

Last weekend we went with our friends down to San Diego for a day long photo trip. We first visited the Cabrillo National Monument. While waiting for our friends to arrive I took many photos of the view of San Diego from the visitors center. We also ran into some sort of miniature sea explorer man who graciously took a photo with me. I wonder if he scowls at all the tourists photos or if I irked him in some way. Our main purpose for visiting was to see the old Point Loma Lighthouse. It was nice but nothing spectacular, it probably would have been more fun to photograph at dawn or dusk. After exploring the lighthouse we drove down to the Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala. I had a lot of fun photographing this site, especially all the colorful flowers. After thoroughly exploring the mission we went to Sea World. Yes, I know, this day was jam packed. While at Sea World we got to see the Clydesdales, the Beluga whales and the shark aquarium. But of course no trip to Sea World is complete without seeing Shamu perform. I’m still not sure which whale Shamu actually is, there seems to be many Shamu’s. They all performed an awesome show and after that we called it a day. Check out the photos below: