Duchess of Earl…
It has been a while since I posted anything, let alone pictures of some of the fine animals at Liberty Humane Society. In light of news that one of my favorite dogs has been adopted, tonight seems like a good night to share…
This is Big Star. She was just adopted after being at the shelter since late March. Her new name will be Duchess & she will be sharing a home with a boxer named Duke (& probably some people).
Here are some of my other favorites from October. Most of them have been adopted but there are plenty more who still need homes. I promise.
Callie
Indiana
Jessie
Mr. Pryor
Skittle
Snow Drop & her mom, Smoochie, came in very sick. When I first took their photos a month ago, I thought for sure that they may not make it. So, while this first photo may not be the best quality, it reminds me of the moment I saw them again, looking so much better.
Tilapia
Inti
Karma
For more photos of adoptable cats & dogs in any area, please visit petfinder.com. If you are in the Jersey City area, please find Liberty Humane Society’s facebook page to view more photos. Even if you cannot adopt, there are many great events & volunteer opportunities, as well as a donation wish list. Don’t throw out your old blankets & towels, bring them to your shelter!
“I never dreamed you’d leave in summer. I thought you would go then come back home…”
I do believe that should be the soundtrack for the next ASPCA commercial. However, I would like them to start encouraging people to volunteer.
Tropical & I
Anyway, consider yourselves warned… The following are some of my favorites from the last few months at Liberty Humane Society. If you want to see more of my shelter photos, I made a slideshow of them set to Snowball 37’s “Baby, You’re A Star.” Click that link or search youtube.
Sivic
Bo
- Bo
- Euston
- Destiny
I printed a larger, color verison of this for the shelter. Then, I signed it & framed it. My first work of art?
- Monk
“I thought the cold would leave by summer but my quiet nights will be spent alone… I never dreamed you’d leave in summer but now I find myself all alone… Why didn’t you stay?” – Stevie Wonder
Monster!
That is Monster at Denny’s. He came with me to see Run Robot Saturday night. Run Robot is a kick ass rock band. This is Mike. He is the lead singer and is also the bass player for another of my favorite bands, Binky Bianca .
This is Chet. He plays guitar for Run Robot & Trick Bag (who I have yet to see live) & he is also one of my favorite photographers.
They’re both awesome people who I am grateful to count as friends. A wise, talented, successful musician* recently said to me, “Wow, you really support your friends.” I responded by telling him that I really love music and am afraid that live music is going to die. Also, I really believe that these friends of mine are incredibly talented. In most cases, I became their friends after I already was a fan of the music.
Here is Binky from Binky Bianca at Uncle Mike’s on Mischief Night. Her talents are too many to count.
This is Crow from The Vile All Stars performing at Don Hill’s on Halloween night.
This is Misha at the same show. While she performed solo on this night, she also has a band – Grace Beats Karma.
This is Greg from Snowball 37.
Regular readers may recognize this as Dave from Snowball 37.
These are my five favorite bands.
This is one of my favorite kitties, Bullety.
*Rivers Cuomo rocks. Let it be stated here that I cannot get enough of the “Words & dreams & a million screams…” part of “Across The Sea.” wow.
SAPCC #42 – Product
I have been waiting for a theme like this for about 35 weeks. I have always wanted to try my hand at making a plain backdrop & shooting a product in an ad-like format. Unfortunately, some things happened that prevented me from taking the time to do that so, instead, I used my foster kitten, Billie Jean Mays, to help me out this week.
All three shots were actually taken with the Nikon. The Canon’s “Error 99” has been occuring so frequently that I am ready to give up on it.
These guys were on time:
SAPCC #41 – Risk
I didn’t find the theme until Monday so I didn’t shoot for the theme this week and I am late. Luckily, I had our bulldog friend, Reggie, visiting. As he was sleeping on the couch, I took one look at him (maybe a few looks) & ran downstairs to get my camera before he moved. I am at RISK of falling in love with him 🙂 Clever, huh? Not so much. It is a bit of a stretch so before I show you those, I do have this photo of an oddly ripped apart sidewalk in Jersey City. I only took this because I thought it was so weird how the tree grew around the sidewalk that was torn up. I took a few pictures but I think I would have framed it better had I been shooting with a purpose. My bad. It still might be a risk to walk there. After all*, there is Caution tape & that signifies risk, right?
1. (I am numbering them now so that it is easier to reference them)
In addition for being at risk of falling in love with a dog I cannot have, every week I am at risk of falling madly in love with the animals at Liberty Humane Society that I could have (if only I lived on a farm & had millions of unused dollars).
2. This is Riff Raff. He developed a bad eye infection that left both of his eyes with red scabs on them. Luckily, the scabs are dissipating but they are still trying to figure out how much of his vision he may have lost. Because he cannot see that well, I gave him this shiny ball because it makes a noise like plastic bags crinkling & some cats really love that. Riff Raff loved it indeed.
3. This little guy is Deli. He too has some ocular issues but as you can see, they don’t hold him back.
4. Reggie in color
5. Reggie in black & white
*Has “after all” always been two words? I really thought it was one… “afterall” or “Afterall,” With a capital A & a comma, it looks correct. Hmmm…
And then there were three 😦
Sequel to “Obstructed”
How did I wind up with “ps” in front of my real post for this week when that is what I would have called this right here? I know I am not a great typist & I am often too lazy to spellcheck things, but isn’t that something I should notice hanging out in front of a title? Weird but not as weird as the other arc… Actually, this one is not nearly as cool as the blue arc. I only noticed it when I was editing this, but if you look right below the round window, there is a subtle rainbow arc. This shot was #3651 & the blue arc was #3654 but the two in between show no signs of apparitions. As for the image itself, I made the same outdoors mistake that I often make with the 50mm lens, I leave it at 1.8 even though I am then shooting at 1/2000 shutter speed when I could have shot at 5.6 or something & had more of a chance at a crisp image. I should Brother P TOuch a note on the camera 🙂
When I firstmoved to the front of the stage, I actually settled upon the spot behind the camera lift because there was not a camera person there so the lift was down & the clearing in the crowd seemed like a good way to shoot over some heads without an elbow &/or umbrella from in front of me knocking me in the eyeball. (walk in NY in the rain & you will hate umbrellas too)… Anyway, once that lift came up, I took the other images. During the course of that time, the girl next to me received a foam guitar from The Today Show. When I thought it said DMB, I wanted one. When I realized it was a Toyota ad, not so much. Anyway, once she got it, she was very happy to have one of the foam penises. This is not the best representation of it because, at the time, I didn’t want to change back to the regular Nikon lens. Eventually, I stopped caring about switching lenses in the rain 🙂 So, there’s the penis & one of the good shots I managed to get with the 300mm. Me & this other girl were taking turns balancine on the metal “horses” to shoot above the crowd. She was somewhat smaller than me & didn’t have a broken heel on her boot. I was afraid I was going to bust my skull open, but thispicture made it worthwhile. It is not nearly as good as if Iwere closer but I believe that one day I will shoot that band.
Here is an obstructed shot from the shelter that I found after I posted.
I don’t know Russ. I think the kitten is cuter here 🙂
ps SAPCC #39 – Obstructed
I am actually quite behind in my photo editing & I fear that after I post this, I will find better images to fit the theme but I do not want to fall behind again so here are the best of what I have so far.
On Monday, we visited the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. It is known for being a photographer’s paradise. It is also supposed to be haunted. Many ghost hunters have noticed strange orbs in their pictures. I think most of these orbs are simply dust but, nevertheless, I have meticulously searched my images for these anamolies. I am sure this is probably lens flare, but I present it as a ghostly obstruction.
It has been at least two weeks since I have shared some Liberty Humane photos with you. For the past few weeks, I have been focussing primarily on the felines there. One of the volunteers who works on the petfinder site went to a symposium that mentioned how much more appealling the photos without cage bars are. Hence, while this cat is adorable, those bars are an obstruction. They are also obstructing his freedom.
I actually forgot what the theme was until I started editing. On Friday, I went to the Today Show to see Dave Matthews Band. Wow. While I was not close enough to the stage to get the kinds of concert photos I enjoy, the music sounded incredible. I arrived at 6:45am & they were already playing. I stood behind the stage while they played for almost an hour before they were even on the televised portion. Then, I walked around the block in hopes of using the 300mm to get a better shot. Here is when I should tell you that it was raining. When it rains in New York City, many people like to use umbrellas. Short people, in particular, love to use umbrellas (even when they are wearing flip flops to slosh through the dirty NYC puddles). Besides having my eyes nearly poked out a few times & having umbrella tines knotted into my hair, the umbrellas were difficult to shoot through. It is also difficult to shoot through foam guitars that are shaped like penises, posterboard signs & camera lifts. To say my view was obstructed would be an understatement. I did manage to get two decent shots through all of this. I will post it later. Oh yeah, it is also difficult to keep a camera dry when it is raining. I gave up on my Ziploc bags when they started fogging up. I also changed lenses in the rain… Confessions of a careless photographer…
The above image is through the Ziploc bag.
These SAPCC participants were also obstructed:
SAPCC #35 – Comfort
In order to remember the theme each week, I usually think of a song lyric or quote. This week, for “comfort,” I cannot get “Happiness is a warm gun” out of my head. I do not own a warm gun & I do not feel like looking for my cap guns because I am sick. I feel lethargic, quite uncomfortable. I slept over 12 hours Monday. While I am often plagued by headaches, tiredness is not something that I will accept. I have been loading up on the vitamins to no avail. I am pretty convinced they are bull shit but I keep taking them anyway. My default subjects for this theme are, of course, my buddies at the animal shelter. I had other pictures that were better & I hate subjecting the same four or five of you to these heart breaking images, but I really liked the newspaper in the corner of this picture.
Comfort food… French Onion Pot Roast & Mashed Potatoes from IHOP
I went searching for “comfort” yesterday, still with “happiness is a warm gun” stuck in my head. I skipped out on working because I had the chills. It was 67 degrees & I was wearing a long sleeved shirt & a sweatshirt AND I didn’t even put the top down. I hate being sick. Did I mention that? Anyway, there is a street that runs along the beach through two affluent small towns. My father used to do the towing for one of them & I would accompany him on wrecker calls. I saw quite a few stupid drunks crash their Mercedes into poles. While those images stayed in my memory, the images of the enormous houses forged a deeper image in my mind. These were old money houses. When I read “The Great Gatsby,” I imagined them living in houses like this. When I finally saw the parts of Long Island mentioned in the book, I was not disillusioned. Those houses had more property, but they had the same ocean worn shingles & timeless multi-level build that I loved to admire. I would take great comfort in coming from an old money family that summers in a house like this. I would live there year round though. 
I would take great comfort in knowing this was the view from my uber cute patio.
Take comfort in these images
A New Jersey Mile
When I left to take pictures, the sun was brightly shining. As I got closer to the beach, not so much. I had to put the top up & I thought about calling it quits until I remembered Pat’s foggy shot & how much I loved it. This does not compare but I did finally take a picture of strangers without fear of being caught.
When I was done at the beach, I went to drop off some movies about two miles away. Half way there, the weather returned to its prior sunny state & I was able to take this:
This is not my cat. I just happened to notice it sitting there.
After seeing how sunny it was once again, I returned to the beach only to find that it was still gloomy out. Somewhere in between all of that, I snapped this. While I do not go to the beach often, I like knowing it is there and I need to see it every now & then.
SAPCC # 31 – Hide
This week the theme found me. My subjects were most cooperative in offering me instances of them hiding.
I did not pick Zoey (above) because of her hide/fur. I took this because she was hiding in her litter box in the back of the cage. While I have not researched the matter, it seems to me that the shelter cats find some comfort in their litter boxes. Unfortunately, this makes it more difficult for them to be noticed and subsequently adopted. This is where the volunteers play a big role by helping cats like Zoey warm up to human contact and/or letting prospective adopters know that there is a shy kitty that may fit their needs.
Midnight (above) is not shy. Her red tag means that she is not quite ready for adoption. She may have just recovered from an illness or she may be awaiting test results. Any which way, this meant I could not take her out which was probably a good thing because she looks like a troublemaker.
I did not quite catch the hiding aspect of the napkin on my niece’s head but I figured I would include this for those people who like babies more than animals. I am not one of them, but I do think Kaylee is cute.
Other SAPCC hiders:
Russ
Brooks
Renee
Smack
Chris?
Elizabeth
Do you?
Do you zootoo?
Liberty Humane Society is one of the top ten finalists in zootoo.com’s Million Dollar Shelter Makeover Contest. If you think my shelter pictures are sad, you should see the videos of each of the shelters. Ours seems to focus more on the many pitbulls who are rehabilitated at LHS than on the lack of space, funding & community support we have but it still made me cry. I’m a sap. I am not sure we will win because I have seen other shelters’ support systems & they seem to have more avid zootoo’ers. Regardless of who wins, animals somewhere will win. I had a great idea regarding this though. I think Animal Planet should have a show like “Extreme Home Makeover” in which they visit these shelters and help them make key renovations to improve their spaces. It would be a nice, heart warming show… And I could be the host.
PS That is a picture of Tulip. You should adopt her.
SAPCC Monthly Challenge – Frames
My three choices for “frames” wound up being: framed pictures at Graceland; scenic driving shots that are marred by the door/windshield frames; and the frames at the Austin Humane Society. Since I want to use the driving shots separately, I figure this is a good place to exhibit the photos from the shelter. The Austin Humane Society was a little larger than Liberty Humane Society. In addition to cages, some of the cats are in catteries where they can loaf about as they would at home. It was in these catteries that I saw most of my frames. But first, here is a puppy who is not part of the series. I just love him.
Here is the series, starting with the dogs.
Ahhh… all caught up with SAPCC for now 🙂
This weekend, I will see my old & new friends at LHS.
PS LHS is in the Top Ten of the Zootoo Million Dollar Shelter Makeover contest so if you love animals, you should join zootoo & vote for Liberty Humane Society in Jersey City, NJ because I sure would love for our cats to be able to sprawl out in areas like this while they wait for their forever homes. More dog cages & bigger dog cages would be nice too.
Search the archives of these SAPCCers for their “frames.”
Russ
Brooks
Renee
SAPCC #26 – Miniature
While I did take a few pictures when it was warm enough to put Big Papi’s top down, they didn’t shout Mini or miniature.* I did, however, find this Linus toy in my honey’s basement. His brother customized it with a glove hat, paper clip chains, & even a pair of Fruit of the Looms. While he may not be a “miniature” Linus since Linus is a comic strip character whose size has not been determined in three dimensions, I considered his status as a doll his qualification for this entry.
Last week, I stopped at The Dollar Tree looking for cheap trinkets to use as promotional materials at sxsw. That was unsuccessful but I did find “Ginormous Body Parts.” I was unhappy with the initial photos I shot of me wearing the ginormous nose & ginormous lips until I came across the mother load of Rockstar at Big Lots. Usually Big Lots carries many cheap generic energy drinks & weird flavors of Rock Star or Monster. My preference is the full sugar regular black can of Rockstar. It must have been my lucky day because I found ten 32oz cans of it for $10. Amazing deal when you consider I was going to load up for my trip by purchasing the 16oz cans at Hess where they are on sale 2/$3. I know, I know. They are pure sugar & completely terrible but besides water & Wawa’s Lemonade Iced Tea, it is the only thing I like to drink. Unfortunately, the ginormity of the can was not turning out in my pictures & I was too lazy to stack the ten of them up. Instead, I combined the lips, nose & Rockstar to make this. Massive size.
I will miss the deadlines for the next two SAPCCs because I am going to sxsw next week. We are driving so that accounts for the following missed deadline. 1700 miles takes a day or so even for this road warrior. Besides writing & taking pictures for Pop Rock Candy Mountain, I will be visiting Austin’s animal shelter. Speaking of which, I know the “miniature” theme did not lend me a clear chance to share the shelter animals this week, but here is one anyway because I entered a contest to win a Dream Photo Assignment and I need more people to vote for me. You have to go to the site & “pic” my “50 States of Dogs & Cats In Shelters” idea. Once you click on “pic,” they make you register & confirm before you can actually vote. If anyone could spare three minutes to do this, I would be most appreciative. Also, this gives all of you an opportunity to submit your own ideas. You can only vote once but you can “pic” as many ideas as you like. Currently there is an idea similar to mine in the top ten. I do not know where/how else to promote this so please help me help dogs like Holly find a home.
*Big Papi hit 50,000 miles Friday.
Also, the Nikon reached another 10,000 last week while Canon passed another 10,000 this weekend. Milsestones everywhere.
More miniatures:
SAPCC #25 – “Face”
Is midnight the deadline? I might just make it. I was only going to use the face of a shelter cat until I read an email from Pat reminding me to play with my food. Food… Face… How was that not my first thought? I like for my food faces to come naturally so I did not force the issue the way I did a few months ago. Forced food faces lack the organic happiness of real food faces. Imagine my delight last evening when I went to place some swiss cheese on my boca burger & voila! I saw eyeballs.
This next image is inspired by a documentary I watched. It was called “Contacts Volume 3: Conceptual Photography.” One of the photographers, John Baldessari, used to be a painter & he did not like that photography was so rectangular with specific print sizes so he started taking panoramics & overlapping them. These were not quite panoramics but it was a fun idea to play with. Having photoshop instead of a darkroom, I really wanted to soften the edges of the overlapping image but that was not the technique. He also puts colored circles over the faces of people in their photographs (reminded me of the Nimrod album cover).
That is Willow the pitbull mix & Miles the cat. Both are, of course, available at Liberty Humane Society. Speaking of Miles, he is the subject of this week’s face entry. I really don’t post these to make people feel sad. I see so much hope & potential in all of their faces. It makes me feel good to be able to spend time with them & capture their spirits. I love them.
Other, more timely entries… in your FACE!
Sin Revisited
This is Fudgy.
The sadness in his eyes is what I consider a sin. It is not one of the seven deadly sins. It is a sin that attacks my heart. It makes me proud of taking in Bullety when she was pregnant and came to sit on my lap four years ago or for taking in any of our pets that we found or were given, but I am not without sin. For years, we had a cat that kept having kittens. My dad’s friend would sell them in his pet store. I feel guilty for not having had her fixed. That was a sin. There are plenty of kittens in shelters who needed loving homes.
As I wrote earlier, there are alot more pets in the shelter who were used to loving homes. I do not think it is a sin for someone to surrender their pets if they cannot afford to feed and take care of them. I am sure these people feel the pain of that loss. I find it a sin that the economy has declined to the extent that it has. There are many older people who have to choose between medicine, feeding themselves and feeding their pets. When someone is lonely, that is when a pet is most useful. A pet will not judge you for your appearance, what kind of car you drive, or where you work. To help people like this, who need their pets, Liberty Humane & other shelters too I’m sure have started a welfare program. You can come in & receive food and care for your pet so you can keep it.
I have always loved animals but, besides having my own pets and sending a few dollars to the ASPCA every now and again, I have never really done anything about it. It wasn’t until my friend asked if I wanted to go take pictures that I have become involved. I never knew that you could volunteer to walk dogs or pet cats. I feel like my free time is so precious and my schedule so chaotic that I could never make a commitment to permanently volunteering. I was glad when I found out it was not really like that. Any time you can offer is enough time. While it makes me sad to see them and not be able to take them all home, at the end of the day, when I see that Sarah Mclaughlin commercial, I still want to cry but I don’t feel so bad for not being able to send a big check.
As you can guess, animals are my thing… my cause. There are so many out there. I choose animals over people because helping animals comes without judgement. I am afraid that missing a week at a soup kitchen would prompt someone to ask “Where were you last week?” Fudgy won’t ask me that. My sin is guilt… or potential guilt.
All the sadness aside, want to see some happy animals? Here is the best I can do.
SAPCC #14 – Sin
I had two main ideas for sin. The first is actually inspired by an episode of “America’s Next Top Model.” Even though I had the idea all week, I waited until 4:30am to begin. I realized that my next photographic investment should maybe be a black backdrop.
The counterpart for sin’s sexiness, is sin’s sadness. On Sunday, I went to the Liberty Humane Society shelter to take pictures of pets with Santa. While I may post some of them separately, the ones I have chosen to include for “sin,” are quite sad. Due to economic hardships, many people are surrendering their pets or simply letting them loose. This was my saddest visit to the shelter to date. Whereas an abused or neglected animal may benefit from the occasional visit from a volunteer, regular feedings and warmth, many of the new animals in the shelter are used to constant companionship… nuzzling up to dad’s leg when he comes home from work, having someone’s shoes to chew up, having the run of the place… So, here they sit… breaking my heart.
Other takes on SIN from fellow sinning SAPCC-ers
Russ
SAPCC #11 – Depth
I really wanted to take a picture that presented “depth” as a human quality that shallow people lack. Unfortunately, the resulting image was a better fit for the topic of “self image” and, despite setting up a tripod this evening, I lost interest in finishing what would have been a great deal of photoshop work. I did, however, get to spend some time with the cats and dogs at Liberty Humane Society. While their photos do not stand alone as representing depth, seeing them reminds me of the Tupac poem, “In The Depths of Solitude.” Of course, I also think of the Sarah Maclaughlin “Angel” commercial.
This is Searcher.
This is Winky.
This is Kiki. She is a super sweet pit bull who decided she needed to come lick me just after I switched to the 70-300mm lens. Silly Kiki wants an owner who is always ready with a wide angle lens.
My alternate choice for “depth” was “depth of field.” I was first introduced to this concept in pre-digital Photography 101. My first SLR was a semi-automatic Pentax that my father bought before a trip to Disney World. It still had the Mickey Mouse camera strap. While I could set the aperture, I could not manually set the shutter speed so it was not until my Sony Mavica CD300 that I was able to experiment a bit more. Even then, I was not able to get the blurred background I hoped for so I would frequently mask my subjects and blur the background. These shots are in tribute to those good ole days.
I don’t love the following image. I wanted very much to get rid of the white spot on the Brownie but the composition just did not do it for me and I am posting it as a plea for compostion help. While I am not fond of “rules” when it comes to photography, I am open to learning new techniques. Can anyone offer general tips about composition?
The following is the corrected version sans distraction. Now, the floor looks weird & the black looks fake. Eh… not my favorite.
Not being able to find a swimming pool, I chose to check the depth of my bath tub.
My most depth… This week’s entry.
See more SAPCC entries
Russ
Chris
Smack
Michael
Pat
Sweetiegirlz
OH, I almost forgot. Ever since Nath wondered why we wrote along with posting our photos, I have been thinking about something. We should compile these posts into a book. I think it would be a really interesting coffee table book because of the stories behind the photographs. This is not to say that our entries should include stories. I’m not trying to step on the founding father’s toes. I just think that our different approaches and perspectives (mostly unwritten) would be a unique selling point when added to the photos. I have no idea how to get a publisher’s attention but with six of us, maybe we could come up with something good.
If I had all of your email addresses, I would have sent this in a message to avoid copycats.
SAPCC #5 Fur
I shall not post late today. I also shall not be posting a plethora of “fur” options.
I contemplated different variations of “fur” but the best I came up with was this window in NYC.
Clothing as fur? Nah… Ultimately, I think “fur” and I think of some of my favorite subjects. I give you the father/daughter, brother/sister team of Lil’ Jon & Pants. While they look very similar when partially blocked by shadows, I assure you Lil’ Jon is three times the size of mutant Pants and, since I have not loaded this post with pictures, I will take a minute to explain their family tree. A few years ago, I was sitting on the porch at my boyfriend’s and a cat walked up to me. She wouldn’t leave so we kept her. Her name is Bullety. She was pregnant. She betrothed Lil’ Jon. Lil’ Jon fathered Pants… making him her father and half brother. Fascinating. I know. Lil’ Jon was promptly fixed.
That’s Lil’ Jon above and the very similar image below is Pants. This weekend I learned why some photographers have assistants. I have a very bad habit of not remembering to change the ISO back to 200 (Nikon’s lowest). Luckily, these two shots were at 640 and not the 1600 that I have sometimes forgotten to change. My other problem is that I misplaced my external flash after the show. It somehow wound up in a bag of cds under the front seat of the car. Oh well, sun spot beats flash anyway.
Pants hates me. You can see it in her eyes. Speaking of which, do you think this image would be stronger if I increased the shadows so her left side is completely shadowed more like the Lil’ Jon one? OR if I cropped it at half of her face? I would really value your opinions on that. What fun is all this if we aren’t learning 🙂 Ok, I am having fun and learning regardless.
I will link these later
Chris’ “fur”
Hot Tea & Tan Lines 
