JR: "Inside Out" - Project Video

This video was sent to me by my wife Michele and I thought I would share for those who have not seen this yet. Very impressive to see what some can do with photography & art. Be sure to watch the video all the way to the end. Very cool to see the size and scale of some of these prints and how he assembles and uses them. Putting the religion & politics aside I do appreciate the size and magnitude of the artwork and how it is presented.
JR is a french street artist and is trying to unite people with a global art project. The project is called "Inside Out", which focuses on bringing communities together in the form of art. JR worked with TED who awarded him the 2011 prize for the project and Huge, which designed the website for the project. For more information and to see more work of JR check out his website.

www.JR-Art.net

TED Prize Winner JR & INSIDE OUT from TED Prize on Vimeo.

Looking for a home in Santee, California?

Photographed a new real estate listing yesterday for Scott O'Hara in Santee, California. This 1,817 square foot single family home has four bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. It is located at 11027 Eddington Road, Santee, CA 92071. This home is in the Santee School District and the nearest schools are Pepper Drive School & Santana High School.
For more information and to see more images of the property please contact Scott O'Hara with Mountain Trust Realty @ scott.ohara@sbcglobal.net.

Oceanside, California Sunset - March 2011

f/22 - 1/6s

f/22 - 13s

f/22 - 20s

How to make Bigger Images on Blogger

For some time now I have been curious how to make images bigger then Blogger's photo feature allows. I've searched on Google numerous times before and could not find a how to do on this which was frustrating. Recently came across some info that I found that I thought I would share for anyone wanting to make their images bigger. In a few steps you will have your blog dialed in the way you like it.
First step is to find out what kind of template you already have to make sure you can host wide enough photos with your template. Log into your Blogger account and click on the "design" button. Next click on the "Edit HTML" button where you will make two simple changes to make your blog wide enough to incorporate the bigger images.
(Before taking another step forward you might consider creating a test blog to mess around with before you make changes to your existing Blog. If you set the test blog to private it will not show up in search engines.)
Next step is to scroll down to where you see "Outer-Wrapper" & "main-wrapper". Change the width on the Outer-Wrapper to 1200 and the main-wrapper to 900.
After you have finished click save and you will not need to mess with this again. Your Blogger layout will now look much wider than before when you check it out.



Next step is to size your images correctly, which I am still working on to see how close I can get to the edge. Your images will need to be 900px or under on the wide side to fit your layout.
Now that your images are cropped and ready you will need to upload them to an outside hosting site like Flickr or Photobucket.
Log in or create an account with one of these hosts and upload your images. Once your image is uploaded click on the image you would to put on your blog and click on the "grab the Link" button. Copy the html code and paste into your new blog post. Hit the preview to make sure everything looks alright.

If your images are not centered on your layout you can add this tag:

to the beginning of the code and this tag:

to the end of it.

Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship - Irvine, California

Headed up to the Bren Events Center located at the University of California Irvine for the Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championships. A friend of mine Maxwell Shepherd was competing in the event so I thought I would show some support and cruise up and check it out. Max trained vigorously for weeks for this event and I knew he was really looking forward to it. With family & friends by his side he ended up winning his first fight and loosing the second. I could tell he was displeased with himself for loosing the second fight, but, he walked away with his head up and was great sport about it. Max discussed after the match what he was thinking during the fight and what he could do better next time, which was highly honorable. To me, whether it be Jiu-Jitsu, photography or anything in life, you just need to keep chugging forward and learn from your mistakes.
Nice work Max!

Oceanside - Charles Evan Williams Update

Back in August of 2009 I had the sincere pleasure of meeting and photographing Charles Evan Williams, a local Oceanside resident that was brutally murdered. Click this link to North County Times for a complete update on this tragic event.
For months I saw Charles cruise around town in his unique green Impala and I really wanted to ask him to do a photo shoot with it. Finally, one random day in August I pulled over at his shop and asked him if I could take some photos of him with his car. He happily accepted and was really excited to do the photo shoot. Went home and quickly grabbed my equipment and headed back to get some photos before sundown. Snapped a few casual images of Charles and two of his relatives that showed up to be in some of the photos. Ended up with a handful of awesome photos and I knew he would dig them. Met up with Charles and his fiance a few days later to show him the images and he was absolutely blown away by the results. We had a really good conversation about working together and photographing some of his other vehicles.
Walked away from this meeting really looking forward to working with him. He was definitely a guy you could tell was going somewhere in life and he had the positive attitude to go along with it. Let Charles know I needed to make a few changes to the images and I would be back in a couple days to deliver him a CD with the final images. Before I could meet up with him again his life was abruptly taken away for no apparent reason. To this day, I still have not delivered the final images which haunts me for some reason. For the past few years I have followed this case closely, really feeling for his family and what they have gone through.
I've made recent attempts and will keep trying to contact his family members to deliver these priceless images. These photos are probably the last photos taken of Charles Evan Williams.

San Diego Zoo - Photography Tips

Spent the day with some family at the San Diego Zoo and of course I had to bring the camera along. We all had a great time and got some cool photos as well.
Photographing in an environment like the San Diego Zoo you definitely have plenty of beautiful options to photograph. But, you need to do a little bit of walking and have a little patience as well. With so many people wanting to see and photograph the exact same animal you just need to find a way to get the shot. In this first image of the orangutan there were at least 20+ people standing in front of the glass all looking down him. I got down to eye level with the orangutan and squeezed between two ladies on my knees and just waited for him to turn his head my way. Took me a few images to capture the one you see which is definitely my favorite shot of the day.
90% of the animals are behind either glass or rope which is obviously understandable, but it does affect your images if you let it.
Again, using the orangutan as an example, almost everyone with a camera was using a flash. Firing off a flash into glass is going to reflect mostly all of it and scare off the animal. Most cameras these days give you an ISO option which can be changed in the cameras settings. Boosting your cameras ISO may give you the capability to not have to fire off your flash, reducing the glare in the glass. For those not entirely familiar with their cameras settings get out your manual and try some new settings.

"I don't mind trying" - Doug Menuez Photo Documentary

The last few words of the video struck me and I thought I would share. I truly believe this rings true for anyone in life that is following a dream or passion.

"I don't mind trying and I don't mind going down in flames, you can only try". - Doug Menuez

Doug Menuez Photo Documentary from Karen LeFever on Vimeo.

Free Teeth Whitening - Diamond Dental Studio

Photographed Dr. Sarah Jebreil and her dental team along with a few of her clients this past week at Diamond Dental Studio in Oceanside, CA.
Diamond Dental Studio is in the process of revamping their website and was in need of some headshots to add to their website. Dr. Sarah wanted some headshots of her team and some "after" images of her clients that have had some minor & major dental work completed. After seeing the "before" images that Dr. Sarah photographed it was quite impressive to see the finished results. Below are the headshots of all the employees of Diamond Dental Studio. You will have to wait for their new website to launch before seeing the client "after" images.

For those in a need of a great dentist I would highly recommend Dr. Sarah Jebreil and her team for your dental work. Tell Dr. Sarah you were referred by Joe Hamilton Photography and receive a free teeth whitening with a regular cleaning, exam and x-rays. Please see below for Diamond Dental Studio contact information.

Monday - Friday,
Saturday & Evening Appointments Available
3870 Mission Avenue, Suite D4
Oceanside, CA 92058
(760) 967-8899
info@diamondentalstudio.com
www.diamondentalstudio.com

The Price is Right Show Update

Well.., this is where I have to burst everyone's bubble on Facebook that my younger brother Jordan and I did not make it on stage at The Price is Right Show. Pretty realistic photo though.. This photo was taken prior to the show on a green screen and they let you decide which background you want. We both decided to do a group photo in front of the wheel and sport the dual "Shooter McGavin" pose. As soon as we got a copy of the photo back I took a photo of it on my cell phone and uploaded it to Facebook to joke with my wife Michele. Of course I fooled her, but, I also got a lot of classic comments and messages from friends & family thinking we really made it up on stage. So, Jordan and I both decided why ruin the fun for the day...
I could literally write pages of the overall experience from yesterday, but, I will spare you all the details. Go and experience the daytime adventure for yourself and you will know exactly what we went through. Here is the link for anyone really interested. The Price is Right - Tickets

All in all I had a good time and it was cool to hang out with the younger brother for the day. In all honesty the photo was the best part of the day for me. In years to come this will definitely be an awesome photo to look back on.
Our Price is Right episode is going to air 4.5.2011.