Philippe and Grethzel Gonzaga Wedding

Here is a few photos of my cousins wedding they ask me to shoot.  My second wedding I have ever done.  The first three I shot and edited and the next four I only edited, credit for the original photo goes to the grooms sister.

High dynamic range (HDR) images

Trying my hand on doing HDR photography.
 I combined these 3 photos

into this photo

and these 3

into this

Food for Thought

              Why is it that vegetarians say they don't eat meat because it comes from an animal which is a living organism, however they will eat vegetables or any other plants.  Now I don't claim to be a botanist, but the last time I remember plants are living organism.  An organism is any contiguous living system (such as animal, fungus, micro-organism, or plant) and are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.

                Why is it that people hold an animal's life as more valuable than a humans life?  These same people would claim that they would never harm an animal or another living creature or would want others to bring harm unto them.  How many of these same people who make this claim have killed rats, spiders, flies, etc. or paid someone to do this because they disliked these creatures and were bothering them.  I would say pretty much all of them.  So why do these same people feel the need to attack others for killing and animal whether it is for food or not?

                Why is it that people who are against something use the very same tactic against the people they want their behavior.  We have people who are against hate use hate towards these very same people, we had people who are against abortions because it is murder, yet they kill doctors who perform the procedure, we have people who are against racism but will act racist towards these same people.

                Isn't it time to get rid of these double standards?  Or are we going to continue to do this as long as it fits our needs and only say something about it when it no longer fits our needs?

Photos

Some photos that I took this past Saturday.

Victims and Choices

               Why must people blame others for their own choices or a family member, especially when death is the outcome?

                A college student died 2 years ago from acute alcohol poisoning, the parents sued the fraternity and recently got a settlement for the death of their son.  Again a couple of years ago, 2 teenage girls died in a motor vehicle accident and parents were looking to blame someone.  Just this past weekend a teenage girl died in a vehicle accident after getting run over by a pickup truck.

                What do these 3 have in common?  They died do to the choices they made.  The first died from acute alcohol poisoning during a fraternity hazing.  While I don't condone hazing and think that most fraternities are nothing but preschoolers going to college, this person chose to try and get into a fraternity, to drink alcohol and get drunk as part of the initiation into the fraternity.  He could have said "no I won't do it" but decide to drink.  Not saying the people doing the hazing were not the blame for what happened, just that the blame also falls on the person who died.

                The 2 girls were in a vehicle accident at 1:30 in the morning on a school night coming back from a high school game where they were cheerleaders.  Why were they driving that late when the game ended most likely before.  Did I mentioned that there were no adults in the vehicle and one of the girl that died was the driver and was texting when the accident happened.

                Last example. a bunch of kids decided they  wanted to drive around town and shoot at people and buildings with a paintball gun for fun.  A female decided she wanted to stand up as the trunk took off driving to shoot at an office building.  She fell out of the bed of the truck she was in unto the street and was run over by the vehicle behind them who were also part of the "fun".

                All of these people were called victims.  Victims due to their age, being students, and death.  But really they were a victim of their own poor choices and stupidity.  But I also blame the parents for not teaching them right.  What are a group of teenagers especially girls being out at 1:30 in the morning on a school night?  Since when is it alright to shoot at people, paintball or not it can do harm, or buildings?  Knowing before hand that you have to drink the amount of alcohol that would make six drunk beyond the legal limit be safe to drink by one person?

                For all the bleeding hearts and overly sensitive people out there who say "What  if it was your child?".  My reply would be my children are not stupid to do things like that.  I taught them to make the right choices.  Yes people make mistakes or they can still choose to do things anyway than what was taught to them, but it's their choice and not because I as a parent didn't teach them not to.

                 If for some reason they are hurt or die in a situation I would blame myself and depending on the situation whoever was part of it to include my kid since it was their choice. But that doesn't mean I don't love them.

                I'm not saying all victims are victims due to their own bad choices .  There are victims where others are to blame and should be held accountable for what they have done.  Just we should stop trying to blame other for our own bad choices and be accountable for the choice we make. 

                These were just examples of real things that have happened and there are others choices such as drugs and smoking that can pose harm and/or kill that I could have talked about.  But for some reason I feel people would not get the point with those examples.

                Parents teach your children to make the right choices and be responsible for their choices whether it was right or wrong.

               

Our Pets

I get asked certain questions about the kind of pets I have/had from people that is in my opinion stupid and over time very irritating to hear.  Why would you have them, they are dangerous?

First, why do people have pets?  There are many reasons why but most might say companionship and for protection.  Still People say why snakes, you can’t walk them or “play” like a dog or cat.  I explain that people have birds, rodents, fish, and turtles and so on; you can’t walk or “play” with them.  Their reply, “But their dangerous and will get out and eat your neighbors pets.  I have 2 ball pythons one is 4 feet and the other is just over 2 feet.  

On average depending on the sex of a ball python and if living in captivity range in length between 3-5 feet, their girth (with of body) is wide however their head is small compare to the rest of their body.  So even as adults they don’t have the capability to eat anything larger than a medium size rat.

As far as them being dangerous, they are no more dangerous than have a cat or dog that’s trained.  Any dog are cat can and will bite their owners for no reason because their animals.  That being said yes I have been “tagged” (bite) by both snakes. The older “tagged” me once when I fed him while holding the rat with my hand, my stupidity. The younger would strike out defensively at anyone who walked by his cage for the first 3 month we had him, this is normal due to him still being a “baby” and stress of a new environment.

As far as “playing” with them, I take them out of their cage at least once a week to hold them, let them loose(under supervision) to stretch out and explore. In addition they  need more “special” care than a regular dog or cat, considering you need to make sure the temperature and humidity in their cage is within range for the type of snake and unlike a dog or cat you can’t just put food in a bowl and they eat whenever they feels like .  You leave a live rat for them and the rat my attack them if they don't eat and a pre-killed or frozen thawed will decompose. This may not be good for your snake health-wise and on top of that it smells when the decompose.

This brings to another pet I used to have, an American Bull Terrier aka a Pit-bull.  People and the media portray this breed as a dangerous animal and a killer.  This information is highly inaccurate based off what the media says and dog fighting, but they never talk about other breeds of dogs that have bitten people or attack other animals.  This goes to show how people are biased towards this breed of dog.

Pit bulls in general have better temperament (86%) than your common “family” dog such as BEAGLE (80.3%), CHIHUAHUA(71.1%), GOLDEN RETRIEVER(84.6) just to name a few, this is according to the American Temperament Test Society.

Some little know information, those who remember the Little Rascals TV show Petey the dog was a Pit Bull.  The most decorated war dog of World War I and the only dog to be promoted to sergeant through combat was Sergeant Stubby. His awards were:
*  3 Service Stripes

* Yankee Division YD Patch

* French Medal Battle of Verdun

* 1st Annual American Legion Convention Medal

* New Haven WW1 Veterans Medal

* Republic of France Grande War Medal

* St Mihiel Campaign Medal

* Wound stripe, replaced with Purple Heart when introduced in 1932

* Chateau Thierry Campaign Medal

* 6th Annual American Legion Convention

* Humane Education Society Gold Medal

What is really bad is now the military has the gall to disrespect this military veteran who served in battle by placing a ban on owning the breed or even it mixed with another breed from military installations. This means if your dog is or looks like it might be a pit the dog has to go, refusing to get rid of your pet means jail for the owner, your dog confiscated and destroyed.

This brings to my pit, Jasmine.  People thought she is mean because she barks when people come to the door, what dog doesn’t.  Once she is told it’s OK she goes up to give a hug and kiss.  This dog was the biggest baby I have ever seen and at times acted like a lapdog.  Yes we treated her that way, but she also had rules she had to go by which for the most part followed.  The only thing vicious about that dog was her farts.  There were friends and family who were scared of her at first but came to learned how friendly and playful she was.  And a few time have protected our home from break-in, attempted assault and on one occasion prevented a break-in of our neighbor who was bed ridden

So why do we have ball pythons and used to own a pit?  Because my family and I wanted them, these animals are misunderstood creatures and should not be associated with being dangerous.  Jasmine was the most well behaved dog I have ever had since childhood.  We Love them and they are our family, sadly we no longer have Jasmine but she gave such joy to us.  Anyone who has owns these animals and has done the research on how to care for them knows how great they are as pets.  I have the utmost respect for those who own and care for them and for those who run Pit Bull rescues so they can be retrained and adopted out. Unfortunately due to their bad press of being vicious and with homeowners insurers refusing to insure homes or apartment buildings in order  to have Pit Bulls, they are getting harder to adopt out. In my opinion, and many other will share this thought, that this is a shame to treat a wonderful breed this way.  It is a shame to treat any breed of animal that way.

Is Stereotyping Racist?

                A few years ago while going for my Bachelors Degree in Psychology during a class discussion in my “Ethnic and Cultural Diversity” class our teacher brought up a question.  The question, “If person is stereotyping another person’s ethnic background, is that person being racist?”  Pretty much everyone except for me stated yes.  The teacher then asks me to explain my thoughts on why I don’t feel it is.

                I explained that based on what I have observed throughout my life that some stereotypes do have some validity to it.  I gave him some examples such as; Hispanics in general have a lot of kids in their family, another is that if someone who has a good amount of tattoos like I, people assume you are a biker or spent time in prison.  I stated I do not own or ride a motorcycle and that while I spent time in prison it was because I worked there and not because I was a criminal.  While most Hispanic may have a lot of kids, by no means every Hispanic family has a lot of kids.  It’s the same as for those with a good amount of tattoos and being either bikers or criminals.

                The teacher then asked the same question over again.  Still others thought that stereotyping and racist were one in the same.  To their dismay, he then explain to those who think that it one in the same they were wrong.  Then he explained that there are two reasons for it now being the same.  First off, that stereotyping is based on some truth based off a person observation.  While not 100% true, it still holds some truth to it.  Secondly and the main reason, racism is based off of hate and not stereotyping.  Racism is more of a learned behavior based on what a person is taught. 

                Some background on this teacher, he is a Mexican-American, born in Mexico and came to America while in his teens and while I may not agree with his teaching sometimes I do have great respect for the man.

So what is Photos & Things?

                First off, it’s a place where I can put some of my photos up to see how it may look to others and hopeful get some opinions of what others may like or dislike of the photograph.  As an amateur photographer not only I’m I learning how to take good photographs but looking at things in a different level.

                Secondly, it’s a place where I can place observations of what I noticed of life in general.  I don’t claim to know everything or to have been some world traveler or to forth my beliefs on to other, just someone who tends to be observant to what’s around.  This is something I’ve learned while serving in the army and studying for my degrees in psychology.  My observation can be about anything from photography, human behavior, political views, and food to whatever may come to mind.