The Poor Man's Travel Sound Machine- The Radio

I can't sleep without a sound machine (or some form of soothing noise) at home, and even more so while traveling. Staying in motels with all the ambient sounds- paper thin walls with noisy neighbors going to bed late and waking up early- doesn't make for a very restful night's sleep, so having a travel sound machine is of the utmost importance. One that doesn't take up a huge chunk of your suitcase. Unfortunately, it's hard to find travel sized ones anymore unless you shop online.

I remember flying to Los Angeles for a visit a while back, and the one I brought with me stopped working. Well, it sort of worked with batteries, but then it would just shut off in the middle of the night, which of course would wake me up. While in L.A., I needed to take a 2-night trip up to the Sacramento area and none of the shops in L.A. had any travel sized ones. I had purchased mine many, many moons ago at a Brookstone's when they were still located in your local mall. I started to fret big time until I remembered that before I invested in sound machines I used a fan to mask noise, but A/C units in motels usually shut on and off, so that was not an option. I then remembered a friend telling me eons ago to set the TV to an off station for the white sound, but televisions these days don't allow for that. Then I recalled the time I forgot my machine, and in a moment of inspiration decided to use the motel's radio as a substitute. I set it between stations and voila... something that sounds a little like "white sound" which happens to be my sound of choice. So that's it. The poor man's sound machine. Useful in a pinch.

I also use my iPad to listen to solfeggio, binaural or isochronic videos on YouTube to help me fall and stay asleep, but you need an Internet connection for that, and depending on where you are traveling, the connection can be a major issue. On my latest trip to Spain, I was so glad that I also brought my travel sound machine with batteries. Remember, if you bring something like a sound machine abroad you will need a travel voltage converter. Learned that lesson the hard way when my sound machine blew after I plugged it into a hotel In Ireland.

Fun Places To Stay- Watch The Northern Lights From Glass Igloos At Finnish Resort

I've decided to use this blog for both my love of photography and travel since they are both inextricably linked. I will start adding blog posts from my travels around the country and world, including tips. I hope you enjoy the addition.

I will start with this amazing hotel that I have not stayed at, but perhaps someday.

I love the snow. Maybe that's because I've lived in South Florida for the past 20 plus years where it never does, and where we're unlucky enough to pull out a light sweater maybe 5 days per winter season. So when I saw this article on Buzzfeed about a resort in Finland that has glass igloos allowing visitors a unique opportunity to experience the incredible northern lights, I've added it to my dream bucket list. The Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort in SAARISELKÄ, Finland, not only has the glass igloos, they've got more traditional cabins, a few houses and snow igloos, which would not be my idea of comfort. But those glass igloos. Yum.

Here's a description from their website:

Glass igloo provides an one of a kind opportunity to admire the northern lights and millions of stars of the crystal clear sky in a comfortable room temperature. Built from a special thermal glass the temperature inside the igloo always stays a normal level. It also prevents the glass from not getting white frosted, hence keeping the view clear even when the temperature outside drops to under -30°C. Every igloo is equipped with a toilet and luxury beds.

I can dream.

Years ago my parents, sis and I took a family vacation to Scandinavia for one of their wedding anniversaries. We visited Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, but never made it to Finland. Maybe this will be an incentive to travel there.

For more photos click here.

Note:  This post does not contain affiliate links.

My Latest Acting Project- In Sanity, FL Web Series Trailer

Can't believe it's been so long since I posted anything here. Sometimes life just gets in the way. I do have a good excuse, though-  I've been busy caregiving my mother, trying to hustle up some acting work when I can, and editing and trying to get my photos sold to pay those mounting bills. It has been all-consuming, with not much time to sit down and blog. Never a dull moment when you are living life for two, but here I am.  Will try to post a little more often.

So here's my latest news.  Although I can't really commit to anything long term, or work out of town so the theatre work has dried up-  I was blessed to get some film and dubbing work last year. I dubbed a fun Spanish Telenovela into English, along with a movie from Spain and one from Denmark both of which are on Netflix.  I also had a cool part in a horror film called 'Devil's Tree: Rooted in Evil, and shot a web series titled In Sanity, FL.  In Sanity Florida is a quirky story about a young girl and the wacky inhabitants of a small town in, you guessed it, Florida.  I star in the series as the grandmum of the lead, Emma. We shot in Yesteryear Village in West Palm Beach and we've just released the trailer.  And if you look closely, you'll see Burt Reynolds who has a fun part playing himself.

Hope you enjoy. Let me know what y'all think.  The producers are hoping to pitch this somehwere.




Let me know what ya'll think.

Happy Holidays From Jess Peterson Photography

It's that time of the year, so thought I would share this cute Sainsbury's Christmas commercial. Sainsbury's is a popular grocery store in England, for those who might not know.

The season is all about sharing and caring, and this Sainsbury's ad cleverly uses Mog the cat to make that point.

A little background on Mog and the advertisement. Using live action and animation it will have you tearing at the end.  At least it had me.

This year, we worked in partnership with HarperCollins Children's Books and world renowned author and illustrator Judith Kerr to create a Christmas story based on her much loved character Mog. We hope that families will come together this Christmas to enjoy this very special story #ChristmasIsForSharing

If you enjoyed the story, you can buy the beautifully illustrated book here: http://bit.ly/Mogs-Christmas-Calamity

Every penny of the profit from sales of the book will be donated to Save the Children to be used towards improving child literacy in the UK

Take a look behind the scenes of our 2015 Christmas advert: https://youtu.be/_TKU7U6jkY8

Cornell Museum Art Trunk Show- Delray Beach 11/27 through 11/29

Am going to be showing some of my unique framed art pieces, jewelry and photography at the Cornell Museum Black Friday November 27 through November 29th.

There will be a lot of other artists there so come by if you are in southeast Florida.  The museum is located in the Old School Square in quaint Delray Beach, Florida.

Come by and get a special gift with purchase if you mention you saw this on Blogger.  We will be there from 10 a.m. to 4:30 each day.

Happy Thanksgiving 2015

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Many Blessings to you and yours.

Tweet-The Series - The Web Series I was Just Cast In Launches Crowdfunding Campaign

So, in my other life I'm a professional union actress. It's actually my main career. Over the years I've been blessed to have been cast in many wonderful theatre projects all over the country, have had some commercial and industrial film work, some TV/Film work, audiobook narration and dubbing work, and now I can add Web Series to my credits.

I was just cast as Principal Potter-Lane in Season 2 of  "Tweet- The Series".  My character is the frazzled principal in the school where the lead of the series, young actress Taylor Blackwell, attends.  It's a teen paranormal webseries, that has actually cast teens. Not something very common in Hollywood-since teen characters are more often than not cast with adult actors in their 20s.  The filmmakers wanted to change that.  They also want to make sure that more women get work both in front of and behind the camera. In fact, when the casting call went out, they auditioned both males and females for Potter-Lane.  They obviously went female.  Thank goodness.

The series is a wonderfully quirky show about a young teen and her possessed IPhone. Yes, there is some humor.

The production company See-Worthy films has just launched an IndieGoGo campaign. Even low budget projects need money for essential things, like equipment, rental of locations, wardrobe, makeup, food and if we reach our goal, since this is a union SAG/AFTRA deferred pay project, the actors will actually get paid upfront. Any amount will help.

And if not, just join us on the journey.

Catch up on Season 1, on YouTube.  You won't regret it.  And look out for me in 3 episodes of Season 2, coming this Fall.

Save On Photoshop Buy A Dyson Vaccum For Photo Shoots

Here's a novel way for portrait and model photographers to save some time in editing. No need for Photoshop.

Actually, it's a vacuum cleaner commercial, but it's pretty dang funny.

Happy 4th of July, 2014 - Time Lapse Photography Video

It's 4th of July, Independence Day. Happy Birthday America, and to celebrate I thought I'd share this lovely video of "America the Beautiful."


There is no photo credit.




enjoy!

Brit Singer Tom Fletcher's Touching Time-Lapse Video Of His Wife's Pregnancy

Brit singer-songwriter and children's author Tom Fletcher (of McFly) took a photo every day throughout his wife Giovanna's pregnancy. He then wrote a lovely song called "Something New" to go with it. The end result is a touching 3 minute time-lapse video they call 'From Bump to Buzz."  Buzz is the name of the wee boy Giovanna gave birth to. 


It's lovely, and not surprising it's gone viral.

Secret Life of Dogs- Slow Motion Video Of an Alsatian Drinking Water

Love this slow motion video of an Alsatian dog lapping up water.  It's a snippet from a documentary about dogs titled "Secret Life of Dogs" and is narrated by Martin Clunes.


According to the YouTube page it was shot with a Phantom camera at 1000fps, and aired on ITV1 January 31st, 2013.


It's quite wonderfully amazing what we can see when we slow things down, or magnify them.


Who knew this is how dogs drink.

Made It To Etsy Front Page Treasury- 12/25/13

Received an email from Etsy saying one of my photos had spiked in views. So I checked Craftcult and boom, my "Red Door" photo I took in Quebec was in a treasury that made it to the coveted Front Page. Yay.

Merry Christmas.

If Only For A Second- Photographer Captures Moment Of Carefreeness Of Cancer Patients - Mimi Foundation

Cancer patients often talk about the loss of being carefree, so Mimi Foundation (an organization founded in Belgium) gathered 20 cancer patients to participate in a makeover. But it wasn't quite the make-over one would expect. They were brought to a studio where a photographer sat behind a one-way mirror, unbeknownst to the participants. The patients were told to keep their eyes shut while the makeup artists and hair stylists transformed them. The photographer was then asked to capture the moment they first opened their eyes. And it's quite amazing. You will see why, for a second, they were able to forget their disease and recapture that feeling of being carefree.

"Ne Cerait -ce  Qu'une Seconde"

Alexander Tsiaras- Humans From Conception To Birth- Video

A breathtaking look at human development from conception to birth from image-maker Alexander Tsiaras.

This is a little under 10 minutes TEDTalks.

Fascinating stuff.

Google India's Powerful Search Ad Touches On The India/Pakistan Partition

Google India has created a powerful and very touching ad for its search engine that has had quite a positive impact on both Indian and Pakistani viewers, considering the contentious relations between the two countries since the 1947 partition.

“Reunion” portrays two childhood friends, now elderly men, who haven’t seen each other since they were separated by the 1947 partition that created India and Pakistan from the old British empire in South Asia. Partition sparked a mass exodus as millions of Muslims and Hindus fled across the new borders amid religious violence.

In the ad, one of the men reminisces to his granddaughter about his happy childhood in Lahore and how he used to steal sweets from a shop with his best friend, who the ad implies is Muslim. His granddaughter uses the search engine to track down the childhood friend in the Pakistani city. Then, with the help of the Pakistani man’s grandson (and naturally, Google), she arranges a journey to New Delhi for a surprise reunion.

Kudos to Google for using this ad campaign to actually humanize the issue. 

Advertising with a heart.

See if you can watch this without getting misty eyed.

The beautiful haunting music was created by Clinton Cerejo, sung by Piyush Mishra, with lyrics by Neelesh Jain, a creative director at Ogilvy and Mather.



For more on this story and the troubles between the two countries: Gulf News

This version translates the song as well. It's beneath the Hindi subtitles.

Elk That Butted Heads With Photographer Euthanized By Park Services

There's not much a photographer won't do to get that special, hopefully spectacular, photo. That often means getting up at early hours, staying up all night, trekking through fields and in some cases getting up close and personal with wild animals.  I love taking photos of animals, but I'm perfectly happy when they're on the other side of some kind of fence. That doesn't always happen, however. In the wild, you have no control over what wild animal might approach you. That's what happened to photographer James York when he was up one early morning taking photos in the Cataloochee Valley in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina.  Cataloochee Valley is famous for its elk. Photographer Vince M. Camiolo also happened to be there when a young elk apparently walked up behind York and started investigating York's equipment.  It seemed the bull was initially in search of food, but the encounter turned physically aggressive, and Camiolo wound up videotaping most of it.

Camiolo asked York why he allowed the abuse, and his answer:

"My first thoughts were "wow, he's getting pretty damn close here." But I've been up close before without incident. I hoped being still and passive would see him pass on. When he lowered his antlers to me, I wanted to keep my vitals protected and my head down. I felt that standing up would provoke him more and leave me more vulnerable to goring. I think that while protecting myself with my head down, having my head down was a signal that I was rutting with him. I was concerned at first, but when he started rearing back and lunging at me later on, I got scared and pissed off. That's when I wagged my finger at him to cut that shit out. I was relieved to see the Ranger coming.

So I guess at some point if the Ranger hadn't of pulled up, I would have had to disengage the best I could. I've joked with my friends that at least he took me for a buck and not a cow!"

Some of you may have seen snippets of the video, since it went viral, but as a result the National Park Service felt the elk's aggression warranted euthanizing the animal. Apparently this was not the first aggressive encounter with humans. Both photographers were heartbroken, but the problem lies with people who feed the wild animals which makes them fearless in seeking food from other humans.

Camiolo posted a statement (along with York's) regarding the elk's demise.

Camiolo's  statement:

I am deeply saddened by the fate of the elk. It has certainly pulled a black cloud over this whirlwind "viral video" experience.

I spoke to the reporter who broke the story and she assured me the decision was based on a pattern of aggressive behavior that began prior to the incident documented in this video. The behavior was the result of visitors feeding the elk and conditioning them to seek food from humans. This video only serves as an example of the elk's dangerous behavior, not an impetus to it.

Again, it brings me great sadness to learn of this beautiful animal's demise and the unfortunate circumstances surrounding it.

I'm looking into a destination for proceeds from this video to help the NPS educate visitors on the dangers and consequences of feeding wildlife.

I also want to be clear that James, the photographer, was not complicit in a behavior that led to the elk's demise, but rather was made an example of the result of such behaviors. The elk approached him from behind, likely looking for food as he was conditioned to do.

York's statement:

I love and respect animals and that's why I photograph them and don't hunt them. I am deeply hurt by the loss of such a beautiful creature that in its own way bonded with me. I looked forward to watching him grow to a mature bull as the years passed.

I'm truly heartbroken to know he is gone.

I think I'll stick to the other side of the fence or sitting in my car snapping shots. I'm not that bold or courageous.  It's a pretty amazing video though.

The Strange and Alien Worlds Created Through Microscope Photography.

Is this some exotic plant, or some fancy spaghetti? Nope, it's a microscopy photo of a toothbrush. It's quite amazing what things look like through a microscope.

The following is of the leaf of a Virginia Spiderwort.

Here are some more strange, wonderful and icky images.

"Fallen Princesses"- Dina Goldstein's Photos Take a Darker Look At Disney Characters

Born in Israel, Canadian conceptual photographer Dina Goldstein looks at things a little differently. In her Fallen Princesses series she shares the darker side of  Disney Fairy Tale characters. Reversing the "happily ever after" theme that is part and parcel of the Fairy Tales we have come to love, we see what happens to these 'princesses' when they actually have to deal with real life issues including eating disorders, addictions, aging and mental issues and poverty.

So we see Snow White with a brood of kids living in suburbia with her jobless prince, Little Red Riding Hood with a penchant for fast food, Belle getting botox, Pocahontas as an agoraphobic cat lady, an alcoholic Cinderella who couldn't conceive, Jasmine's as a soldier somewhere in the Middle East, Ariel is on display in an aquarium, The Princess and the Pea lives in a landfill, Sleeping Beauty never wakes up while her prince waited and is now old and  Rapunzel getting chemo.

Her inspiration:

“My daughter was very small and getting into the whole Disney princesses culture, and at the same time my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer (she’s totally fine now). I started to think: what if these princesses had to deal with cancer, or financial discourse, or any of the real-life problems people have to go through?”

“I began to imagine Disney’s perfect Princesses juxtaposed with real issues that were affecting women around me, such as illness, addiction and self-image issues,” says Dina. “With limited funds, I began to assemble my series.”

She has published a book called Fallen Princesses.

She also has a Barbie series, called In The Doll House.

Demilked has all of the photos, and The Daily Beast has more information on Dina.

Adobe Email/Password Hack Up To 150 Million - Tool To Check If Yours Was Compromised

Were you one of those lucky ones to have your account compromised in the Adobe hack?  I was. Thankfully I received an email from Adobe alerting me to the fact so I was able to immediately change my password, but many people were not and they have remained blissfully ignorant. And now it turns out there might have been many more accounts compromised than previously thought. 

Initially only 2.9 million users were estimated to have been hacked, then it jumped to 38 million, now they think it could be a whopping 150 million. That's 150 million user names and passwords out there ready to be used by some reprobate criminal. 

If you haven't been notified you should still check, and there's an easy way to do that. LastPass has created a free tool that will let you know if your account was hacked, and notify you of how many people had the same password as you.  I decided to check, just for the heck of it, and as expected mine had been hacked.  What shocked me, however, was that my password, one that I thought was pretty dang unique, was used by 73 other people. May not seem like many, when you consider there were so many people effected, but still.  Now I need to purge that password from any other account I might be using it with.

Petapixel (source of this post) reminds everyone about Adobe's advice to account holders:

It’s more important than ever that you heed the initial advice Adobe doled out: change your password (all of them if you tend to use the same one on multiple accounts) and check your bank and credit card accounts often over the next few months.

Oh, and here’s another sad tidbit that has come to light thanks to the Adobe hack: the three most popular passwords used by the Adobe users who were hacked are “123465″, “123456789″ and “password” — with security like that, who needs encryption!

NakedSecurity (Sophos AV) has information on the Adobe hack, and how woefully inadequate  it was.

Last Pass Secure Tool to check if your email was hacked.

Shane Black's Beautiful Time-lapse Photography Video "Adventure Is Calling"

I love time-lapse photography. It's something I have absolutely no patience for, which makes me appreciate it even more. Ohio photographer Shane Black took a two month road trip with two buddies, and together they traveled almost 13,000 miles through 32 states, visiting13 national and state parks, in a Dodge Caravan capturing the beauty of this country and eventually turning it into a video. That's a lot of terrain for such a short period of time, but what he came up with is incredibly beautiful.

If you click on the link below the video, Shane explains the reasons for the trip, and lists all the equipment used.

Well done, Shane!



Adventure Is Calling from Shane Black on Vimeo.