i did it for the lolz

dolphin in the sun

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:13:53 GMT

DSC_0641.JPG, originally uploaded by hep.

when we were visiting yuriy's family for kthxgiving this year, we saw this dolphin swimming around the pier we were fishing off of. he swam around for a couple hours, i got a few shots of him in the setting sun.

last call for xmas cards! the final two batches go out this week. please leave your mailing addr in a comment on this post, all comments are screened. if you have already left your addr in the other post, yours is on the way! when you receive yours, you may notice our card from last year inside. sorry, i got overwhelmed last year and didnt get them out, so everyone gets a 2008 card as well this year.

as always, please send me cards!
hepco
po box 402
brisbane, ca 94005

double doggles

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:08:26 GMT

kalashnikov meets zorya, originally uploaded by hep.

you may remember i took this shot a few months ago, when ak met zorya. today my sister in law posted this shot with her dog & new doggle:

surprise attack

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:41:54 GMT

surprise attack, originally uploaded by hep.

this kitten is too funny.

if you would like an xmas card this year, plz leave your addr on this post. all comments screened. if you are sending xmas cards, the addr is:

hep co
po box 402
brisbane, ca 94005

feeling the hepmas spirit

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:14:20 GMT

feeling the hepmas spirit, originally uploaded by hep.

hope you are all well! we decorated our tree tonite, and made the seasons first batch of gingerbread. pix later

by pascal

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:32:18 GMT

_9144053, originally uploaded by t.twelve.

this was taken at christopher abad and dina's wedding. i was shooting shots of this squirrel and pascal grabbed this shot of me. even tho you can see my slip i think it looks hella funny. he is pretty gangster for a squirrel.

sf bay fisheye

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:43:37 GMT

sf bay fisheye, originally uploaded by hep.

told you there would be a lot of fisheye. yuriy and i got up early today to get some fishing in before i have to work this evening. i shot this of the sky over the sf bay at oyster point pier in ssf.

Zane's Recital

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:20:36 GMT

Zane Recital, originally uploaded by hep.

this is a picture of zane and her best friend jen from the winter performance last night. each year the music dept of the kids' school puts on a recital which plays mostly christmas music, tho also a lot of international music by the children. this is the last year any of the children will be at this school, so the last winter performance we will have to go to. at the end of this performance, the children all ran from their places and formed a pyramid:

tonite is the anti-war 'plz mr president quit sending troops to the graveyard of empires' protest downtown on powell in the city. a couple of us are heading down shortly to photograph, and i am thinking of doin the entire thing in fisheye. a++ am i rite? hope it's not too cold and that you are all well!

fisheye kalashnikov

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:12:42 GMT

fisheye kalashnikov, originally uploaded by hep.

ak models for my fisheye lens. i finally picked up a stepup ring so i can use it with my nikon. expect a deluge of fisheye pix over the next few weeks!

oreshki

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:33:26 GMT

as most of you know, yuriy, my boyfriend, is a russian immigrant who came here as a teenager. while we were visiting his family in orange county this year, his mother made some traditional ukrainian cookies BY HAND with us. god, they are soooo good. they are called oreshki and are made by baking the halves, then filling them with a mixture made of nuts, leftover crumbs from making the cookies (for extra crunch), hazelnut paste, and condensed milk that has been boiled in the can for many hours to make it taffylike.

here is a finished oreshki. look how delicious that looks!

you start out by rolling bits of the dough and putting the balls into the oreshki cookie half cavities. then close the oreshnitsa (cookie pan), and grillbake them on both sides over an open flame for about 5mins each or until golden brown (you can check them if needed but after awhile the timing becomes natural).

when each batch is finished dump them into a bowl to cool. while they are cooling, assemble the filling in another bowl.

take a can of boiled condensed milk (boil the can unopened in water for about 2 hours or more), nuts, hazelnut paste, and mix together. take the bowl of halves and clean the edges on them so they don't have extra dough pieces. use the crumbs you trimmed off to add to the filling paste for more crunch. fill each halve exactly halfway with filling (don't overfill or you won't be able to press them together)

assemble the oreshki by firmly pressing the two filled halves together (this is why you are careful not to overfill, the filling is VERY thick and pastey and will not smoosh out the sides, instead the cookies will shatter because they aren't very strong) after assembling all of the halves, eat the finished oreshki and enjoy your hard work! oreshki means "little nut" which is why these traditional cookies are shaped like little nuts! i will have a real recipe up later this month after our cookie party.

pelicant

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:55:54 GMT

pelicant, originally uploaded by hep.

another in my sea creatures set that i am working on. taken with my new 85-210mm tele (that i got at the flea market for $21, yes we are still bragging about that) i love this tele, it's hefty enough that it doesnt feel like a toy, fairly easy to use, super easy to focus, and the clarity on it can't be beat. this is as close up as i have gotten a shot on a pelican and i was further away than usual as it flew by. pelicans are totally the bomber planes of sea birds. they like to glide over the bay, wingtips at about 5inches above the water level. my next project i think, will be to stalk the hawks and peregrines around our mountain, they are considerably harder to shoot however, what with all the trees in the way.

in other news, i am going to have a cookie making party on dec 13th in the afternoon at our place. i will be posting another post shortly detailing how Yura's mom made us Oreshki, tiny filled ukrainian cookies that look like little nuts. we are going to get the oreshnitsa (the special pan you use to make them) and make several kinds of international cookies for our xmas boxes this year. let me know if you are interested in coming!

more sea creatures

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:00:05 GMT

DSC_0755.JPG, originally uploaded by hep.

while we were at the balboa pier down south (oh, did i forget to mention we went to socal to spend a very russian kthxgiving with yuriy's family? that would be why i haven't been posting. sry lj!) we spent some time fishing, because that is what immigrants of all kinds do when they come to the us, find the nearest salt water pier and get down to some serious fishing. and these guys are serious, backpacks that turn into camp chairs, packets with hand sanitizer and latex gloves, these guys make pro fishermen look like amateur hour at the ok corral. someone caught this octopus and let it swim around in a box for awhile, and as a cephalopod fanatic i was obsessed with shooting 9000x shots of it. the water is deeper than it looks, but it liked to rear its head out and take a look around. it was actually very clever, it was very obviously using its tentacles to probe and measure where the walls of the bin were. i have the feeling within an hour it would make its first escape attempt.

bayshark

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:26:28 GMT

i dont usually post things fullsize, but you have to see this face. i love sharks! i also love my new tele that i got off the flea market lens guy for $21!

grep

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:40:29 GMT

grep, originally uploaded by hep.

i love my kitty!

thankful

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:53:25 GMT

tidepools, originally uploaded by hep.

dear lj:

i am thankful for my family and friends. you all brighten my life in many ways. i am thankful for yura whom i love with all my heart. i am thankful for san francisco, my house, which i am so homesick for i could cry. i am thankful for evan, zoe, and zane who bring endless joy to my life by simply growing and becoming themselves. i am thankful that my grep kitty is all well and no longer a headtube cat. i am thankful for awk even in her awkwardness. i am thankful for ak who has given yura a whole new appreciation of pets. i am thankful for zorya who even tho she can't help pulling like a draft horse, is otherwise the most wellbehaved of big dogs. i am thankful for our chickens who let us eat their babies, even tho they are taking the winter off. i am thankful for my jobs, which even tho they often feel like stupid work to me, is a dream job and the one i dreamed of as a child. i am thankful for the rest of our menagerie of pets who share our lives. i am thankful that tho my health slowly fails, i am healthy enough to continue to enjoy life. i am thankful every day, for every day, but today i take the time to stop my busy life and reflect on how thankful i am for it. happy kthxgiving everyone!!

love, hep

sunset

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:42:49 GMT

sunset, originally uploaded by hep.

great blue heron

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:12:25 GMT

DSC_0230.JPG, originally uploaded by hep.

i think. im not a big bird watcher or anything, but i do get extremely interested in local birds. we have a pretty good idea of our local bird ecosystem up on the mountain (red tailed hawks, great horned owls, 800 kinds of woodpecker that wake you up at 7am) but recently i have become very interested in researching the various giant sea and marsh birds we come across on our bay trail bike riding. anyway, all of my interweb research has led me to believe this is a great blue heron. now that i know where he lives, i am gonna head back out with a decent lens sometime and shoot him flying around.

pelican? ¡sí se puede!

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:24:27 GMT

DSC_0339.JPG, originally uploaded by hep.

another shot, this giant pelican and his pelican friend followed us around for like 10 miles. they would overfly us pretty low, then go up ahead to sit on poles and bridges to watch us pass. then follow us again for another overfly. pretty funny.

raptor of some kind?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:20:29 GMT

DSC_0265.JPG, originally uploaded by hep.

we went bike riding on the sf bay trail today, as per usual weekend plans, this time doing the san mateo => san carlos portion of the trail. we saw lots of marsh birds, shore birds, raptors, and sea birds. this is some kind of hawk or raptor that was hunting the marsh flats and spooking jackrabbits. plz ignore the graininess of all of these as i still continue to leave my ISO set super high and not check it until halfway thru shooting when I wonder why my shutter speed is running into HI again. :(((

sushi cupcakes!

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:29:06 GMT

sushi cupcakes!, originally uploaded by hep.

yesterday renee hada cupcake party! she invited over kori and me to make cupcakes! what do you get when you mix food coloring, fondant, and 3 art students? sushi cupcakes!

cyclocross women's elite race - mel

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:07:38 GMT

cyclocross women's elite race - mel, originally uploaded by hep.

yesterday after riding 15miles with evan, zane, and yuriy, i decided to head down to watch the sierra pt night cyclocross races with AJ, since his gf was competing in the women's elite. here is mel as she comes in from her last lap. view the entire set here.

egret flying

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:16:25 GMT

egret flying, originally uploaded by hep.

i have a egret (i think) friend who lives down in our lagoon. i often see him while riding my bike, and have made it a habit to photograph him every so often. this picture is a bad angle, but i love his skinny little legs hanging down.

look how long my hair is getting

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:41:19 GMT

look how long my hair is getting, originally uploaded by hep.

to cut it or to grow, now that is the question.

skyscape

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:30:40 GMT

skyscape, originally uploaded by hep.

yesterday was the 20th annv of my brother's death. i am doing a lot of reflecting and missing over the next few days (not like i don't always miss him, i still think about him every day, just always around the annv i do a lot of thinking about the person he would have become and how our lives would have been had he stayed living.) so please don't mind if there is radio silence.

harbinger of storm

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:16:51 GMT

harbinger of storm, originally uploaded by hep.

the sunrise was pretty this morning, however it was also red and dramatic. this afternoon brings clouds and the smell of rain.

halloweenie

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:54:00 GMT

here are a couple more pics from halloween taken by the amazing dr j. there will be at least 1 more shot from the town photobooth that was set up, but im waiting on prints back from it.