Big Bear

The holiday seasons are the best times of the year to spend with your families. This year, during the Christmas time holiday season was even more special for my family. It felt even more like Christmas, as my family and I spent the weekend before Christmas in Big Bear during which time, most of the peaks were covered with snow. What beautiful views! No matter how many times I visit this area during the winter, I Still find it hard to believe that such a cold and wintery place can be seen here in Southern California.

We spent 3 days and 2 nights with my girlfriend's family in a nice and cozy cabin close to Bear Mountain Ski Resort and Moonridge Zoo. Moonridge Zoo is a small zoo in the Big Bear area that has a lot of animals unique to the mountain range, and other animals more commonly seen as well. We got to enjoy the Grizzlies, Bald Eagles, Owls, Wolves, Porcupines, Mountain Lions, Wood Bison, and even a Snow Leopard. If you're ever in Big Bear, you must check this zoo out! It’s small, but has many beautiful animals. http://moonridgezoo.org/

This trip was my son, Anakin's, first time experiencing the snow. He was a little apprehensive at first, especially after seeing other children speeding down the neighboring hills of snow. He was so nervous, he didn't even want to get on the sled. After a few times of showing him that it was fun and safe, he finally tried it. He went so fast I thought he'd be scared. To my surprise, he got off his sled and said, "Again! I want to do it again!" with a big smile on his face. He absolutely loved sledding and playing in the snow and despite having gotten wet from several of his many “sled crashes”, every time he got back up eager to try it again.

With every vacation I take, a large portion of my itinerary is dedicated to my photography. I had planned to go snow shoeing before dawn or before sun down up one of the peaks that overlooked the area; unfortunately, squeezing this plan in with 10 other people, all wanting to do something different proved to be very difficult. Instead we decided to focus on taking family portraits. I ended up printing a large print of the whole family for my girlfriend's parents. Now when I go to visit their family at their home, I'll always be reminded of this wonderful weekend we all had together; and Anakin’s first experience in the snow.

Landscape Photography -- Not for the Weak

Landscape photography is much more difficult than most individuals give credit for. I’m sure you've all read some form of magazine, from the beautiful landscapes on National Geographic or Backpacker Magazine to the mountain background for a “rugged” vehicle on Maxim or Cosmopolitan. One thing most individuals do not think of is how much trouble some photographers go through to provide these images to the world.

I recently attempted this myself by venturing out to brave the wilderness of the San Bernardino Mountains, just south of San Gorgonio; is one of Southern California's largest mountains, to capture the mountain with one of the most dramatic effects you can have on a landscape, snow. Snow can be very difficult to travel in, especially when weather is bad. Yes I checked the weather before I left! It was supposed to be scattered showers; instead we received rain for 6 straight hours. My brother and I only hiked 4 miles total, but the weather was brutal! It rained, snowed, and hailed non-stop while we were hiking through San Bernardino Mountains. Even as we sat down to eat our lunch, it continued to pour down rain, so we ended up eating soggy sandwiches, not very appetizing. After hours of waiting for the rain to subside, my brother and I looked to each other and agreed that a part in the clouds was not going to be a part of our trip. It was at this point that I had enough I was cold, wet, and with the weather coming down on us as persistent as it was, we tallied up the score, and began the hike home, Mother Nature=1 Chris=0. Though our trip was long and the weather was rough, we were nowhere near where we wanted to be, but due to the weather as well there was almost no chance of getting the shot I was hoping to get. I hate to sound cliché, but it is true what they say about mountaineering, most accidents happen on the way down. On the way back down, I must have fallen about ten times. One time I fell and hit my knee on a rock, I still feel it strain caused by it too! I even lost my water bottle while I was “stumbling” down the mountain. It was flooded in the area, so when there is an abundance of water in the snow, it becomes slushed, slushy snow is NOT fun to walk in, let alone hike. I was so bummed to have not one shot, so I decided to take a quick self portrait of myself to document the trip. My camera got so wet just from taking it out for one shot; it is amazing to think what professional landscape photographers go through to get these shots and the lengths they travel to obtain them. I only went 4 miles and only got this one shot! Though I am not at the caliber of a professional landscape photographer, I will be, until then I will continue to train and practice, I am ready for round 2 next week :) who’s coming with me?!

Looking a lot Like Christmas

It's that time of the year again, and with the holidays just around the corner, and I am just now starting to market my work towards this season. It has been a rough month, as my time has been divided between helping my father run his income tax business, and handling the responsibilities of my photography business as well. So, despite being a little behind, I am prepared for anyone else who is also behind on their personalized holiday family photos.

My first holiday themed photo session for this year was taken with the Nusbaum family. What a joy! I met the Nusbaum family while working for Our 365 portraits. I was sent to their home to photograph their daughter Isabell and we hit it off despite the fact that I was an hour late to our session. I was pleased to hear back from them after I left the company, it seems my professionalism and skills as a photographer made a great impact! It’s been very enjoyable being able to see their daughter grow. Children grow so fast! I know it sounds cliché, but you truly never realize it how quickly children grow until you have children of your own; all of you parents know exactly what I am talking about. Anyhow, the holiday themed session went smoothly, despite having to include two dogs and a one year old in the photo. During the photo session I do tend to notice my faults, I tend to rush certain types of sessions out of bad habits obtained from working at my previous employer. Having a deadline of up to 8 sessions in a day with locations varying from 10-20 miles apart from each other, it is easy to get lost in the time it takes to create quality photos. So unfortunately, by habit I have conditioned myself to rush through photo sessions; this is definitely a habit I intend to break. Despite this, these images came out beautifully as you can see :) I also went on to turn this picture into a greeting card designed by myself for the Nusbaum family.

If anyone may be interested, am offering reasonably priced in home sessions starting at $80 with some packages including low res CDs and custom made Holiday Greeting Cards. Review my website for more info on my holiday deals. Tell your friends about my offer and I will give you either a cash referral fee or credit towards prints for future sessions with me. I hope all of you have a wonderful Holiday with your loved ones!

My Exploration through Photography!

Hello, and welcome to my Blog! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Christopher Jonathan Ramirez, and I am a professional photographer that markets myself through my company “CJR Photography.” I have decided to start this blog to share a little bit of who I am, my photography, and my ongoing personal life with both my clients and friends.

Though I have always been interested in photography, my extreme passion for photography had developed during my high school years. It wasn’t until I decided to take a trip to Hawai'i with my sister, that I would realize how much photography would impact my life. This was the first time I had been so far from home let alone to an exotic place such as Hawai’i. Never before had I ever been exposed to such beautiful landscapes and sunsets that had more color than some of the best rainbows here in California; in person anyway. Eager and anxious to bring back my memories to my family back home, I used my brother’s Canon Rebel(35mm SLR) and began to take as many pictures as I could, documenting, as well as a teenage “explorer” could, as much of this trip as possible. I must have shot about 40 rolls of film; and using all my previous birthday money I had been saving up for a special occasion, I had developed all the film. This was the first time I had ever picked up a SLR (or a Single Lens Reflex style camera) and was pleasantly surprised to see the results of all the images I captured. This prompted me to look further into photography and my new fascination, so I decided to take a class in high school where I learned the basics fundamentals of photography and how to create and develop slides, as well as black & white film. After I took this basic photography class, I knew I wanted to do more with photography, so I joined the ATA (Arts and Technology Academy) at school. This was a program at my high school that allowed students to apply their artistic abilities with most of their high school curriculum and help to integrate them together.

A few years after high school, my photography started generating some income. I began to receive offers from friends that needed a photographer for baptisms, quinceaneras, weddings, and personal or family portraits. This experience led to an eventual job as an in-house baby photographer for a portrait company, called “OUR 365 Portraits”. This provided an in-home photo session for newborn babies, so families could capture a professional style studio portrait without having to leave the comforts of their own home. A year later with over 800 photo sessions under my belt, I went off my own. I am now exploring different styles and types of photography, and this, my new blog is where you can share this exploration with me :)