Sarah Ause Kichas | saussie.com » dogs

Trail Tails episode 4: Spiral Jetty

Sarah — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:27:45 +0000

I shot this video way back in September, but have been lazy at video editing (it’s really time consuming and I have been too busy a bee). I finally got around to chopping it up last night into this little ditty. Now I’m on a roll and going through tons of old(ish) files, piecing together a bunch of videos (though they aren’t of the Trail Tails variety). Some I will post here, others on my other site. Regardless, I have some awesome video things in the works, so stay tuned!

Anyway, this trip to Spiral Jetty was special because it turned into a nightmare. The video doesn’t show the nightmare (I turned my camera off), but it turns out there’s some tar dumped out there (WHO THE HELL DUMPS TAR IN A LAKE?!?!?!), and Haley and Jemma both stepped in it. Besides fearing they’d die from eating it off their feet, we all got to breathe in the tar fumes during the two-hour ride home. We tried to soap it off with handsoap from a public bathroom (failed), used heavy duty cleaners at a friend’s (failed, and not recommended), and scissors (also failed). Just as I was about to give up and call a vet, I googled dogs stepping in tar (seems like it should be a pretty common occurrence, only on roads instead of at a lake) and found the answer… vegetable oil. Vegetable oil will get tar off your dogs. It’s slow, but it works. And so now you know: if you ever find yourself in as terrible a situation as that, vegetable oil will save you.

Anyway, here’s a video of the nicer parts of that trip… before the nightmare began. And yes, the water really is that color. It’s not pollution, but salt-tolerant bacteria that thrives in that remote northern part of the lake.

Here are some neato photos from another trip to the Jetty. The water was much lower last year, and in my opinion, much more beautiful. Shallow water makes for an alien landscape. This year, it was about a foot deeper.

invisible dogs

Sarah — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:15:07 +0000

Over the past four years at this job, I’ve photographed a wide range of animal species. Cats, dogs, horses, parrots, and bunnies come standard, but I’ve also photographed bobcats, degus, manatees, chimpanzees, and so on. But one thing I certainly never expected was invisible dogs.

Yep, invisible… as in not actually there. Our latest campaign encourages you to start seeing invisible dogs – meaning the thousands of dogs tucked away in shelters, out of sight. Invisible dogs are just as good as other dogs, they just need to be seen.

I did seven shoots for this campaign over the summer. And let me tell you, anyone who says that kids and animals are the hardest to photograph (I don’t really agree with that) has never photographed invisible ones. Now THAT is hard!

Here are a couple shots that our designers stylized with those vintage color filters (they did that for all the ads).

Salt Lake City and New York City were the target cities for these ads (although online ads reached much further). I’ve seen iDog billboards here around SLC, but not with photos. New York City is where all the outdoor photo ads like these seem to be:

For this campaign, I also shot my first video for work. I had just gotten a new camera and the day of a shoot I had scheduled, my boss told me to take a video too. He gave me the story line, and although I came down sick, I shot a video and it turned out pretty cute! And then I found out it was a commercial on Hulu. I kind of lost it then, in a good way. Not bad for the first time!

It was a ton of hard work, quite grueling trying to get something that’s not there to look like a dog, but in the end it turned out pretty cool, and it seems to be a big hit all around the country.

Phoebe

Sarah — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:26:39 +0000

I first met Phoebe back in April at the Salt Lake City Super Adoption. I took a couple photos when she was leaving with her new family, but it was cold, blustery, and SNOWING outside! I could only get off two shots before my fingers froze and my lens was covered in water from melted snowflakes. But they were all so adorable together (and matching!) that I got their contact info knowing that I’d want to catch up with her in a few months time. Fast forward five months, and I went over to their house to see big, beautiful Phoebe. She looks like a retriever mix in these photos, but that’s her haircut playing tricks on you. She is more of a Great Pyrenees! She’s doing great and is probably the most patient, tolerant dog to put up with two young boys!

Little Red goes home

Sarah — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:05:26 +0000

In January 2008, I officially started working at Best Friends. Two days later, the Michael Vick dogs arrived – 22 of them. Over the years since, I’ve watched those dogs transform from frightened dogs who wouldn’t willingly go near anyone, into happy, playful dogs ready to be adopted. There are very strict rules imposed by the courts for these dogs to be adopted, but so far seven of them have done what it takes to get adopted, and Little Red is the latest of those. A few weeks back, I was down in Kanab working at the sanctuary for week when her adopter came. I will confess that Little Red is one of the dogs I didn’t think it’d ever happen for… she was just so terrified of people. So when I shot this video, I was just in awe of how far she’s come and how much she’s changed. Seeing that transformation was incredible, but watching such a deserving dog finally go home beats just about everything.

We posted this video to the public a little over a week ago, and it already has nearly 25,000 hits. It just goes to prove how much people care about these dogs. To think that they almost never got a chance breaks my heart, but stories like Little Red’s prove what’s possible and hopefully inspire people to give dogs like her a second chance – they certainly deserve it more than Michael Vick does.

Also, while I shot the video and some of the photos, other photos were by my awesome coworkers Molly Wald and Gary Kalpakoff. They rule!

Trail Tails episode 3: Grandeur Peak

Sarah — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:58:17 +0000

Grandeur Peak was actually Pim and mine’s first peak together, and we have a wonderful view of it from our street that has had me practically dying to get up it again. A few weeks back, we opted for an evening hike to take in the glorious summer sunset on the mountaintop, and it was certainly worth the last half hour we had to hike down in pitch blackness. Also, I wanted to get the dogs up it since they did not join us on that first trip. They had a blast, as did we.

Reminder: After you hit play, please click where it says 480p in the bottom right and change it to 720 or 1080. HD is the only way to view it, man!

Trail Tails episode 2: Gobbler’s Knob

Sarah — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:50:49 +0000

If you think my not posting hiking photos anymore means I haven’t been getting out, you would be mistaken. I am just terribly lazy and don’t bring a camera anymore (unless you count my phone). That has changed a little with this new video camera, but also not really. When I hike, I just want to hike, not deal with pictures. But, I lug the new beast around on special adventures like this (actually, Pim lugs it around for me and I just pull it out when I want to shoot… I’m THAT lazy!). Anyway, about a month ago, we hiked Gobbler’s Knob… our first mountain as a married couple and our first mountain of the year (about three months later than last year… we’ve been slacking!). I made a video. I give you episode 2…

Reminder: After you hit play, do yourself a favor and click where it says 480p at the bottom of the player and change it to 720 or 1080. PLEASE! I’m embarrassed for it to be seen in anything but HD.

Trail Tails episode 1: Dog Lake

Sarah — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:39:59 +0000

I’ve been playing with video for a couple weeks now. Earlier this year, I had to start making slideshows in Final Cut, so of course video editing wouldn’t fall too far behind. It’s definitely been easier on me having a little bit of a working knowledge of Final Cut, even though the new version may as well be an entirely different program. Anyway, I digress with geek speak. Trail Tails episode 1: Dog Lake was my first attempt at shooting video as well as editing. Okay, I might take that back. My first attempt was this classic video from last year. But Molly and I shot that on a pocket cam and I edited it in iMovie. That hardly counts, so this was my first real attempt. It’s nothing fancy by any means, but short and simple. I’ve been doing more videos, and slowly getting better, but figured I should start from the beginning. So without further ado, here is episode 1…

Also (and yes, I will probably say this every time), do yourself a favor and after you hit play, click where it says 480p at the bottom of the player and change it to 720 or 1080. Just trust me.

pit bulls and perception

Sarah — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 21:35:14 +0000

I’ve been photographing a lot of pit bulls this year and put together this slideshow recently. Take a look! Also, once you hit play and see where it says 480p at the bottom of the video player, you should click that number and select 720 or 1080. That will make it look much nicer. I don’t know why it’s not defaulting. Stupid internets.

Keeley and her crew

Sarah — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 20:24:33 +0000

Since Keeley and Jackie are on the cover of this month’s magazine (newsstand edition), it seems fitting to finally post some of these photos! Took these a few months back and since I’ve been sucking at blogging, well, you know the story…

the Kickass and Awesome wedding

Sarah — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 05:48:40 +0000

Well folks, it’s official. Little Sarah is growing up. I done got married! Pim and I tied the knot about two and a half weeks ago at a campsite in the Uinta Mountains. I might be biased, but it was pretty much the best wedding ever. It was infinitely more beautiful than I ever could have imagined, and totally DIY and awesome. I don’t really understand how people can spend a fortune creating some huge, staged production when you really only need one thing: love. Not just between the bride and groom, but all the friends and family too. We crafted a beautiful homemade wedding for less than what a lot of people spend on their cake. And we were able to do it because we’re totally rich in the love department. We didn’t want some pricey cake from a random bakery… we wanted one made with love by our friend Pam!… and modeled after Monty Python’s holy hand grenade! And let’s not forget the boozy cupcakes that got Pim’s 90-year-old granny DRUNK! We didn’t have a catered affair… we got a bunch of veggies from Costco and let people make their own hobo dinners to toss on the grill. Pim and his friend Dal brewed all the beer themselves. Lizzy and Magen designed labels. Terrah sewed colorful fabric flags that adorned our campsite. Bonnie made little paper flowers. Molly, Angela, and Amanda took awesome photos. Ginger did my hair. September made pretty hair clips. Lindsy made our beautiful stefana wedding crowns (a Greek wedding tradition to honor Pim’s heritage). Pim’s aunt provided the crazy hat collection, so we could have our own ROYAL WEDDING. Ha! We rented a generator to run an iPod stereo, but we didn’t use it… lots of people played guitar instead, and Rich was brave enough to sing (and he even sang “I Think I Love You” by the Partridge Family!… the song I sang Pim when I first spilled the beans that I loved him). Mike performed the ceremony for us, which we wrote up ourselves in the days right before the wedding. Everything was done by the people we love, creating something a lot more special than anything a big bank account or some cookie-cutter mold can get you. Friends and family from all over the country came, and it was so wonderful to be able to get everyone together. When Pim and I were deciding whether or not to plan an actual wedding (versus running off to Tahoe and doing it on the small), the reason I decided I actually did want a wedding was because it was the only time I could ever get so many people I love together in one place… because let’s face it, the only other time you might get that is your funeral. So we went for the wedding, and I’m so glad we did. It took some planning, but it was awesome, fun, creative planning, and it was essentially stress-free (how many brides can say that?!). And I got to party hardy with some of my favorite people in the universe… oh yeah, and seal the deal with Pim! I guess it’s implied with weddings, but that dude means more to me than anything that could ever be strung together into words. Regarding him, I don’t like words like love, cherish, adore, blah, blah, blah. Those all mean nothing compared to what I really feel for him. Those words are too small. And being used by billions of people, how can those words accurately describe what each person who says them is feeling? One size does not fit all. But, I digress. Considering most people come to my blog to look at photos, I will stop rambling (you get it, I love him) and let you see sneak a peek into our totally Kickass and Awesome wedding! Behold!

ALSO, my name has officially changed! I’m now Sarah Ause Kichas. To those wondering if I am now Skichas instead of Saussie… no, I am still Saussie, and always will be. I’ve been Saussie since the first grade, and a marriage sure as hell won’t change that. This domain won’t change either. But you can call me Skichas if you want… or Sarah AK, Awesome Kickass, Kickawesome… or, you know, Sarah works too.