Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
Every girl needs a sidekick. Five years ago, Nicole Ellis rescued Maggie from an animal shelter in Los Angeles. Ever since, the two have been inseparable.
Canines are at the center of Ellis’ life, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. She’s a celebrity dog trainer, and as such, Maggie has risen to fame. The pooch has been featured in projects with AT&T, Wet Seal, American Apparel, Benjamin Moore Paint, and many more. Ready to smile? Check out Maggie’s work here!
But Ellis’ puppy adventures don’t stop there. She’s one of the founding employees of DogVacay, a genius app that connects vacationing dog owners with sitters. Ellis works on the tech side of the operation, which includes the VacayCam, a feature that makes it easy for sitters to share pictures of pooches with his or her owner. Pardon our twee, but the whole thing is doggone delightful.
Need more of Ellis and Maggie in your life? (Who doesn’t?!) Find the pair on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube. Oh, and to cap it all off, Ellis is working on a book showcasing the stories on working dogs. Read on for Ellis’ interview with Being Geek Chic!
Q: How did you discover your passion for matching vacationers and dog sitters with DogVacay?
A: Before DogVacay was born, I was already dog sitting for my friends and training clients. This never seemed like work to me—I’ve always had a great connection with dogs and loved having them stay over. So when I joined DogVacay, I was already both a host and an owner of a dog who went goes on “Vacays"—we just didn’t know what to call it yet! Now, DogVacay makes that process efficient and easy for both me and my clients.
My visiting Vacay pups have a blast going to the beach, dog parks, hiking, paddle boarding, you name it. But the best part is that my own dog, Maggie, gets to have endless play sessions with friends! Meanwhile, we’re sending the pups’ owners lots of cute photos and messages, so they’ve got a connection to the experience as well.
Q: What inspired you to write "Working Like A Dog”? Any particular dog or story?
A: In my life as an animal trainer, I’ve gotten to see first-hand the life-changing roles that dogs play in people’s lives. My partner on the project, Brandise, had been attacked by a dog so badly it almost ended her modeling career. But she wanted to believe that dogs were good, and we often talked about how dogs can make our lives better and even save human lives. While researching, we quickly learned that the term ‘service dog’ doesn’t just apply to Labs and Goldens who help blind people or German Shepherds who do police work; if there’s a job that a human can do, there’s often a dog that can help them do it better.
Inspired, we started photographing these dogs out of a desire to tell their stories. We’ve met avalanche dogs, allergy dogs, search-and-rescue dogs, even bedbug- and cancer-detecting dogs. We wanted to show them both as working dogs and as dogs, because at the end of the day, despite all their amazing training and skills, these dogs want a soft bed and treats and affection like any of our canine friends. We hope to get the book published this year; it’s a real passion project.
Q: If you could have any superhero power, what would it be?
A: That’s a funny question because I always say that Maggie is a superhero! She came from the Los Angeles City Shelter, just another mixed breed without a home. Since then, she’s become a model, actor, therapy dog, and my best friend. She’s always confident and cheerful, and makes everyone around her feel a little brighter. A couple of years ago, I even had a superhero cape made for her. But that’s how it is for most service dogs—those vests they wear are really superhero capes, in my opinion. A working dog has extraordinary powers and uses them to help people.
As for me, I’d like to have the power to help everybody see and experience the world as a place for sensitivity, compassion, and concern for others. That’s not asking for too much, is it?
Q: Favorite Maggie moment?
A: Gosh, there are so many! One that really stands out—so much that I made a video about it—is when we performed at Monroe Carell Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University on a recent trip to Nashville. We talked to the kids and staff about how to train a movie dog, did some tricks, and then we taught Maggie a new trick (to play the piano) which I thought would be a great skill for a dog to learn in Music City. After the show, we visited the kids who had to watch the performance from their rooms, and some of them managed to get out of bed (despite being bed-ridden) to pet Maggie or shake her paw and share their own pet stories.
Q: What would you tell your 13-year-old self?
A: Go on adventures and whatever you do, do it with passion. My 13 year-old self was just as animal-obsessed as I am now, but I didn’t know then that it was possible to have an adult life and a real job all involving dogs! I’m now running the mobile team at DogVacay, which means that dogs and tech are totally intertwined in my life, and I get to increase my knowledge and experience in both fields every day. That’s what happens when you follow your passions: you’ll find incredible experiences that lead to endless new adventures.
Emma Bauer is a Being Geek Chic Contributor. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, dog lover, tea drinker, art appreciator, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. Follow her on Twitter: @emmalynnbauer
I make videos for a living. So it should be no surprise that I’m moderately obsessed with video apps. Like way obsessed. And with the new iPhone 6 about to be mine (only a few more days!) - I fully intend to use all these apps within days.
Best for Editing: iMovie
Yes, it’s $5, which is annoying, but if you’re serious about being able to do EVERYTHING in one app (meaning cut clips, add music, add text) then iMovie is the answer. Otherwise, you’re going to be using pieces from the apps below. For me, I tend to use iMovie when I have multiple clips I want to splice together and not so much for when I have one clip I just want to perfect.
Best for adding Filters: Instagram or iSupr8
Obviously I love instagram and the whole world knows what it is, but if you want to spend a little coffee money and you have an appreciate for film, I recommend spending the $1.99 on iSupr8.
Best for Slow Motion or Adjusting Frame Rates: SlowPro
iPhone 5s brought a 120fps video recorder to our smartphones. iPhone 6 is going to double that. So just imagine the super slow mo awesome stuff you’re going to create with this app. Plus, it’s free. No excuse not to download it.
Best for adding Text: TextonVS
A lot of the other video editors will allow you to add text, but not necessarily attractive fonts. Gotta love TextonVS for this. It gets bonus points for also being the Best for changing Hue and Saturation on video.
Best for Stabilization: Hyperlapse
They just changed the game when it comes to creating awesome stable video with the iPhone. Can’t wait to see it on iPhone 6.
Best for Time lapses: Hyperlapse or Lapse It
For longer videos or for people who just prefer traditional time lapse or stop motion to that of Hyperlapse, I can’t recommend Lapse It enough. The on screen functionality for adjusting ISO, f stop and aperture are pretty spot on as well. For $1.99, you can go PRO and unlock a bunch more cool features.
Best for getting 16x9 video on Instagram: CropVS
The free version of this awesome little app allows you to scale and rotate video. AWESOME. It’s especially handy when you consider the workflow for the Hyperlapse app. If you create a landscape Hyperlapse (and why wouldn’t you, because DUH, this is video we are talking about) - you NEED this app. It will allow you to rotate crop into a square shape for the Instagram sharing awesomeness. So yes, it gets bonus points for being the Best for creating and sharing landscape Hyperlapses.
Best for adding music: FLY
Many of the apps I mentioned above will allow you to add music, but I have found that the built in automatic fade in/fade out function of FLY has made it my favorite. Just pick the song and the second marks you want for in and out points and it does the rest.
That video above was created with the following workflow: Hyperlapse for stabilization > FLY for music > CropVS for rotating and adjusting to 16x9 within square. Just a word of warning: currently if you try to import a video that was shot in landscape from Hyperlapse to Instagram, it won’t let you rotate it, so you have to add this step in your workflow.
So many of my fandoms are grounded in one shared thing: the sky. Things traveling through it. Characters living out in it. Things blowing up in it. It’s Doctor Who. It’s Star Trek. It’s Star Wars. It’s nearly every book I loved as a child. Understanding the sky seems like a natural extension of this love.
I also had the unique experience of growing up in a place where I could see the stars any night of the week. As such, I’m really damn good at pointing out constellations and I’ve seen my share of meteorological events. Spotting a shooting star? Easy. Knowing where to go for meteor showers. Simple. If you you’ve always wanted to extend your fandom and do the same, here’s how I suggest you get started.
Get a Travel Telescope: When you get WAY into it, you can go ahead and get a much more high powered machine. But for now, you just need something portable with high magnification and clarity.I suggest the Celestron Travel Telescope.
Study up! Here’s some great books for beginners:
National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Night Sky
NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe
Apps will be your best friend: Honestly, you can’t even imagine how much easier star gazing is now than it was 10 years ago. With these apps, you will be spotting constellations in 5 minutes. It’s that easy. Try these:
Star Walk (iTunes)
Meteor Shower Calendar (Google) (iTunes)
Sky Guide (iTunes)
Google’s SkyMap
Charts are great for spots where you don’t have reception:
Orion Star Target Planisphere
2014 Moon Calendar
US Space Travel Timeline (FREE!)
Are you a novice astronomer? What do you suggest budding astronomers pick up for their newest hobby?
Thanks to everyone who participated in the various giveaways I’ve had going in the last two weeks.
I’ve mentioned before that you can get Being Geek Chic on the Streamified app, so when the developers asked me to be a guest on their podcast “Let Us Present,” I was happy to participate. Mark (@markshore12), Zane (@inzania) and I chatted about dating as a geek, transitioning into career life while maintaining your geek pride and why I enjoy living a geeky life.
Take a listen here if you have a minute or if you’re bored at work.
Of course, the thing that is REALLY important here is the announcement of the giveaway winners:
Game of Thrones tank from Fencing & Archery: Amanda Hale
Snow White and the Huntsman Prize Pack: Staci Beezle
If you are one of the two winners, please email beinggeekchic(at)gmail(dot)com ASAP with your mailing address and I’ll get your prizes processed.
Since instagram sold for a sick $1Bil today, I figured I’d add to the conversation by giving you a rundown of coolest companies that will turn your digital photo musings into real art you can use in the home.
… Now if only I could come up with an incredibly simple, beautiful and non-revenue generating awesome thing to sell for major cash, right? In all seriousness, it’s truly amazing how quickly a great idea can turn into the biggest buyout of the year.
But back onto the pretties!
Pinstagram:
Posters, little prints (at left) and mini photos books are among the offerings here. There’s stickers too! Everything is super reasonable too. The cool polaroid-like cards come in sets of 48 for only $12.
ImageSnap:
Ceramic tiles + instagram photos = the most colorful, hipster friendly backsplash ever seen in a kitchen.
I’ve got to be honest… it’s unclear to me WHY you would want to buy lots and lots of tiles of your instagram photos, but they do look darn pretty here. A 2" by 2" tile will run you $4 and go all the way up to 12" by 12" for $35.
StickyGram:
I have to admit that I have a love/hate relationship with magnets. On the one hand, they’re a lot of fun to collect and do hold things up on the fridge. On the other hand, I like the clean simplicity of not having a ton of clutter on the fridge. You see my problem? No matter where you fall on the magnet issue, you can get nine of your instagram pics turned into them for $14.99 from StickyGram.
Stitchtagram:
I’m a throw pillow addict. Freaking love me a pillow that just looks colorful and awesome. Enter the stitchtagram pillow.
If you’re looking to “instagram your sofa” then this is clearly the product for you. The first pillow will run you $53, which is steep, but since it is custom fabric I’m not really surprised. For those that wants the specs, it’s 15 inches with a linen-cotton blend and the back is a dark navy color, and has an envelope-style closure.
If you want your instagram photos on a canvas, check out these other offerings from CanvasPop and Hatchcraft. Or you could always use this print to canvas tutorial I put together once.
Congrats to the newly rich founders of Instagram. Despite my earlier snark, I really do LOVE your app.
