July 2006 – Otis & James Photography

Nycole = Sweetly Shootly, Rockem Sockem!

Now, I know that the title of this post is probably anthing other than clear in meaning to those of you out there in blogland (and I’m sure that I’ll hear about this from our proofreader, the always lovely B), but as I write this, sitting in a hotel room in Chicago, at 12:30am, after a day of driving, going to the top of the Sears Tower, eating a righteous amount of deep dish pizza, the title seems like the only way for me to truly describe how are time with Nycole was. If you still aren’t convinced, let me explain.

Nycole: This is her name, so…there’s not really anthing else that I could put there.

Sweetly Shootly: This is a technical term, only used by a handful of photo-graphers across the globe. To use this term, you must submit an application explaining to ‘The Masters’, as they like to be known, why it is that your shoot deserves to be given the honor of being such a sweet shoot. Only then, upon this approval, can you use the term. It’s not easy. Some of these forms have to be in triplicate…IN TRIPLICATE!

Rockem Sockem: Seriously, do I really even need to explain this one? The over and under-tones of 1960’s mod music, Laugh In, Kung Fu, and any number of other wild, wild things is what this one is all about. If you can look at a shoot and say, ‘Why yes – all of these elements are included!’, you have reached that point when Rockem Sockem can freely be used.

So, after looking at these facts, can you see why I have chosen this title? I knew you would! So let us offer up a gigantor Otis & James thank you for the insanely lovely Nycole for being so great to work with, and to all of you out there in the land of blog – Enjoy!

Paul & The Ladies (with a side of Otis)

This past Tuesday morning, the doors of the FunCenter (do all of these start like this, and then veer into uncharted territory?) opened up, but instead of the totally rocking Paul joining us to begin, the O&J LoveBus ventured to the home of the one and only Paul, to get some sweetsweetsweet Home Style Senior Snaps!

Jamie & her lovely assistant (the one and only McKinzey) ventured bravely off on this mission, leaving ol’ Otis in the dust…standing on Valley Street…waiting for a ride. Paul was on his own, and he was surrounded by a bevy of absolutely wonderful ladies (our two, plus two of his own ((Ma & Sis)), which, in nautical terms, does indeed constitute a bevy).

I didn’t know how Paul would be without the rugged manliness of me, the one and only Otis, steering him to capture the ultimate in manly shots (I’m inserting a pause here for you to laugh at this suggestion, for those that know O know that rugged & manly are not two adjectives that normally apply), but after looking at the sample snaps that are just mere words below show, I would say that I would have been able to offer nothing to this shoot, as the shots show that Paul was what we in the photog biz like to refer to as ‘perfect.’

But don’t listen to me yammer & stammer on and on about it, skip these words now and go to the bottom of the post, and let your mind explode with the wonderful colorful pixels that are, Paul!

Much Love from O&J for the good work, and to all y’all out there – Enjoy!

Sydney!

Hmmmmm…let’s see…where do I start to tell you how much of a total and complete treat it was to work with the truly wonderful Sydney this past Monday evening. Where should I even begin to tell you how hard she rocked up her session. How can I begin to tell you all out there in the land of blog about how much fun we had during our time together.

The words…the words…they are elusive, but one thing that is not elusive is the straight truth about our session with the absolutely lovely Sydney; and this straight truth is that her session was one that was filled with goodness. To the brim. Right up to it. All filled up with photo-graphic goodness! I’m not even kidding – she rocked it up tough!

Much love to Sydney and her lovely assistant (Ma) for taking a little time from their time back for us, and to all of you out there in this crazy mixed up world – Enjoy!

Melting with Kaley!

Our Monday kept on keeping on, and up next was a visit from the resplendent Kaley! We knew that it was going to be a little on the warm side during our session, but we had no idea that it would actually warm up to 274Âº F during the session. It was actually the hottest recorded temperature ever on the earth. But did she let that keep her down?

NO! No, I tell you, she did not. In fact, she didn’t even let the heat phase her. She kept saying how she wished she would have brought some more layers, as she felt a little chill. She kept on telling us to turn up the heat in the car. She even bundled in a blanket during in between shots. This ‘crazy, like a fox’ strategy worked well, as the results of our time together, were in a word, mmmmmmyyeaaaaaaaaaahsuperpertacticaliscous!

At the end of the shoot, she looked at the camera, said ‘that’s a wrap’, and melted into a resplendent puddle, which also happens to be the name of the band that I’m putting together.

The End.

Bet you didn’t see that ending coming, now did ya.

Much Love to Kaley.

Enjoy!

Megan…Monday Morning Master!

I do not look as good on a Monday morning as the lovely Megan does. I don’t know how she could have done it. Really. I looked like I may have spent a little time in jail the night before, and Megan came down to the FunCenter this past Monday AM looking as if she was escorted to our doors on the wings of a flotilla of angels. How can this be? I mean, I use face creams, I put cucumber slices on my eyes, I do botox, I’ve had a lift/tuck/lipo – and yet I still look like Keith Richards (no offense, Keith…I love ya’) but really…what’s up?

For those of you wondering, this is not Jamie, this is Otis writing, and I want to get to the bottom of these questions, but first, I think we should talk a little more about Megan, and how awesome she was to work with this past Monday! Well, she was awesome to work with this past Monday…do I need to write a book for ya, ’cause I can, or would you like me to instead give thanks to Megan for being so great to work with (even as we took the more than scenic way to the lake), and move on to the pics? I already know the answer to this question (it’s called rhetorical), so – Enjoy!

Brayda…Dang!

Our day of work on the normal day of rest (the one & only Day of Sun, Sunday) continued with a visit from the truly wonderfuliscious Brayda! Normally, I would be all bleak on doing a Sunday shoot, but due to some previous weather issues, we did a little bit of the old ‘re-adjust’ and made a little time…and thank goodness golly (I’m not sure that there are any religions based on goodness golly, but maybe we should start one) that we did, because the results were crazy good!

We ventured all about, to and fro with Brayda in search of that one and only sweetest of sweet shots, and we didn’t just get one, oh no, our nets were filled with shot after shot of nothing but beauty. One could say, if one was so inclined, that our nets (not that we really use nets to catch photo-graphs, but it would make things a little more interesting if we did) were overflowing with totally sweet Senior Snaps!

We had a great time with Brayda, and we would now like to put an end to all of these non-sensical words, and move straight to the snaps – Enjoy!

The Family Kruse!

This past Sunday, the FunCenter became a little more mobile and motored on down to the home of the Family Kruse, for some superawesomefantastic Family Snaps!

We have had the good pleasure of working with one member of this family during the past year, and Jamie reports that the whole group was just as awesome as she was! But, do you really want me to keep yammering on about this, or would you like to see some sample snaps…what’s that…yammering…ohh…the snaps is what you would like. Alrighty then – Enjoy!

Nathan & Jeannine!

Our Friday Last (that sounds kind of like the start of a poem, but alas, you will find no word beauty around here, just good ol’ fashioned werds around these here parts) came to a lovely end with a visit from this fantastic couple!

We had a joyous little time (now, that sounds like the start of a Christmas song, but it’s waaaaaayyyyy to warm for that) working with them, and all of the pieces came together, and you know what, they came together to form a wonderful shoot! We can not wait until the main event for this lovely couple, but for now we must be satisfied with these sweet sweet engagement snaps – Enjoy!

Jon…Your Post is Here…Finally!

Alright now, the wait is finally over. After much anticipation, and a couple of different sessions, we at the Otis & James Center for the Study of Fun and Not Fun (O&JCFTSOFNF) are pleased to announce that the blog post for the one, the only, the man with the plan, the General of Albania, the Master of Texarkana, ladies & gentleman, I present to you…without any further wait, the man of the hour…let’s give it up for…are you ready for this…JON!

Much thanks to the General (that’s what his inner circle of peeps calls him…or…that’s what I like to call him…and I’m not sure that he likes it…but I hope it sticks, especially if one day he actually is a General…crazy) for being so patient, and to all of you all out there in blogland – Enjoy!

Sometimes You Tell The Town…

From the bottle that you drink. It’s strange how the Jovi always manages to be the prophet when you need one most. If I were to have had a bottle tonight, it would have been a big ol’ bottle of Minneapolis, for I write this with a view of the Minne-Apple outside the hotel room window. Perhaps the line of the song should have said ‘Sometimes you tell the town, from the name that’s on the sign’ – I think that that would make more sense. Like, the system of picking a different bottle for every town seems to be pretty complex.

What’s the purpose of this post? Not much, really, other than to let you know that the O&J Caravan of Love is moving East for the next week, but we’re still keeping our fingers on the pulse of the blog, via this amazing information superhighway (series of tubes) that I like to call the internets.

So, even though we are not physically in the FunCenter, we can still put up some sweet sweet stuff, so – get ready for some serious Senior Bloggers, y’all!

Much Love
O