September 2006 – Otis & James Photography

Ashton. Man of Good Picture.

Now, there’s two ways that we can do this.

The first way will involve a 2,000 word disertation on the SeniorSnaps of Ashton. We will probably cover all sorts of ground during this odyssey of the mind. In all likelihood, we will start at some benign place, but by the end of the post we will barely be holding on to any thread of normality. This will either excite you, or it will sicken you. I can not say for sure, as our audience is diverse.

The second way for us to do this is the ‘straight up’ approach. This can be seen in many anti-drug commercials. You know, frying pan, brain, that sort of stuff. No need to sugar coat it sort of thing. The type of thing that doesn’t waste all sorts of words trying to be clever. Straight-shooter. Mmmmmmmm-Hmmmmmmm.

Now, because I happen to know Ashton (after a lovely meal…make that an over indulgence…of many fried foods at the Fridays in Bismarck – not to mention the part that he just happens to know our assistant/friend, the one and only Kinzo) I’m thinking that the less time riding on my brainwaves in word form, and the quicker that we get to the actual photo-graphs, the better off we all will be.

So, Ashton, it’s now only three seconds until you see your blogpics – Enjoy!

Tuesday Travis

How do you start a Tuesday morning? Did you have a bowl of cereal, read the paper, have a cup of coffee, take a vitamin, enter a showering facility, shave, brush your teeth, put on a clothing apparatus, put dirty dishes in a washing device, put keys in hand, leave house, go to work (school), stare at the clock, patiently wait for your lunch break?

You may have done this, and you may have done other things. You can really do anything. It’s like those old MadLibs, you can just fill in the blank, so it would look like:

How do you start a _____________? Did you have a bowl of _______, read the _______, have a cup of _______, take a ________, enter a _________ facility, shave, brush your ______, put on a _____________, put dirty dishes in a _____________, put ________ in hand, leave house, go to _____________, stare at the _________, patiently wait for your _____________?

I mean, you could totally change this to your way of starting the day. Submissions to this game can be e.mailed to us at info@otisandjames.com. Winning entry to receive an Otis & James Sticker!

Or, if you were like us, you would have started off your Tuesday with a visit from a man that goes by the name of Travis! Travis, along with the Ladies of James took what could have been just another ordinary day, and kicked it up, all hardcore style. They went to where the goods were to be got, and they got the goods.

Again, I’m not quite sure that I know what this means, but I’m sure that most of you have already stopped reading and have moved on to the photo-graph part of the post. But that’s OK. I’m cool with that. I’m just gonna throw some mad props the direction of Travis, for being so mellowawesome to work with, and to all of you out there in the land of blog (even those that are not reading this) – Enjoy!

Andy!

Our Monday last past (that means just this last one, but I’m gonna call it last past) came to aÂ thrilling conclusion (now, I suppose that by using the term ‘thrilling conclusion’, one may be swayed to think that perhaps we would be working with a Senior, and then all of a sudden like, there would be some sort of an action movie type thing that went down, and I just want to reassure all of you out there in blogland that there were no scenes that involved Jamie & a Dutch hitman, that had been sent from competing photographers to…how shall we say…prevent her from taking any more pictures. There were no moments when the always wonderful Kinzey found herself standing on the ledge of a building, trying to save a baby that had crawled upon it. There was not a scene where Ben went to answer the phone, and when he picked it up, and finding that what he had thought was his cordless phone was really three sticks of dynamite tied together, and if he removed it from his ear, things might get a little…how shall we say…messy. And rest easy, as Otis did not find himself turning on his laptop, going to connect to the internet, and realizing that the internet was at the moment not working…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ((To Otis, this is the most terrifying thing that could happen.)) Rest assured, none of these things happened, I just didn’t want to say that it came to a delightful conclusion, because that would make it seem like we sat on the veranda and sipped herbal tea as the sun set, and that’s kind of not where we’re at, and probabaly not where our man, the one and only Andy is at either, so I said thrilling. Am I still in parenthetical form? Uhhhhhhhhhh…yeah…let’s break free) as we were visited by none other than the totally friendly man himself, Andy! And the reason for this visit was not to give O&J some golf tips (although, we could use some), it was for some supersweetseniorsnaps!

Ahh yes, I suppose that you are wondering what the outcome of these senior snaps was? You are sitting there, with your smug looks just waiting to find out what the dilly-yo is…you’re thinking, ‘I wonder of ol’ o&j will bring the goods this time…’. Well, let me tell you, you are wrong to be sitting there like that, thinking those things. Because, and I’m gonna let you in a little secret, it is not us that brings the magic, it is not us that ever brings the goods, it is our SuperAwesomeSeniors that bring these things! We just happen to be around them with various forms of photographic equipment, computers, reflectors, assistants and other things to ensure that we can take this magic, and find a way to deliver it to you, the faithful of the blog!

But if you came here to read a 10,000 word treatise on Senior Portraits, I suggest you get to steppin’, ’cause we are here to throw some love to our man Andy for being so great to work with, and to all you all out there with the computers and such – Enjoy!

Brandon…Mastering the Art of the Pose.

Mere words will not do justice to what is about to befall all you all out there in the land of blog. Hear Ye! Hear Ye! I bring you some ultrasweetsnaps. I bring you some sweetultrasnaps. I bring you snapssweetultra. I bring you any one of the combinations of these words, and a little more. For I come to you today, with some sweetsweetsamplesnaps of the one, the only, the master of disaster, the king of pain, the terminator, the flaming woodchuck, the main event, none other than our man BRANDON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did you see that, he got the seventeen exclamation salute! Dang!

He took a little bit of time out from his superawesomesenioryear and stopped by the Otis & James Center For The Study of Fun, Critcal Thinking, Self Analysis, and Hairspray Research and blessed us with his prescence for a couple of all too fleeting hours. He was awesome, entirely. We loved him…We honestly loved him. We wanted to only photograph Brandon for the rest of our existence, but alas, our time was only temporary, as he had to get back to giving himself back to the people of Minot. We realized our dream was selfish, but really, can you blame us?

Didn’t think so.

So, we will just cherish the time that we had together, we will thank him for coming down and hangin’ with the O&J CrÃ¼e, and we will always have these samplesnaps – Enjoy!

Dulcie!

This past Sunday, we had the good gosh great almighty pleasure of working again with our good friend, the one and only Dulcie, as we gathered just one more time for the grand completion of her totallyawesomelyfantasticalseniorportraits! Do you got that??!! Good!

So, after wondering if we were going to again be blown by the wind, Dulcie stood up and said, ‘Wind, I defy you to bother me again during my shoot!’, and the wind stopped. This was the power that Dulcie had. So, if she could control the wind like this, how do you think she was with her SeniorSnaps?? She was totally awesome! She rocked it up hardcore, and the proof lies just not with these meager words that I’m trying to string together in an attempt to give some sort of context to her photographs, the proof instead lies with the actual photographicsamplesnaps, which are only a few more words away.

But…and this is the best part of the deal, we need to spend a little bit more time with these words as I thank Dulcie for stopping down to visit us on a Sunday, and thank you to her entourage as well for the awesome job of support that they did (emergency shopping and all), and now, that I have these thanks out of the way, it is time for us to stop all of this stressful reading, and move on to the part where we look at the colorful picture-graphs – Enjoy!

Justin & Michelle

Listen Up! I’m gonna lay it down for you now, and it’s gonna go like this. A long, long, long time ago, way back when the OtisJames was still in its infant stages, when it was still crawling up from the mire, when it had not flown, and was still learning to walk, way way way back when, one of our first hard core believers in Otis & James was a young lady by the name of Michelle, and it was in a land called Lowe’s that we had the good fortune of first meeting, not just her, but also a young man by the name of Connor!

This first meeting seems like so long ago now, and so much life has passed since then! We eventually got to meet the one and only Justin, and it seems now like we have the good fortune of working with this wonderful family with great frequency! Now, I know that in this last sentence I used the word ‘frequency’, and it seems like I may be perscribing medication more than talking about this family, but my brain has gone to fried state, and I seriously typed that ten word sentence about sixteen times. So let me distill what I’m trying to say here with some bullet points:

Long Time Friends of o&j
Have watched Connor grow up right before our eyes!
Have had much fun working with this wonderful family!
Cant believe that it their wedding was finally here!
Had a ton of fun (that’s 2,000 lbs!)
Wedding Party was a blast!
Totally awesome snaps!
Wish the best for this couple, and thank them for sticking with us through time!
Stop Talking
Get On With The Snaps
Enjoy!

And seriously, much thanks to Justin & Michelle and their lovely families and awesome wedding party! But seriously again, get on with the snaps already – Enjoy!

Mike & Gina

Gather ’round, ye cheldren of the blog, because it is time for us to fire up the ol’ O&J FarBack Machine, and travel back in time to a land and a time that we shall call, not this past Friday, but the Friday Friday past! I know, you are gonna start asking me, ‘Uncle Otis, why do we have to get into the FarBack Machine again…it’s cramped and it smellls like french fries in there.’, but worry not…the reason for our mission is good, it is so we can be a part of the wedding of Mike & Gina!

And so it was, that we found ourselves (mmmmm…not so sure about this new style of writing, sounds like a fractured fairytale) on this lovely Friday, with this lovely Bride & Groom, and their equally as lovely wedding party, and all of us together made some double eqally (that’s all sorts of equal, for those of you counting) great looking wedding photo-graphs!

We had a wonderful time working with one and all, and we would like to give mad props (that’s street for ‘Many Thanks’, for all of you that live in squaresville) to Mike & Gina for including us on their day! Now, if I just continued to put these words here, I would only be aggravating all of you out there in blog land, and I don’t want to be the man that causes the aggravation, I want to be the man tha’ gives the laughs. So – Enjoy!

Kile & Richelle

Our trip in the FarBack Machine continues, but this time we need to adjust our coordinates. For we need to leave this land of Magic, and instead need to travel back to a time that was known as…again…not one, not two, but three Saturdays ago, and in a land that is known as Williston!

And why, as I’m sure that my dear bloggers are asking, are we changing our direction so…what is it that brings us to this far away Western (are directions capitalized?? Judges??) land…why do you venture to this land of oil that is so dangerously close to Montana? Let me be straight up with you…it was so we could be a part of the totally awesome wedding of Kile & Richelle!

Ahhh, now, I’m gonna break it down real easy for you…this group of totally awesome people that we had the great pleasure of working with was, as my earlier descriptor states, totally awesome! They were absolutely wonderful to work with, and they were even punctual! Did you hear that…they weren’t just punctual, they were early! It was, quite simply, miraculous!

Now, if all you all had come here to read some sort of a long novel that was occasionally peppered with lovely pictures, this post should go on for quite a bit longer. But I have received word that most of you are here for the happy fun time pictures. And the words are more of a distraction. So, it is without any further delay that we bring you Kile & Richelle – Enjoy!

Robbie & Carissa

Now, I bet you peeps out in blogland had thought that we had forgotten about you of late. Let me reassure you, we’ve been hunkered down in the FunCenter putting pixel after pixel together in order to create bright and shiny new pictures for you to see! I’m happy to report that we have a new batch ready for you to look at! I think this deserves two exclamation points!!

Step back with me in the O&J FarBack Machine, and let us travel back to a land that was known as not one, not two, but three Fridays ago. I know! I know…we are pushing the limits of the FarBack Machine, and you are worried that she may break apart. But I have no doubts in the machine, as I just changed the wiperblades last week, and they are totally good for like, 6 months. Alright. Here we are. Oh, did I tell you why it was that we were going so far back in the FarBack (seems kind of redundant to name it right there) machine?? What’s that?? I didn’t!! Well, let me correct that; we are going back to the wedding of Robbie & Carissa!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, both Mother Nature brought the goods, and so did this wonderful Bride, Groom & Deluxe Wedding Party! It was a joy, a blast, and a hoot (which could just be called a Joasoot, for short), and we would like to spend the next few words singing the praises of this wonderful group! Alright, you’ve all waited long enough, and it’s time to look at shiny, happy pictures. So – Enjoy!

:: click images for larger ::

The Family Schmidt!

Dear Diary,

The other morn’ (now, don’t make fun of me, ol’ diary, for using the abbrev ‘morn’ – I’m trying to go classy here, I’ve had enough of the lowbrow and it’s time to move on to the highbrow, so you can just take your smart little smile and move along…oh, who am I foolin’ ol’ diary, no matter the words, I’ll always be lowbrow!)…but, as I was saying, the other morn’, there came to the land of Otis & James, a group of frenly peeps that shall from hence on be known as the Family Schmidt!

Diary, am I speaking like I’m at a Renaissance Festival? I do apologize, for I must continue telling you about this wonderful family! Well, we’ve worked with them before, so we knew from our past experiences that it was going to be a total cake job. So much so, that ol’ Otis (that’s me), felt that it was time for them to do the shoot without the aid of his…well…whatever it is that he (I) helps with (jury is still out). BUT…and this is the part where Otis regrets not being there for this wonderful time, because not only is this family a total and complete joy to work with, but they…and by they, I think that I am singling out one member of this family (I’m lookin’ at you, Amy) also brought some deliscous treats to fill the bellies of all the O&J’ers! It was awesomeX2!

Diary, I know you are saying, ‘Why the regret, old man?’. Well, the regret is that by the time that I came to fulfill my daily obligations to the Empire of James (aka O&J), there were only stories to be told of these sweets…as all the little O&J’ers got their grubby little paws upon these treats before Uncle Otis could even set foot inside the studio.

Hurumph.

Well, dear friend, it is time for me to go, but I would just like to offer up thanks to the Family Schmidt for being so totally and completely awesome (as usual), and to all of you out there in the land of blog – Enjoy!