December 2006 – Page 3 – Otis & James Photography

Fall On Your Knees

The Lovely Ladies Pross!

Now, I’m gonna tell you something, and I’m gonna be straight with you. A long time ago now, in fact, much too much too long ago, we had three lovely ladies stop by the O&J FunCenter for Fun in order to have some sweet sweet Lovely Ladies Pics Snapped!

Well, if the story ended here, all would be well in the land of blog. But, as stories sometimes go, it didn’t end here. You see, in the land of blog, there are all sorts of buttons and switches and gears and whatnot that make the blog go ’round and ’round. Sometimes, there are problems with one of these cogs and/or gears (perhaps Benjamin D. didn’t apply the proper amount of grease to the cogs…I’m not saying that happened, I’m just throwing it out there as a ‘hypothetical’ situation), and there will be a snafu in the land of blog.

Now, for those of you familiar with a snafu, you know that they are most often unplanned, but can often have dramatic consequences. Take, for example, the situation with the Lovely Ladies Pross that stopped down to the FunCenter. Let me just tell you the sitch (that is shorthand for ‘situation’, in case you are what is called a ‘square’). You see, this blog post should have gone up days and days and days and days (I think you get the picture…no pun intended…remember, the difference between a good photographer and a cheesy photographer is the number of lame puns that are made in relation to photography and real life…like ‘You get the picture’, and we’re trying to avoid the Velveeta ((no offense to the good people at Velveeta))) ago, but due to one of these ‘snafu’s’, this did not go down as planned.

So here I am, hat in hand, asking my peeps in the land of blog for forgiveness and understanding, as the land of blog should be one where everyone, one and all, is happy, healthy, and handsome all the time! Life is parfect in the land of blog, or at least it should be. Which is why my hat is in hand, and MuchLove is being offered to anyone that ever felt like we had forgotten about them…because we didn’t! Ahh…shucks, man. I don’t want to become a blubbering mess on you, I just want to get to the sample snaps which y’all have been waiting for so so long for.

So, it is without any further delay that I present the Lovely Ladies Pross, and offer them much thanks for being so patient and understanding with us in our technical difficulties. No more standing by, it is time to – Enjoy!

The Man of the Hour – Cody.

Earlier this week at the Otis & James Center For Children Who Can’t Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too (O&JCFCWCRGAWLTDOSGT), a young man and his entourage of personal assistants, managers, secretaries, limo drivers, stylists, and back-scratchers entered in full force ready to get down to business. Now, when I say “business”, I’m not speaking of the flavor of business worn on some heads (think “Business in the Front, Party in the Back”) nor the business often associated with Armani suits, the stock market, or Wall Street (we like to keep our business on Main Street). This business is strictly for those of rockstar status, and since our new friend, Cody, put the ‘rock’ in ‘rockstar’ (circa 1989) – then business on this particular day was GOOD.

After a few brief interruptions from some sort of a night talk show host (Letterman, I believe he said his name was?) and scheduling a few cover shoots for TIME and the Rolling Stone, Cody was ready for some hardcore snappage. Wait – to not capitalize that does not do the deed justice. SNAPPAGE.

Once all said rocking out had occured, Cody packed up his belongings, and trailed by his entourage of cellphone answerers and publicists alike, hopped into his limo and strode off the the Minot International Airport (MIA – ironically the same acronym for ‘Missing In Action’) where his superjet was parked, waiting to take rockstar Cody to his next destination. Cody is, as stated in the November 2006 issue of Newsweek, “Cody. So hot right now. Cody.”

A giant pat on the back to this man for turning “Senior Snap Time” into “Awesome Time”. Without further hesit — oh, just – Enjoy!

Paige!

Deep in the heart of Northdakotaland lived a special young lady, affectionately known as Paige. In need of some Senior snaps and perhaps looking to score a free Dum-Dum sucker handed to every passerby/enterer of the FunCenter, Paige came to the studio as polished and primped as ever. A quick check-check (that’s double check) of the lights, a few adjustments to the camera, and bada-bing! Paige was in action.

What ensued was more than just photograph-taking, mind-blowing, and scene-rocking , but a little slice of photographic heaven pie was brought out for dessert, and sure enough — Paige dominated that, too. A full course meal of photographic goodness, dominated in its entirety by the one, the only Paige. If that doesn’t sound outlandish, well, nothing does. There simply is no other way to relay to you the Degree of Rockitude (DOR) that Paige exerted throughout her shoot.

An O&J thanks to the fabulous Paige for coming down, around, out-and-about to the FunCenter and making merry with the O&J Crüe – Enjoy!

Brenna & Eric!

The ever-lovely and totally charming Brenna & Eric stopped down to the FunCenter, in a time which we shall call ‘not so long ago, but yet not so recent that I can really recall’, for some crazysweet E.Pics, and this is the story.

You see, it was one of those shoots which was shot (ugh…could that sentence start off any worse?) by yours truly, the one and only, the master of disaster, the king of pain, the sultan of shoreview, the man of minot, the clown of Cleveland (actually, have never lived in Cleveland, but was bestowed the title after saving the town from impending distruction from an asteroid after the OTIS5000 Satellite discovered not an asteroid, but instead a 1978 Ford Thunderbird travelling through time and space with one mission and one mission only…to destroy Cleveland…but, I told them about it, and…well…you all know the rest of that story) Otis!

Most days, Otis is kept away from clients, only being let out from time to time for good behaviour. But today was different, and the ever lovely and always charming Brenna & Eric had the good fortune to have the Otis (and, I shall from this point on refer to myself as ‘The Otis’) be the one behind the camera.

Him, and his talented assistant Kinzo tore on into the shoot, and after a period in which the ever lovely and always charming Brenna & Eric may have thought that Otis was mere seconds away from losing his mind, they had a splendid time taking many picto-graphs in the FunCenter for Fun, and on this day, beautiful E.Pics!

Hooray!

I would like to thank them for not running away in fear from my insanity, and to all of my peeps of blog that may or may not be sitting in front of a Chirstmas tree named Clifford – Enjoy!

Jessica & Cameron!

Even though we are currently in the midst of Holiday Portrait Madness, from time to time we still manage to have the good-gosh-great-almighty pleasure of working with the very people that helped build the Otis & James Empire (OJE) into what it is today…and that’s our supersweet wedding clients!

You see, my people of the blog, it’s time for a little bit of o&j history. A long time ago (and, is there any other way to start a brief history than with the phrase ‘a long time ago’?) we were just a couple of drips that had a couple of cameras. But then some real trusting people asked us if we would take their wedding photographs. And then another couple did, and then a couple of more did, and then…well…the OJE was on its way to being what it is today.

But that’s where it all started. With our wedding peeps. They have been the ones that have kept it real for us this whole time. They have been our bedrock, our foundation. Without them, we are nothing. So, it is always a great pleasure for us to work with one of these future wedding clients for the first time, during their e.pics.

And, that’s just what we did with the superawesome Jessica & Cameron! They stolled on into the FunCenter, and made what we like to call, sweet photographic magic happen! We had an absolultey wonderful time working with this fantastic couple, and we can not wait until the main event (their wedding, for those of you not on the up and up with me lingo.)

ManyThanks & MuchLove to them for stopping by the FunCenter on such a fine evening, and to all of you out there in the land of blog – Enjoy!

The Family Turk!

This past week, the doors to the FunCenter opened on up, and we had the superwonderful pleasure of welcoming back none other than The Family Turk for some totallysweetlysweetfamilypics!

This lovely family is yet another that has been with us for some time now, and it is now a Holiday Tradition for us to have the great pleasure of working with this lovely group! This year, however, was supersweet for us, as not only did we get to work with the lovely Children Turk, but actually had the good fortune of working with the entire family!

The FunCenter came alive, and The Family Turk turned on the charm (as usual), and completely owned the shoot! We always wondered how it was that The Children Turk were so completely and totally awesome to work with, and since working with The Parents Turk, we finally know where they get it from…yes, that’s right…Mother & Father.

It was as if the past years have just been a warm-up for the awesomeosity that occured at the FunCenter on such a lovely night, because not only did The Family Turk just show up for the shoot and do a good job, they totally and completely owned the shoot, and that’s the straight up truth.

That’s right. Totally and completely owned the shoot.

I think I just need to stop all of this nonsense and get to the real reason you’re here…and I know it’s not so you can see into my mind via my words (even though I wish it were), and that’s the superawesomesamplesnaps. Without any further delay, I present The Family Turk – Enjoy!

The Family Kaiser!

Here’s a little known factoid:

Before the FunCenter will open their doors to a new client, there is a crazy pre-photograph part where we actually measure our families to make sure that they will fit together in a photograph properly. Yes, we know that this seems strange, but a family that fits well together is the key to great family photographs.

After we get these measurements, we then send them off to the Otis & James Center for the Study of Numbers, Frogs, Pizza, and Late Night Web Surfing, or Droiding, If You Will (O&JCFTSONFPALNWSODIYW), located in Stockholm, Sweden, where a crack team of crazed out professionals work around the clock to give us our computations of the numbers we delivered to them, and once these computations have been completed (the actual verdict is delivered by a SupahComputah that is called the OTIS7000, not to be confused by the OTIS5000 satellite that is used to track potential earth threatening asteroids, but is made by the same company ((Fisher Price)), they are then sent via super-sonic jet back to Minot, where we can let our potential family client know if it will be possible to open the doors of the FunCenter for them.

The Family Kaiser? They passed with flying colors! Look at them – they fit together perfectly! Another job well done by the OTIS7000, and a totally and completely wonderful job by The Family Kaiser! Many thanks to them for making a little bit of o&j time for us, and many thanks to all you peeps using your eyes to read these words out there in the land of blog. So, I guess that now is the time we say – Enjoy!

The Family Bakk!

Now, let me tell you a little something about this family, which, for blog conversation sake, I shall call The Family Bakk. By the way, there were way too many commas in that sentence, but I’ve ne’er let something like that stop me before, and I most certainly am not going to start now. But, back to the matter at hand, me telling you something about The Family Bakk.

You see, they were one of the original clients. They have been with us through thick and thin, through three different locations (and soon to be one more), through many different hairstyles (who can forget the perm accident of 2002 which caused Otis to lose all of his long and glorious hair…we told him not to get the perm, but would he listen…does he ever listen…and now look at him, nothing but a shaved head shell of a man…so sad, so sad), through ups and downs, through thick and thin, through deep dish and thin crust, through ebony and ivory, through original flavor and new, through next day air and three day ground, through original scent and mountain spring, In Through the Out Door, Physical Graffiti, Presence, and Led Zeppelin IV, all the way through that period where the one and only James was convinced that she was the actual Dutchess of York, and we had to call her Madame, not to be confused by the weird puppet from Wayland Flowers, to now…they have been with us.

Seriously, did you see all that they went through for us? That’s what I mean by thick and thin. Original and Hand tossed. They’ve been through it all, and they keep on coming back. Perhaps it’s mostly out of pity for us, but we think it is because they think that we’re good people, and – of course – we think they’re they cat’s pajama’s!

As usual, we had a wonderful time working with this totally and completely incredibly wonderful family, and we would like to give them all the love that I can fit into a hot air balloon sized container (fully inflated, mind you), because that’s how much we love them…as much as a fully inflated hot air balloon, and that’s a lot.

MuchLove to Family Bakk, and to all of you all of you all of you all of you all of you out there in the land of blog in an evening so fine, sit back, relax, and take in The Family Bakk – Enjoy!

The Famiy Burns!

Now, let it be known that Otis & James, collectively known as the FunCenter, or maybe that’s the other way around, but, whatever…let it be known that they had the good fortune of recently becoming acquainted with none other than The Family Burns!

Hip Hop, Hooray! For our time with this lovely family was filled with laughter, smiles, cheer, and a big ol’ heap of good looking family! We have had the good gosh great almightly pleasure of working with one member of this family before, and we knew from our experiences with him (I guess I kind of gave it away there as far as what family member I’m refering to, but then again, I don’t really know why it is that I would want to keep this hidden from you, other than the fact that I’m trying to play some twisted mind game with y’all, but I’m not…I swear) that the whole fam was going to be a blast, and we were 100% correct in this assumption, as our time with them was totally and completely sweetlysweet!

We would like to thank this everlovely family for stopping down to the FunCenter, and now, for you people out there in land of blog finishing your breakfast burritos and cups of mango juice – Enjoy!