January 2008 – Otis & James Photography

Rebecca!

Don’t you just hate it when…whoa…I’m sorry…I thought I was doing my weekly Andy Rooney column. Totally sorry about that. Which is too bad, because I had a totally sweet curmudgeon rant all set up and ready to go. You know, when I think about it, it really would be sweet if I could just go off on some sort of a crazy tangent for a couple of paragraphs, and then just throw the old ‘ – Enjoy’ at the end of it and it would be all good.

Well, come to think of it, that really is what I do. But it would be great if I could do weird topical stuff. Like, I could ramble on and on about how this election cycle seemed to start years ago, and after about five minutes of that I could then be all like, ‘…speaking of Mitt Romney, the doors of the FunCenter opened up, and who should walk in but the everlovely Rebecca!

Which reminds me, I have known many people named Rebecca, but there is one in particular that is a long-time member of the Otis & James Family of Love, none other than sister of Jamie. Now, I know her name is Rebecca, but I like to call her the following variations of her name:

Becky!
ReezBeckeeez!
Becks
Reb
Beckers
and my favorite…Reba…like the country singer

I know she likes Reba the best. Well, I’m pretty sure she can’t stand it, but she lets me call her it. Well, with that in mind, I think it be best to say that we had a wonderfulfantastical time working with this Rebecca (notice, how I didn’t call her Reba!), and we would like to say MuchLove to her for stopping down to FunCenter and partaking in our Circus of Pictosnaps (COP! Yay! COP!), and to all of you out there wondering just how much Robitussin I’ve had tonight – Enjoy!

Kelsey!

Hear Ye, my dear old friends of blog (by now, you should know that if you want a super-quick way of saying this, you would abbreviate it to ‘FOB’, and I’m all about making this quick, easy, and painless for you…well…I’m all about making it painless. I don’t know what that means, I think it’s time to get back to the unparenthesized words { whoops, it’s not that one…hold on…|…nope, that doesn’t get me out of this…wait…I think I’ve got it…]…close…YES! Here it is!), I come to you on this fine evening bringing delightful news of happygoodtime pics that were taken in the Land of o&j, of a lovely Senior that went by the name of Kelsey!

Kelsey, as it turns out, just happened to be wandering around the streets of Downtown Minot (Catch The Fever!), when she stumbled upon our little section of the street so Main! You see, on any given day there are hundreds of teenagers wandering around the downtown zone. It’s like the mall, except kÃ¸Ã¸ler. Sometimes, it’s so packed with people under the age of 25 that we have to lock the doors. Whoa. Catch The Fever indeed! It’s all there at the…umm…yeah. It’s all there in the downtown corridor. Or something like that. But enough about downtown sweetness, back to the story.

You see, Kelsey walked in to the FunCenter, ambled back to the studio (or, the ‘Zone of Magic’), and let us know that she was ready to go. Without saying a word, we picked up our camera, and the rest is history. The Zone of Magic was in full effect, and it was all because of Kelsey. She rocked, she rolled, she showed us the meaning of supersweetseniorsnaps.

After we were done, she put her coat back on and said, “…and by the way, I’m Kelsey. See you on the flip side.”

And just like that, she was gone. All there is for me to do now is to give MuchLove & ManyThanks to Kelsey for gracing the FunCenter with her presence, and to all of you out there in Land of Blog – Enjoy!

All Content Â©2008 Otis & James Photography
[ed. This story may or may not be true.]

Courtney & Mike!

And the hits just keep on coming, one right after another at the Otis & James Fun Center for Fun & Fun Addiction (O&JFCFF&FA…now nationally accredited…‘We Don’t Treat Addictions To Fun…We Encourage Them!‘), and next up on our Cavalcade of SuperStars was Courtney & Mike!

The decided to stop to our little section of Main Street for some totally awesome e.pics (please don’t tell me that I gotta tell you what this means…alright…just this last time…for all of you squares out there it means ‘engagement pics’…I swear, you gotta stay hip, don’t make me repeat my hipster slang!),and – rest assured my friends – some totally awesome e.pics were exactly what they got!

Now, I could sit here and tell you that the reason why their pics were so sweet was because we’re just that good, I mean, we’re otis & james, yo…dang. If I were to do that, however, I would be lying. The reason why their pics were so good was because they were so good! Folks, you heard it here first. The reason why is not because of us, it’s because our clients know how to rock. Straight up. That’s why we have the pre-session ‘rock it up’ screening test to see if you’re eligible for the FunCenter. Enough about us, back to the story here.

Man oh man oh man, gotta give the MuchLove to Courtney & Mike for coming all the way from cities so twin to visit us, and I gotta tell my good peeps of blog and anyone else out there that happens to be stuck reading this – Enjoy!

Kharra & Randy!

Oh hello there! Thanks for stopping by again. Well, now that we have the pleasantries of out the way, I bet you’re thinking that there is going to be a bunch of silly words that lead up to the real reason why you’re here, and that’s the supershinyhappy pictosnaps that are just sitting here at the bottom of these words just waiting to be ogled (really, that’s a word…totally looked it up…whoa…actually did just look it up, and it’s a little skeevy, but I’ll leave it in…what the heck, right?! The More You Know!)

Well, I bet you’re sitting there thinking that. I bet you’re thinking that I’m going to ramble on and on and on about how lucky we are to have such gorgeous clients, and how easy & fun they were to work with. And, I bet you’re thinking that I’m going to ramble on about how our time with them was far too quick, and we can’t wait until their wedding. Yep. I know you, and I know you’re thinking that. But you know what? You’re wrong.

Yep, you heard it, you’re wrong. I’m just gonna say this instead. Kharra & Randy…dang. They rocked. People of Blog, see how it’s done. MuchLove & ManyThanks, and to all the people of the digital world reading this – Enjoy!

Heidi & Chris!

Sometimes people come to FunCenter thinking that, contrary to its name, it’s not going to be all that fun. They think that they’re gonna stumble in, there’s going to be an older severe German woman sitting at the front desk, holding nothing more than a ruler and a whip, and that once you’ve checked in with her, she will then lead you to our basement all-cement & fluorescent lit studio, to the steel bench in the corner, and then somebody will wander out of a door marked ‘Danger/Flammable’ holding a Polaroid camera, (did I mention that the only sound is of a clock ticking?), an after a period where the photographer cracks their knuckles, a four-hour long shoot commences.

Well, to those of you that think this – you’re wrong. Jamie isn’t that old.

[cue rimshot]

No No NO! It is nothing like this! Proof of which can be found with superlovely friends of o&j, none other than Heidi & Chris! Now, perhaps going into it, they may have wondered what it was going to be like, and they may have even thought, ‘crap…I could be at home on my couch right now’, but, as soon as they realized that FunCenter is not just a name, it is a frame of Mind, all was well!

Not only did they dig it, they were good at it too! Wahoo for Heidi & Chris! Wahooo for Fun! Wahoooo for all my peeps of Blog reading this! WAHOO FOR EVERYONE! Well, not bad people, just good people. OK, we gotta wrap this thing up, but before I go, gotta give MuchLove to Heidi & Chris for stopping down, and to all my happy peeps of blog all chirping away in your trees – Enjoy!

Luc!

‘Round and ‘Round the Wheel of Fun spins at the FunCenter (well, most of the time it spins…but there was that period in the middle part of last year when it spun out of control and pinned our beloved Benjamin D. against the wall, and he only had his Staedtler and a poster of Hannah Montana to get him through the ordeal, and after that – due to some investigating my OSHA and the NTSB ((I had no idea that a Wheel of Fun would be considered ‘transportation’, but a wheel is a wheel, after all (((conincidentally, on a side note, ‘A Wheel is Just a Wheel’ is the title of my self-help book to be released this spring by Tender Touch Press))), it was determined that the Wheel of Fun ((WOF, if you will) had to go in for some major retrofitting), and this time the Wheel of Fun landed on (figuratively) none other than new friend to the Otis and to the James…Luc!

What can I say about this young that hasn’t already been said before. Whoa. That sentence couldn’t have been any more generic if I wanted it to be. Let’s do that again. [ed. We’ll cut that out in editing, don’t worry about it.]

I bet you’re sitting there in your bloggerific chair (on sale now in our online store!) wondering what it is I could say about this young man! Yes, I bet you are! Well, you wanna here what I got to say? How about that he was totally and completely awesome to work with, that he brought us nothing but joy, and that his pics were just about as sweet as you can get! Whoooooa Nelly!

Our time with Luc was all too Short & Sweet, and before we knew hit he had blown right on out of Center so Fun. All that we have now are these sweet samplesnaps, but before we get there, we gotta give MuchLove & ManyThanks to Luc for stopping down, and to all you good peeps out there in Land of Blog – Enjoy!

The Children Duggins!

Hello…is this thing on…ahh yes…there you are. Welcome, good people of blog, to yet another installment of ‘bliggity-blog’, with your host, Mr. Otis (some people call me sparklepants, and you can too if you would like, but something tells me you’re just going to stick with Mr. Otis, and we probably should during normal business hours…if, however, you were to see me on the street late at night, wandering down by the singing Christmas tree on Main Street that hasn’t quite yet received the memo about the fact that January is almost over, and yet it continues – gallantly, or maybe valiantly, I might add – to belt out our most beloved holiday hits…well, if you were to see me standing and staring at the tree, and wanted to yell out ‘Hey…Sparklepants!’, I would most definitely respond to your call.)

Today, in bliggitly-blog land, I give you…The Children Duggins! Man, oh man, these lovely young models…well, at least I thought they were models, because mere normal children couldn’t be this good. Really now, they must have spent days and hours (that doesn’t make much sense to put days and then hours, but I just woke up from a two-hour late-in-the-day nap, and I’m not quite sure of much right now, let alone my use of words) practicing for this time…what’s that…I’m just getting word in that these were in fact actual real children…they were not models. I do not know how this is possible, because they were so good.

Some things, my Friends of Blog (FOB’s, if you must), are better left not understood. Instead of trying to figure all of this out, let us instead thank these wonderful children for taking a little time out from their busy lives and giving us some sweet photo-graphic love here at the ol’ FunCenter! MuchLove to one and all involved with the shoot, and to you good people of Blogville that wait so patiently – Enjoy!

Alivia!

There was a day, a day just like today, a day called ‘Saturday’, this day was not so long ago, and on this day the doors of the FunCenter opened up, and goodgreatgoshalmighty good friend to the Otis & James Empire of The Study of Fun (O&JEOTSOF), none other than the Ã¼ber-talented Alivia strolled back into our lives!

She knew the drill and immediately took command of the studio. You see, she’s an old pro at this, what with both us and her ma always with the cameras. She took off her sunglasses, hit her mark, and made the magic happen! And, as if that wasn’t enough, she also brought a little bit of cake to the festivities!

You see, it was also a celebration of her very first birthday! Wahooo! And, as if that wasn’t enough, she got to smash the cake! Double Wahooooo! Man oh man, the the pics were sweet, and it’s all because she is so so so awesome!

ManyThanks & MuchLove to Alivia & her entourage for stopping by the FunCenter and giving us so much love, and to all my good people of blogville that have been waiting for this post – Enjoy!

Josephine!

Gather ’round, my Children of blog (COB’s…not to be confused with a Cobber…for short), for I come to you on this day so crisp with a story of a shiny and happy new friend of the (should I use ‘of the’ or ‘to the’…linguists discuss) FunCenter, none other than the wonderful, the spectacular, the sweetly rocking and sweetly rolling, Josephine!

I know, you’re probably all wondering why it is that we get so lucky all the time. You know, I wish I could put into words how wonderful life is, when you’re…wait…wrong line…as I was saying, I wish I could give you all a reason as to why all of our clients are so wonderfully beautiful to work with. There are, however, no simple words for this. I mean, why do the birds sing? Why is the sky blue? Why is Josephine so awesome? Words can not begin to answer these questions.

Sometimes, it’s just better to not to figure these things out, and just enjoy what it is that we see and feel. Whoa. I think I’m gettin’ all metaphysical on you, and it’s still way to early in the day for that. I think it be better now to just stop all of these silly words, give ManyThanks & MuchLove to Josephine for being so absolutely wonderful to work with (and for being so brave in the cold cold winter!), and to say to all of you – my good peeps of blog – Enjoy!

Josh!

Oh. Hello there. Good people of Blogville, I didn’t realize you had been standing there. What’s that you say? You’ve been waiting for some more pictographic goodness? You weren’t even able to sleep last night? You’ve just been sitting there in front of your interweb boxes staring blankly ahead, pressing the refresh button over and over and over and over again, just hoping that something new had gone up? Oh, you really should have gone to sleep and rested your pretty little blog eyes…but…seeing as how patient you’ve been, we’re going to take another trip back in recent o&j time (which, is slightly different than normal time) to a place where we had the supersweet pleasure of working with a young man by the name of Josh!

Now, Josh didn’t come down here to sell us lightbulbs, or to ask us for a donation to the Center For Children Who Can’t Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too, no no no, and he didn’t come down here to sit with old man Otis and learn life lessons (like, how to pick up his dry cleaning from Suds-n-Sun), nope. None of that. He came down here instead for some totally awesome Senior Snaps!

When I call them ‘Totally Awesome Senior Snaps’, I – along with all of you out there – can probably feel the Velveeta oozing from the title. Let me assure you, good People of Blog (POB’s, for short), there was absolutely nothing from the land of Velveeta involved with this shoot. No. It was straight up dead sweet. No joke. What’s that? You need some proof of this? Well, you just hold on for one second, we got a little bit of business left to do.

Before we go all crazylike and start staring at the happy shiny pictures, we want to give MuchLove & ManyThanks to Josh for giving a little bit of time from his life to o&j, and I’d also like to thank all of the POB’s out there for being so awesome. Yeah. That’s right. Oh, and one more thing – Enjoy!