July 2008 – Otis & James Photography

Ashley!

The Magical Mystery Tour of Seniors continues at the FunCenter (hopefully without those weird fur animal suits the Beatles had to wear), and this time we’re headed to a place and a time and a person [ed. Â I’m no scientist, but I’m really not too sure that a person can be a time and a place. Â They may be able to be in a time and a place, but that’s about it. Â For example, nobody ever says ‘I’m going to Billy.’ or ‘Man, we had so much fun back at Rebecca.’ Â I mean, that’s just not right. Â But whatever, you never listen to me, so just keep on with your word madness.] called Ashley!

She came to the FunCenter for Fun ready to tear it up, to rip the lid off the joint, and – my dear friends – I’m going to tell you right now, right here in these very words, that she did just that! Â You know, sometimes – well, this never happens to us, but I’ve heard from other people out there in the photographic world – but sometimes, people don’t look forward to having their pictures taken. Â Yeah. Â I know. Â We’ll just let that set in for a bit. Â Because that’s crazy talk. Â I know. Â But trust me, some people will kick and scream and cry and complain and run around like ninnies (is that really a word? Â Wow.) waving their hands in the air because they have to be in front of a camera for a couple of minutes.

Sometimes, even, photographers will have to resort to bribery just to get the shot. Â Things like, ‘I’ll take you to McDonald’s after if you just smile for this one shot!’ or even better, ‘I’ll give you money if you just stand there and pretend to have fun for just a moment or two. Â And then money.’ Â People, I know this sounds crazy, but I’ve read it online from other people in our industry, and – as everyone out there knows – if it’s online, it’s true.

My friends, this has never happened to us, and – in the case of Ashley – it was almost the other way around. Â Because we just wanted to keep on working with her. Â And, truth be told, Jamie actually threw herself on the ground and screamed and cried when the shoot was over. Â I told her to chill out, that we would be able to look at the images on the computer and that it would be alright. Â But she just stayed there, face down on the floor kicking her arms and her feet. Â Finally, after about ten minutes of this, I offered her the McNugget bribe (and, for fun – feel free to ask Jamie about her ‘nugget head’ impersonation she does), and she finally calmed down enough for me to get her out of Â the studio.

Well Jamie, and to everyone else out there as well, I’ve got those samplesnaps here that will make you happy now! Â So, I invite you to sit back, relax, be cool, have a nugget, and prepare yourselves for the awesomeness that was and is Ashley!

Oh, I almost forgot! Â MuchLove & ManyThanks to Ashley for being so awesome, and to all my good peeps out there in Land of Blog – Enjoy!

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Kjiesta!

Hi there. Â It’s me again. Â Yeah, I’m not coming to you on this evening so fine with a request for money or donations to my new super sweet charity that I’ve established (The Society For The Appreciation of Wiener Dogs, Especially Suzie), and I’m not even coming to you at this hour with some suggestions for dinner or a recipe for good vegetarian lasaga (but if anybody out there does have a good recipe for a good vegetarian lasagna, please let me know because I’ve been searching and haven’t had all that much luck.) Â No, my dear Friends of Blog (FOB’s, if you will), I’m sitting at my lap top interwebbing device because I’ve got some supersweet SeniorSnaps to show you, and they are of the one and only Kjiesta!

What can I say about this lovely lady other than the fact that she was a dream to work with! Â All the forces of life and nature came together at this one point in our lives, so that we could make wonderful pictosnaps! Â There’s really no explaining it; that is, these things – how they happen. Â It’s like explaining why it is that we are in this world, and what is the meaning of life. Â Existential stuff like that which will make your head hurt after a while. Â And we don’t need any of that, because I’m out of aspirin and I don’t like making my head hurt unless I’m smashing it with a rubber mallet. Â Which never happens.

So I’m not even going to begin to offer an explanation of why it was that Kjiesta was so wondrous to work with, and why everything we did together was magicalfantastical. Â You – you people out there on the interweb – you’re going to have to come up with your own reasoning as to why this is. Â All that I have to do is state the fact, and then give you some empirical data (in the form of sweetsamplesnaps), and the rest is up to you! Â So, before you go off trying to figure out all the mysteries of life, I say to Kjiesta MuchLove & ManyThanks for being so awesome, and to all my good peeps out there in Blogville – Enjoy!

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Allison & Patrick

The Otis & James Caravan of Wedding Love just keeps it wheels spinning non-stop this time of year (we’re sure to keep them properly inflated, rotated and balanced, as the Caravan of Love ((which is not a Dodge Caravan, although it seems like it would be pretty cool if it was – especially the kind with the wood side panelling!)) must remain safe and fuel efficient at all times), and our next stop on the whirl-wind tour of all things wedding was an outdoor location, a wonderfully beautiful outdoor location, and it was for the supertotallyawesome wedding of Allison & Patrick!

Now, I could spend this paragraph telling you how much fun we had with the Bride, Groom and Wedding Party, but those of you that know this wonderful couple already know this to be the truth. Â So instead, I will tell you that the time that we spent with this group was not only wonderful, but the work we did together was magicalfantastical! Â Seriously, there’s some real good stuff going on just a few more words down this page.

Speaking of getting to the part where we all get to sit back and look at the sweetlysweet samplesnaps [ed. Â What’s the dilly-yo on all the made up words tonight? Â Your brain on full melt-down or what?] , I think that instead of just rambling on in that way that I seem to do more and more the older I get (I’m even at that point where I repeat the same stories to the same people over and over, not realizing that I’ve already put them through the fun process of hearing about the minutia of my day. Â Treat for them!), we will instead just offer our heartfelt congratulations to Allison & Patrick on their wedding, and then give one and all that helped make this day so good a big ol’ helping of MuchLove & ManyThanks for being so awesome, and then – last but not least – to all my good people of Blogville soaking up another beautiful night – Enjoy!

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Angie & Tim

And then we were there. Â The day we had been waiting for. Â And the day that Angie & Tim had been waiting for as well. Â And I’m not talking about Double Coupon Day at the Piggly Wiggly (yes, in case you were wondering, I am 73 years old…but I look good, huh!), and I’m not even talking about when it’s your birthday, and you can eat free in certain restaurants, and get a complimentary birthday spanking at other places (actually, most of those places have been shut down, but we’ll always have the memories to hold on to), ladies and gents of Blogville, the day that I’m speaking of was the Wedding of Angie & Tim!

We’ve had the goodly wonderful pleasure of getting to know and working with this sweetlysweet couple over the last year, and it’s been nothing but a pleasure! Â So, you can see that we were excited for this day (not that we aren’t always excited, especially since the operation both myself & Jamie had this last year that makes everything exciting (I tried many things during the Nineties that made things exciting as well, but this new excitement implant chip is much safer and legal. Â Well, I’m not really sure if it is legal, as we had the procedure done in Haiti, but the ‘Doctor’ seemed to be a nice enough fellow…but enough about us), but this was like the normal excitement level that we have, but times like…ten or something like that. Â And that’s a lot of excitement!

But seriously folks, we truly had a wonderful time working with Angie, Tim & their totally awesome wedding party! Â They made the day a breeze, and – once again – we were just there with our cameras to capture the total photographic sweetness they were making. Â Some people have it, and some people don’t. Â I’m here to tell you that this group of peeps – they had it. Â And that’s the straight dope. Â I’m not jiving you. Â I’m giving it to you straight. Â And you can take that to the bank, all day long (again, I have no idea what that means, but I’m really starting to use it all the time…soon you will too…I promise.)

For those of you that are faithful bloggerites, you know that now is the time that we offer MuchLove & ManyThanks to this wonderful couple and everyone else that helped us make this day such a breeze, and to all of my shiny & happy peeps out there in land of blog on an evening so warm & muggy sitting by the glow of the bug lite and your digital interweb box – Enjoy!

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Serena & Dan

Alright, everybody have their boarding passes? Â Got your carry-on bag? Â You do? Â Great. Â Because the Otis & James Caravan of Love is about ready to pull out of the Minot station, and travel back in time just a little bit, and go just south down the road to a land called Bismarck (some may call it B-Town, BizzileMack, or Biz-Markie, not to be confused with the performing artist of the same name, who did happen to have such a wonderful song back in the day, but I’m getting off track here), and the reason for this magicalfantastical excursion was to be a part of the wedded bliss of Serena & Dan!

It was an absolutely beautiful and wonderful day (duh, would it be any other way for their day?), and we were so very lucky to be a part of it! Â You see, my dearÂ inhabitantsÂ of digital Blogville, there could have been all sorts of other photographers there at this event, but we were lucky enough to be chosen! Â It’s kind of like that one TV show where the dude is all single, and then there are these ladies, and then they are all vying for his affection, and he’s not there looking for his Rock of Like, or Rock of Lust, he’s there looking for his Rock of Love, and to promote his new superlame album, but instead of Brett Michaels choosing us with a fake backstage pass, Serena & Dan just signed a contract. Â We find this to be less dramatic (nobody needs anymore baby mama drama then they already have, right?), but yet effective in ensuring that we are there for their wedding.

So, they chose us, and we couldn’t have been any happier! Â It gave the Caravan of Love a chance to get out on the highway (and now that we’ve converted the engine to burning old fryer oil, and since we already had the fryer installed on the dash for emergency nuggets last year, it’s getting more and more economical to load the Caravan of Love up and go on a road trip. Â The only problem is that we have to ingest more nuggets. Â But we shouldn’t have too much of a problem doing that) and out of the land of Minotians, even if just for a night.

Man, I’m just gonna lay it on you like this, and give a huge MuchLove & ManyThanks to Serena and Dan for allowing us to be a part of their day, and for being so wonderful to work with! Â And as long as I’m giving digital hugs, I’d also like to give one to everyone out there reading this, because you can never have too many friends or digital hugs! Â Oh, and one more thing – Enjoy!

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FNBM v.12 :: The Jarred Edition!

Jarred, my dude, what can I say other than…you are one cool dude.

That’s no joke. Â Just by being in our studio, our coolness factor increased exponentially, to the point that we were almost on cool overload. Â That’s how cool you are.

And I’m going to leave it at that, and let the pics continue to tell the story of just how totally right I am when I say that you are cool. Â MuchLove, my brotherman, and to my peeps in blogworld – Enjoy!

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FNBM v.11 :: The Family Krusi Edition!

Here we go again on our own, like a drifter I was born…whoa. Â I’m sorry about that. Â It seems that I had a small Whitesnake flashback there. Â Anybody that lived through the eighties knows that from time to time, these kind of things happen. Â Especially when you see a Jaguar (car), you may have the compelling desire to throw yourself on the hood and flail about, which will usually end with a visit from the police department. Â There are support groups available, and help is near. Â Just know you’re not alone. Â And that concludes our weekly public service announcement.

As I was saying, the Otis & James FunCenter for Fun opened up the doors (both physical and metaphysical) once again, and this time it was to welcome the lovely Family Krusi! Â Do you know why they came here? Â Not to try one of my totally awesome choco-chip cookies, or even to see Jamie’s big Beatles poster that she has on our super-top-secret bunker beneath the studio floor. Â

I’ll tell you why they came here…to have some totally awesome sweetlysnaps taken! Â And, my dear wonderful shiny happy friends, I’m here to report that they were indeed totally awesome, and sweetlysnaps were indeed had! Â Wahoo! Â And do you want to know why the snaps were so awesome? Â I’ll tell you that too! Â It’s because The Family Krusi is so awesome! Â They were rockstars in the photographic world, and that’s a fact jack.

With that last weird statement out of the way, it’s now time for us to say MuchLove to this wonderful family for stopping by the FunCenter, and to all my good people of blog – Enjoy!

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FNBM v.10 :: The Children Posey Edition!

Holy cow.Â

OK. Â I bet you’re wondering why it is that I would start off one of these things (we call them bloggers around here, but that term ‘blog’ is becoming so weirdly mainstream that it’s making me queasy to use it, but I’ll soldier on, because we’ve gotten ourselves in so deep already that we might as well keep on going) with such an expression of craziness.

I’m here to tell you the reason for the Holy and the Cow is that I just can’t believe we had the good fortune of working with yet another one of those o&j superfav classic clients, none other than the Children Posey! Â It just used to be the child Posey, but then another one magically appeared (children, you can ask your parents about the stork and birds and bees, as I’m just here to report, not teach, but if this thing ever falls apart, back to Minot State for my History Ed. degree I go – talk about Older Than Average), and thus it became the Children Posey!

Thank goodness for this magic, as it is always wonderful to have a brother or a sister to grow up with. Â For example, I would have never understood what feathered hair was if not for the influence of my older brother Eric (you can call him Ricky – he loves that!) Â There will still be time for these children to share such hair care tips, and all that I know for now is that it was a pleasure to work with both of these lovely children, and couldn’t be any happier to see the fam once again!

Now, we shall stop, give MuchLove & ManyThanks to this happy fam for once again giving some of their sweet & precious time to us, and to all of the citizens of Blogville reading these words on their digital interweb boxes – Enjoy!

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FNBM v.9 :: The Andrea & Izabella Edition!

Man, it seems like our cavalcade of o&j superfav clients continued to whomp us (whomp is a word, trust me, why would I want to lie to you about something like that…you can look it up, I swear…alright, I am using a special dictionary that I created, that contains such words as ‘superfantastic’, ‘awesomeosity’, and ‘MuchLove’, just to name a few. Â I’m thinking I’ll publish it sometime in the near future, look for it, buy it, and you can be just like me! Â Yay!) over the head, and this time it was a visit from near and dear friends to us, none other than the always lovely Andrea & Izabella!

One of the advantages of working with superfav clients that know the in’s and out’s of the studio (and as a side not to Queen James, I know my use of apostrophe’s is all over the place, but it’s me. Â And I gotta be me) is that they come right on in ready to tear it up. Â There’s none of that initialÂ trepidationÂ or perhaps even slight fear that comes with the first shoot, instead these two lovely ladies just jumped on into the game, and tore it up. Â You heard me, they tore it up.

And you can take that to the bank, all day long. Â Again, I don’t know what that means, but I’m trying to work it into my ‘Phrase Dictionary’ that I’m also creating, so I’m gonna keep on using it, because again, I gotta be me.

So without any further delay, we’re going to put all of these silly words behind us and get to the part you’ve all been waiting for, and that’s the part where I give MuchLove to Andrea & Izabella for being so awesome to work with, and to all of my good peeps out there in Land of Blog enjoying a fine Sunday afternoon – Enjoy!

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FNBM Update

Seeing as how it is well into Sunday now, and we are still continuing with Friday Night Blogging Madness (FNBM), I just wanted you to know that in our world, Friday night lasts all weekend.

Chellz yes.

MuchLove…and back to the goods!