otis – Page 235 – Otis & James Photography

MM . The Josh Edition

As I typed the title to this post, I almost left off the word ‘Edition.’ In fact, I did. It momentarily was just called ‘ The Josh.’ I really liked it; it seemed powerful, Donald Trump-esque. But after consideration, I thought that perhaps just calling it ‘The Josh’ would make it seem like we had been visited in the Empire of Otis & James by some sort of a Senior Robot – and this was not the case.

Instead, this past Friday we were visited by our new friend Josh, and his faithful assistant/GF Lexi! We had a great time together – we visited the part of the building that smells like bad Chinese food (just tell yourself that’s what the smell is), Jamie had him just cover up the ‘ans’ in ‘Titans’ for some reason only known to her, and I can safely say that fun was had by all (or at least I had fun, and that counts for something, right?)

We thank Josh and his assistant for making the trip to see us, and want to show just a smidgen of the sweetness that was had – Enjoy!

MM . The Kile & Richelle Edition

This past Friday morning we had the great pleasure of meeting a future O&J B&G (for those of you not in the know, that’s Otis & James Bride & Groom – you gotta keep you brain a runnin’ if you want to keep up) Kile & Richelle!! The braved the cold of the outside, and then warmed up the studio with their total and complete (and I’m going to make up a word here) awesomedness (no relation to Loch Ness).

We had a great time together, and are totally looking forward to the big day next summer! So for now, pull up a chair and warm yourselves by the glow of their photographs – Enjoy!

MM . The Family Ramirez Edition

Come with me, as we venture back in time to a place called ‘Monday’ – a day where we were surrounded by family that came from the land called Virginia. I know that this may seem crazy – you may tell yourself that we can’t travel back to this mythical place. But I’m here to tell you that indeed, we can travel back.

All that you have to do is: A)Let yourself go – let go of your pre-conceived notions of what time and space are, and – B)Hop on board the Otis & James Blog Express and travel the information superhighway back just a little bit, and we will soon all be back to where we once were. Got It??!!

Now that we’re back to this time, let’s see what’s going on. Oh…It’s longtime blog reader and poster Reba, and her beautiful family (Jessie and Little Jesse)! What a treat it is to have them back with us and in our studio! We were honored to not only be their official photographers, but to also be chosen as the God Parents to this beautiful boy. We thank them for coming up to the equally far away land of North Dakota to be with us, and trust that we will all be together again soon. So we travel back to the current time, and the family Ramirez travels back to Virginia, but we can still hop on that time machine and remember our Monday – Enjoy!

Midnite Meditations (MM)

I come to you at this late hour, my faithful bloggers, to offer up a delicious plate of blogging goodness. We are immersed in the world of photo-graphing and all that it entails, and offer up this missive to let you know that we are still here, we have not forgotten about the faithful, and are working as hard as we can to ensure that peace and love are the feelings that prevail!

A flurry of blogging activity is about to commence, so I want everyone out there to strap themselves in and prepare ye for all the juicy goodness that is about to begin! You may ask yourselves, “What does this mean?” – but instead I think that the true question should be “What doesn’t this mean.” Only then, will you understand that we are about to enter a world in which you are about to be hit over the head with some posts. Not literally. We will not actually be hitting anyone with a post, but figuratively. Our posts are in a digital format, your head is not. Our posts have no weight, but your head probably does. So the impact will be more intellectual than visceral, but I digress.

Let us now move to the business at hand, some good ol’ fashioned posts.

Keep It Real

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William & Michelle

For this post, I will just let the photographs do the talking. They are a beautiful couple, their wedding party was fabulous, and our day couldn’t have been any better. We thank them for allowing us to be a part of their day, and wish them all the best in their new life together. Enjoy!

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All Images Â©2005 Otis & James Photography

The Hills Are Alive…With The Family Vinje!

One Word: Possum

This is really all you need to know about this lovely family.
You see, they ride around in a giant possum, and the day after ingesting thanksgiving delights they travel to the studio of Otis & James for family fun.

We thank them for making the trek in today, and offer up some snaps of the festivities as a sign of our thanks – Enjoy!

Off With The Turkey, On With The Couples!

Oh now, some people spend the day after Thanksgiving running around shopping malls, assaulting each other for video games and what not, but we like to do things a little more relaxed around the Otis & James Super Store (no relation to the Wally-World Super Empire.)

Instead of all this insanity, we spent a little quality time with old, old friends of James – Aaron & Katie (well, Aaron is old school, and Katie is new-old school.) This next summer, we are going to be spending a little more time with them as we are lucky enough to have been selected to be their wedding photographers! We are anxiously awaiting this special day, but for now take a little sneak-peek at our friends – Enjoy!

Gobble Gobble, Tukey Lovers.

James and I would like to take this time to say thank you to everyone that has been a part of Otis & James during this past year. We are thankful for many things, but it is with great sincerity that we express how awesome all of you – our Wedding clients, all of our Seniors, all of our portrait clients, and even anybody that just likes to stop by the blog from time to time – all of you have made this year wonderful.

Let me tell you something that I am thankful for. A long, long time ago (doesn’t a song start this way?), old Otis used to work in a nursing home in a far away land called St. Paul. Otis was technically called a dietary aide, but to him and his co-workers, he was part of a group called ‘dirty-dish-dogs.’ Otis spent many years here, making many friends, was fired, re-hired, fired again, and it seemed that perhaps it was his destiny that he would continue to work in the food service industry, perhaps eventually moving away from the dish-machine and on to bigger and better things in the kithen. And he did.

He eventually became what is called a starter, which means that you become really, really fast at putting silverware and plates (not to mention index cards and the appropriate seasonings) on food trays and sending them down a bunch of rollers so somebody can put some food on said trays. From there, he moved into the deli, where the name ‘deli-boy’ was bestowed upon him by one of the lovely nurses that he would so affectionately banter with. He would sometimes drive meals on wheels, work in the storeroom (not quite sure if that is how that word is supposed to be, but oh well), and just occasionaly he would be allowed by his supervisor to announce over the intercom that the main dining room was now open for lunch. Life was good.

Sometimes, however, Otis would feel that even though what he was doing was providing for his basic needs (shelter, ramen noodles and entertainment funds), there was something else out there for him. Never in a million years did Otis envision that this something different would happen in Minot, North Dakota; and that this something different would actually be that the thing he loved – photograpy. This is what I’m thankful for. That I have broken away from the kitchen. That I have been given a blessing by our clients, that they have entrusted us with these moments in their lives. The world of the nursing home seems so far away, so dream-like.

So…as a small Thanksgiving treat to all of you out there, I offer this original artwork to celebrate the day. To all of my peeps back at the Peace Home, much love (and there may even be one or two people that will understand the reason why I have chosen to spell turkey ‘tukey’ – but that story is for another day) and keep up the good fight. To all of our Otis & James peeps – much love as well, and a heartfelt thank you.

Gobble Gobble
Otis & James

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This is actually a turkey/goose hybrid I’ve been working on.

Elyse!

Our day today came to a conclusion with a visit from none other than the one and only Elyse – and her special guest star assistant, Mom! The occasion was not to dress up in a turkey costume and get some great Thanksgiving portraits, nooooooo…instead it was continuing the tradition of being an Otis & James Senior (which is really not as glamorous as it sounds)!

The cavalcade of Senior Fun just kept on a-rollin’ through the ol’ studio (apparently I’ve been spendin’ time raftin’ down the ol’ Miss), and Elyse kept our streak of working with the most fun Seniors possible alive alive (that sentence does, in some weird way make sense.)

We thank both her and her lovely assistant for making the trip to see us today, and we look forward to the conclusion of our shoot once we get a little more sun in the sky, and snow on the ground. But for now, take pride in the work that we have done so far, because it’s sweet, and it’s all because of you – Enjoy!