The Easter Fire

I’m betting that most of you don’t know about the tradition of the Easter fire.  Well, you’re not alone.  There just happened to be a big ol’ fire just down the way from where Old Man Otis (OMO) lives, and he stopped by to capture a little bit of the drama.  The building looks like a total loss, but it appears that nobody was hurt – and that’s always the most important thing!

One of the businesses affected are our friends at Miss Mabel – we have had the pleasure of working with them on countless occasions.  But knowing the professionalism of this dynamic duo, we are positive that they will emerge from this moment better than ever!

Well, we hope everyone is enjoying the holiday, and – MuchLove!

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Categorized as Musings

It’s The Always Lovely McKenna!

I’ve said it before.  In fact, if you look back at the past five years of blog, I’ve pretty much said all of this before.  It’s as if you can just climb on into my mind and take a trip for a while.  There’s some up’s, some down’s, but over all – it’s a good time.  As I was saying, I’ve said it before.

Sometimes you gotta work for the shot, and sometimes the shot is just given to you.  I’m going to let you in on a little something.  If you ever have the sweetlysweet opportunity of working with the always lovely McKenna, the shot is just given to you.  You just gotta make sure you’re ready to catch the shot, because she’s got no time to waste.  She’s gonna be kickin’ out the photographic jams from the moment she walks into the studio.  She’s got the goods, and she delivers the goods.  Straight up, no chaser.

What I’m trying to tell you in all sorts of ’70’s lingo is that McKenna was an absolute doll to work with!  We had a great time as she entertained us with all of her sweet poses (my personal favorite being ‘sassy’, evidenced in the first pic.)  We would now like to take a quick moment to give MuchLove to McKenna and her equally lovely assistant (Mom) for stopping by to hang with us, and to all the good peeps out there in Land of Blog – Enjoy!

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Categorized as Portraits

Hip Hip! It’s The Family Gorney!

Hello there.  It’s me.  Otis.  I come to you today with the good news.  The good news is that we had the goodlygreat opportunity of working with The Family Gorney.  Wait.  I didn’t put an exclamation point on that, so I’m sure that you are sitting there in your warm & cozy home wondering what kind of emotions you should be feeling.  So to keep your minds from blowing up in a state of confusion, let me rephrase that for you.

The good news is that we had the goodlygreat opportunity of working with The Family Gorney!  See!  Excitement via punctuation is always a good thing!  But seriously, it was a joy to work with this family – even though we kind of already knew that it was going to be a breeze because we have already taken some sweet senior snaps of the lovely Kjiesta (holy cow, I can’t believe that it’s almost been three years) and if the rest of the family was only half as good as her, these were going to be great shots.

And you know what?  They were!  We had a truly wonderful time working with this happy family, and I do apologize for the one silly pic, but gosh-darnit, it’s just too good to leave out!  So, we offer up MuchLove to this lovely fam, and to the rest of you out there in Blogville – Enjoy!

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Categorized as Portraits

Let’s See…It’s Nicole, Dayton (& Baby in Belly!)

Is it OK for me to say there’s a baby in the belly?  I mean no harm by it – it’s what we told my Godson LJ about Jamie before Graham was born, so if it’s good enough for him, then it’s good enough for him, well gosh-darnit it should be good enough for all of us too!

So, check this out.  There was this day, and on this one day the doors of the FunCenter opened up and in strolled in this dynamic duo, and soon to be trio!  There mission:  to have some wonderful pictosnaps taken before the baby makes the grand entrance into the world.  The results of this mission:  SUCCESS!

And the reason for this success?  Because Nicole & Dayton made it that way – we just happened to be there with the camera!  So we would like to take a moment to give this soon to be family a big ol’ dose of MuchLove, and remind all of you out there in the Land of Blog to – Enjoy!

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Categorized as Portraits

Stand Back Folks…It’s Kristina & Seth!

I don’t know why it is that I’m advising you to ‘stand back’ – maybe it’s because you just need to make way for this wonderful couple that we are about to showcase on this wonderful digital place that we call blog.  Blogville.  The Land of Blog.  Whatever.  It’s a place where I write these silly words and then we put up some lovely pictures.  Call it what you need to – just be sure to come back, and keep coming back every day that you are alive.  Cool.

So, now that you’re with us for life (and no cheating on us with any other websites – just think of the interwebz as a place for you to visit the otisandjames.com place), let me tell you a little story about a lovely couple that came on into the FunCenter for photographic fun and had their supersnaps taken!  Well, I think I already told you the story in that previous sentence, but I didn’t tell you their names…Kristina & Seth!  And even though I told you that in the title of this blog post, whatevs!  It’s my party and I’ll repeat myself if I want to!

Now is the time when we thank this lovely couple for giving us a little bit of their sweet & precious time – you were wonderful!  Now, go & gaze lovingly at their samplesnaps, and be sure to – Enjoy!

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Categorized as Portraits

A Little Bit of Housekeeping…

From time to time we change things up here on the old www.otisandjames.com (you can call it ‘the www’ or ‘the interwebs’ if you like), and this is one of those times.  You may have noticed that there is no longer a ‘blog’ link at the top of this page – and that is because when you land on the site you will now just automatically be in the blog!

I’ll give you a moment to wrap your head around that.

OK.  Now that you’ve recovered…as far as the rest of the site goes, it is all the same – all of the parts of the site are still accessible via the tabs at the top of the page.  Yay for tabs!  If you would like to browse a certain category of blog posts (i.e. – you want to see everything ‘Senior’ we have ever done, just go to the tab called Search and go crazy.)

Why the change?  Well, we knew that the overwhelming majority of people coming to the site are here for the blog, so why not make that process easy as possible.  Pretty smart, huh?!  That’s it!  Happy surfing, and MuchLove!

Oh Goody Goody! It’s Madisyn & Mia!

I don’t believe that I’ve ever used the expression ‘goody goody’ at any point in my life before this very moment.  And I can think of no better reason to bust out some new vernacular than the announcement that we have some totally awesome rockin’ fantastico new pics of the one & only’s that we like to call (and everyone else likes to call) Madisyn & Mia!

Now, I may be out of the loop with a lot of life, but I’m pretty sure that we’ve had the goodlygreat pleasure of working with this dynamic duo previously, but digging through the vast archives would require me spelunking down into the underground fortress that is the place where all things past o&j live, and to put the harness & helmet and to drag all of that rope around seems like way too much work at this moment, so I’m just going to say that we have worked with them before.  If not, I apologize for my hallucination.

Moving on…these two lovely ladies strolled on in to the FunCenter, and staying true to their form, they totally rocked up this shoot.  They tore it up on levels we never even thought possible, and didn’t even break a sweat in doing so.  That’s how awesome they are.  As a matter of fact, I’m just going to stop with these crazy words and give a big ol’ MuchLove to these lovely sisters, and to all of you out there in your happy little blog homes – Enjoy!

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Categorized as Portraits

The Beautiful Family Hofland!

Oh well hello there.  It’s me again.  How are you doing?  Good?  Great.  Oh…you want to know what brings me around again?  Well then, sit back, and I’ll tell you a story.

This story happens on a day that wasn’t all that long ago, and it happened in a place that we like to call the ‘FunCenter.’  I bet you can’t guess what happened.  Well, maybe you can.  I mean, it doesn’t really take a Hardy Boy to figure out what it is that we do here.  But, in case you’ve been out of the loop, or living in a cave and haven’t realized WWII is over, I’ll let you in on our deal – we take pictures.  So really, the only reason that anyone ever stops by is for pics.  Or to use our phone.  But that lady from across the street moved (thank God.)

OK.  Where was I?  Yes!  The Beautiful Family Hofland!  Well, they stopped by for some lovely pictosnaps (they didn’t have to use the phone), and the results were wonderful!  In fact, I’m going to stop all of this blabbering about and just give a huge MuchLove to this family for making the trek to the studio, and to all of our good peeps out there in Land of Blog – Enjoy!

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Categorized as Portraits

It’s The Family Weyrauch, With a Dash of Sharbono!

Whenever a dash of Sharbono is added, the results are always going to be good.  You need some proof with that statement?  Well then, my dear Friends of Blog, the proof lies just below these words in glorious full color pictoriffic form!  There’s your proof.  So the next time that you go all thinking that I’m filling you up with a bunch of jive, you just remember this moment and how I totally backed up what I said with some cold hard facts.  You heard me.  COLD.  HARD.  FACTS.

You want to know another fact?  We were so happy that we had the chance to work with this lovely family, especially since Aunt Alyssa & Uncle Dan are just about two of our most favorite peeps ever, and have been a part of o&j from just about day one!  Without them, our studio would not be as cool as it is (and it’s pretty freaking cool.)

Before I get all sentimental and start crying or something, how about instead I just give a huge MuchLove to this fantastic group for giving us a little bit of their sweet & precious time, and I remind all of you out there in your lovely little blog homes to – Enjoy!

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Categorized as Portraits