Category: Musings

Check out the updated About Us page here on the site.

To those of you whom have asked, the photographs below are one of the reasons we have not been in a rush to get married – for the sake of humanity we don’t know if we should.

Enjoy!

And my favorite…

Seriously, this guy scares me. This is sooooooo not what I would want my photographer to look like. This person takes bad pictures. This person might have been in jail for a while.

All Images ©2006 Otis & James Photography

This past week, it was the birthday of the patriarch of the clan of which Otis descends (the names have been changed to protect the innocent.) So, seeing as how we had all of this space in the studio of O&J, we decided to put some of it to good use and have ourselves a little suprise partay!

So we schemed and planned our get together behind the back of the guest of honor (you can call him Bud if you like), finally finishing off the last bit of painting that was needed in the studio (big thanks to the parents of Fat Al again for helping us out), we got our linens, balloons, cake and pickled herring (nothing goes better than cake and pickled herring – we are good Norwegians, after all) together and made the Otis & James Super Studio into a party zone for this special Saturday!

Not only were we able to suprise the guest of honor with the partay, but we also flew in a son from sunny San Diego CA! Friends and relatives from far and wide descended upon our studio for some good food, and good times in celebration of the father of Otis (no offense to brothers and sisters, but I’ll call him the father of Otis today.)

Fun was had by all, and the party continued well into the evening, even after the guest of honor retired for the night we kept this party rollin’! Well, I’ll quit all of this rambling and move on to a couple of pics from the festivities – but before I do I just want to say thank you to everyone for coming down (especially to Eric for coming so far) and making it a great party, and a great big Happy Birthday and wishes for many more to my Dad – Enjoy!

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Brothers
(Alan & Buddu)

All Images ©2006 Otis & James Photography

Cake by Crown Cakes
Balloons by Abracadabra Balloons

In keeping with the tradition of letting our blog entries build up until the point that they are ready to explode and then we make a giant post of a whole bunch of different things, we come to you – our faithful blogerites and offer you up a slew (or maybe it’s slough – judges say…slough is to cast off, slew is the past of slay, and it also means to turn, veer or skid…judges say use another word, and go back to school – the other word will be) stew (which is a dish with meat and vegetables served with gravy – this too does not seem to be appropriate, but I like it) how about a plethora (for those of you not following along with your dictionary is an excessive quantity of fullness; also a protrusion…now that just doesn’t sound right, but I’m going to stick with it) of posts.

So, strap down and let the good times roll.

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

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.

Uhhhhh…the previous ‘Here We Go’ made it seem like there would be more posts than just one, and there were supposed to be. But due to reasons beyond our control (time) we didn’t get it all up. So let’s do it again, and this time, it’s going to be better than ever!

Much apologies for the lag in posts – Senior Mayhem has hit the high mark and everything is taking just a little longer – but we’re now back on track and ready to blog our minds out.

Peace

I’m about to do a roll call of Seniors! It’s been madness the past couple of days – but we’re putting it all back together and getting everything back on track. So sit back and enjoy the Cavalcade of Seniors!

otis out

The view from the left:

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The view from the right:

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I don’t think we’ll be doing much shooting outside today.
Click here for the forecast!

BTMFB

Blogging Till My Fingers Bleed

Get ready to rock, my children. For ye are about to see some insanity rollin’ on down the tubes. We’ve got another day for some serious ketchup (mad props to Snail Lake Elementary) – so here we go!

Peace Y’all