Seniors – Page 87 – Otis & James Photography

Kelsi, Master of the Fall Day!

Sometimes, people can control their own destiny. Sometimes, people can control others’ destinies. Sometimes, but it is very rare, you will meet someone that will be in control of much more than this, and Kelsi was just one of these people. You see, she was the Master of the Fall Day, and that’s crazy.

She was able to walk outside and find herself in absolutely wonderful situations, time and time again. She was able to communicate with the sky, the trees, and their leaves. I heard she even talked to a squirrel, and told this squirrel to make her a nice pair of winter boots, and two hours later this same squirrel came back with the nicest pair of winter boots that you have ever laid eyes on.

This reminds me, there was one time that we worked with a person that actually had the title of ‘Not In Control of Anything…Including Myself, and Anything That I Come In Contact With’, and that shoot was very difficult. This person just ran in circles in the studio flapping their arms and screaming something about a duck named Nacho, that’s really a goose. But Kelsi, oh no, she was nothing like this at all, because she was Master of the Fall Day!

Everything for Kelsi was perfect, including Kelsi herself! She was totally awesome to work with, and our time together was filled with nothing but sunshine, smiles and good times! If you close your eyes, you can practically hear the sound of happiness eminating from your computer…go ahead…close them…but only for a minute…because we’re now at that point that we give much[love] to Kelsi for stopping by the FunCenter and giving us a little bit of time, and y’all know that right after this we always go to the part where you get to look at the samplesnaps, so if your eyes are closed, you – like – totally won’t be able to see them. So open them up, and get ready for – Enjoy!

Jordan!

As long as we’re traveling back to the land of two Wednesdays ago, let us take some time to look at the crazyawesomeseniorsnaps of a man that we like to call…and I’m assuming that probably most everybody else out there likes to call him, the one & only Jordan!

He graced us with his presence for the cause of some senior snaps, and let me be the first one to tell you, we are lucky that he did. You see, he was our first appointment of the day, and if this first one is not rocking, there is a cloud that comes over the rest of the day. But I’m here to tell you, my fellow devotees of the blog, that there was no dark cloud at the conclusion of our time.

You see, he rocked. He tore it up, plain & simple. After our time with him came to a close, we knew that the rest of our day, heck man, the rest of our week was gonna be nothing but blue skies! We would like to now send a little o&j shoutout[muchlove] to Jordan for being great to work with, and for making our time together sweetlysweet.

Well, before I turn into a pile of nonsensical adjective spewing goo, I think it be time for us to stop all of this lameo reading, and get on to the part where we look at shiny pictures! Sound good? Thought so – Enjoy!

Aubrey!

Shucks, man…it’s time for us to take a looksie at some more supersweetseniorsnaps, and this time our guest of honor is none other than good friend of Otis & James, none other than the lovely and talented Aubrey!

She continues in our Series of Siblings (SOS, if you would like) that have come through the FunCenter For Fun (FCFF, if you would like) this year, and in keeping with this tradition, not only did she rock as hard as those which went before her, she continued in the dream that is our existence and improved upon [read: rocked harder, as she was shown the ways of SeniorSnaps by her equally lovely and talented older sistah] this previous work.

Let me break down that last jumbled mess of words that was that previous paragraph: she rocked, straight up, no doubts, and since we had worked with her before, we knew she would rock tough. I think that I have used the word ‘rock’ over 72 times in the past three paragraps. That’s incredible.

So, before this post devolves into me just going ‘Rock, rock rock rock ROCK RoCk!’, me thinks it be time to offer up a big plate of thanks to Aubrey for being so wonderful and gracious to work with, and to all of you out there in your data receiving stations – Enjoy!

Matthew.

There’s a song by the band known as the Velvet Underground, called Sunday Morning. I used to work at 7:00 AM every other Sunday morning for a few years. Before I would leave my little apartment, I would put this song on my little CD player, and I would try to feel normal. I hope that Matthew…not me Matthew…but the Matthew that we had the good fortune of working with this past Sunday mornining, I hope that he didn’t have to do this.

But if he did, it worked. Because even though the birds were chirpin’, the sun was shinin’, and the whole of Minot was slumberin’, he tore it up…crazysundaymorningstyle. Perhaps older sistah gave some coaching, but whatevs, he still tore it up. I’m not ever sure I know what this means, but you can figure it out.

And what better way to help you with this figuring process than through less words, and more snaps. Thanks be to Matthew (gift of God, by the way) for being so good, and to all of you out there in blogerland – Enjoy!

Ashton. Man of Good Picture.

Now, there’s two ways that we can do this.

The first way will involve a 2,000 word disertation on the SeniorSnaps of Ashton. We will probably cover all sorts of ground during this odyssey of the mind. In all likelihood, we will start at some benign place, but by the end of the post we will barely be holding on to any thread of normality. This will either excite you, or it will sicken you. I can not say for sure, as our audience is diverse.

The second way for us to do this is the ‘straight up’ approach. This can be seen in many anti-drug commercials. You know, frying pan, brain, that sort of stuff. No need to sugar coat it sort of thing. The type of thing that doesn’t waste all sorts of words trying to be clever. Straight-shooter. Mmmmmmmm-Hmmmmmmm.

Now, because I happen to know Ashton (after a lovely meal…make that an over indulgence…of many fried foods at the Fridays in Bismarck – not to mention the part that he just happens to know our assistant/friend, the one and only Kinzo) I’m thinking that the less time riding on my brainwaves in word form, and the quicker that we get to the actual photo-graphs, the better off we all will be.

So, Ashton, it’s now only three seconds until you see your blogpics – Enjoy!

Tuesday Travis

How do you start a Tuesday morning? Did you have a bowl of cereal, read the paper, have a cup of coffee, take a vitamin, enter a showering facility, shave, brush your teeth, put on a clothing apparatus, put dirty dishes in a washing device, put keys in hand, leave house, go to work (school), stare at the clock, patiently wait for your lunch break?

You may have done this, and you may have done other things. You can really do anything. It’s like those old MadLibs, you can just fill in the blank, so it would look like:

How do you start a _____________? Did you have a bowl of _______, read the _______, have a cup of _______, take a ________, enter a _________ facility, shave, brush your ______, put on a _____________, put dirty dishes in a _____________, put ________ in hand, leave house, go to _____________, stare at the _________, patiently wait for your _____________?

I mean, you could totally change this to your way of starting the day. Submissions to this game can be e.mailed to us at info@otisandjames.com. Winning entry to receive an Otis & James Sticker!

Or, if you were like us, you would have started off your Tuesday with a visit from a man that goes by the name of Travis! Travis, along with the Ladies of James took what could have been just another ordinary day, and kicked it up, all hardcore style. They went to where the goods were to be got, and they got the goods.

Again, I’m not quite sure that I know what this means, but I’m sure that most of you have already stopped reading and have moved on to the photo-graph part of the post. But that’s OK. I’m cool with that. I’m just gonna throw some mad props the direction of Travis, for being so mellowawesome to work with, and to all of you out there in the land of blog (even those that are not reading this) – Enjoy!

Andy!

Our Monday last past (that means just this last one, but I’m gonna call it last past) came to aÂ thrilling conclusion (now, I suppose that by using the term ‘thrilling conclusion’, one may be swayed to think that perhaps we would be working with a Senior, and then all of a sudden like, there would be some sort of an action movie type thing that went down, and I just want to reassure all of you out there in blogland that there were no scenes that involved Jamie & a Dutch hitman, that had been sent from competing photographers to…how shall we say…prevent her from taking any more pictures. There were no moments when the always wonderful Kinzey found herself standing on the ledge of a building, trying to save a baby that had crawled upon it. There was not a scene where Ben went to answer the phone, and when he picked it up, and finding that what he had thought was his cordless phone was really three sticks of dynamite tied together, and if he removed it from his ear, things might get a little…how shall we say…messy. And rest easy, as Otis did not find himself turning on his laptop, going to connect to the internet, and realizing that the internet was at the moment not working…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ((To Otis, this is the most terrifying thing that could happen.)) Rest assured, none of these things happened, I just didn’t want to say that it came to a delightful conclusion, because that would make it seem like we sat on the veranda and sipped herbal tea as the sun set, and that’s kind of not where we’re at, and probabaly not where our man, the one and only Andy is at either, so I said thrilling. Am I still in parenthetical form? Uhhhhhhhhhh…yeah…let’s break free) as we were visited by none other than the totally friendly man himself, Andy! And the reason for this visit was not to give O&J some golf tips (although, we could use some), it was for some supersweetseniorsnaps!

Ahh yes, I suppose that you are wondering what the outcome of these senior snaps was? You are sitting there, with your smug looks just waiting to find out what the dilly-yo is…you’re thinking, ‘I wonder of ol’ o&j will bring the goods this time…’. Well, let me tell you, you are wrong to be sitting there like that, thinking those things. Because, and I’m gonna let you in a little secret, it is not us that brings the magic, it is not us that ever brings the goods, it is our SuperAwesomeSeniors that bring these things! We just happen to be around them with various forms of photographic equipment, computers, reflectors, assistants and other things to ensure that we can take this magic, and find a way to deliver it to you, the faithful of the blog!

But if you came here to read a 10,000 word treatise on Senior Portraits, I suggest you get to steppin’, ’cause we are here to throw some love to our man Andy for being so great to work with, and to all you all out there with the computers and such – Enjoy!

Brandon…Mastering the Art of the Pose.

Mere words will not do justice to what is about to befall all you all out there in the land of blog. Hear Ye! Hear Ye! I bring you some ultrasweetsnaps. I bring you some sweetultrasnaps. I bring you snapssweetultra. I bring you any one of the combinations of these words, and a little more. For I come to you today, with some sweetsweetsamplesnaps of the one, the only, the master of disaster, the king of pain, the terminator, the flaming woodchuck, the main event, none other than our man BRANDON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did you see that, he got the seventeen exclamation salute! Dang!

He took a little bit of time out from his superawesomesenioryear and stopped by the Otis & James Center For The Study of Fun, Critcal Thinking, Self Analysis, and Hairspray Research and blessed us with his prescence for a couple of all too fleeting hours. He was awesome, entirely. We loved him…We honestly loved him. We wanted to only photograph Brandon for the rest of our existence, but alas, our time was only temporary, as he had to get back to giving himself back to the people of Minot. We realized our dream was selfish, but really, can you blame us?

Didn’t think so.

So, we will just cherish the time that we had together, we will thank him for coming down and hangin’ with the O&J CrÃ¼e, and we will always have these samplesnaps – Enjoy!

Dulcie!

This past Sunday, we had the good gosh great almighty pleasure of working again with our good friend, the one and only Dulcie, as we gathered just one more time for the grand completion of her totallyawesomelyfantasticalseniorportraits! Do you got that??!! Good!

So, after wondering if we were going to again be blown by the wind, Dulcie stood up and said, ‘Wind, I defy you to bother me again during my shoot!’, and the wind stopped. This was the power that Dulcie had. So, if she could control the wind like this, how do you think she was with her SeniorSnaps?? She was totally awesome! She rocked it up hardcore, and the proof lies just not with these meager words that I’m trying to string together in an attempt to give some sort of context to her photographs, the proof instead lies with the actual photographicsamplesnaps, which are only a few more words away.

But…and this is the best part of the deal, we need to spend a little bit more time with these words as I thank Dulcie for stopping down to visit us on a Sunday, and thank you to her entourage as well for the awesome job of support that they did (emergency shopping and all), and now, that I have these thanks out of the way, it is time for us to stop all of this stressful reading, and move on to the part where we look at the colorful picture-graphs – Enjoy!

Carly, Another Carly, Another Awesome Carly, Dang man…Carly.

Like, I don’t know what the story is. I don’t come to you tonight proclaiming to have all of the answers, or to have anything really figured out. I can’t tell you the reason why the sun and the moon are the way that they are. I can’t tell you the reason for love, war, or anything else. I don’t know why we are, or what the meaning of anything really is. In fact, there are only a couple of things that I know for certain.

I know that I am, and that this is. I also know that this past Thursday the doors to the FunCenter for Fun and Thought opened up, and into our lives should walk the one…the only…Carly.

Now, for those of you that are astute followers of all things blog (and I know who you are…I know who you are), you may notice that this makes two new peeps that share the same name in the same week. There was the first Carly, and then there was Carly, Another Carly. Now (and I know that I am all about starting sentences with the word ‘now’, but really this is really ((and think about that wordly perverted collection)) crazy, because this new Carly, this Carly v.2.0 was totally and completely awesome, and I’m not just talkin’ smack, I’m straight up. Another Carly. Another dose of awesome. Dang.

Now, (and again, what is the dilly-yo with me and starting my sentences with that word? Have I really exhausted all of my word opportunities? Is everything going to start with ‘Now’ from here on out?) back to the matter at hand, and that was our time spent with Carly. I could go on and tell you all sorts of stuff about just how awesome she was, or just how hard she rocked, but is that really my role? After a long day of doing whatever it is that the devotees of the blog do while not here do, do they (the collective you reading this) really need me to tell you about how awesome she was? Do you really need me to go on and on and on about how much fun the Ladies of James had during thier shoot, and how we couldn’t have asked for a better way to start the day? No. quite simply, you don’t need me to tell you these things.

So instead, (hey, no now!) I will just leave you with a quick thank you to Carly for being so awesome, and to all of you out there in the land of blog – Enjoy!