Pet Photography
So, we have this cat. He is a 2 & 1/2 year old Red Pointe Birman and his name is Boo. He is lovely. People tell us all of the time how beautiful he is. We love him and he means the world to us. When people ask me where we got him, I respond “My sister made him for me. Literally!” Anne already had a Birman (Sugar) and quickly had her spayed but when she realized that it was such a beautiful breed, she arranged to get a 2nd and bred her. Spice, Boo’s mom, had just one litter and gave birth to 4 kittens the day before I was to head off to Mexico with Gary and while I was only there to witness the birth of 2 or them (Boo being one) I later learned that 2 of the kittens, sadly, didn’t survive. Boo has a sister, Fergie, but her coloring is completely different from Boo (who is nearly all a creamy white) but they both have the gorgeous, signature blue eyes of the Birman.
You must know, and many of you already do, that this is not my first pet or my first loved feline. Brother/Sister litter-mates Hobie & Katie (Chocolate Pointe Ragdolls) were loving fixtures in our lives for 12 years and passed 11 weeks apart almost to the day 2 summers ago and we still miss them (see their story under the “IN MEMORIAM” tab on the home page) . About 3 months before they were put down, Boo came into our lives. Sure, we had to sort of “stow” him away in the office for a week or so and slowly introduce the little bugger to the “elders” but Boo swiftly became welcomed.
I remember very well Gary saying (once I brought Boo home) “So….when is he going back to your sister’s?” I retorted, with raised eyebrows…”Ahhh, he’s not?” Well I can’t imagine life without him and that didn’t take long. Gary and I both grieved so much when Hobie and Katie passed that Boo made for the perfect addition at the perfect time. I am forever grateful to my sister for allowing me to scoop that little fella up and take him home with me and I promise him everyday, by doing, that he will have a full life and be loved beyond measure as long as he is on this earth!
Okay, I know….the blog post is entitled “Pet Photography” not “How to replace a pet” or “How to manipulate your spouse into getting another animal” but I just happen to know, for a fact, that there are others like us, out there, who love your furry little family members and for countless folks, in the world, our pets are our children. What I want to offer to you is an opportunity to have your little darling photographed in a way in which you’ve maybe not ever considered. Sure, some folks wait for a family portrait session or Senior session to pluck up the family pet and hope he sits good for the camera OR you wait for the local pet stores to offer a “Have your pet’s photo taken with Santa” session and please don’t get me wrong those are great memories to have…I just want to spin things a bit and ask that you have me come to your home (or favorite park) and follow them in their surroundings and really capture their essence and soul. Fish, Birds, Reptiles are also encouraged and welcome. Do you have a horse or other farm dwelling lovelies? I would be honored to photograph them all. Please contact me so we can swap pet stories and preserve your beloved pets!
Here are some of my Cat-Hall of Famers! First up, Bob.
Here’s Alice!
and Yoshi!
Now I know that’s a lot of cats but know that not one of God’s creatures is too big or too small…I adore them all and cannot wait to meet yours. Thanks and talk to you soon.
GraphiStudio Albums
Now, I know there are a bunch of album companies out there. I’ve worked with many of them and I won’t stop searching for the perfect solution for my clients but what I’m here to say is that I adore what GraphiStudios offers me and in turn offers my clients. I get asked a lot, by brides, “Do you have a favorite album company?” and “Which album companies do you use?” My answer is “Yes, Graphi.”
Lets say you don’t need a Wedding album…it’s all good…I can create a GORgeous album of your Pregnancy, your Children, your High School Seniors, your Pets, your Business even your Vacation! Albums, today, are an extension of your world and should be seen as such. Showcase your life and put it on display. Contact me when you are ready to make Art out of your Life!
Above is a 14 x 18 Horizontal Album containing 40 pages (80 sides) of metallic paper (GORgeous) accompanied by a brushed metal image for it’s cover. This album could quite possibly be incorporated into your workout routine as it weighs in at a whopping 18 pounds! LOVE it!
Each album can be delivered in a super stylish briefcase to protect your heirloom for generations.
Below is a Square, 14 x 14, 40 page (80 sides) album printed on photographic paper with a buttery leather cover complete with a cut out to tease the onlooker and debossed with the couples names this one is sure to delight the senses even before you turn that first page.
Everyone has different tastes so if a Vertical Album is more your style, fear not. All album designs can be created to meet your needs and dimensional wishes.The following is a 9.5 x 13 Vertical, 30 page (60 sides) album printed on Linen Textured Paper with the Graphi-classic, Crystal Glance cover!
Combinations of dimensions, covers, paper are all up to you but don’t let that scare you. I can assist you in making those important detail decisions so that you can be proud of and enjoy your album and share it with generations to come.
Albums aren’t just for weddings anymore!
Memorial Day 2010
I know that the cemeteries will be jammed with folks paying respects today and rightfully so. I like to go to the cemetery on quieter days so I’ll stay away today. My father served in the Korean War as proud Corporal in the United States Marine Corps and is buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis. I miss him everyday. Thank you, Dad, for serving this great nation…I love you. Give mom a squeeze for me!
emily.13
My niece, Emily, recently turned 13. My sister, now, has another teenager in the house! YIKES! She and I have something in comon…Emily and I are both middle children. Famous for his Birth Order Book, Dr. Kevin Leman can guide you in why you are the way you are. Funny thing for me is that while I was the youngest and only girl for nearly 9 years my parents didn’t stop at 3 children…or even 4…I ended up the “youngest” of the first part of our family then the “oldest” of the 2nd half but chronologically…I ended up in the middle when Mike (the youngest and to this day refers to him self as “Mike, saved the best for last”), the 5th child, was born nearly 17 years after my oldest brother, Tim. Wheeeew…did I lose you? No matter..birth order (pecking order as some call it) is whatever you want to make of it. That said, I am happy to be safe & snug in the middle of my siblings and wouldn’t have it any other way.
So, back to Emily. As is customary, for many years, I have gifted my nieces and nephews with photo shoots for their birthdays which begins with a FABulous hair session. What started as a simple idea has grown to include (sometimes) hours of hair preparation and several outfit changes. This year, Emily kept it simple with a ton of new layers and a date with a flat iron! I love her energy and spunk. Here are a few of my faves…
Emily, I love you. Thanks for hangin’ with me and allowing me to capture your spirit.
May Day.
I remember, as a child, growing up in Excelsior, Minnesota in a small neighborhood called “Acorn Ridge”. I lived there until the summer between the 5th and 6th grade. It was such a great neighborhood. Lots of kids my age to play with day and night. The kind of neighborhood where you could leave your doors unlocked and leave your bike laying in the yard without being stolen. We biked and walked everywhere. We played outside every day. Boys and girls, it made no difference. The 60′s were awesome, free and easy…like the streamers whipping off the ends of your bicycle handles. That’s right, I may not have had a basket or a banana seat or even a “sissy bar” but I had streamers! And I mastered a 2-wheeler from those very front steps!
ANYway…I just recall “May Day” as being a significant memory. In elementary school we would make “May Baskets”. Simple, colored paper cones with a handle. We would decorate them and the teacher would pass around her stapler so that we could fasten our handles to complete our baskets and then we would place things like dandelions or violets and candy (if you were lucky enough) inside. Then the idea was to sneak up to a friend’s house, place the basket on their door, ring the doorbell…and RUN! Run fast or run the risk of getting caught and be kissed! My friend’s mom, Mary Jane, caught me one year and she planted a big wet one on my cheek! I adore that memory. I still keep in touch with Mary Jane and I talk to her daughters, my old friends…on facebook to this very day. Of course, time marches forward and neither of us live in Acorn Ridge any longer but I think I may sneak a basket over to Mary Jane’s today for old time sake. (Their house was to the right. You can just see a piece of it)
Days go by…
Keith Urban sings “….and days go by. I can feel ‘em flyin’ like a hand out the window in the wind. The cars go by…yeah it’s all we’ve been given, so you better start livin’ right now, ‘cuz days go by.” I can’t even believe that it’s nearly May already. So much has happened in the past several months and Summer is just around the corner…beckoning with projects, weekends at the cabin, ball games, soccer practice, neighborhood barbecues, not to mention work! Lets face it, Minnesota Summers are short…and by that I mean the season. Many surrounding states get to extend their season by simply boasting warmer temps than we northerners. However, Spring of 2010 is on pace to be the 2nd warmest on record and while I have TOTALLY been loving the fact that we are a whopping 2 weeks ahead in spring blooming and all I also know that “records” are not always met with any great regularity. That said, sadly, I know that it may be awhile before we experience a glorious, early spring such as this! Therefore, I shall cherish this one more and believe that my mom had something to do with it! I will long remember the Spring of 2010! 
Destination…Mexico.
I recently returned from an 8 day trip to Mexico. First, I spent 3 reflective days, by myself, in Play del Carmen then traveled north to join my sister and her family in Cancun for a little more action. I brought along a camera that “crapped out” on me upon my arrival and was forced to shoot with my iPhone. Fortunately, I wasn’t there to shoot a wedding! Besides, when I head out to photograph a wedding be it over seas, across a boarder or in the next county I always bring along plenty of back up! Thankfully, I was able to arrange for Anne to swing by my house, grab my other camera and bring it down with her!
I have to say, and I know I’m not alone on this one, that while destination weddings are a lot of work the rewards and results are always outstanding. Gorgeous backdrops are a given but getting to spend more time with the entire group of guests, leading up to the big day, makes you feel like family and everyone seems to loosen up more!
(Destination Wedding pricing is quoted individually and available upon request)
My sister’s family and I were poolside as the staff at the Marriott was prepping for a beach wedding on Palm Sunday. I grabbed this shot before things got crazy, I couldn’t resist!
This trip was pure pleasure and relaxation for me and an escape from the past 5 months of my mother’s illness and passing. It was so good to be there with family!
Pete, my brother-in-law, turned and asked me if I’d like him to take my photo and I handed him my camera and he got this great shot of me. Thanks, Pete! Thank you for everything!
I’m waiting to get shots off Pete’s underwater camera from our dive & I’ll post those another day. Above sea level, below sea level, we had a fabulous time!
Thanks, again, Bakers! I love you.
Exhale. Seems simple enough…
Since the recent loss of my mother (March 5th, 2010) I have been trying to reunite myself with with my old self. I thought this would be easy…just go back to what I was doing before November 5th, 2009…the date we got the devastating news of the return of her kidney cancer (metastatic renal cell carcinoma). Turns out, for me, it’s harder than I thought. While I certainly don’t miss the drive out to the Marie Steiner Kelting Hospice Home I do miss the reason I made the trip each day…to see my mom. Good days or bad days, a friend writes on his son’s Caring Bridge pages, they were all worth it.
Days after my mom’s death I found myself wandering about aimlessly and finally I turned and I asked Gary, “What did I used to do?” I mean I literally feel like I’m starting over or something. It’s really weird….or is it? I feel lost…or am I? Perhaps it’s all normal, I’m certain it must be because after all….I’m normal….aren’t I? All the things I got good at doing the past 4 months all need to be replaced with what I was good at before that first Thursday in November. Oh sure, I’ll fumble around a bit but before I know it I’ll be back on top of things instead of underneath it all. I can see my horizon from here and it looks beautiful!
I will confess this….as a Wedding and Portrait Photographer I found myself praising God, selfishly, for bringing this trial to our lives in my “off season”. I was truly blessed to be able to spend nearly every day with my mom as she endured being bed ridden with life threatening, pathological fractures, managing pain with unbelievable amounts of narcotics while waiting for these abnormal cells to take over her body…at the young age of 71. This, my friends, was an amazing woman and I did not want to miss a minute with her…I rarely did, all due to God’s perfect timing.
I know that my life is forever changed now but my parents are reunited and I find such joy in knowing that one day…I will join them.
Thank you all for your continued, heartfelt prayers.
God Bless.
Gemma.
I feel so fortunate and blessed to have the ability to love two occupations. Photographer and Hair Dresser. Quite a lovely marriage of vocations, really. On occasion I get to do both for the same client~that’s what I really love! Yesterday, my niece, Gemma, came by to cash in on her Christmas present…haircolor (of her choice) an a fresh cut. After a rather quick consultation we decided to do a TON of blonde highlights on the top and go dark underneath for the “peek-a-boo” color. Gemma’s been dark for a while so it was fun to see her go lighter. Before she left, I grabbed a few shots….I love her. She’s growing up fast and is even going to head out to San Francisco in March for a first ever, on her own, trip! I’m so excited for her! I pulled out all of my San Francisco albums and reminisced about all of my love for that city. She’s pretty stoked about going and I’m excited for her! Perhaps one day she and I will go on an adventure somewhere, together.
Mothers & Daughters
(Ava and her mom, Marty, came out to visit mom yesterday. Marty is the daughter of one my mom’s best friend, Judy, who passed away just a couple of years ago. I had my camera along yesterday and decided to have some fun…thanks Marty, for coming out to see mom.)
It’s been 2 months since I’ve composed a blog post. Well, I’ve been writing, just not here. I’ve been posting on an entirely different forum as of late…my mother’s ‘Caring Brige‘ site. My love of writing has transformed there. To be able to do something you love for someone you love, for me, has been so enriching and eye opening.
The relationship between mother’s and daughters are nothing short of magnificent. Or at least I know that they can be. Mine is and always has been. So it came natural for me to build her Caring Bridge site soon after my mom’s diagnosis and begin to write about the wonderment that is my mom’s life. I started by writing more of the “fluff” as I did not want to disrupt any relationships with my siblings but that soon changed as my 3 brothers and my only sister all embraced the idea of the site. You see, my mom was diagnosed with “metastatic disease” on November 5th of 2009. Our mom’s Kidney Cancer that she had about 6 and a half years ago had returned and here’s the deal…Renal Cell Carcinoma is not curable. Dr.s gave her weeks and we, along with the staff, are amazed that we are approaching the 3 month mark. We have been by her side day and night as she endures her palliative care in a fabulous facility in Chaska, MN (The Marie Steiner Kelting Hospice Home).
My mom is an amazing woman. She is strong, courageous, loving and a believer in Christ. She has taught us all the importance of family and to trust in the Lord. One day we will all be reunited…of that I am certain and she’s made sure of that!
I love my mom. I will miss her. I have had a beautiful relationship with her and I have no regrets. Ushering her out of this life has been such a gift. I am so grateful to have had this time with her, tough as it’s been. What I do know for sure is that she will soon be with my father, her parents and some of her very best friends. What a comfort that is. God Bless.
