We hardly ever post any personal work here, but we’ve decided to change that this year.  To stay fresh, it’s really important that we make a point to set aside time to shoot stuff besides weddings and portraits.  It’s a good way to refresh our eyeballs, and sometimes we discover cool locations in the process that we can use later for client work.  Two weekends ago, we decided to take a drive, and I brought our lensbaby with us.  It’s been so mild so far this winter that I didn’t appreciate how cold it was this particular day.  I soon gave up trying to get sharp focus with the lensbaby, and just decided to have fun with it.  It was very freeing to just go out and play and not take the images so seriously.

The blur effect was all lensbaby and the color shifts were done by purposefully shifting the white balance in camera.

Andy took some interesting shots as well, but what he’s most obsessed with currently is his 365 iPhoneography project.  He’s posting an image on Instagram everyday that he’s captured (and edited) on his iPhone.  If you use Instagram and want to follow him, look up @andyschwartz.  Here are some of his recent images:

I was 19 when I moved away from home.  I had planned to bring my cat Leia with me, a sweet, but incredibly skittish girl.  The move to a new location just freaked her out too much and after two weeks of her living constantly under my bed, I gave up the experiment and returned her to my parents’ home and more familiar surroundings.  But I still wanted a pet, and dogs weren’t allowed at my condo, so I went out in search of a black kitten.  I found out two things – apparently black kittens are scarce at pet stores, and most “normal” kittens sleep most of the day, curled up in a little ball with their kitten siblings.  I should have realized something was awry when I finally found a store with two black kittens and they were completely spastic, climbing the walls of the cage, swatting anything that moved, always in a flurry of motion.

I should have realized, but I didn’t, instead I fell in love.  I wanted them both, and still kind of regret not getting them both, but it didn’t seem practical.  So I chose the one with eyes slightly greener and more brilliant than the other.  I named him Draven.

I took him home and doted on him and played with him, but it soon became obvious he wasn’t the typical cuddly kitten.  When he was eager to eat, he would climb up my back while I was opening cans of cat food….climb as in, his claws were IN my back.  I would come home to find him hanging from my curtains looking bemused. More than once our “play” sessions would end up with me reaching for band-aids, but he was a baby, and didn’t really know better, right?

Draven would grow into a lanky, beast of a cat, never overweight, but remarkable in size, from his huge ears to long tail and legs.  Several people insisted he couldn’t be a domestic cat, he was too big, too wild, too strong.  I think he most likely was feral.  It wasn’t immediately obvious living alone, but he had no tolerance for anyone other than me.  He could be downright vicious.  He left more than one person bleeding when they tried to pet him, so I urged visitors not to even attempt to get near him.  My mother was petrified of him after he gave her a particularly nasty scar on her hand.

Anyone that has owned and loved many pets knows that each has a definable quality – whether that is simply a sweet disposition, or uncanny intelligence, or even sometimes endearing stupidity.  Draven’s was his viciousness crankiness.  He was not an easy pet to have and presented many challenges.  A routine trip to the vet for vaccinations required the skilled coordination and military-like precision of my vet’s staff to ensure that no one was missing an eye afterwards. Or as my vet once put it “If you hear him crying don’t worry, if you hear me crying, you better come running!”  He was never once weighed at the vet’s without being in a cat carrier.  No one even attempted to hold him.  I tried to take him out of his carrier once at the vet’s and he bit my hand so hard he hit bone.

Years later, living in Florida, he would have what I can only describe as a psychotic episode where he just viciously attacked me and the dog one day, totally unprovoked.  I was left sitting on top of the washing machine, my legs bloodied, holding a broomstick.  (I am NOT exaggerating here.)  My family & friends thought I was insane to keep him.  I somehow managed (wearing my motorcycle helmet no less) to coral him into a spare room and kept him separated from me and the dog (I did have another cat then, but he always got along with cats, go figure.)  I took him to a vet down there and they told me to put him to sleep.  I refused.  I left instead with a prescription for valium.  How many people have to give their cat valium?  Not many I am guessing.

Eventually  he settled down enough to be trusted, but it took a good two months.

However complicated and challenging our relationship was, my allegiance to him was steadfast, for a reason I can’t even fully explain to myself.  Many, many people told me to just get rid of him, but I wouldn’t.  I don’t consider pets disposable, and despite his issues, we had a deep bond.  He was my companion and I loved him. I found his cantankerous demeanor somewhat amusing and endearing (when he wasn’t taking it out on me!)   He was remarkable in many ways and if you could get past the gruff exterior, he had a keen intelligence and unique personality.  He would run to greet me at the door when I got home, and he even liked to play fetch with his bouncy ball.  He liked to eat Doritos. In his senior years, he actually calmed down significantly, and even had rare moments of what could be described as cuddliness.  I am so grateful I got those moments now.

In the last year or so, we noticed that he was mellowing out a bit, and also seemed to be losing weight.  The vet diagnosed him with hyperthyroidism.  Over the past year, we watched him go from over 20lbs to 6lbs.  His heart beat so quickly that it was scary.  He was constantly ravenously hungry, but all his bones were sticking out of his body.  We were told we would most likely lose him to a heart attack.  His mood was good and he wasn’t in any pain, so we just did our best to keep him fed and happy.  Any rare moments where he decided to be affectionate were a gift. While I was preparing to say goodbye to him, I never expected to lose him in the manner I did.

We arrived home Saturday from a wedding late at night and I noticed two things – that it was our annual block party, and that two large dogs were lazily walking down the sidewalk without leashes.  One was a large shepherdy-type dog, the other one was slightly smaller and looked like a poodle mix, with short curly grey hair.  I had never seen these two dogs before, but thought they may have belonged to someone at the party. I was immediately irritated that anyone would let them wander off-leash because they were quite a ways from where people were congregating and could have been hit by a car.  In fact we almost hit them ourselves, it was pitch black.  (For some reason our street lights haven’t been working for months.) I told Andy to slow down so they could pass us safely.

Then we turned into the driveway, and I saw Draven’s lifeless body on the cement.  I will never get that image out of my head.

I was in total shock.  I ran across the street and over to where the party was and asked if anyone belonged to the dogs….in the noise and confusion of the party, people didn’t understand what I was saying right away.  Then it sunk in and a couple people walked over to my house and saw Draven.  Two women came and talked with me for awhile while Andy went down the street looking for the dogs.  The ladies told me they had heard a big commotion about an hour earlier, and lots of barking.  They had assumed it was our dog Abby.  They said it had gotten so loud they had thought of calling the police, but they knew we had a dog and didn’t want to get us in trouble – they just didn’t understand why we would have left our dog in the backyard while we weren’t home. (If we had had working streetlights, they would have been able to see the commotion was in the front yard. And Abby wasn’t even at home.  My mom picks her up on double-wedding weekends so she’s not home alone.)

The cops came and then left again looking for the dogs.  I don’t know if they were ever found.  I don’t even know 100% that they are the dogs that attacked him, though that’s the most likely case.  I don’t blame the dogs, but I do blame the owners for letting them get out.  And for not teaching their dogs not to attack cats.  I really hope they did find their way home and didn’t get hurt themselves.

My neighbors apologized for not coming over to investigate the noise, as there were at least a dozen people outside just feet away while this all happened.  But I can’t really fault them.  Even if they had known what was going on, who would be expected to break up a dog fight in pitch darkness?  While I am filled with grief and sadness for my kitty I am grateful that no one else was hurt.  There were kids outside – anyone could have been bitten – especially if they had intervened while the dogs were on the aggressive.

For the record, we normally didn’t let Draven out to roam wildly, but we do let our cats out into our fenced back yard.  They enjoy being outside so much it feels mean to deprive them, and none of them are declawed.  It was only recently that Draven had gotten so skinny he was able to slink under the fence.  In our hurry to get out the door and to our wedding, we didn’t secure our back door which has a cat flap. I will always feel guilty for not securing the house better.

I barely slept that night, but the next day we had a wedding to photograph.  I expected it to be difficult, but it was actually a relief to be distracted.  It was a beautiful day with great people who were delightful to work with.  Our schedule kept us busy and moving.  So it wasn’t really until Monday that things started to sink in. I feel very conflicted.  He was old, and sick, and maybe it’s better he met a quick end, and went out fighting, as was his nature.  But at the same time, it was a horrible way to go and should never have happened.  In the preceding days we had been so busy and I hadn’t been giving him as much attention as normal.  I feel lousy for that.  I still expect to see him when I come home or hear him purring as he sits on the top of the sofa next to me.  The house feels emptier. He was with me for over fourteen years – through college, career changes, and two cross-country moves.

So while a post about a cat is not entirely on topic on a wedding photography blog, I hope you’ll excuse this (lengthy) indulgence.  Give your pets some extra love today, and take as many pictures as you can.  I am glad I made a point to take a few of him before he reached his skinniest.  But I wish I had taken a lot more.

Despite all the crap you put me though, I will miss you kitty.

I have to confess something.  I’ve let this blog turn into a chore.  I’m not proud to admit that, but it’s true.  And in doing so, it’s gotten away from one of the reasons it exists – to help our potential clients learn more about us.  When we were starting off in this business, I wrote personal posts a lot more frequently.  Part of that was simply because I didn’t have as much wedding and e-session content to fill the blog up with.  And I also had more time on my hands.  Now I have the opposite problem.  I have loads of content I have yet to share, and my cramped schedule means less time to blog.  I alluded to this a bit in my last post, but here I am really calling myself out on it.  I’ve been slacking.  I want people to become regular visitors and post comments, but I’m not doing my part to keep fresh content coming.  And I feel like our blog has become strictly business, and lost a little bit of its soul.

I’ve come to the realization lately that I’ve been treating blogging like a To Do list item.  And that’s not cool.

So no more.  I’m turning over a new leaf here, and I am going to be posting more, and including more personal info.  And hopefully I’ll be catching up on all the e-sessions and weddings I still have to blog before our season starts up again in May.  That’s kind of a tall order.  But if I end up slacking, I hope someone will call me out on it. Seriously.  The first person to point out that I’ve gone a week without blogging gets a Starbucks card on me.

So here’s what’s been up with us lately:

- We spent part of this weekend painting the entryway for our new studio space.  (Okay, I guess I’m letting the cat out of the bag here a bit.  This should probably be a post on its own.)  We transformed a dark green cave into a bright, BRIGHT little nook to house the Keurig and glassware and stuff.  We still have to do some decorating, but I think it will be cute.  In the meantime, I keep finding random flecks of yellow paint all over me, despite several showers.

- Our house is trying to kill us.  As if having to dig the entire backyard up last year to replace the sewer line wasn’t  adventure enough, we now have a leak upstairs that is causing water to drip though the ceiling into our kitchen.  And specifically, water is even leaking into our light fixtures.  Okay, perhaps this isn’t something anyone wants to know, but it’s what we are dealing with.  We are going to have to do some major repairs in the kitchen and I’m a bit freaked out on how to pay for that.  Re-modeling the circa 1950′s kitchen wasn’t exactly in the budget for this year.  My love for older houses is seriously starting to wane.  I’m thinking new construction in an Edward Scissorhands neighborhood really isn’t that bad of a thing.

- I’ve had Radiohead’s new album on just about constant repeat since it came out.  I am a huge, HUGE Radiohead fan and have been since Pablo Honey came out in 1993.  And holy crap did writing that sentence ever make me feel old – it’s 2011 now people. 1993. Ouch. It seems likely they will tour North America this year so we’ll be looking to score tickets for Toronto or Chicago, or both.   Radiohead refuses to come to Detroit  Either because of an alleged mishap the one and only time they played the State Theatre, or because someone has alerted the band to the fact that I really, really want to kidnap Thom Yorke.  So a Radiohead tour = road trip for me.  Sometime I’ll tell you about the time I had front row seats for a show in Wisconsin and my stupid car broke down in downtown Chicago.  I would never put up with so much grief for any other band.

- Let’s see, what else?  Andy has been busy doing some second shooting to help out a friend re-structuring her business.  He’s also doing some interior photography.  We are playing a lot on pinterest gathering ideas for our new space (which I wasn’t supposed to mention yet).  I am trying to finally get some wall art up in our own home, which has embarrassingly naked walls.  I am counting the days until I can pull the Vespa out of the garage.  The vespa got majorly neglected last year because we were so busy with weddings.  But I am going to make up for it this year.

What I really love about the image on the left is that when Abby was a puppy, I took a very similar shot at the dog park when she was all tired out from roughhousing.  Just like in this shot, she just sat there with her eyes closed.  I have it framed on my desk at work, and people always ask me about it.  I totally have to get this adult version framed too.

One other fun thing, we get SOOOO many hits from people who do searches for yellow labs with pink noses.  Seriously.  Half our blog traffic is thanks to Abby’s nose.  I just recently found out that her particular coloring is a genetic rarity caused by having a pair of double recessive genes.  Basically she’s expressing the coat color of a yellow lab and the pink nose and light eyes of a chocolate lab.  Labs like her can not produce any black pigment and the name for this coloring is “dudley”.  (Actually, the way I found out is that an acquaintance saw the photo of Abby on my desk and clued me in because he has a Dudley as well.)  So anyway, there you go!   If google drops you off here, check out this link for an explanation of Dudleys.  And now you can definitively tell all the naysayers that your lab is 100% lab.

Abby always has her ears down like this, so she looks all round-headed.  We actually have to tell her to “put her lab ears on”.  Sometimes treats will bring out the lab ears, or when hears something and is intrigued.  Most of the time though, she’s too chill to put her ears up like a proper lab.

This is Lily.  She belongs to my neighbors, who I wish I knew better, because they probably think I’m a freak the way I hang out at the fence talking to their dog.  She is the cutest, tiniest, sweetest little beagle ever.  It seriously takes all my willpower not to reach over the fence and snatch her up, because she is adorable.  Instead, I just sneak her milk bones.  If she stands up on her hind legs, she’s just tall enough for me to reach over the fence and scratch her ears.

This is Madeline.  She gets two photos because she was the only one willing to sit still, unlike the other cats, who wanted to run towards the camera and rub up against the lens.  Madeline was a stray that appeared on the roof of my carport one night when I was living in my first apartment.  A few days into a week long thunder storm, I took pity on her and let her in.  She’s survived a very traumatic injury – one night she escaped out the door at my apartment and some jerkface shot her in the face.  She lost most of the bottom of her jaw and had her mouth wired shut for over a month, and I had to hand feed her 3 times a day.  Throughout all of it, she was such a trooper with an unbelievable will to live.  That was like….I dunno, maybe 7 years ago now?  She drools a bit, but is otherwise fine, and from head on, she looks mostly normal.  She weighs maybe 8lbs, but makes up for her small stature with pure annoyingness tenaciousness.

Last up, the newest and oldest members of the household.  On the left is Freya, who is just the cutest, cuddliest, most awesom kitty ever.  She was a stray that followed my neighbor home while she was out for a long walk.  Freya followed her for over a mile, crossed a semi-busy road and took up residence in the neighbor’s garage.  This was when I lived in Florida.  The neighbor wasn’t a pet person, oddly enough, and when she decided Freya had fleas, she kicked her out of her garage.  I begrudgingly started feeding her because she was skinny and pathetic.  I did not want another cat, two is more than enough, and by this time I had Abby as well.  So I wouldn’t let her in the house for a long time, so instead, she started climbing up on my roof.  Thus began a cycle of the cat climbing on the roof, and me climbing up on a ladder and coaxing her onto my shoulder because I was worried she couldn’t get down and wasn’t getting any food/water.  I started letting her sleep in the garage.  The shelters in FL suck and had a horrible adoption rate, so when I had to move back to MI, I conceded defeat and adopted her properly.  She is the most affectionate cat I’ve ever had.  She always wants to cuddle and at night, she shares my pillow with me.

Draven is the black one.  I got him when I was 19.  He’s the only cat I paid money for, and is also the meanest creature on the face of the earth.  It takes a team and a logistics plan at the vet’s office to give him a shot.  He attacks people.  The dog is petrified of him.  Sometimes I am petrified of him.  No one else would have put up with him this long.  At one time he had his own prescription.  For Valium. And yes, he was named after the guy in The Crow (I was 19, ok?)  He was the first pet of my adult life, and even though he is evil and I have scars from him, I still love him for reasons I can’t quite explain or rationalize to others.

One last thing – I know letting cats outdoors is a big no-no, but A.) These cats have their claws, B.) We only let them out in the backyard and Freya and Draven are too fat to escape, C.)  We only let them out when we are home.  If you’ve ever adopted a stray you know how hard it is to keep them indoors, at some point the pathetic yowling wears you down and you have to grant them some freedom.

I freaked out.  It was dark.  It was raining.  This dog has zero understanding of the road and cars, and who’s really awake and coherent enough to dodge a lab at 6am on their morning commute?  I ran back upstairs to grab my glasses and then reached for a coat.

Of course, in the time it took me to go upstairs and return, I see a flash of yellow and a sheepish looking, completely drenched dog running to the back door.  Argh!  What a brat.

This morning was perfect sleeping-in weather.  Cool, a soft gentle rain.  Did I get to enjoy that?  Nooooo.

Abby on the other hand, had no problem leaping up on the bed (did I mention she was drenched?!?) and curling up for a nice deep sleep.

(Abby during a more sanctioned adventure last summer on Lake Huron.)

Towards the end of the article, the author mentions that Jerry’s wife, Maggie Taylor, is also an artist and photographer.  Though the article doesn’t mention it, she also does photo montages, but in a dramatically opposite way.  She scans found objects, antique photographs and other interesting oddities and uses Photoshop to create her work.

Andy and I spent over an hour squished in front of one tiny laptop screen in awe of Maggie’s work.  Her site is a delight – if you appreciate good web design, prepare to indulge in something fun.  It’s been a long time since a web design has, well, charmed me.  I had to check every page, just to see what neat effect I’d find next.  I felt bad closing the page!  The true testament  though is that I went back the next day.  And the day after that.  I can’t get enough of this site or Maggie’s work.

Unfortunately, it seems like it’s not easy to find reproductions of her work, and her art books are limited.  I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have a large print of  “Garden”, shown above on the right.   The colors in it are gorgeous.   The image above is a screenshot of Maggie’s site – I recommend you spend some time checking it out!

]]> http://blog.westparkphoto.com/2009/03/31/inspiration-maggie-taylor-jerry-uelsmann/feed/ 2 http://blog.westparkphoto.com/2009/03/14/hitting-the-books/ http://blog.westparkphoto.com/2009/03/14/hitting-the-books/#comments Sat, 14 Mar 2009 07:42:27 +0000 Lynn http://www.blog.westparkphoto.com/?p=116 One of the things Andy and I decided on from the very beginning of our business is that we would make a concentrated effort to continue to re-invest in ourselves and our gear.  That means making sure we upgrade our equipment on a regular basis so we can provide our clients with great images.  And that also means that whenever we can, we try to seek out learning opportunities so we can continue to grow as photographers.

Last year we really focused on our gear, and we plan to make some major upgrades this year as well, but we also signing up for every workshop we can find.  This Sunday we will be getting things started by attending JB Sallee’s I Photoshop People seminar in Detroit.   And the very next day, we’ll be driving across the state to Grand Rapids to attend the Professional Photographers of Western Michigan‘s all day workshop with Cliff Mautner.  Cliff is a wedding photography legend and was voted one of the ten best wedding photographers in the world by American Photo magazine.

I don’t anticipate us getting much sleep between Sunday and Monday, but I’m sure it will be worth it!

Now I can’t just end a blog post without pictures, so I’m continuing my theme of scavaging for photos showing things that are growing.

I inherited the most amazing wisteria trees when I bought this house.  When they are in bloom, they are amazing, and the scent carries through the whole yard.  As much as I love them though, my wisteria trees would swallow my house whole if I let them.  In fact if anyone wants any seedlings, you just let me know, because I will be pulling baby plants out of every nook and cranny in a few months.  I’m not kidding….one popped up through a crack and was growing in my garage last year – which has no windows.  And it was 6ft tall before I finally got over my amusement and wacked it down.

These are the seed pods from the tree.  They are really soft and velvety.  We get like 9 million of them.  We brought a couple in the house last year just because we thought they were cool looking.  Months later, they scared the crap out of us when they started popping and flying all over the place.  They dry out and crack, and then the seeds fly out – sometimes with a good deal of force.  Great for freaking out your pets.

Why am I showing you a picture of dirty strawberries?  BECAUSE I GREW THEM!  Next time let’s hope I remember to pick them before the squirrels eat them.  Okay, I think that’s enough summer nostalgia for one day.  Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

These were taken with my point-and-shoot digital camera – so don’t hate on ‘em! 

I have no idea what that last thing is, other than awesome.

Tonight we are going to meet with one of our August wedding couples and we’ll be shooting their engagement session downtown.  Whooo!  Our spring wedding engagement season has started!

I've been answering questions about her since I got her, from people that were sure she was a  mixed breed.  I always assumed her coloring was from being a chocolate-yellow mix, I just didn't realize that genetically it's very rare even with chocolates and yellows to get this unique look.  But now I have proof about how awesome she is.  If you are looking for more info, there's a good explanation of all of this here, and also here.  And there's a flickr group devoted to Dudleys here.  If you have a dudley, give me a shout in the comments and leave a link to a picture!]  :)

Say hello to the yellowest, tail-waggiest member of the West Park Photography team.

Abby is a three year old Labrador Retriever.  Her momma was a yellow lab and her dad was a chocolate lab.  Abby has a honey-colored coat that’s just a little bit different from a yellow lab’s color and the pinky-brown nose and light eyes of a chocolate lab.  She was a birthday present from my parents when I was living alone in Florida.  (See unbearbly cute puppy pictures here.  Wish I had actually used a *real* camera for those and not a point and shoot.)

People with golden retrievers and labs like to say that after age 2, the dogs settle down.  This was certainly true for my parents beautiful goldens.  This has NOT been the case with Abby.  This dog is crazy!  Don’t let this  photo of her looking all calm fool you.  She can jump like 5 feet up in the air, straight up, with no running start.  She also runs unlike any dog I have ever seen.  She used to keep up with the whippets and greyhounds at the dog park when she was little.  I think she’s faster now.  There is something about watching this dog run that just makes you know everything is right in the world.  It sounds cheesy, but it’s beautiful to watch.  We are going to have to get some footage with our flip mino once it gets warmer out. 

Abby responds to the following nicknames:  Abby Labby, Abigail Peaches (my dad’s contribution), Barka (my brother’s -and a very fitting nickname), Abbington (my grandfather came up with that one), and Abigail Jane VanBabby (don’t even ask).  She likes mud, beaches, kiddie polls, running off leash, wrestling with her cousins (my parents’ dogs), and rides in the covertible.  She is terrified of the mailman and our black cat (okay, we are ALL afraid of him).

So there you have it.  We are HUGE animal lovers and I’m looking forward to an upcoming engagement session we are shooting because the couple is bringing their Golden.  They may or may not get him back, because Abby sure likes those goldens.  I think it’s the hair.  If you’d like to incorporate your pet into a photo session, by all means let us know, we are totally game.

I’m still waiting impatiently for it to get warmer.  This has been the longest, and coldest winter I can remember in a long time – and I really promise I’m not just saying that.  We took the opportunity yesterday to spend a few minutes somewhere warm, and humid.  The last part normally wouldn’t be something I’d be excited about, but it’s so dry here – it’s done a number on our skin.  I also very badly wanted to see something green, and alive.  I’ve totally given up on spring ever arriving.

We headed back to Belle Isle – which if you aren’t familiar with the area, is a large island park in Detroit.  (I know you are thinking “Detroit….island….park???” but it really exists!)  The photos in the post below of the mammoth glacier thing were also taken there.  This time though we skipped the ice in favor of flowers and went to the conservatory.  It was wet, alive, green, and most importantly, 70 degrees.  I may go back next weekend with a book and just hang out and try real hard to pretend I’m in Florida.

After spending far too little time soaking up the warmth, we left the conservatory and went home to watch Gran Torino.  The entire movie was shot in Michigan – thanks to the new tax incentives here for film producers – and a few scenes actually were filmed very close to our house.  The church in the opening sequence is in Grosse Pointe Park – in fact, it’s so close by we can hear the church bells from our house.  We are shooting a wedding there this August.  The hardware store featured later on in the movie is two blocks away from us – part of the “West Park” neighborhood of Grosse Pointe Park, which we got our name from.  The movie was great – I liked it a lot more than I expected.  And it was neat to see some familiar places.  There’s more info about where the scenes were shot here, if you are interested.

Earlier this week we met some great photographers and have something awesome brewing in the works.  I’m going to wait until it’s more official before sharing further,  but we are SO excited!  Also, I have more pictures coming soon of some new product samples.