I wanted to share a few photos of Bailey’s Halloween costume with you, because the Lord knows I spend way more time on her getup every year than mine! If you’re a fan of the Facebook page, you’ve probably already seen these pictures. But they deserve their own blog post!
We decided (okay, I decided) to dress Bailey up as a lion this year because she’s mostly Rhodesian ridgeback. She’s a mixed breed and we’re not sure what else she has in her, but she’s the spitting image of a Rhodesian. So we did a bit of research on this breed, and it turns out they’re a type of dog bred in Africa for the purpose of hunting lions. Lions! How cool is that?! So Bailey’s costume harkens back to her ancestors. These photos were taken amidst the African savanna’s tall grasses and wide open plains; isn’t it obvious? Haha! Enjoy!
Fierce predator.
She sees you through the grass! Run & hide!
hee hee… I’m pretty sure I have WAY too much fun with my dog…
I’d like to think she’s sniffing out her next prey here.
Was Bailey a willing model? No, not really. Lesson learned: she prefers the costumes that are more shirt-like and cover her back, instead of the ones she has to wear on her head. Sigh. Still, it was a lot of fun for me! For Bailey, one day of misery a year isn’t too bad… right?
And I have a present I’d like to give myself. It’s a pretty simple one, but I need the help of someone in the Pensacola area: I want to photograph a Bernese mountain dog. Yes, that’s the gift I want! I’ve photographed dozens of different dog breeds (and sometimes I think I could only photograph golden retrievers and still stay in business…) but I’m fascinated with meeting new breeds, and I’ve always secretly wanted to work with a Bernese mountain dog. They’re at the top of my “wish list”! They’re beautiful, relatively uncommon, and they just seem like really great dogs.
Here’s a screen shot of Wikipedia’s Bernese mountain dog entry… isn’t that a gorgeous dog?
So if someone you know has a Bernese mountain dog, please pass on my information or this blog post! I’m happy to cover their session fee – so really, I suppose it’s a gift for both of us!
Bonus points if you have a PUPPY! My Google image search revealed all kinds of cuteness.
Okay, that’s it for today! Hope you’re having a wonderful Labor Day too! :)
You’re about to see something you’ve NEVER seen on this blog before… are you ready? Here come a bunch of two-leggers!
This past week, I went home to Portland, Oregon (where I grew up) to photograph my little sister! She’ll be a senior in high school this year, and senior portraits are a big deal in the northwest. So I got together with her (and a bunch of her friends), and we had a great time!
I’ll tell you what, seniors were an incredible challenge to photograph – but so much fun at the same time! Since I’m used to my “clients” paying little attention to me and only doing what I want so they can play with a ball or snack on a treat, it was a HUGE change to have my subjects actually do what I tell them to! Every time! Haha… I definitely have more respect for senior photographers now, because they have to have incredible creativity and posing knowledge. I mean, I always figured as much, but things are always eye-opening when you do them yourself for the first time. These girls were not only incredibly patient with me, but they were GORGEOUS models, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group to work with!
For the record, I can’t possibly imagine changing the focus of my business – I’ll always love photographing dogs. And my many pet clients certainly keep me busy, I’m lucky to say! So I’m still Allison Shamrell Pet Photography. But every once in a while I don’t mind a change of pace… so check out my first foray into senior photography! :)
Morgan
Keaton
Noelle
Katie
Kristine
Shelby
Noelle
Last but not least, my gorgeous sister Katherine!
THANK YOU so much to all of you ladies for your time! I’ll have your galleries up next week! (hopefully!)
Sunday, June 10th was a big day in the Shamrell household: Bailey turned three! Does this mean she’s no longer a “puppy”? Oh who am I kidding, I’ll always call her my puppy! :) (Side note: she’s 21 in dog years, so we’ve ordered a few age-appropriate beverages for her that’ll hopefully arrive soon!)
We celebrated the occasion with two walks, plenty of treats, a new knuckle bone, and CAKE! I spent the previous day in Ft. Walton Beach at the dog boutique 3 Dogs & A Chick, so really, I had very little choice in the matter. Their cute cake designs were just staring me in the face. I had to get one for her. They let me choose the color scheme, so I asked for the confetti sprinkles (because they’re fun) and pink writing, because Bailey’s a very girly dog. She is! – all her dog-sitters comment on how ladylike she is, and plus she’s so gosh darn pretty, so pink was a natural choice. Oh, and the cake is peanut butter flavored!
Sometimes I love the details so much, that I think about being a product photographer… but then again I think those photographers must have a TREMENDOUS tolerance for boredom, because really, there aren’t any living creatures in their work! Just thinking about spending all day with inanimate objects (instead of dogs) induces a yawn. So I guess product photography is not for me.
Okay, there is a story behind why Bailey looks semi-miserable in this photo. We got her up in the chair, and the cake was in front of her all ready to go, and what do I do? Strike a match to light her candles, of course! But I didn’t even think that it might scare her (which is embarrassing) because she has no reaction to our outdoor tiki torches or any other fire I can think of… but I guess the actual creation of the flame was what spooked her. So she jumped out of the chair in a panic, poor thing. We finally got her back up and slid the cake in front of her, but she looked SO sad – the only way I even got her ears up was by saying “wanna go for a walk?” which of course we weren’t going for at 8:00 at night, so I guess that makes me even MORE of a terrible mom, taunting her with a walk. Sigh… so we took one halfway-decent photo and let her escape the terror of the dining room table.
She also had ice cream, which was the initial favorite – she licked it up quickly!
After cutting the cake into quarters (because it’s HUGE) this is what our freezer looked like. Pretty awesome freezer if you ask me! :) (And yes, those are the TGI Friday frozen dinners in the background… we think they’re delicious so don’t judge!)
Here’s Bailey’s plan of attack for the cake: lick the entire exterior, THEN start nibbling. She didn’t tear into it, as I imagine many dogs would. Here’s a quick video showing the beginning of the process…
And here’s a longer video showing her dainty way of getting into the knuckle bone I wrapped for her… it was her main present because she loves these things, they are her absolute favorite toys, and it’ll last a few months no problem. It was fun to see her discover it so cautiously!
Happy birthday, Bailey – you’re a blessing to our little family and we’re ridiculously happy we found you. Here’s to plenty more birthdays with you!!
Today is May 2nd. It’s been exactly eight months to the day when we heard the news that would change our lives, but mostly, my husband’s life. When I see people at events and they say “I heard you were leaving town…?”, even today, it breaks my heart a little. We were supposed to leave. We definitely were. I wrote this blog post because I feel like I owe my past and future clients an explanation as to why we’re still here… and to clarify what’s really been going on in this crazy life of ours.
Let’s start with a timeline.
September 2009: we move to Pensacola!
October 2010: at this point, my husband Ken has completed two basic preliminary flight training programs – and maybe during another year, this wouldn’t have been such a big deal. But with an overloaded aviation force, the Navy increased the passing grade to 94% (the passing grade) and gave all sorts of opportunities and packages to those willing to transfer to other communities (such as Intelligence). They even gave a few people free passes out of the Navy. Having graduated from Notre Dame’s ROTC program, Ken knows this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but passes it up on his path to becoming a helicopter pilot. So this month he begins Primary, an intensive fixed-wing training course with the T-34.
Bailey (in his flight suit) is very proud of him!
March 2011: Ken completes Primary and moves on to Advanced, where he can finally fly what he’s been waiting for: helicopters. Both of his brothers work with helicopters (one is a Marine crew chief, and one is an Army pilot) so Ken’s choice wasn’t exactly a huge surprise! :)
Ken's graduating Primary class
July 2011: A routine eye exam (for a new contact lens prescription) causes a doctor to recommend that Ken gets looked at a bit more closely by an ophthalmologist. He’s almost done with Advanced, though, and the briefs and flight schedules are so intense that he schedules the appointment for a few weeks later. (He’s doing 5-6 flights a week at this point; Advanced is a series of over a hundred hours of training flights.)
September 2, 2011: During Ken’s appointment with the ophthalmologist, he’s told that he has optic nerve head drusen and visual field defects. These are words that I’d never heard put together before, but now, they potentially mean the end of my husband’s career in aviation.
September 3, 2011: My 25th birthday. Not the happiest birthday I can remember.
The rest of September 2011: We worry about everything. But with only two flights left to complete (two! after so many!), Ken’s CO goes to bat for him in a big way. He authorizes the flights, and Ken earns his wings of gold.
September 20, 2011: Ken flies to Miami to see a world-renowned specialized ophthalmologist, who does sophisticated tests and tells Ken that his binocular vision is completely fine. We have hope.
September 30, 2011: Winging ceremony at Whiting Field. My husband asks me to pin on his wings, and I’m honored to say yes. He’s officially an aviator! One of the happiest days I can think of… :)
Ken with a TH-57 trainer helicopter.
October 1, 2011: we go shark fishing in Destin with our parents to celebrate the winging! Because we definitely have cause to celebrate! (in the movie below, feel free to fast-forward to 0:35, when the action starts happening!)
October 2011 – January 2012: we wait for Ken’s waiver package to be submitted. There’s a ton of data and reports and charts, and getting it submitted electronically is no quick thing. If Ken is awarded a waiver, he can continue to fly helicopters. (Like in the video below! This was taken by another Navy wife who thought the pilot was her husband, but it was actually Ken completing the landing!)
January – April 2012: We wait to hear what the board of doctors says. Lots of waiting.
At least we can go to the beach to wait!
Friday, April 13: Ken’s squadron doctor calls. The final decision is no. Just no.
Now: Ken is exploring his options. He’s enrolled in an eight-week class for Aviation Maintenance officers, he’s also considering civil engineering (seabees), and there are a couple of other possibilities (military and civilian). His future with the Navy is totally up in the air. That also means that our time left in Pensacola is uncertain, too. Let me tell you: on September 1 of last year, I believed 100% that he’d soon get assigned to a squadron elsewhere in the country, and we’d spend Halloween in a new place. Now I’m wondering if we’ll be here for another Halloween. We’ve learned not to plan things (trips, vacations, etc.) more than a month in advance. Oh, and running a business? That kind of timetable doesn’t make things easy on the pet photography side, either! But we’re making it work.
I hope no one takes this post in the wrong light. I’m not mad at the Navy, I’m not asking for pity – I just want to air what’s been happening, because even just writing this post is a bit therapeutic, and I know some people (all five of you that read my blog, right? haha) are curious. I don’t know the point of a blog, or a business, if you can’t be honest and real with it. So this has been our struggle. What’s kept us functioning is the knowledge that things happen for a reason. God has a plan for us – it’s just hidden from view right now, and for that reason, life hasn’t been easy the last few weeks. But I hope this clears up the reason why we haven’t left town yet, because I know people wonder why that pet photographer lady was going to be gone but she’s still here… To be totally honest, one thought haunts me: that anyone thinks I announced we’d leave falsely, as a publicity/sales stunt. I’ve never even heard a whisper of this idea from anyone outside of my own head, but hey, you don’t get to manage a successful business without imagining a few worst-case scenarios. I hope and pray that no one would believe such a terrible thing. And I wish I could sum up this post with a “lesson learned” or happy ending… but I don’t think we’ll figure out that we’ve learned anything until years from now, looking back on this. And we’re still in the thick of it – Ken doesn’t know what his career will end up being – so the happy ending just hasn’t come yet. But we know it’s on its way.
So I thought the above quote by Mike Tyson was rather fitting for this post, and for our lives: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Plans change. I’m sure that’s been the case in your life at one time or another. So even though my husband was punched pretty damn hard, I’m still so impressed at how he’s handled everything. He’s incredibly strong and brave, and I’m so lucky to be his wife. And we’re happy to stay in Pensacola as long as we can – or at least, as long as we should. Right now it looks like we’ll be here through June. And then? Who knows where? And while the planner and businesswoman inside of me is DYING to know where we’ll go next – and when, and for how long – life is full of surprises, right? I guess if anything good has come out of this, I think it’s that my husband and I have learned pretty well how to roll with the punches.
