Hailey and Puff

I had a great shoot last week for my amazing friend, featuring her family's lab/shepherd mix, Hailey, and her sister's cat, Puff. I love these animals. Hailey is the sweetest, gentlest dog you've ever met, and she uses that lab background to its FULL advantage. Say what you may - I will NEVER be convinced that there exists a breed of dog that's better at begging than a lab.

Proof? Oh, yes. Here's proof:



I think if her eyes were any more liquid in the middle picture, they'd fall right out of her head.

A few other favorites:



Then it was Puff's turn. Puff is blind, so I was rather surprised to see her outside. You can't really see it in the photos, but she was wearing a harness and leash. She was surprisingly challenging to photograph - not because of the blindness, but because she's a little piggy :) We used treats to get her attention, but then she wouldn't lift her head up from the grass until she'd found every. last. bit. So a lot of my shots looked like this:


Nom nom nom.

Despite not being able to actually see the camera, she totally worked it.



She loves her mama.



Puff was just the warmup - a blind cat is nothing compared to three siblings and three animals in one shot. This is an outtake, but I love that you can instantly see the bond they all have with the animals.



And of course, I couldn't do the shoot without a picture of my friend Lisa and her baby.



Awww. Thanks so much for having me over, Lisa and Jen! And the rest of the clan, people and animals alike :)

Moving Day, aka A Lesson in Customer Service from Enterprise

This Saturday was moving day for me! Since my lease started at the beginning of the month, I've had plenty of time to move all of my smaller stuff, but Saturday was for everything else. I don't have a ton of furniture, but a full size bed is NOT going to fit in a little tiny Kia, I can assure you of that. The last time I helped someone move a few weeks ago, we rented a cargo van from Enterprise. It was affordable enough, and this particular branch was central to both the moving-to and the moving-from location. Without really looking into other options, I reserved another van for this Saturday.

Friday night I check my phone, and see that I missed a call from a restricted number at 5:58pm. I listen to the message and it's Enterprise, calling to tell me that they're so very sorry, but despite the fact that I have a reservation, they're not going to have a van for me the next morning. Um, excuse me? Since it's now almost 8pm and their branch closes at 6pm, there's nothing I can do. Even if I gotten the message two minutes after they called, I still would've been out of luck, since adhering to the posted hours is NOT a strong suit of this branch (Case in point: the last time, we arrived at 9am to get the van, and no one showed up until at least 10 minutes later). We decide that we're still going to go to Enterprise at 9am just to see if they have a pickup truck or anything else that we could stuff a full-size mattress into.

The two employees sauntered in at 9:10am. Surprised? I wasn't. They looked up my reservation, and said that there were no vans, and there's nothing they can do. We asked about the availability of the pick up sitting out front. No dice; it had already been reserved for someone else. As a last resort, they offered to call a nearby branch and see if they have any cargo vans. The guy calls twice, shrugs when they don't pick up the phone, and says he's sorry, but there's nothing he can do.

I am not offered a discount. I'm not offered any alternative solutions. No further effort is made to contact the other branch.

Um...ok...well then. We leave, and I resist the urge to flip the bird at the security cameras in the Enterprise lot. It's not very lady-like, you know. Ten minutes and one phone call later, we're on our way to U-Haul.

My advice, if you need a van or truck? Start there. WAY cheaper, especially if you're not going far. A+ for customer service. We told them about our Enterprise experience, and they couldn't believe it. "You mean...they didn't have a van for you? And they didn't offer you anything? If that happens here, we give you $50."

Now, I still would've been irritated if they didn't have a vehicle that I had reserved, $50 or no. But what really turned me off is that they clearly didn't care.

Disappointing things happen, no matter what business you're in. Maybe you get sick and have to reschedule a photoshoot, or you sent the wrong size file to the lab to be printed and now it has to be redone. These things can and do happen, regardless of how meticulous and conscientious you are - it's all part of the fun of being human. What sets the truly amazing businesses apart are how they handle these situations. Just saying "sorry" doesn't cut it.

Just saying sorry tells me that you've washed your hands of my problem.
Just saying sorry does not help me get what I need.
Just saying sorry encourages me to go to your competitor, where I hope I'll be treated with more respect.

So here's my promise to you: I will do everything in my power to prevent slip-ups from happening, but if something goes wrong, you'll get more than "sorry" and a shrug of the shoulders. You deserve better!

And now, something happy. Something that makes me happy. My bookshelf! Before I moved, my bookshelf was a royal mess. It was a catchall for random little things that didn't have a home, it was cluttered, and it stressed me out (does clutter stress anyone else out? Seriously, it's mentally draining!). But now?

Ta-da!





The teacups and saucers were given to me by my grandmother. When I was little, my sister and I would have tea parties at her house, and we got to choose which cup we would take our "tea" in (just milk, usually with a side of homemade donut. Mmmm, donut). In anticipation of moving to a smaller home and reducing the amount of stuff in her house, she generously gifted us with our favorite ones! I love having them on display now.

Do you have little things like this around your house that make you happy? If you don't, I think you should!

Some days...

You can't get no respect. Especially not from a cat.

Brittney the pug

Brittney is a sweetheart. She came out for the Lowell Unleashed photoshoot and did an awesome job for her modeling debut! It was her first time at a dog park, so we decided to stay in the holding pen for her shoot. The park was quite busy by that time, and we didn't want little B to get run over by the other bigger, more rambunctious dogs. She doesn't know that she's a bite-sized dog, though, so let's just keep that between you and me.

That alien in the background in the photo on the left is one of three kids who love her very, very much and came along for the shoot. They were a big help in keeping her corralled, and in giving her lots of hugs and kisses. Don't knock it - that's a super important job!



Oh, dear. I'm afraid she doesn't look all that bright in the photo on the right, but it makes me laugh so I'm posting it anyway.



Total favorite here on the left. Like most pugs, Brittney wants to be with you allthetimepleasepleasedon'tleaveme, so photographing her was challenging at times. I cropped my knees out of this photo, since that's where she was sitting when I took it. Whatever the minimum focus distance on the lens I was using is...that's where B is. A little inside that, actually, since her right eye is in focus but her snout (and that tongue, ah, slays me every time) isn't.



Thanks for coming, Laura! It was great meeting B and her little helpers :)