I just wanted to let you know that you are in for a very fun night at our first “Girls Night Out” at the studio tomorrow. I have had this idea for years and I am so excited that we have finally made it happen. We have some really great products that our vendors are going to be showing. We are expecting a pretty big turnout. That is music to my ears. The more the merrier. It is really going to be a fun night for all.
I started out the day yesterday making 2 batches of biscotti cookies. Then last night Carlin and I got to work and we made chocolate chip cookies and frosted sour cream cookies. This morning I am going to make pumpkin bars. Needless to say we are going to have plenty to eat! Nothing scares me more than the thought of not having enough food at a party. You can be sure that we are going to have more than enough of everything. It’s just what I do!
I sure do hope that you can join us tomorrow night from 6-10 at the studio. For more information click here, https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:11867.2567550603/rid:2ed0e1329453655f94daa16db2103157 I promise that you will have fun. Please feel free to bring a friend or two with you. Stop by for an hour or plan on staying all night. Don’t forget that I am going to be taking free Facebook photographs for everyone. Hope to see you Friday the 13th at our first “Girls Night Out”. Until next time (I’ll post photos from our event soon), be well.
Some people are just nice. They just are. Unfortunately some people are just not so nice. Every one has a bad day and I don’t claim that I am the “happy and nice” person I want to be all the time. I have my moments and my buttons get pushed too. I really do try to stay aware of what I am putting out there in the world. I don’t want to focus on the not so nice people much. I really don’t like negative energy. Let’s just stay in our happy place and talk about nice people.
It’s fun to be around nice and happy people. Being around a happy person can actually help you become a happier and nicer person. It’s like spreading a virus, the happy virus. The only thing we can control in life is how we react. No one makes us upset, we let ourselves become upset. We let what happens around us affect us. I am not saying that we all don’t deserve to have our own “pity party” when things are not going well for us. We just can’t let the negative thoughts or energy win for too long. It just brings you down and sucks you dry.
I just spent some time searching the web about what makes us happy. (What did we ever do without Google?) I found lots of articles on it and even a Harvard study that has been ongoing for over 50 years. Guess what? Money does not make you happy. Where you live does not make you happy. Relationships, they make you happy. Creativity, curiosity, bravery, and kindness can make you happy. Of all the articles I read the biggest common thread is that you have to “act as if” or my favorite have a “fake it until you make it” type of philosophy.
It kind of made me happy just reading it. I am not sure why seem to be so obsessed this year about “staying in my Happy-Place.” If you have been reading my past blog posts it does really come up often. Let’s be honest here. I have really had a crazy year full of life changing events. My Mom had a massive stroke and now lives in a nursing home. My husband closed his software company. I had to have major surgery. I could go on about the negative stuff that has happened to us this year. I guess that must be where my obsession to be happy is coming from. Stuff happens to us all. Some of it is worse than other things. I am not saying that I have not had my meltdowns or horrible and not so nice moments. I just WON’T let myself get STUCK there. I try as fast as I can to get back to my “happy place”. I try to look at what is good in my life and focus on that. I try to spend my time doing what makes me happy.
A few days ago at the studio we had a really sweet, nice couple and their children in the studio for a family portrait. They were so kind and positive to be around. (She even told me how she loves my blog. How nice is that?) For the most part we get to have really nice people in the studio. We are so lucky to deal with happy people just about all the time. However, on this day we just had a really not so nice person in the studio earlier that morning. You know, one of those people that is pissed off at the whole world, all the time. No matter how hard you try to make them happy it does not work. Of course, we all come across people like that at times. Have you ever noticed that it is really hard to get that un-happy person out of your mind? No matter how many super nice people you come across in the same day, that miserable person is still in your thoughts.
I think that most of us are people-pleasers and we want to make others happy. That is a really good quality to have. It’s good up to a point. We just have to make sure that we don’t please others so much that it hurts us. So you can’t make all the people happy all the time. BIG DEAL! We just can’t let the “Debbie-Downers”, the queens of negativity in the world get us down. We have to stay in our “Happy-Place.” We have to put our personal powers of persuasion into play and do a number on ourselves.
This started out to be a quick post on how great it is to be around nice and happy people. As usual, as I started writing I went off in to my own little world. It’s my blog so I guess I get to do that. As I wrap this rambling post up I would like to challenge you to stay in your “Happy-Place.” Don’t let the “Debbie-Downers” of the world get to you. Be that happy and nice person we all want to be around. I think I say this mantra out loud as well as in my head a thousand times a week, “it’s all good!” The more I say it, the more I believe it. Thanks so much for reading and until next time, be well.
I have said before that I write in my head all the time. As a matter of fact I have been writing this post for the past two weeks in my head. When I was flying to Florida for our vacation I really wanted to write this story and I just lost it and started crying so badly I just couldn’t do it. I am warning you in advance this is a happy/sad story.
On September 13th Dr. Karl Stockhausen passed away at the tender age of 28 from melanoma. I am not sure if I had ever met him and I did not know him. So why did I cry my eyes out on an airplane on the day of his funeral? It is all because of a random act of kindness.
13 years ago when I was remodeling the house that is now the studio, it was a rather trying time for me personally. That project just about killed me (I could write a whole book about the idiot contractors I was working with). No really, I have the physical scars (I had to have back surgery from an injury during the remodeling and moving) and the emotional toll that process took on me was overwhelming. I am such a firm believer that “from all bad things good things come.” The proof of that belief is how beautiful our studio building is and how much the business has grown and excelled since we moved into our current location. But it was not an easy process. It was December of 1996 about 10 days before Christmas, I was exhausted, broke, in pain and working on stripping paint in the new place. I had also worked a full day being a photographer at the old at the Northville Road studio. I was totally fried that evening. During the remodeling I had made an acquaintance with this super nice young guy named Luke (he wanted to rent the apartment from me upstairs when I got it finished) and just he stopped by to see me that evening.
Luke figured out that I was pretty much at the end of my rope and I had not eaten dinner yet. He asked me to come to his house around the corner and have dinner with his family. I remember asking him if it would be OK if he just brought me home for dinner (I had never met his parents or family). I was so puzzled. We never just picked up strangers and brought them home for dinner at my house. But I was hungry and totally out of it anyway. He assured me it would be fine and off we went to his house for dinner.
Luke’s last name is Stockhausen and I was meeting his parents Bill and Carol Jean and several of his siblings for the first time that night. I honestly don’t know how many siblings Luke has or who was there (there were several teenage and younger kids at dinner that night). Karl may have been there, I don’t remember. We ate some kind of warm and wonderful dinner in a bowl (I don’t remember what is was and it does not matter). It’s not just that the Stockhausen’s fed me dinner; it’s that they took in this tired, exhausted and wounded bird and showed me so much kindness. I was a total stranger they did not know and they welcomed me like I was a long lost relative. It was close to Christmas and after dinner they did something else I had never seen. One of the younger children picked up the bible and read from the bible a Christmas passage.
I have no memory of what I ate or what was read, but I totally remember how it made me feel. It made me feel loved (by God and by a family of total strangers) and it made me know that this crazy time in my life would pass and that I could get through it. It was a total random act of kindness that had such a profound effect on me.
This is why the death of someone I did not even know has had such an effect on me. I am so deeply sorry for the entire Stockhausen family. I am just sick that wonderful parents like Bill and Carol Jean have to deal with the death of a child. No parent should ever have to do that. It’s just not the natural order of things. I feel so sorry for his siblings to have lost their brother. I feel horrible for Karl’s fiancée losing her love. I am sure that the loss of Karl will leave a hole in their family that will last forever. I am also sure that the strength and faith of these amazing people will comfort them and bring them through this horrible and difficult time for them.
Back to what I said in the beginning, I firmly believe “from bad things good things come.” When a door shuts a window opens. I have done a good thing because of Karl’s death by telling you this story. It reminds me that my actions and words do have profound effects on others. It also reminds me to be the kind of person whose dinner table is always open to strangers in need. It makes me want to go out of my way to do any random act of kindness for others. I am reminded yet again to put as much good and positive energy as I can out in the world.
I think that you now understand why I have been so profoundly affected by the entire Stockhausen family and why I totally lost it on the airplane. I challenge you to put some good out there and do a few “Random Acts of Kindness” on your journey called life. I ask you to have the kind of family who opens its doors to strangers in need. I hope that you can have a big pot of kindness always cooking on your stove of life. You just never know whose life you may be changing for the better. Until next time, be well.
Maybe I should change the name of my blog to “Angela’s Excellent Adventures” I actually think this is what my life is. Yes, my life one very cool (and quickly passing by) excellent adventure. I have been in Beaufort North Carolina this week with my dear friend Wendy, her hubby Charles (Benjy) and my goddaughter Mary Margaret Park. They own a fabulous restaurant called the Beaufort Grocery Company www.beaufortgrocery.com in a very cool and historic waterfront district in the Crystal Coast area of North Carolina.
I am very blessed and lucky get to do what I love. Most of the time I get to photograph what I love, people (does that mean I love the people I photograph most of the time?) I think it goes almost without saying that I also love food (I am Greek and it’s genetic, that’s my story and I am sticking to it!) This past week I really enjoyed the challenge of photographing food. Wendy and Benji are creating a cookbook for their restaurant. I am always looking for an excuse to visit friends (OK and get by the ocean too) so we thought the photography for the cookbook was a good excuse for me to get to North Carolina for a visit. It has been several years since I was in Beaufort. Like everything, this little cookbook project of theirs has been a very big undertaking and a huge project for a lot of people. Wendy and Benji are just a little busy. (Did I mention that they have another restaurant and a catering company too?)
Chili Watermelon Salad
Well Benjy got to experience “Angela the Organizational Tornado” full on. We needed to come up with a plan for getting 40 or so images created in less than a week in the middle of them doing business as usual. I knew that we had a big job ahead of us and fairly small window of time to get it done. The photography part for me was the easy part. There was an awful lot of prep and cooking that had to go on. With the help of some amazing employees at the restaurant by Friday evening we had mission accomplished. Things have a way of working out no matter how crazy it gets in the middle of it all.
Warm Summer Salad
I know that I can create some pretty decent images. I must admit I had not really photographed food very much. I like a good challenge and I am a very firm believer in the “fake it till you make it” philosophy. I didn’t exactly tell my friends that I had never taken photographs for a cookbook before. Remember, my life is an “Excellent Adventure!” I have also been known to say to myself “I’ll figure it out, I always do.” I asked my buddy Claude that “ever knowing lighting expert” how to light the food. I also looked at lots of food pictures and read a bunch of stuff online. I knew I would find it within myself to get the images we needed.
Well, as you can see my faith in myself paid off for us all as we have amazing images of some really good food for the “Beaufort Grocery Company” cookbook.
Morning Glories and Muffins
I can’t forget to mention that there is one really good side benefit to photographing food. THE EATING! After all, it's a sin to let all that great food go to waste (I have never met a sticky bun I didn't love). I was more that happy to help. I am going to need to run all the way home to Michigan to work off all the calories I ate “helping” them with their food problem. I can’t wait for the cookbook to be finished and I will let you know when it is published next spring. It was wonderful visiting all of my friends in Beaufort and getting my reward day at the beach (thanks a bunch Lisa!). I just wish my copy of the book came with a staff to do the cooking and dear friends to work, stress, laugh and eat with! Until next time ya all, be well.
PS. To see more images for the cookbook check out our Angela Carson Photography Fan Page on Facebook. www.facebook.com
I have been AWOL from my blog for a few weeks and I am sorry. I have actually been writing posts in my head. I just have not had the time to write it all down. (It actually takes a couple of hours usually to get the images and copy ready to post). As you know my life (both professionally and personally) is never boring and I am always on the go. Actually I am very happy to say that I have been a photographing manic the past month. It has been an exciting month and I have really been having fun with all the sessions I have been photographing. I am full of creative energy and inspiration right now.
A couple of years ago I photographed Big Brother Brad’s Senior Portraits; we had a blast during his session and made a real personal connection. Brad is really into photography and design and he is currently in school downtown attending The College for Creative Studies. Brad and I got to talking about how fun it would be to for us to go “shooting” together. We decided it would cool to do some “urban” photographing in the city. I am really into the “urban” thing right now and I have a new motto if it’s “sh**tty its pretty.” (I never said that I was normal.) I even talked Lauren and Carlin into being our models.
Needless to say the four of us had a riot on our photographic adventure in Detroit. Our first stop was the Heidelberg Project. http://www.heidelberg.org/ We stumbled across it looking for another location. (Did mention all the laughs on our adventure?) The very talented artist of the project, Tyree Guyton was very kind to us and let us photograph around his artwork. If you have never seen the artwork it really is very cool and you really must go to the city and see it.
Carlin is going to be a High School Senior at Mercy High School this Fall. So I thought it would be fun to do some of her Senior portraits on our little photography adventure. Carlin has been working with me this summer at the studio assisting during sessions. It has been fun having Carlin at the studio this summer. (When you see her ask her about her work nickname.) Did I mention that we have a lot of fun at the studio and we really like to laugh?
I was so happy that on short notice Lauren worked it out to come on our photographic adventure. I photographed Lauren’s Senior portraits last summer. She is a great person, fun to be around and she is a dream to photograph. (She also has a really cool collection of vintage dresses that are fun to photograph too.)
Our next location was a really dumpy warehouse area with several buildings that were in lees than perfect condition. The kind of building I can’t find in Northville and exactly the reason we were on our “urban” photographic adventure. Way cool!
The girls thought it would be fun to do some images together in Lauren’s cool vintage dresses. I just loved the contrast of the beautiful girls in the gorgeous dresses posed in a total disgusting mess. I just love this image.
The final image I took of the girls together was with the graffiti on an old warehouse door as the background. Like I said, this is nothing like what I am usually photographing in the suburbs. I love all the texture, color and depth in these images.
As you can see we really had fun creating these images. It was so much fun just creating images for me. Don’t get me wrong I get to create beautiful and creative images everyday for our clients. This time I just got to do what I wanted first. We had a great calibration going on between the two photographers and our beautiful models. Brad and I plan on having another creative “photography play date” again soon so we can continue the mutual inspiration we create for each other.
The very best part about our “urban” adventure is after describing how much fun we had photographing in the city to another client. We are off to photograph in the City next week for a very cool High School Senior from Plymouth. I will share some of her images just as soon as I can. I can’t wait! I had a blast last time and I am sure I will again next week. I hear that we are even going to have a Dad’s Harley in the images too. I am so lucky to get to do every day what I love. I have the best job in the world! Until next time, be well.
I have to admit I have a bit of guilt (I am Greek and that is just what we do) about not having photographed my family enough. The other day when I woke up I just decided that was going to be the day I did something about that. The event that really got me going is that my youngest nephew Evan was getting his “surfer long hair” cut the next day and I really wanted to capture him with his long hair and at this age (he is 9). It was fairly early and raining but I knew that I only had a couple of hours free in my schedule to photograph him. So I dialed up the phone and asked him about letting me photograph him. He wanted no part of getting up and in the shower at that moment. So I did what every good adult does when the really want a kid to do something, I bribed him. The set price for my model was $20. for a morning of work. OK game on. Well as you can see we just had a blast together creating his portrait.
We started out in our natural light room at the studio. I just wanted to capture Evan’s personality and photograph him as we see him. A regular kid and that he is. The weather cleared up enough for us to go outside and get a few more images. I found this cool set of rusty steps right in downtown Northville. I love to go around town and discover little areas that are perfect to photograph. This year I have been on a mission to do something I have not done before on my location sessions. I have been pushing myself as an artist to try different things. I am also having fun with different compositions. I do love a challenge.
I hope that you have enjoyed these images of Evan and they get you thinking about how important your family is to you. It is so easy for all of us to have all the insanity that is all of our lives get in the way of all the important stuff. I am so happy and thankful that I took the time this week to create Evan’s (or Scooter, as I call him) portrait and spend some real quality time with him. Even if it did cost me 20 bucks! Until next time, be well.
Cause I am like that ya know. I had such a great session on Tuesday I just had to share a few of the images with you. Kelsey is Senior at Northville High School and she is just adorable and a pleasure to work with. I knew I had photographed her family 8 years ago but I just could not place them. The second that Kelsey and her Mom Denise walked in I remembered their family session like it was yesterday. (I think I really do have a photographic memory. My memory freaks me out sometimes!) The even better part is how quickly we picked up exactly where we had left off chatting and catching up. I love when you see someone that you have not seen in awhile and it is like you have not missed a beat. I just love to connect with people. (Do you think that this just might be a theme in my blog?)
Kelsey brought me a ton of great clothing to work with and she was ready to have some fun getting her senior portraits taken. Needless to say we took a zillion great images and I can’t wait for her to come and see her images.
I have to admit when I heard that Kelsey was a hockey player I had a little different mental image of what she was going to look like. Let’s just say that Kelsey is one “super hot’ little hockey player.
My goal when I photograph High School Seniors is that every session is unique so that nobody’s session is like anyone else’s. So we go to all kids of different locations and do tons of different images. Kelsey had a great idea to ask all her good friends to come into the studio for a group photo. It was such a blast having 11 High School Seniors in the studio. Their energy was great and I think everyone had a fun time taking the “BFF-Foto” Thanks everybody for being so nice and coming in. I hope you had fun, I know I did.
I hope that you enjoy seeing a few of Kelsey images and that she does not hate me cause you know I am just one big old tease! Until next, be well.
