Category Archives: Other Photos
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Letting Go
January 6, 2011 – 9:57 pm
I took out an old friend today. Like me, it is a bit worn down and tired and not working on full capacity. I have not touched this friend since last June, when it tried to kick the bucket during a session. Knowing I couldn’t bear to say good-bye to it yet, I stuck it among the tons of photography gear and let it sit…hoping it would magically repair itself by the time I came to visit it next. The even sadder part is that I have not felt the pull to play, to take photographs for myself, in a very, very long time. That is not to say I haven’t picked up my camera… the past year was one of my busiest photographing for other people, regardless of the fact that my studio is closed. But I have not done any shooting for myself.
Today, too sick to finish up some leftover business from 2010, but well enough to be bored, I felt an unfamiliar urge. An amazing feeling…yet I didn’t want to spoil it by picking up my working cameras who I have yet to fall in love with. So I pulled my Canon 5D out… the old dinosaur that took my photography to a different level… the one I learned so much on. I grabbed another old love of mine, an 85mm lens that hasn’t left my camera bag for a while. I used to strictly shoot prime lenses until I saved enough money for a 25-70L, a trusty, sharp zoom lens.
So today I went on a short journey inside my house. Grabbed some of my favorite subjects (my dogs & cats) and played. It was a bittersweet journey. I felt happy and a bit sad at the same time. 2010 was a year of survival for me. My business was closed out of necessity because of my health, but my heart was not behind the decision. I knew it was best for my clients (who wants a photographer with a bad hand tremor, no balance, and an awful memory?), but it was so hard to make that decision. You could say that I was still hanging on to my dream of becoming a successful portrait photographer, whatever that means. I felt that not only had I let my clients down, but I had let myself down. Nothing I was producing was 100%, I was too busy just trying to get through it all without collapsing.
Today, I let that dream go. I want to find joy in my art again. I want to feel something more than stress when I pick up a camera. I don’t want to care whether my hand is shaking so bad I may not get a sharp photograph, because I can always pull my camera back out and do it again. I want to feel inspired and proud of myself for doing what is right. The photographs I took today may not be my best- but they made me feel that it is ok to let go.
Summer 2010
July 15, 2010 – 11:54 pm
This has been such a crazy summer, it will be over before I know it. Here are a few peeks at what I’ve been up to lately!
If these kids look familiar it’s because they are! We did a quick family shoot while we were on vacation. My niece was able to join us for a few days so we couldn’t resist getting some of the cousins together. 
and because Papa is their favorite piggy-back ride giver:
MS Walk 2010
April 28, 2010 – 2:04 pm
This Saturday is the annual Muliple Sclerosis Walk here in Fort Collins. Across the nation there are walks going on in almost every major city. This year we have a team of 11 of us! To think that the first year I just walked with my yellow lab and this year I am walking with ten other people on my team!
We are just $150 short of our goal this year. It has been a hard year for everyone- and unfortunately that means that less people are able to donate and those who do donate are unable to donate as much as they had in previous years. Chances are you know someone (besides me!) who is affected by MS, either they have MS or care for someone with MS. Multiple Sclerosis can be a very frustrating disease- you can feel semi-strong one day and be unable to walk the next. Or see clearly one day and seeing double vision later on that night. Some find their cognitive functions impaired- they are unable to multi-task, store things in short-term memory, or have a hard time finding words they want to say. Yet some go years without a diagnosis because we do NOT know everything we need to about this disease. And without a diagnosis, they usually aren’t treated.
I fight this disease every minute, every hour of every day with the hope that we will continue to learn more about MS and will continue to find more and more ways of fighting this. And that someday we WILL find a cure. Please help me fight. Donate (even $10 helps!), volunteer, become a virtual walker, or walk this year (there is still time!).
Our Team Page is : http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/COCWalkEvents?pg=team&fr_id=14041&team_id=188774
To learn more about Multiple Sclerosis: http://www.nationalmssociety.org/about-multiple-sclerosis/index.aspx
Thank you!
Eleanor Rigby
April 3, 2010 – 3:59 pm
Many of you know our Basset Hound, Daisy, passed away back in September. This winter was kind of sad and lonely (and quiet!) for our household. We couldn’t bear to get a new dog right away, no one could replace Daisy, but as the months went along, it became clear that we are not a one dog household. In late February we added a new member to our family.
Her name is Eleanor Rigby, but she goes by Ellie. She is a Tibetan Terrier and has fit herself into our family like she was always meant to be here. She is sweet, smart and thinks she is hilarious all at the same time.
Ellie is a very typical Tibetan Terrier, she is my shadow, always having to know where I am at, but then she is content to sleep at my feet. She is also very proud of herself whenever she finds a toy she has hidden away, or when she sits pretty or goes into her kennel like her big sister does. She loves to sit on the deck with the wind blowing in her face. She loves to share toys with Molly, even play tug of war or play chase. Ellie even loves to play with our cat, Emmett, who, surprisingly, likes to play with her too. They spend hours chasing each other back and forth and when they are tired, they curl up together on one of the many dog beds around the house.
She has already grown so much since we first got her. Yesterday was her first grooming appointment and she came home looking her finest (and she was very aware of how adorable she looked).
She had quite the time posing for the camera.
We are so thankful to have such a happy, crazy, sleepy, silly puppy like her.
Daisy
September 29, 2009 – 6:44 pm
A week ago today, I came home to find that our Basset Hound, Daisy, wouldn’t eat her dinner. Any other dog or any other time and I wouldn’t have been worried, but Daisy *always* eats. In fact, she eats *everything*. I took her in to our vet (where I used to work), Friendship Hospital for Animals, and they checked her out. Even after the x-rays and other things, it was pretty ambiguous. I was faced with a decision- do exploratory surgery now or take her to the emergency vet for observation and if she is not better in a few hours, do surgery then. What made it even harder was my husband was out of town on a (rare) business trip and was pretty much unreachable.
I chose to have her go into surgery there, with people I know and trust. I normally would have waited, but my gut, my mother’s intuition, or something else, was telling me this was really bad. She went in to surgery and it took a while. Eventually, I got a call updating me… they had found two pieces of decking in her: one in her stomach and the other lodged in her intestines (we had to have our deck replaced because it was defective- when they were cutting pieces, they never picked them up and we were finding pieces all over the place for a week afterwards). It was not good. But if we had not done surgery right then, she wouldn’t have made it through the night.
A few hours later, after getting her fixed up as much as possible, I met Daisy (and her doctors) at the doors of the emergency animal hospital. She didn’t look good. But I gave her a lot of love and prayed for the best. We did not think she would make it through the night. Yet the next morning she was still holding on and I spent the next few days going back and forth between Friendship, the animal hospital, and home. Everyone was willing to help out, especially when they learned I was on my own with three kids, a dog & cat at home and a sick dog.
Each day she improved in some small way. But she was not bouncing back as much as we hoped. There was nothing to tell us she wouldn’t get better, she was obviously fighting as hard as she could. She wagged her tail at my oldest the one evening and she was up and walking and going outside to potty, but she was still not eating. If we could only get her to eat she could come home and recouperate there.
Thursday night she went back to the emergency hospital and we gave her some more plasma and some good pain meds. My mom came into town that night (she had been planning to for Emma’s birthday). Jeremy got home from his trip around midnight. On Friday morning, we went to transport her back to Friendship and she looked so much better. She wiggled and wagged when she saw Jeremy. So we were finally getting hopeful she would get to come home that night.
Friday afternoon she still hadn’t eaten and it was becoming harder to keep on top of her pain. We decided we would bring her home and try to get her to eat there, that maybe she was just too anxious at the vet. They showed me how to give her a pain injection and to keep her iv line clear. We got home and she was so happy. There are some who claim dogs don’t have emotions, but Daisy was happy. She explored as much as she could of the backyard and our house. Once she was satisfied, she lay down on the deck (her favorite spot) and rested. We could tell she was relieved to be home with her family.
That night we slept in the living room and took care of her. She slept well. But she wouldn’t eat or drink. I could tell the pain meds were not working as well as they had been. On Saturday morning she looked worse. I took her in and our options weren’t good. She had fought long and hard and lasted longer than we had thought possible given how bad she had been after surgery. We decided to end her pain that afternoon.
We brought her home and we all sat out on the deck and loved her. But she couldn’t get comfortable, even the best pain meds weren’t helping and I couldn’t stand to see her suffer, so we decided to take her in early. On a crisp, sunny fall Saturday, our Daisy felt no more pain. She had done all she could to not give me a reason to even have to make that decision until after Jeremy came home. I truly feel she waited for him. She wanted to make sure we were all home and she had had a chance to come home and rest for a night before leaving us.
Nothing, no other pet can ever replace her. She was not the world’s best dog, nor was she the worst. She just was always there. With her long ears, big feet, drooly lips. With her sad eyes, her happy tail, and her ability to eat anything and everything. She was older (and bossier) sister to Molly, our yellow lab, who let her boss her around, even though she was twenty pounds smaller. She looked out for the kids, tolerated the cat and loved us for who we were. She could forgive us or yelling at her when she whined at three in the morning, she would lick us and smell us when we came home from vacations. She was a beloved dog. A member of our family.
She & Molly had a game they would play… just a simple game of chase, but it always started with Molly grabbing something (usually her football) and getting into Daisy’s face. Then the butt wiggles and a dance and the chase would start. We have trails in our backyard from this game. She could eat a box of crayons in ten seconds. She has eaten just about everything possible, from toys, mulch and even a bouquet of daisies once. I would bring them home a new toy just to watch her tear it apart in an hour (and she enjoyed every minute of it until I had to take it away).
She will be missed.
Feeling Vintagey
August 22, 2009 – 3:02 am
Ok, vintagey might not be a word, but you know what I mean. ; ) I don’t know about you, but my summer went by too fast. Not nearly enough time playing. So I’m feeling a bit nostalgic for summer tonight, school has started and the feel of fall is here (even if it is still hot).
Just a quick note- my fall schedule is filling up very quickly, if you’d like to get in a session, please set one up as soon as possible. Have a great weekend!
An Update
July 27, 2009 – 5:41 pm
If you have perused my blogsite, you have probably noticed that I have Mulitple Sclerosis. It is not something I choose to shout about, but I don’t keep it a secret either. I have had several times where I have had to step back from my beloved work and let my body have a break.
Most of my symptoms range from poor balance, numbness, weakness, spasticity (muscle spasms), fatigue, a hand tremor and cognitive issues. Lately my body has been telling me it is time to rest. A big chunk of it is a symptom most people don’t associate with MS. While many people with MS deal with cognitive problems (short-term memory, word finding, multi-tasking, attention span, etc.), it is not talked about as much. For me, I think its because it is one of the more embarrassing symptoms. People who don’t know tend to think you are flighty or don’t care about them when you forget their name or an event you were supposed to attend. Others think you just aren’t very smart when you can’t find the words you want to say or have a hard time concentrating on a conversation or during work.
As of November 1st, 2009, I will be taking a break from portraits. Portraits (especially children!) are one of my favorite things to photograph, but the background work has become harder for me to do. If you enjoy reading my blog, please keep reading, I will always post Theatre work and personal work. I am hoping to be able to step back into the portrait scene by next Summer.
On that note- I have some wonderful clients that I know have been wanting to update their portraits. My clients are like family to me. I also know how much the current economy has been affecting my clients. Please check the Pricing Page to review the new 2009 Prices. http://etylerphotography.com/portraits/pricing/ . I would love to see everyone who wants a session with E Tyler Photography this fall.
For those who schedule a session between now and November, your patience is much appreciated. It will take me a little longer to process galleries and orders, but only because I believe in providing the best quality work possible. Online galleries should be available 3-4 weeks after your session and orders should be ready for delivery, pick up or shipping 2-3 weeks after your payment is received.
I am so appreciative of my clients, friends & family who have been so supportive. It truly is a treasure to be able to capture your families as they grow and mature. Being able to see a newborn grow into a preschooler is just an amazing experience. Children grow so quickly, I am so thankful to have this ability to share with others.
Because I can’t post without posting photos. An old church in a small town I lived in when I was younger.
