Swoonworthy sunsets + my favorite dog = one happy photographer.

View from the balcony of our oceanfront unit the first night we were there.

Her timing was impeccable here. I was so proud of my girl for giving me these shots!

I don’t know how many people reading this have ever been to Washington State, but the sunsets here are *incredible*. The shot below was taken on our last night. I didn’t want to leave.

A new all-time favorite on the right below. It needs a caption. What should the caption be?

Off to NYC! Hope you liked the Fergie Ocean pics and I’ll post some NYC photos upon my return!

This was Fergie’s first ever trip to the ocean, a big 5th birthday present from me, and to say she loved it would be the understatement of a lifetime. She ran, she played, she romped, she smiled, she dug, she napped, she sniffed and marveled, all with a sense of joy only felt by a dog. I can’t wait until our next trip to the ocean, and I’ll be sure to bring my camera again.

big, wide open expanse of beautiousness. ahhhhhh….

an old favorite with a new favorite: ball + ocean = love.

tail chasing on cool sand pattern on left, happy happy dog with long tongue on right.

New flexible Kong frisbee- a gift from her grandpa. She LOVES that frisbee!

thick, heavy fog for 3 days was really cool and mysterious and kinda creepy. You really couldn’t see much of anything. Fergie would run ahead of me, and realize she couldn’t see me very well, then turn around and come back to make sure I was still there. It was so cute.

So many fun things to sniff at the ocean.

Fergie ocean sunset shots to come!

Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up that I’m headed to NYC early (early) tomorrow morning for our Passport Workshop. I’ll most likely be off the grid for my entire trip, but hope to be able to start posting photos from the trip the week of the 16th. I’ll leave you guys with some shots of Fergie from our recent ocean trip. There are so many I’m splitting them into two posts. Wish me luck I get everything done on my to-do list today- it’s ghastly! Hope everyone is having a great week!

UPDATE 8/4/10: it is with an incredibly heavy heart and tears streaming down my face that I report that Henri died suddenly of heart failure 2 weeks ago. I got word from his mom yesterday, and I can’t wrap words around how deeply sad I am for his parents, and how much I will miss the sweet boy. I can’t believe he’s gone, and it’s just not fair that dogs have to die so young. It’s just not fair. I plan to do a proper memorial post after I get back from my NYC trip (leaving tomorrow AM), so that everyone can give Jerri and her family their well-wishes there. So sorry to be the bearer of bad news. RIP Henri, we love you. Sniff.

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Henri is one of my very favorite models to work with (some of you may remember him from the cover of AAA’s Journey Magazine), and recently he brought his baby sister Lola for me to work with too for a fun Graffiti Dog’s shoot. They were both consummate professionals, and made it far too easy for me to do my job. Thank you Henri & Lola!

That’s Lola on the left, and Henri on the right.

“Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.” -James M. Barrie

me. in the raw.

I’ve been meaning to post this for weeks, but I’ve been extremely busy with current clients, upcoming clients, studio stuff and planning for the NYC + Seattle workshops. This is a follow up to my post on my PayPal saga.

On the first day of my ocean trip with the Fergs, I had to drive down to Ocean Shores and do some work on my laptop in my car (a little issue with a client’s order). While on my laptop, waiting for an email reply from a vendor, I decided to check the status of my paypal account.

I logged on, and instantly noticed I had several thousand more dollars available than the last time I looked. Yet the odd thing was I hadn’t received any payments. Hmmm….

So I clicked on ‘check your reserves’ and saw this:

“Whaaaa?” I thought. “How did that happen?”. In a very good way of course.

I was so happy I cried. Literally cried, real tears, right there in the parking lot of the Shilo Inn in Ocean Shores. And then of course, instantly transferred ALL of my funds to my bank account, lol.

I never received any notification of this change from PayPal, either written or by phone, and could only wonder why they decided arbitrarily to lift the holds and reserves and release my funds, months before they had planned to.

I had grand visions in my head of my last blog post being so influential that it got to the top, and instead of deciding to mess with me, they just lifted the holds. I thought because that post went viral on twitter with 51 tweets, and had 89 people give it the thumbs up through their facebook pages, that it was enough to get them to stop their bad behavior.

But the mystery was solved last week when I received an ominous looking letter in the mail.

I won’t show it to you guys here, because I suspect that may be against Washington State laws, but the letter is from the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, and it says essentially this:

RE: Complaint #1234

Dear complaintant:

Our department has reviewed your complaint and contacted PayPal about the issue. We have directed them to respond to our department about this matter.

After we receive a response from PayPal and determine if any violations have taken place, we’ll decide whether to take any corrective actions against them. You’ll receive a copy of our findings. The status of your complaint is pending. Legal jargon, legal jargon.

Sincerely,

Complaint Team Representative

I see said the wise woman. That’s why they decided to lift the holds and reverse the reserves to 0% for 0 days.

Now, here is my burning question, directed at YOU PayPal.

If, as your spokeswoman Amanda Pires says, the reserves and holds are: “perfectly legal”…..

….. Then WHY, ON GOD’S GREEN EARTH, WOULD A LETTER FROM THE WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS CAUSE YOU TO LIFT YOUR HOLDS??!!

If your policies are legal, and not breaking any state or other laws, then your response to being contacted by the Department of Financial Institutions would be: NOTHING.

……………..

……….

….. crickets…….

I don’t know about you guys, but this seals the deal on their guilt to me.

To those of you still dealing with this issue, the process of contacting the Department of Financial Institutions or Secretary of State in your state works! It certainly can’t hurt to try, especially if, like me, you have thousands of dollars of your hard-earned money tied up in their accounts.

If, when you feel you are wronged by a company, you take action to defend yourself against them, good things *can* happen, like they did to me here. Nobody should ever have to take being treated badly. We are only victims if we choose to be.

Sadly now I’m no longer a candidate to participate in the class action lawsuit, but I’m sure they know that and that’s one of the reasons why they decided it would just be quicker and easier to give me my money back.

All I can say is, thank god that’s over. Oh, and in case you are wondering, yes, I’ll still be getting a new merchant account.

Prepare for cute kitty overload! Meet this fabulous group of 7 kitties I photographed recently. It’s a long post, but given my lack of blogging lately (sorry- been *super duper* busy!), I hope it makes up for it. Yay, I finally got my kitty fix! Enjoy.

Father & son below, enjoying some ‘kneading’ time.

Minnie Mouse, enjoying one of the catnip kitty toys I brought with me.

Arthur *loved* the white mouse I brought and went nutso all over the house with it. Here he is in a post-play daze, lol

Minnie Mouse also went nuts on the mouse ……… although I’m not so sure she was crazy about the flavor.

Thank you Gabriela and Rod for having me come and photograph your feline menagerie! I had dreamed of a shoot like this for many months, and you made my dream come true. Say hi to everyone for me! I hope Simba is still enjoying his necktie.

I have several openings for upcoming travel shoots.

NYC: (manhattan only) Rescheduled to 2011 due to an overly busy schedule while in NY! Shoot me an email if you’d like to plan your 2011 shoot with me in NYC next year.

SF/Bay Area: (includes Tiburon & Sausalito)

6 openings: 1st or 2nd weekend in September. Please email your availability if interested. I’ll update this page as soon as I have the dates nailed down.

Cost: $450-$650 per person, depending on number of clients scheduled. Includes a 90-minute shoot in the city of San Francisco or Tiburon or Sausalito, 5o professionally edited images in a private online gallery, post-shoot phone consultation to help with product + image selection, and a special gift only for travel clients. Prints start at $50 and discounted collections of awesome products start at $850. There is a minimum purchase requirement of $400.

DETAILS:

I treat these just like I do my local shoots and clients, shoot in the same style, offer the same high-end products, the same fun sneak-peek blog posts, and provide the same personalized customer service to those far away from Seattle. And because I love my travel client so much, I’ll even throw in a free CD of low-res files that can be used to share with friends on Facebook. This is a great way for my non-local fans to get some fun, expressive colorful Cowbelly photography for their own pet(s).

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If you, or someone you know are interested in booking a shoot with me during any of these times or locations, please email me directly at info@cowbelly.com, and I’ll get you all set up for our shoot!

Looking forward to making some new canine and human friends in CA and NY!

received last week:

Goodday,
My name is Mary, i am preparing for my wedding which will come up on the 7th of Aug 2010 at location(Ohio). by 10;00 am, As i was searching for the best photographer who will come and snapshot on the D-day. I saw your advert and i am really  impressed about your performance. How much will you collect if you are to snap a shot for  us in the church and reception. we want about 200 copies which will be 5 by 7 size, both in the church and reception which will take place at the same place.And there are up to 40 to 75 people invited.

Just give me the precise amount, i will be paying or amount you will collect for your service.  mind you i will be paying by a cashier cheque in your name. i will be looking forward for your reply.
thanks.

Awesome. 10 bucks on ‘Mary’ being a nefarious Nigerian scammer who would just *love* to get me involved in some cashier’s check nonsense. It makes me laugh.