Mica & Jasmine

Such lovely ladies. Don't they look wonderfully proper? Lisa Sickles of Wag Wag Enterprises e-mailed me the other day to take photos of these girls for her husband as an anniversary gift. The shoot was undoubtedly easy, given that Lisa is a fabulous dog trainer and she has had Mica and Jasmine for over a decade.

Oldies but Goodies

These two are my favorite Flagstaff canines. Mr. Solo and Able Treacy. Solo and I were roommates for a few days last month, and the San Fransico Peaks were only a few blocks from the house. He has been on numerous back-country trips with us, and I cannot stress enough how unbelievably awesome he is.

Able's dad once told me that he just wasn't sure what he would do without him when that day comes. I'm not a fan of thinking about that sort of stuff, but I couldn't help but hear those words during the shoot. I am soooo happy that I caught Able with this look on his face. I'll be sending his pops a wood block wrapped up nice and tight with ribbons and bows so whatever happens, Able will be still be smiling.

The Product

I have decided that since I am not only a photographer, but I am an artist and a craftswoman, and I really enjoy wall art to spice up our house, why not offer all of the above to people that love their dogs as much as I do. These are my products: I offer them with a flat wood edge, or framed; as singles, doubles, or as a series of three or four. Each piece is custom mounted, by yours truly, to a wood block and is ready to hang when I deliver it!

The first two that I did were a birthday present for Jed... believe it or not, better than last years skydiving gift!

David: Flagstaff Musician

Dave Logan... the ultimate jack-of-all-traits. We befriended at Northern Arizona University and became family through Four Season Guides. This man is unbelievable! He is smart, handsome, funny as hell, and brace yourself ladies... he's single! He is a scientist, a musician, a backpacking guide, and an old soul. You can imagine how I felt when I received this facebook message:

"I can't believe it didn't hit me before! Wesley, I need you. Being that I'm now diving headlong into the uncertain world of music-for-a-living-ness, I need to create a website, press pack, etc. These things require photos. And so I would like to hire you, Miss Jackson....
...Your picture-taking is superb and I don't want anyone else to do it!
What do ya say, Weezie?"

My heart melts re-reading this! Thanks for this unbelievable opportunity to work with you, Dave!
I can't wait 'till you are famous!

You Know You Want One

Two of these sweethearts are spoken for. The rest are up for grabs! My mission... get them adopted! MaxFund is a no-kill shelter in Denver where 7 of the nine pups below reside. I spent some time with them today, and I will say if I didn't already have two dogs at home I would have taken every one of them back to la casa with me! There are many, many, many, more animals in need of love and attention at MaxFund and throughout the city. I need public spaces to hang photos of the pup's portraits to get the word out that adopting is super cool!!! Please, let me know if you know of spaces, places, and people to contact that might be interested in hanging some awesome artwork to promote and even more awesome cause...

Casa Tranquillo

Jed's mom gave us the most amazing post Christmas gift! She found a house on the beach only five minutes out of Tulum, Mexico. We spent a week body surfing, drinking cervezas on the roof and touring around ancient Mayan ruins. If you are interested check out Casa Tranquillo.

The view from our bedroom.

We watched the sunset from the roof every night. And found ourselves back up there first thing in the morning to watch the sunrise with an endless cup of coffee.
Jed, how did you get so handsome?
This is our lovely tour guide at the Coba ruins. What would we have done without him? Probably would not have learned much, that's what.
Jed walking through a tunnel. My dad pointed out the creepy looking ghost-like face in the wall to the right of Jed's head. Yikes!
Very nervous tourist descending the 138 foot Nohoch Mul, the tallest ruin in the Yucatan peninsula.

Poor Brian couldn't quite stay in the boat.

This entire family piled out of the small white truck behind them. They dropped a net in the water and one of the guys jumped down below the bridge that I was standing on to pull out some fish. I am pretty sure that this is highly illegal: a. because it is a wildlife sanctuary; and b. because they piled back into the truck and took off before I even noticed that the guy below me and his net were gone.
Casa Tranquillo and the people keeping the peace. :)
Jed looking at his three favorite women (his sister, his mom, and me!) on our last morning on the beach.

Mom's Road Trip

Yesterday marked the anniversary of Nelson Mandela's last steps of his Long Road to Freedom after 27 years of imprisonment. Apartheid ended.

That same day, 20 years later my mom celebrated her new birthday also known as Day Zero or the day of her bone marrow transplant. Her brother Chapin sat in a chair for nine hours with one needle stuck in his left arm and another stuck in his right hand. Blood came out, traveled through a super high-tech machine, and reentered his body leaving behind the "buffer layer" full of stem cells, white blood cells and platelets.

After the bag of salmon colored cells spent a bit of time in the lab, the nurses on the 11th floor started to medicate my mom. Benadryl, steroids, Tylenol, and saline solution coated her veins before they brought in her soon-to-be new immune system.

We had a short window of opportunity to bring out a coffee, Heath Bar ice cream cake and sing "Happy New Birthday"! Here she is, my unbelievably, strong-willed mom keeping a gorgeous smile throughout her long road to freedom!