Diary

Dexter – Cincinnati Pet Photography

Back in August my dad, our dog Ruby and I all traveled to Ohio for a visit with family. The trip was sort of necessary. My dad really wanted to go back to Ohio and see his friends, I needed the break from full time caring for dad and of course Jesse needed a break from all of it. It turned out to be a pretty good trip for the most part. I had a bit of trouble with dad on the plane on our return flight but overall we all had a good time. I took a ton of personal photos of Ruby and my brother’s two dogs. I promise to elaborate more in another post about the in’s and out’s of traveling with my dad and his dementia but this post is about my friend Susy and her puppy Dexter. I did a couple of sessions while I was in Ohio and Susy hired me to photograph her new puppy. I took my sister in law with me so we could visit and check out Susy’s new house. It’s always so hard to see everyone when I come to visit and a lot of the time I can’t make it happen to see everyone. It leaves me feeling guilty but my hope is that my friends understand. This was the only time I had with Susy while we were in town but I am glad we were able to touch base and catch up. Some friends you have for a short while and others you have for life. I have had both and I am fortunate to have a few that have stuck around all these years.

I have been tackling more and more extended family sessions. This one came to me as a referral from one of my all time favorite photographers, Jasmine of Let’s Frolic Together. She is my wedding photographer unicorn and I think her work is incredible. She calls on me from time to time to second shoot with her and as long as my schedule permits, I always say yes! Working for her is one of the biggest compliments to me and I am always flattered to work alongside of her. I met this family on the day of one of the weddings I was helping Jasmine photograph. It was this amazing Joshua Tree desert union and I couldn’t believe my good fortune to be there shooting any of it! Since Jasmine spends the majority of her time shooting weddings, I am the benefactor of all her amazing referrals for family photos. I always feel a little bit of anxiety before shooting a large group like this and in my head I always ask myself what the hell I am going to do with all these people. Somehow it always works out and sometimes after it’s all said and done I feel as if I must have blacked out and don’t know how I got through it. It can be a daunting task to work with so many people and try to remember everyone’s name but names are my thing and I like to get it right if I can. People get my name wrong all the time and it makes me mental! I get Joel, June, Julie, Jenny, Joe. I find it to be an aggravating feeling when someone butchers my name so I always make a point to work just as hard on remembering everyone’s names while I am shooting. Oh and then I go home and take notes so I never get their names wrong. So blah, blah, blah, lots of people, my name is Jill and I can shoot the shit out of your extended family photos. Enjoy the next few billion photos I pulled from this session.

Adriana continues to be one of my most loyal clients. Despite living in Texas, she and her family make several visits to San Diego for all kinds of family events and I usually hear from her often throughout the year. I even photographed her mom’s wedding back in October! Blog post photos will show up one day, I promise. This session happened during their annual July visit over the weekend of the fourth. That’s just about the time San Diego starts to heat up and I sweat profusely while shooting. Thanks to early menopause and my inability to no longer be able to regulate my body temperature in the heat. It’s fun ladies. Just wait for it. Adriana has been very open with her struggles as a mother to an autistic son. This session was the first time that I heard a few words from Austin and I can only imagine how thrilling a moment that must have been for his parents. Since then he has continued to make such positive progress and he even walked his grandmother down the aisle at her wedding. That was a moment that even Adriana admitted she wasn’t sure about until it was actually happening. I have found that bonding with others over the struggles of life and disease has made me feel less alone and even though my struggle with my dad is a different one than Adriana’s with her son, it makes me feel close to her. Also it doesn’t hurt that her all her relatives treat me like family. Maybe that’s really why I like all of them so much.

I have found myself once again way beyond backed up with blog postings. I would like to say it’s because my husband and I are having so much fun that I just don’t feel like working but it’s more of the case that my dad’s dementia is worsening and I find myself struggling to keep it together. I admit that some things are slipping through the cracks like extreme cleaning to satisfy my neat freak self and blog posting. I realize those are two extremely different examples of things that are falling behind. Today I am taking you back to July during our June gloom season. People always expect Southern California to be sunny and warm. Admittedly, I feel the same way about it but that really isn’t the case. We have May gray, June gloom and our winter tends to be pretty rainy so when Jessica and Joseph came down from Washington state you can imagine how bummed they were to see all the gray skies. I think right after they headed back home our summer officially began and the sun finally came out. We ended up having a really great summer with a limited amount of extreme heat. I remember this because my electric bill directly correlates with the heat because of my need to run the air conditioner. I am nearing the end of my holiday rush season and my plan will be to update my blog as much as possible. I’m sure you would all love to catch up with the saga of how to take care of my ailing father and his maddening dementia.

I have been making the joke that Jessie is a unicorn. Her pregnancy story could be a movie. She became pregnant not long after they started trying and when her labor began she didn’t even know it. She was actually at a party with her husband and friends while she was unknowingly in labor. The best part of their story is that she had to drive herself to the hospital that same night since the hubs had a few at the party and couldn’t drive. Can’t you just see this in a movie?! I met Jimmy and Jessie when they were still living in and around North Park. We belong to the same local winery and my Jesse and I would run into them from time to time. Side note, Jessie was a former intern of my Jesse at the county. I was surprised to learn that these two had not only moved out of the neighborhood but that they had also had a baby. How quickly things change! Like most newborn sessions, we kept it easy at home and worked out around the baby’s schedule. It was raining that morning but stopped long enough for us to go outside for a few pics. Do you see a theme going on around here lately? Rain and clouds go away!

I am just getting this post in before Pride month is over. Jesse and I fly our Pride flag proudly every year in support of friends, family, loved ones and all of those we have yet to meet. We believe in a world that is inclusive and welcoming so you can imagine my excitement when my friend Amanda, amazing coordinator at Sassy Little Bee, referred these lovely ladies to me. I knew from our first meeting that I wanted to work with them. We made snide remarks about the poor treatment we received at a coffee shop that will remain anonymous and I found them to be kindred spirits on the topics of hot flashes, menopause & scooters. My claim to fame is that I had the unfortunate luck of going through menopause in my 30’s so now I make jokes that I can guide all newcomers to this “condition” known as being woman. Needless to say, I loved them from the start and was elated to be chosen as their photographer. They wanted to keep their session simple so they opted to stay close to home and have photos taken at their local park as well as at home with all their fur babies. And of course, we featured them on one of their super rad Vespa scooters! I am so honored to be part of this big day coming up in September. I know it will be just as easy and full of smiles as their engagement session.

The days have been gray around here lately. June gloom is lingering this year. I find the sunshine really does enhance my mood and all this cloudiness is really bringing me down. My dad has started doing weirder things because of his dementia. Most recently he’s been throwing his daily pills into his glass of water so you have to monitor his every move from the moment you hand over his meds. I’m finding myself without any patience and wanting to get away from him. Working helps bring me up but the dark cloud hangs over me as soon as I walk in the door. It’s a bad week this week and I’m not sure how to move through this funk. I am really hoping for a miracle and that somehow a room in assisted living will open and we can move on to the next chapter. Not quite the intro one would expect to introduce this fun and sweet family session but as I have made a promise to myself to bring a little more of myself into this blog, it is what it is. My take away from this post is that I am lucky to have repeat clients. Clients that force me to work and to forget even if for a short while that this thing I have taken on isn’t the end of the world. These are the clients that remind me that I am still my own person and that I do have more to give outside of all this stuff with my dad. Thank goodness for these people.

I am a huge fan of Rachel and Andrew’s little family of four. They are incredible to work with because of they way they allow things to unfold. Goofy faces and laughter have been a huge part of our sessions these last few years. They upped the ante back in April when I photographed them and their respective families. I’m a huge ding dong when it comes to directions so when Rachel’s dad said he wanted to meet at a spot near PetCo Park, I was sure I knew exactly where he meant. So I told the family to meet me outside of the restaurant that directly faced the area I thought they were referring to and once they all arrived I immediately learned that my location was not their intended location. This family rolled with it. We started shooting right away just inside of PetCo and then they all happily made the trek to the other side of the stadium to get to the bridge they all wanted to shoot at and then down the stairs past the bridge to the grassy area where Andrew and Rachel had done their wedding photos. This family is amazing. Thank you for your smiles. Thank you for your trust and thank you for not killing me when we all had to walk to a second location. Thank goodness for that amazing sunset!

The sun is out today and I always find it easier to get through the days with my dad. We’ve had more overcast days here lately than usual and it’s feels like I’m moving through mud when the sun doesn’t shine. I consider today to be a pretty good day. Nothing crazy going on but I got the chance to go to my barre class this morning, acupuncture for myself and my dad, dog park and ride on the scooter with my dad in tow to get a few errands checked off the list. Now that my afternoon is free I thought I might take the time to play blog catch up again. This family came to me through a referral. I share a mutual friend with Lisa, she was my point of contact for the session and she shared with me her excitement for all her family visiting from Chicago. The only thing I knew was that I would be photographing a group of 13 and that they had rented a place in Rancho Santa Fe that could accommodate everyone. What I didn’t know is that I would be meeting a group of people full of life, love, energy and a willingness to allow me to photograph them. I also didn’t know that the Airbnb they had booked was amazing! We started with the whole group and gave priority to the grandparents so they could sit back and relax during the rest of my time shooting. I could tell at the beginning of the shoot that the family shared a little concern for getting all the shots they wanted. This happens a lot with big groups. I get it. They don’t all know me and it’s hard to see how one person is going to suffice with all their requests. Not to mention they have no idea where my head is at and what I am planning on doing. I always go into every shoot knowing that I will get the “safe” shots and the happy smile at the camera photos. While these are not the most fun for me to take, they are always crowd pleasers. The exciting part for me comes when I get home and can send same day previews to the family. This is when they realize my whole vision and that perhaps they light up when they can actually see some of the more…

As my dad continues to progress with his dementia, I find my time is divided more than ever. The delicate balance between caring for him, work and making sure I still maintain some sort of social life is a juggle. The times I am working always bring me back to myself and I remember how grateful I am to be able to do this job. This job has also brought new friends to me and that includes Rob and Julianne. I first met them when I second shoot their wedding just about forever ago. They were referred to me by their wedding photographer, also a friend of mine, when they were pregnant with their first son. Over the years I have photographed them more than once as a growing family and over this time we have gotten to know one another and really enjoy each other’s company. We don’t get to see one another as often as we would like but the time is always well spent. Rob’s nerdy sense of humor always makes me giggle and Julianne has compassion and understanding for all things family related. She and I share much in common when it comes to our family dynamics. It’s nice to know this amazing family is in our lives. Again, I am behind in my blogging as this session was done back in February at the height of our rainy season. The rain proved to bring a ton of gorgeous green our way for a short time and as you can see from this photos, it was just starting to bloom and cast color over our normally brown landscape. Although I do love our sunny days, I relished in all the green around me this year.

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