Stacey Bode Photography

Happy Halloween from me and my lil’ devil.

I’ve photographed family portraits, engagements, and even weddings where people’s furry friends joined in the fun.  I LOVE capturing a few shots of my clients’ pets….especially when they tell me that it’s impossible to get a good photo of their little pal.  I like a challenge!  It was time for me to try my hand at a full-on doggie portrait session.  I knew my friend Stacy’s dog Maddie would be the perfect photo subject.  She’s calm, adorable, and really well-behaved.  Every time Maddie and Fletch play together, I hope that Fletch will learn by example.  Nope.  He can’t seem to shake his crazy puppy bad-boy status, even around a good influence.

I had such a blast taking these pics, and Maddie was an awesome fluffy model.  I’m glad we got some shots with Stacy too.  Seeing that bond between someone and their pet makes me so happy.  These were actually taken a couple months ago, and I finally pulled some up for the ol’ blog.  Yay!  I hope there will be many more photo shoots in my future with whiskers and wagging tails!!

We had to get a shot of Olive too!  Sorry Maddie.

Aw, so much puppy luvs!

More doggies! Fletch is now 7 months old, and I no longer believe that this is the puppy we brought home back in February. This beast obviously ate our original pup, and began assuming his identity.

I’m trying to convert his jumping up energy into something practical by training him to reach things on high shelves for me. Soon, I’ll be able to sell my step ladder on Craig’s list.

We were on a beach trip during his “birthday”, so I took these one night at Susie’s house. It was dark and we were playing with the flashlight, so Fletch gets to look all artsy this month. Next month, I promise to post pics that show his ridiculous hugeosity.

Fletch had the pleasure of Dottie’s company the other day. I’m always a little concerned when he meets a new doggie. Whenever another pup shows the slightest aggression, Fletch turns into one of those fainting mountain goats. Dottie was a well-behaved lady, while Fletch acted like a drunk teenager on spring break. I’m so sorry Dottie. Welcome to our world.

I’ve gotten some requests for a Fletch update, and since I’m of the mindset that you CAN please everyone all the time…here ya go! These pics were taken last month when we took pup on his first beach adventure. I was shocked at how well he did during the long car trip down to Florida. No whining, no barfing, no furry meltdowns of any kind. Funny, I don’t remember slipping him a xanax.

He got to finally meet Susie, and now I’m wondering why I don’t have any photos of the two of them. I obviously had vacation brain. Anyway, they got along swimmingly. And speaking of swimming, Fletch walked directly into Susie’s pool, not knowing what he was doing. Scared the hell out of him. We, of course, laughed our heads off after Matt helped him out. It’s okay Fletch, I find your errors in judgment charming. Please do the same for me.

Naturally, he’s WAY bigger now than in these photos. Today he turns 4 months old. We’ll have to snap a pic and compare to his 3-month glamour shot. In the last few weeks, he’s become a pretty wonderful doggie. Don’t tell him I said that. He still thinks I’m the “bad cop”, and I’ve got a rep to protect.

I’m finally posting a Fletch update. I’m trying to get caught up on everything after my trip to Florida (I’ll be posting that soon). Yesterday, the flu totally tapped me on the shoulder, and when I turned around to see who was there, it was all like “hello there, I will now incapacitate you”.

Fletch is now in his new home at the ripe old age of 7 weeks. He’s ridiculously awesome. He ignores the cats, he’s super calm, and he’s already potty trained. I fear this may be the calm before the storm. I’m sure one morning I’ll wake up and he’ll have eaten my camera equipment, pooped in my box of pancake mix, and incorrectly balanced my checkbook. So for now, I’m going to enjoy this perfect little fluffilicious love nugget.

Yay! Time for more yoga photo playtime! Last year I had a blast taking some quirky and fun shots of Tiff and Cheryl for their yoga projects. Now they are joined by Amy, and are working on yet another endeavor called “Grounded”. Z (Tiff’s talented boyfriend) is creating a website for them, and they needed some photos as well. The only thing that could have made this more enjoyable is if my photo-taking could have somehow made them as sore as I get after one of their yoga classes!

Several months ago when I was taking portraits of my friend Ayesha, I met a sweet, soft-spoken lady named Ragenia…another friend of Ayesha’s who stopped by while we were shooting. She had mentioned that she was expecting a baby, and we started talking about setting up a maternity session.

I always chat with people I’m going to shoot about the mood and style they want to achieve in their photos. Ragenia is a very creative woman, and had wonderful ideas to add to the mix. In addition to her already unique input, a week or so before our shoot, I got a message from her asking if I was afraid of snakes. I thought about it and figured “no” if it’s a controlled situation that does not remotely resemble the scene from “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. Then I got really excited about the idea.

Her friend Eddie brought over his pet boa constrictor, Baby. Baby is a beautiful creature and was well behaved the whole time. She worked it for the camera and at no point tried to squeeze the life out of anyone. Good girl.

Ragenia was so at ease during her session, and is one of the most natural, earthy indiviualds I’ve met. Just being around her makes you feel calm. I’m so glad that we got to take these pictures of her in all her gorgeousness. We almost ran out of time since she’s due within the next week.

We took lots of photos and some were without Baby the snake. However, I can’t post the majority of them here because there’s nudity involved. So, those are just for Ragenia to enjoy.

There’s always a fun element of surprise when I show up for a session with someone that I have yet to meet. I’m used to working with unfamiliar locations, but people are a little different than places. I had been communicating with Holli via phone and email and expected to see the word “adorable” tattooed across her forehead. However, until we finally met, I had no idea of the full scope of her awesomeness. She was so welcoming, kind, and has a rare balance of exuberance and calmness.

I could have spent all day laughing and taking photos of Holli. She was such a pleasure to work with, and I know she’s going to make such a wonderful mommy.

I had to snap a few shots of Holli getting ready in her fabulous blue curlers. I’m so glad that I got to meet her talented makeup artist, Alyson. Her company is called Authentic Beauty, and I LOVE her philosophy. She’s all about acceptance of who we are naturally, which she and I discussed a bit. I’ve been wanting to start a project working with people who have body/appearance issues to discuss them, photograph them, and learn to appreciate them. Alyson is working on a similar project. Now I know there are probably some folks reading this who are like, “wait a minute, makeup artists and photographers are in the business of making people look good….isn’t that the opposite of ‘natural’?”. I won’t speak for Alyson here, but I feel that there’s a huge difference between making someone look different to look good, and making someone look like themselves to look good. My job is never to change, always to enhance (more by using light and angles than photoshop tricks). So, there’s my 2 cents….or maybe more like a buck and some change.

I had the pleasure of taking some family portraits this weekend for Heather, Jill, Caitlin, and Kahlua. It’s always a good time to capture special moments, but we had an added agenda. Kahlua is a puppy…a Great Dane puppy who is destined to become the size of a Hummer. So, they thought it might be a good idea to catch some puppy shots before the growing process becomes unstoppable. I agree!