The beginning of the school year does mark a milestone in the year. I have a very similar sense of renewal that I do on January 1. This summer was extremely busy both personally and professionally. It was our first summer in our new home. The kids were home with me except for two weeks where they went to camp at their new school. And preparing for a new baby made the juggling of being a small business owner and a mom all the more challenging. On the business side, we shot 5 weddings this summer, had lots of adorable kids in the studio, worked on a huge commercial project (AvMed coming to a bilboard near you!), and have gotten involved in an amazing celebrity charity event (details to come). Now that the kids are back in school I’m able to give the business side of my business much more attention. Which is exciting for me. As the summer season comes to an end, the busy season begins, and I’m ready for it.
So as I mentioned before my kids started school this week. Definitely bitter sweet. I’m looking forward to getting back into a real routine. There’s something about getting up and out early that adds to a feeling of productiveness. I’m also looking forward to focusing more on courtney ortiz photography. But at the same time, the summer flew by so fast. I had in my mind all these great things I wanted to do with my kids all summer, and I just don’t feel like I got to it all. But I guess that’s really just the name of the game. Life gets busy and you have to just go with the flow. So on our way out the door on Wednesday, the first day of school, we made a quick pit stop at the home studio. Not everyone was as thrilled at having their picture taken.
I flew solo last week for three days, which ended up turning into four, up to North Carolina. It was an extremely last minute trip. I went because my Grangran, who had undergone surgery the Friday before, took a turn. And everyone was heading up there. My grandparents moved up to Western North Carolina (Flat Rock, Hendersonville, Asheville area) permanently from Miami in fall of 2005, and I’ve always loved it up there. In fact I’ve loved it since my Aunt Merideth moved up there in 2000. Lenny and I have semi entertained the idea of moving up there, mostly fun “if we win the lotto” pillow talk, but the reality of it is we never will. Which I’m fine with. Over the last few years we’ve made a point of trying to get up there twice a year, summer and winter (Christmas). But this trip, and the reason behind it, was unlike any that I’ve ever had to take before. First of all, I was traveling alone. I seldom travel alone. In fact the last time I flew sans my kids and husband, I was traveling to Michigan to second shoot a wedding with my good friend and colleague, Kat Braman, and I had a little bit of a nervous breakdown the morning we left, and almost didn’t go. And second, there was a big unknown. I’ve never taken a trip based on a reason such as this. Was I expecting the worse? The best? The whole thing, in the less than 24 hours from when I bought the ticket to when I boarded the plane was just so weird. I had so many mixed feelings. This time I was actually a little bit excited to be traveling alone, which the feeling in itself made me feel guilty. I was traveling to the place I love, and actually get to relax during the whole travel experience. But yet I was going for what could be the worst reason ever. ugh! So I decided that I was going to make the best of it. I booked a room for two nights at a really nice hotel and rented a “premium” car. Not knowing what to expect I wanted to have my own space, my independence. Really take the time to reflect on what is most important to me. I wanted to be able to take in the things that I really love and enjoy about North Carolina and just being up there. And that’s exactly what I did. I took walks, breathed in the mountain air, hit the best junk/antique shops, and most importantly, visit my Grangran in the ICU and spend lots of time with family that I don’t get to see very often. The best part of the trip is that I got to come home, versus the “plan B” that Lenny and I had (worst case scenario). While I was there Grangran was taken off the ventilator, could breath on her own, got out of bed, and after I left she was moved out of ICU and was released from the hospital. Thank you advances in medical science, thank you to the universe, and thank you Grangran who is the most amazing, motivating, inspiring, focused, willfull, strong women to ever walk this earth. I ended up enjoying my trip to North Carolina. Of course I wish I had gone because of better circumstances, but I enjoyed the time alone. I enjoyed the hotel, the walks, the car, the junking, but most of all I enjoyed sharing with my family the daily victories as Grangran began her recovery.
The following images were taken as I went for a walk one morning in the area surrounding my hotel, The Grand Bohemian. The hotel was right outside the Biltmore Estate in a little area, appropriate called “The Biltmore Village“.
Notice the earbuds. THE best part of traveling alone is being able to walk around while listening to Pandora.
One of my favorite things about my new house is the light. There really is amazing natural light in almost every room of the house. (my office and guest room excluded). It’s one of the reasons I lean towards keeping the walls white. Everything looks so bright and fresh. Especially in my kids’ rooms. They each have one large double window that faces east. They truly get beautiful light all day long. The other day I was lurking around with my camera attempting some shots of Owen (lord knows, he’s not the most cooperative subject), when I just straight out asked him. “Can I take some pictures of you in your bed with your space shuttle?” The answer was surprisingly, “Yes.” Simple images of my boy. Four years and seven months old. He loves space, the space shuttle, Star Wars, Ironman, and just being himself.
My kids like to buy seeds at Home Depot and then play with them in the backyard. On the day we moved out of our little apartment in Ft. Lauderdale, I discovered these little pumpkin sprouts as I was collecting the odds and ends we kept outside in the yard. We only lived there 7 months, but our family definitely grew and are leaving some roots behind.
Well AT&T didn’t come that Monday or the following Wednesday, but TODAY. Being that we’re living in a brand new community, there were some bumps in the road, but now we are “wired” or should I say “wireless”. We were two weeks without cable or internet, which really in retrospect wasn’t so bad. Some of our neighbors who moved in closer to the beginning of the year waited months. So we are pretty lucky. But with a Starbucks right around the corner, and very understanding friends and clients, I made it work. It’s funny how quiet my house is at night without the TV on. Almost like an old friend?!? I hate to admit the fact that I am addicted to internet and cable TV. Is it fair to call it an addiction, when really in our everyday lives its really become a necessity. Yikes!
So that being said tomorrow will be two weeks that we’ve been in our new house. I love it. Every inch of it is sweet. I’ll be posting pictures of the house and document the entire design process on a separate blog called “Sisters Not Designers“. Sistersnotdesigners.com is an online journal that I’ll be sharing with my sisters. We’ve all made big living changes recently. Sisters Not Designers are our stories of moving, designing and living with people we love. I’ll be posting later this week. So stay tuned.
My business blog will still be the spot for session sneak peaks and personal pictures of my own children.
It’s officially moving day in our house!! It’s been 10 months in the making and I can’t believe the day is finally here. So I’m asking all of you for your patience over the next few days. AT&T is coming on Monday to install cable and most importantly INTERNET. If you are a client awaiting your gallery….it’s coming I promise. I really want to thank my friends, family, and clients who have been such a huge support to me through this journey. I wouldn’t be where I am without all of you.
That being said, here’s OUR new house on closing day!
Look! We’ve got mail! Happy to see our change of address has started!
Just this evening as we were sitting outside waiting for Lenny to get home from work, the light at sunset was just divine. I actually just missed the sun’s golden glow as it disappeared behind the house next door, but the couple of minutes that my son “allowed” me to photograph him was priceless. I’ve learned that these little impromptu sessions have to be all about him, which really is what I should be doing anyway. He let me photograph him with his two loves…Ironman and his Optimus Prime socks.
I’m entitling this late in the evening Valentines post; “Ode to My First Born.”
Christmas was amazing this year in our house. Each Christmas seems to always end with, “This is the best Christmas ever!”, but this time it truly was. 2010 trumps every Christmas for as long as I can remember. Of course I took a ton of pictures but my favorite this year are the ones I took with my Fuji Instax Mini that I got for Christmas last year. My Fuji Instax is basically a Polaroid with pictures that are about the size of a credit card. You get ten pictures on one roll of film. It tends to be a little pricey, depending on where you order it. Unfortunately my Fuji Instax sat in a drawer for most of the year, until now. I ordered 10 rolls from B&H Photo before Christmas. The funny little images they produced are priceless to me. They are one of a kind. They can’t be stored or backed up on a hard drive. I can’t make multiple copies. I have one of each to last forever.
This has been an insanely crazy December here at the studio. Which is pretty apparent considering there hasn’t been a blog post since November 30. Things have definitely settled down. Clients have received all their holiday cards and prints. On a personal note, I did not send out holiday cards this year, which really disappoints me. So for the next few days leading up to Christmas I’m dedicating the blog to all things family. Finally being able to focus on my OWN. So here are some images from Halloween. These have been sitting on my computer for months now. We actually had two days of Halloween. The Victoria Park Halloween festival on Saturday the 30th, and then trick or treating with friends on the 31.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
(*the studio will be CLOSED from December 24-January 2. Any calls and emails received during that time will be returned starting January 3.)
Time this morning prevents me from creating a retrospective of Owen over the past year. So I’m to share but one image. We had an amazing birthday party this past Saturday for both my kiddos.
My beautiful boy and I at his bowling birthday party. He’s 4 today.
“Her work is distinct and holds a special place in our home.”- Marcy Hirsch -
“Courtney's photographs had a huge impact on NCLR and helped us raise over $1 million in December 2014. Her work is beautiful and engaging and shows the central goal of the fight for marriage equality -love."”- Ace Portis, Major Gifts Officer, NCLR -
“Courtney truly captured the uniqueness of our family and created beautiful, original works of art that we will treasure always.”- Darlene Giol -
