From Gas Stations to Grads

My cell phone annoyingly pings the arrival of a new message. I keep threatening to turn off the notification sound, but haven't gotten around to it. However,  those pings have resulted in photo ops that have taken me from gas stations to grads with small wonders in between.

Last week, one of those pinging messages was a commercial real estate company from San Francisco looking (via Google) for a Puyallup photographer to photograph a service station they will be marketing. The message indicated the location was out of the area for their usual photography team. Everyone knows where Puyallup is - don't they? We have of the world's top ten fairs for attendance. Oh that's right, we are 25 miles from Seattle and 12 from Tacoma... Kidding aside, I was very happy to accept the job which entailed driving two miles to a very busy intersection, taking quick shots of the service station and the traffic patterns in four directions, sending the photos via my Dropbox, being told they were "perfect," and getting paid - all within two days. Of course, I let them know I'd be happy to help out any time!!

The same afternoon as the gas station gig, my friend Shelly and I attended a family reunion for the Umipeg family. This beautifully smiling family with Philippine ancestry, was a joy. There were about 40 adults and a gazillion children (first batch of small wonders for the week). We had constructed a tiki hut backdrop for the individual family photos which appeared sturdy when Shelly and her husband, Ben, tried it out in their driveway. It was then disassembled and we had to reassemble on location. Somehow the sturdiness was left in the driveway. We anchored the back to some tables to make sure it would stand up. And it did - until the very last photo when one of the older brothers wanted a photo taken with his 13 grandchildren! Down it went, creating a sandy beach from the buckets we brought to hold the bamboo poles, but we were able to resurrect the structure, retrieve sand, and get the shot. It was a good day. And so was the food!

The next two days were full of furry creatures both at the Metro Animal Shelter and in the home of a friend taking photos of her beloved nine week old Havanese, Abby. So much fun!

The following days included family Christmas pictures (you can never get those taken too early), a senior grad shoot, and another newborn photo session with big sister Justyce and three week old brother, Rowen.

So without sounding preachy, if your life has annoying pings, think positive about the possibilities they may produce. www.BonnieKingPhotography.com