The other thing I decided to do with this year’s series was to base each self portrait off of a quote that *speaks* to me … this month’s quote is …

“Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight. Rossiter W. Raymond

This one is dedicated to my cousin Chance … who I hope is resting in peace and having a wonderful time catching up with his little sister, grandparents, and great-grandparents in Heaven.

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And this is the one I chose …

I’m eagerly awaiting its arrival from Turkey right now!

I actually own a smaller aqua version of this bag that’s purse-sized. Love it. While its obviously not made in America (trying to buy more stuff made here at home in the good ol US of A), it is handmade by a three woman operation (a mom & her mother and sister) known as Bayan Hippo over at Etsy. Its machine washable and the purse I currently possess has held up for over a year now with very little signs of wear … so I’m pretty sure this one will hold up as long too.

PS … speaking of the class above, that means my pet clients need to check the contact page over @ Sit.Stay.Snap. to see what nights I’m unavailable for responding to calls/emails as a result of being in class & downtime/paper writing/researching/cramming for exams!

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Over on the Meet Christina page I added the collage below featuring just a few of my favorite things …

from top to bottom: my parents, my brother, Miz Pokie, Tater; books, cameras/photography, travel, roadtrips, running, snail mail; the Olympics, VW buses, Glacier National Park, beautiful blooms (like the ranunculus featured), Dr Pepper, Texas Longhorns; strawberry cheesecake, viewfinders, hot chocolate, vespas; Ford Mustangs, London, England, soft cozy blankets; mittens on cold/snowy winter days.

For what its worth, if anyone can procure that knit blanket from Anthropologie for me without spending a small fortune, you’d be one of my favorite people

Image credits … only the top four + the viewfinder image are mine, rest found via Pinterest & Google Image Search, (c) their respective owners/creators.

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*raises hand*

Well … for starters it means after months and months of hard work, I get to debut the new Christina McCall Photography branding … those in google reader, click here to see what I’m talking about

Here’s the old CMP …

… and here’s the new CMP … new logo, new colors, new bio photo, new website look, new splash page, and on hiatus from human portraiture photography! About the only thing that’s somewhat the same is that I couldn’t bear to part with the woodgrain look on the website!

Over @ Sit.Stay.Snap., the new branding debuted a little early (as in a couple weeks ago) but I never got around to announcing it … so here’s a peek. Click here to see it all for yourself …

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With the end of 2011, my annual wrap-up and a quick look back at this year’s weekly images posted each Monday:

Biz wise, I began cutting back on the session options/types I shot earlier this year so I could focus on other areas of photography that I wanted to pursue/improve. I also attended Imaging USA last January when PPA held their annual conference in San Antonio; I learned a lot and discovered some new products while at the expo. The weather this year impacted a lot of what I was able to shoot landscape, wildlife, and plant-wise, so I’m enjoying the rainy season we’re having now that’s allowing me to photograph something green again — even if it is winter! With year’s end, I made an announcement on Christmas Eve that alters the course of what CMP will be focused on for the foreseeable future.

Personally, its been a year of ups and downs — travel plans altered several times, lost one beloved canine to a tick illness, Pokie — the Queen of the farm — was attacked by a coyote & has recovered, though she’ll have a limp for the rest of her days, some unexpected changes at my day job, and so much more I’ve chosen not to go into publicly out of respect for the privacy of others involved – so I’m quite ready for 2012 to be here.

In a few weeks I’ll temporarily re-enter grad school to pick up an extra class that wasn’t offered at the time I graduated back in 2006 … and hopefully next fall I’ll begin teaching part time at the juco level in addition to my day job and weekend pet photography sessions. I have a few long weekend trips in mind for 2012 and perhaps a semi-decent roadtrip that weather and illness won’t thwart this time around. There’s already quite a few pet sessions booked for early 2012, so some of those will pop up here on the blog in the coming months along with images from 2011 trips I still haven’t finished processing!

Happy New Year 2012 to all of you!

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From Christina & the *elves* at CMP, Merry Christmas!

For those of you on our snail mail Christmas card mailing list, you’re already aware of the following news since these cards went out to you within the last couple of weeks, but I held out on making the announcement here on the blog until today …

Christina McCall Photography has evolved throughout the last four plus years … and after much consideration, I am taking a break from portraiture & commercial photography. CMP will be focused on only travel, landscape, and fine art photography for the foreseeable future. In addition, a new service that isn’t exactly photography-related will be debuted very soon.

The CMP blog will still be updated with images from my travels, projects, and pet sessions … along with the archives in place for reminiscing.

Sit.Stay.Snap., the pet photography division of CMP, will continue about business as normal after January 1st with some slight changes. I won’t rule out a return to offering portraiture sessions for my human clients … so if you’d like to be notified via email when that time comes, please sign up here (this is a different list than my regular newsletter that will continue to be sent out seasonally).

Thanks for a great four + years … and please visit the site again on January 1st to see the rebranded Christina McCall Photography that has been in the works for the last few months!

PS … below is the original image from this year’s card … this was a cottage near an inn in Gruene, Texas that had a vacancy sign on it, which immediately made me think of Mary & Joseph & the birth of Jesus

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(and because I shared pics from my dad’s childhood for his birthday earlier this year, here’s a couple of Robby in his younger days!)

The bro rocked the curls when he was younger … and yes, they were all natural (despite inquries as to how my parents got him to sit still to have his hair permed!) Also, he picked out the outfit he has on for this photo

Curls practically gone … but since there’s a rivalry game going on today, I felt like giving away who he’ll be rooting for …

To everyone else … Happy Thanksgiving & Hook ‘em Horns!!

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Happy belated Veterans Day to each and every person that has served our country over the years as well as their families who’ve sacrified as well. So many of my relatives and friends have served in the various branches of the U.S. Military that I want to give special thanks too, especially the handsome guy above, my dad.

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Quotes from the Washington Post article … I’ve bolded what stood out to me …

“There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away.”

“People walk up the escalator, they look straight ahead. Mind your own business, eyes forward. Everyone is stressed. Do you know what I mean?”

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

– from “Leisure,” by W.H. Davies

Let’s say Kant is right. Let’s accept that we can’t look at what happened on January 12 and make any judgment whatever about people’s sophistication or their ability to appreciate beauty. But what about their ability to appreciate life?

We’re busy. Americans have been busy, as a people, since at least 1831, when a young French sociologist named Alexis de Tocqueville visited the States and found himself impressed, bemused and slightly dismayed at the degree to which people were driven, to the exclusion of everything else, by hard work and the accumulation of wealth.

Not much has changed. Pop in a DVD of “Koyaanisqatsi,” the wordless, darkly brilliant, avant-garde 1982 film about the frenetic speed of modern life. Backed by the minimalist music of Philip Glass, director Godfrey Reggio takes film clips of Americans going about their daily business, but speeds them up until they resemble assembly-line machines, robots marching lockstep to nowhere. Now look at the video from L’Enfant Plaza, in fast-forward. The Philip Glass soundtrack fits it perfectly.

“Koyaanisqatsi” is a Hopi word. It means “life out of balance.”

In his 2003 book, Timeless Beauty: In the Arts and Everyday Life, British author John Lane writes about the loss of the appreciation for beauty in the modern world. The experiment at L’Enfant Plaza may be symptomatic of that, he said — not because people didn’t have the capacity to understand beauty, but because it was irrelevant to them.

“This is about having the wrong priorities,” Lane said.

If we can’t take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that — then what else are we missing?”

and, finally, the one quote from the article that struck me personally …

“No. If you love something but choose not to do it professionally, it’s not a waste. Because, you know, you still have it. You have it forever.”

So … the next time you’re in a rush and don’t think you have five minutes to stop and ‘smell the roses’ … maybe its worth being five minutes late to wherever you’re headed to enjoy the beauty of everyday life.

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This is just the first part of the hour long 20-20 special … each of the children featured have stories that will tug at your heartstrings. While my Native American heritage isn’t Lakota Sioux, I have very strong feelings about how all Native Americans have been wronged by my Anglo-Saxon ancestors. And we’re still holding them back today. Something can and should be done about this … we have too much poverty here at home in America right now, on our indian reservations, in the Appalachians Mountains, the inner cities, and, because of the economy, even in our middle class neighborhoods across America. So this fall & holiday season, when you’re out and about buying gifts for loved ones, take the time to do something, whether a donation or giving your time, for those here in America that need our help just as much as the third world countries around the rest of the world.

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Since its finally fall (at least on the calendar), I’ve done some internet window shopping for the perfect fall weekend outfit that also doubles as inspiration for what to wear for portraits!

Kendi Everyday is one of my favorite blog reads … this outfit makes me want a pair of this particular pair of Frye boots to go with the rest of what she’s wearing in this image!

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