No, there wasn’t a wedding, and I’m not running from the FBI.

When we moved our family to Milwaukee a little over a year ago, we thought a lot about how we wanted to approach running a high-end custom photography business here as we have in the Bay Area.  Should we extend our California-based business, Images by Anna? Should we start anew? After a brief attempt as a single business, we decided to go the “separate” route.  We took many of the things we had learned over the years, came up with some awesome branding with the little red balloon, and launched Anna Grace.  We had visions of an established local brand that would define a market.  We thought we were on to something really fun and cool. And we still do.

However, there are many facets to running a small business and reality was that trying to mange two distinct identities, especially on the ubiquitous internet, proved to be a much more daunting task than we had anticipated.  I ended up feeling like a schizophrenic, with so many identities and “voices” that I almost stopped communicating at all. After much consideration of our personal well-being and the best interests of our clients in both locations, we have decided to merge our two companies, Anna Grace (thelittleredballoon.com) and Images by Anna (annamayer.com), into Anna Mayer (annamayer.com).  We are taking the best of our ideas for Milwaukee and bringing them to our clients in California (you are gonna’ love the new tweaks); we are bringing the best of our methods and systems from California to our clients in Milwaukee and Chicago (lucky ducks); and we are bringing together a vast group of fans from around the country (we love you, too).

Now, if we were a big company, we would get all of the various elements in place,  stage a big event, and “flip the switch”.  However, that’s not really our style (or our reality).  We’re laid back people trying to be the best for our clients and our family.  Instead, you’ll see changes happen in bits and pieces, but other than the obvious name and logo change, nothing will change as far as the great service and awesome products you know and love.

A few things to note: due to Facebooks’s limitations, our page there will remain facebook.com/imagesbyanna , which works, anyway, since the ARE “images” by “Anna”.  You’ll see our new logo showing up (just look for the balloon ) around town & around the internet.  You’ll see some changes on twitter (@imagesbyanna will be retired in favor of @annamayerphoto).  What you won’t see?  Two crazy chickens trying to juggle two companies, 5 email addresses, 3 twitters, and 5 facebooks; not to mention 4 kids, a house and a new puppy named Oscar.  Yes that’s right; we have a dog named Oscar Mayer and no, he’s not a wiener dog. (No promises that we won’t still be two crazy headless chickens, though, cuz those kids, that house and that puppy are not getting a rebrand; at least not this time around.)

-Anna & Brian Mayer

I ADORE my family walk time. One of the best parts of getting Mr. Oscar, the puppy extraordinaire, is that he needs at least one walk per day. Lucky me . . . time to go for a walk, kids! On this particular walk, I looked over as we passed this side street and saw Isaiah riding along with the beautiful sun behind him. I SWEAR, I didn’t spend any extra time setting this up; my walks are just this beautiful. Don’t you wish YOU lived in Milwaukee? (In summer, anyway.)

So, whatcha’ think this is?

Oh my goodness, were these two a hoot. We had a big hulabuloo getting to the beach due to an accident on Hwy 1. We were all late, the light was fading and I had to be back in Los Gatos for an ordering session. We had about 6 minutes to pull off our hellos and to squeeze out a 15 minute Short & Sweet. I can’t tell you how happy I was when these little “hoots” gave me what they did with a 30 second warm up. Such fun!

Post number two of my Project Imperfection. Click here, to see the story behind these images.

Our new puppy, Oscar, who we brought into our over-stuffed, over-committed life, simply because we love our kids and well, we’re both suckers for dogs (Click here for the story on that insane move) . He LOVES to climb up on the hearth and just chill. Cracks me up.

Chinese checkers on a cheap tin that lets all the marbles roll around at the slightest bump, with two school-agers, a four year old and my husband was super-fun, and super stressful!! I about cheered when I lost the game to Brian and then Isaiah. It was kind of like Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders; you just cheer for SOMEONE to win so you can move on with your life. I think its time to invest in a better version. Any recommendations?

Oh, how I love my new home! Milwaukee is truly a gem of a city; one that certainly doesn’t get the credit it deserves. I love being a photographer here, capturing sweet families in a sweet city. Look at this adorable little family . . . aren’t they sweet? And our locations were pretty fun, too. I have to admit, I was a little taken aback when Dad led me up the side of a steep, rocky hill to a rail road track (don’t tell), but I was thrilled when I saw the wonderful open sky and perfect backdrop for an awesome silhouette.

Near Bradford Beach, the clouds and sky make this picture cool, but Little Man’s sweet face makes it wonderful.

Hello! Could he be any cuter??

Awwww. . . . gotta’ love “LOVE”.

Sweet silhouette. 

The number one, most frequent and wistful question I get from happy clients is this: “Do you just take a million fabulous photos of your own kids, all. the. time?” To which I must answer a sad, shameful, “No, not really.” We’ve all heard the saying “The cobbler’s children have no shoes.” Well, unfortunately, oftentimes, “The photographer’s children have no photos.” Now, of course, I DO take photos of my kids. Just not very much. I don’t drag out my camera more than once or twice a month and I rarely, if ever, capture my family just “doing their thing”. I intend to change that.

Last week my kids were showing their summer baby-sitter some old photo albums from Isaiah & Alayna’s babyhoods. Ah, the days of film, when all I had to do was send in the rolls of film and Viola!, the photos were done and ready to enjoy and, ah, the days before I did this for a living; before I went pro. I have all these crappy-wonderful snap-shots of my kids dancing in the living room, snuggled up together in a box, eating  birthday cake. The lighting is not always great. The backgrounds are not always complimentary. But the photos are a delicious window to our memories of life with the kids, so little and sweet and growing and changing so fast. I don’t take any of those anymore.

Now, because I know better, I always want to wait for the perfect lighting, the perfect backdrop, the “perfect photo”. In my wait for that perfect moment, the one in which my kids don’t look like they dressed themselves, three days ago, and the house doesn’t look lived-in, er, trashed, and the light shines in their eyes “just right”, I’ve missed so very much. I want to have snap-shots again. I want to have memories captured of just regular old not-so-sexy life in my not-so-amazing house with my wonderfully-real-not-always-turned-to-the-light-at-the-right-angle kids. So, here goes. My rules/criteria:

1. I shoot with my  “old” camera body, the 5D, no flash, no frills.

2. I use the 16-35L , a lens I purchased several years ago, only to leave it on a shelf, unused, in favor of my 24-70L and fisheye. (NOT a cheap lens, it needs my love!)

3. I don’t spend time working out the perfect angles, the best light, the perfect exposure (no custom white balance or manual exposure, baby!)

4. I reach for it at least once a day, to capture something delightfully “everyday”.

5. I come here and share them with you, as often as I can.

6. At the end of the year, I take those plain old photos and PUT THEM IN A BOOK, so we can look back and remember the year in pictures.

So, here’s my first share. Lydia, enjoying her yogurt in our crazy-strange kitchen:

And Mr. Z, being 10, almost 11. Sigh . . . ten is the end of the little kid years. I’m bracing myself . . .

Awww. How can you not just say “Awww” to an image like this one? I first photographed Big Sister when she was one year old, four years ago. She was as beautiful as can be back then, as she is now (although she’s certainly gotten busier!). It was fun to see her new little brother, now one year old, and to capture the two of them together. What mother wouldn’t simply treasure an image like this of her kids? I know I would. Such loves.     

And we pulled out the white paper to capture some pure simplicity of little brother, just like I had for his sister years ago in my studio. I love this one.

When this lovely family called us, asking if we might be interested in a big multi-family session with three kids and a whole buncha’ adults, I wasn’t so sure. Kids are fun, free and natural, but adults are often much more difficult to capture having fun. And capturing FUN is what I am all about. Not only did they want four families, with 8 adults and 3 kids, captured, but they wanted the shoot to happen in St. Joseph, MI. I am so glad that we decided to give this session a “go”. This family was FUN FUN FUN! Maybe the adults were even more fun than the kids. Ha! So I stand corrected; big family sessions with just a few kids CAN be an amazing good time (and it helps that the sister who coordinated their clothes did a rocking job, too. Nice work.)

Doncha’ just love this?

And I am falling in love with these sillouettes.

The two baby cousins were so funny together.

There’s more!  

This picture just cracked me up.

And how sweet are they?

I have so many wonderful memories of my childhood dog, Yoda, who’s antics are remembered by half my small Midwest town. She was a badly behaved dog, never properly trained, but she was my friend and I can hardly imagine my childhood without her.

When I imagined my own kids growing-up years, I just assumed there would be another “Yoda” in our lives (though I certainly hoped we could have a better-behaved version), but years of living in rental homes with no-dog policies kept that from becoming a reality. Our oldest son, Tyler, isn’t really a dog guy,but our other three kids most definately inherited the dog-loving gene and they have each been pining after a canine companion since they could say the words “puppy”.  “Why can’t we just get a different house?” “Maybe the landlord won’t notice?” “Please, Mommy, can I keep him?” It was hard to see them wish and hope and yearn and know that there was just no way we could make it happen. (Why we didn’t just find a house that allowed dogs is another story, but trust me, we would have if we could have).

So nearly three years ago, when we decided to move our family to Wisconsin from California, and presumably, purchase our first home, the dog debate was ended. We would get a dog when we had our own home. We bought a dog breed book and the kids read and re-read that book a thousand times. I’d find my two school-agers laying on the carpet, heads together, pouring over that book. There are dog-eared pages and sticky-note markings of the favored breeds. That volume was the “book of dreams” for my children.

Last July, we arrived at our new home. Our own home. No landlords or rules. No one to tell us what we could and couldn’t do. We were homeowners, which meant, we could be dog owners, too! We told the kids that as soon as we were settled and had our ducks all in a row, we would get the dog. We promised.

We had no idea how hard “getting settled” would be. Living in a new state, a new city, and settling four kids into four new schools, suddenly needing to travel to CA for a week every month, remodeling our 2000 sq foot basement into living space by ourselves, dealing with a down economy and navigating the now-unfamiliar waters of living “near” family all proved to be much more than we had bargained for. “Settling in” was a long, difficult process. One we have not really finished doing even now, more than a year later.

I think sometime around six months into it, my kids gave up hope. They figured their parents were simply never going to feel ready. The ducks would never be in a row. We would never be “settled”. They stopped asking, stopped hoping, but I know, they never stopped wishing & dreaming. Each month I would think “We’ll be ready soon, maybe in a month or two.” “Once the money is all there, the finances all in place.” “Once we figure out how to deal with all that we’ve already been dealt, THEN we can get a dog.”  I gotta’ be honest, I am not sure that day will ever come. One day a few weeks ago, as I sat on the floor of my room and cried, frustrated that my life is so over-filled with to-do’s and responsibilities and demands and that I just can’t seem to get it right, I decided to stop trying to “get it right”, stop dreaming of  “getting my ducks in a row”. That’s not what life is all about, anyway. Life is about love and family and companionship and joy. Life is in the everyday happinesses and sorrows. And for my kids, life, childhood, is about that stupid dog.

So here we are. Were we ready for this? Heck no, but maybe heck, yeah.  I spent days searching for the right shelter, the right dog. And then I just said, “Forget it. There is no perfect dog. This one is cute, the breed we wanted, and he’s waiting for us.” We took a day off of work, drove 4 hours round trip, swinging by Petco on the way. We adopted that dog, pulled together the stuff we needed for him and the deed is done. I can’t promise I won’t have days when I am pulling out my hair, wondering what made me do such a foolish thing. But I know that my kids will always remember this time, and hopefully, remember years of love and companionship from their little, imperfect dog, adopted at the imperfect time, to an imperfectly run home with frazzled, but loving parents, who kept their promise . . .  eventually.