So… For the most part, Colby is usually who plans our trips. This time, I planned our trip, but when we got to the parking area for Cowles Bog, Colby found a map and misinterpreted where the trail actually started. Needless to say, we went way off in the wrong direction, though there was a clearly defined dirt trail… It was all good, though. I got some great pictures out of it! Anyway… So once we realized there was no more trail, we got our iPhones out and started trying to find our way with the GPS. We tracked back to the first fork in the road we saw, stopped to give the dogs some water, and then headed down the trail that we thought we should go down. Long story short, it, too, was the wrong trail, but I made it work. We made it to the beach and after all was said and done, we walked on a road back to the parking lot where we saw the sign for the actual Cowles Bog trail. Yeah… we suck.

So anyway, we didn’t see any dunes or anything cool like that, but we climbed up this one crazy incline (which probably was a dune, but not the beach dunes we were hoping for) that had the loosest sand ever and was incredible steep. My legs were like Jello. I had Riley lead the way. Thanks to his nature of pulling (that’s what Malamutes are bread for) he assisted in getting me up the hill, though he slipped a couple of times…

We got to the Dunes Beach and it was desolate. No one was there. It was pretty amazing. The fog was really bad, though the forecast said it would be sunny. It made for some pretty sweet pictures because the fog looked just like Lake Michigan. We let Jayda off of the leash and she had a blast. It’s hilarious. When she was younger and we lived in Florida I would take her to the beach and she’d bite at the waves as though they were a toy. She hasn’t been to Lake Michigan in over 3 years and I didn’t think she’d remember they were a toy, but I was wrong. She had a blast biting and pouncing on the waves! Riley enjoyed it on the leash and Bentley, well, he was scared of it. He watched from afar! haha!

Overall we had a great time! We’re planning to go back next weekend, only this time, we’re going to Mount Baldy. Maybe we will try Cowles Bog again but in reality, where the actual trail would have taken us wasn’t that far away from the beach we ended up at, and even though we couldn’t see very far because of the fog, I’m not sure it looked that much different…

After we came home, we washed the car, inside and out (it was well in need of it) and we bathed the dogs. We found a couple of ticks on Bentley. Then we took showers. When I was in the shower, I went to wash my back and felt a lump that I quickly freaked out and threw off of my back. Turned out that it was a tick too. I was so grossed out… I was completely covered almost all of the trip (except at the beach where I took my sweater off) so my theory is it was one of the ones I took off of Bentley and it was angry about it, so it found it’s way out of the napkin I had picked it off of Bentley with and it found it’s way to my back. Gross…

Here are the photos. I just love the fog. I was pretty disappointed at first because the sun wasn’t out, but the fog just looked amazing.

Jen Shannon Photography

Colby and I were heading home from dinner at Williamson’s the other night and he whips out his phone and says, “I want to read something to you and get your opinion.” He proceeds to read me some blog article from a blog talking about customer service. I call it Client service because I like Client better than customer. Anywho… The article talks about this guy who goes into Starbucks and was waiting in line to get his coffee. The lady in front of him who has already purchased her tea explains to the cashier that she over sugared her tea and wants to know if they’ll give her another one at no charge. The cashier says she needs to get a manager and let the manager decide. Basically the blog article criticizes the cashier for not being able to make a decision to eat the 10 cents and give her another tea bag, cup, and water. Instead she had to get a manger. He claims it should have been a no brainer decision to just do what it takes to make the customer happy. It is a minimal cost to Starbucks and keeps the client happy. While I agree that the best thing to do would just be to give her another tea bag, cup, and water at no charge I don’t think the guy criticizing her for getting a manager realizes that many people who are not on a management level that work in retail do not have the authority to give away a product.

Beside my criticism of his observation this brings up something I wanted to talk about for our industry. How do you decipher when you should just eat a small cost to make a Client happy or when you should say no? It’s a tough question. On one hand if you do eat the cost you could have a Client for life, referrals from that Client, etc, but on the other hand you might just make that person happy and not get any additional benefits of it. Is it enough to just put an extra skip in our Client’s step without getting something in return? I’d have to say it is. Sometimes it’s just about putting a smile on the Client’s face. If that lady ultimately got another tea for free from Starbucks would it generate referrals from her to Starbucks? Probably not. If they wouldn’t do it for free, would she never go to Starbucks again? Probably would go to Starbucks again.

That brings me to another question. How do you decipher if a Client is just complaining because they’ve learned that if they complain about things they get what they want? That’s also a tough question. Last Friday night my husband and I went to Chili’s for dinner. I have an intolerance for corn kernels. I don’t know why corn in things like corn syrup and such don’t bother me, but corn kernels tear me up. I ordered their BBQ chicken salad with no corn. They bring the salad out and it has corn all over in it. I send it back. They bring me another salad that does not appear to have corn in it. I start eating it and look down to find corn hiding throughout the salad. I just picked the corn out of the salad, brought the waitress over and instead of complaining told her that she needed to just let the chef know that he could cause serious harm to people if he isn’t careful. The manager came over, apologized, and took my meal off of our bill. I had every intention of paying for it but it was good customer service that the waitress, instead of just relaying my message to the chef, relayed it to the manager who then came over to “make things right.” It made me happy and I still love Chili’s. In this instance you see that the fault rested on the restaurant for not providing me with what I ordered. With photography it’s more complicated because art is subjective. If you deliver what the Client ordered and they still aren’t happy, do you try to place blame somewhere? Many times a Client will complain just to get something for free and place all of the blame on you. Yes, you might be hurt by it, you might not like what they have to say, and what they’re saying may not even be true, but ultimately the Client is who needs to be happy. That doesn’t mean you need to give anything away for free but I do think we need to get past the blame game. Sometimes it doesn’t matter who’s fault it is. We should want to leave a positive lasting impression on our Client’s. As a society we’ve turned Client services into something where the Client almost feels like they have to apologize when they ask an associate to get something or do something for them. Why is that?

I think the key is to be able to suck up your pride, set aside who’s fault it is, and service your Client the best way you can. If you feel a Client is just trying to complain to get something for free, then consult a photography community and get their opinion. If generally they agree that your work and products represent what you sold to your Client, chances are they might just be complaining to get more out of it. The question then becomes do you give in? I don’t like to look at it as giving in. I like to look at it as an investment in my Client’s long term satisfaction with the job they hired me to do. Unfortunately there is no one answer to how you should deal with your Client’s but ultimately I think it comes down to one principle. Put yourself in your Client’s shoes. Try to understand, from their perspective, what they are telling you. Set aside pointing fingers or placing blame, and do what is in the best interest of both your Client and your company. Sometimes it’s doing nothing. Sometimes it’s giving something. Ultimately, even if it is the Client’s fault, sometimes sucking up the cost of the tea bag, cup, and water will put that extra skip in your Client’s step.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

It all started last Thursday. Colby and I caught a 4:30pm flight on Southwest Airlines to Denver International Airport. His dad and step mom, here on out referred to as David and Debbie, picked us up in their sweet Ford Fusion Hybrid. I’ve never seen Hybrid technology in person so it was really cool to see how it all worked. Anyway, David and Debbie live in Evergreen, CO. It’s a cute little town in the mountains about an hour and 10 minutes or so outside of Denver. We got home and ate some really great pizza (I don’t remember the name of the place) and relaxed for awhile. It was so comfortable being there again. They’d painted their house in really cozy, warm, homey colors, not to mention they had their Christmas tree up and snow on the ground! I mean come on! The guest bed we slept on was also the most comfortable bed in the world but every night I was there I just couldn’t get to sleep and stay there…. So I caught up on all my lost sleep today and it was glorious….

So we woke up Friday morning and we had some breakfast and sat around the table and talked a bit. Then Debbie and I headed out with Rokko, their dog, to take him to the groomers. We came back, made a lunch plan, and went to Safeway to get some sandwiches. We don’t have Safeway grocery stores up here, just gas stations. I had NO clue that Safeway was sooooo nice! It’s just like Whole Foods. I love Whole Foods. So we got our sandwiches and my goodness, that Safeway has the most beautiful view of any grocery store! EVER! Check out my iPhone photo below.

This is an iPhone photo…. View from Safeway.

Friday night was the night….. The night we got to eat David’s famous tacos for the first time in, like, 8 years? Has it really been that long? It’s been WAY too long! They were soooooooooo good. And there was left overs, which we ate Monday before we caught our flight back home.

Saturday came along and we left to go to Estes Park. We made a stop at Starbucks which also has the most amazing view of any Starbucks ever! See below, also taken on my iPhone via the Pano app. I love that app! Anyway, then we headed off to Estes Park. We made a stop first at a road side shop in the mountains which had all sorts of home decor. That was my first opportunity to take photos. Below are photos from near that little shop. The second and third photo was from a mountain stream on our way to the little shop that we pulled over to take photos of (keep scrolling for the rest of the blog post).

This is an iPhone photo. View from Starbucks.

After our stop we headed the rest of the way to Estes Park. It was such a cute little town. We had lunch at a little Italian joint that had some good bruschetta and spaghetti and meatballs. Afterward we took a walk around all of the little shops and I took David and Debbie to a little park to get some photos of them. You know, the kind of photos that say, “We’ve been married a long time and we’re cute together” kind of photos! I should have prefaced that by saying that David hates having his picture taken and he hates photos of himself and he grudgingly agreed to them! mwahaha! I also took some photos of just him for his book. He works a corporate job but is a writer as well and would ultimately love to become a full time writer. He writes science fiction novels. He has already released his first book, Infiltrator, and is working on a screen play. You can purchase his book here. You can also visit his website by clicking here, though it might be changing soon. Also, as a quick side note I finally got him to agree to sign up for Twitter and get a Facebook Fan Page so follow him on Twitter here and become a fan on Facebook here. Anyway, I’d show the photos but at David’s request I will not be posting those photos online unless he changes his mind Which I think you should if you’re reading this! The good news is he and Debbie loved the photos! Trust me. They’d tell me if they didn’t.

Here are some of the fine art photos I took for my fine art website which will soon be available for purchase!

After Estes Park, we headed back to Evergreen but had to make a couple of stops. I decided Debbie had to teach me how to crochet because she is sooooo good at it and it looks really fun! So we went through Boulder and stopped at Michaels where she helped me pick out some yarn and some crochet hooks. Then we had to stop by Ace Hardware. You know why we had to stop by Ace Hardware? Because somehow I broke their toilet. That’s right. I broke it! I went to the bathroom after I woke up that morning and went to flush and it wouldn’t flush. Go me. I don’t even have to touch something to break it. It seems every time I’m at their house I break or mess something up. Last time I was there I slopped ketchup on their brand new dining chairs. Luckily they decided to re-cover them (probably because of my clutzyness). This time it was the toilet. Who knows? Maybe next time I’ll break their car or burn their house down…. I suck! But I get a good laugh out of it!

After we got home and had David’s famous beef stew for dinner, Colby and I went outside and took pictures of their Christmas lights but while we were out there I couldn’t help but notice the beauty of all of the stars that we could see. So I decided to attempt to get a few pictures of the stars. To my amazement my camera saw so many more stars than I could see with my eyes. It really just makes you stop in awe for a few moments about just how awesome God is and just how beautiful he made the earth and space. Here are the photos of their Christmas lights and the sky.

So Saturday night I had to do the one thing I dreaded the most… I’ve been putting it off since July. I promised Colby for his birthday that we’d go see Terminator…. I can’t stand movies that make me tense up for 2 hours straight. Well guess what…. I had to watch it. To the movie’s defense it was a really good movie for the type of movie it is, but I still don’t like those kind of movies. I prefer feel good movies, chick flicks, and pixar movies! hahaa! After that we stayed up until almost 2:30 in the morning talking. I love to talk. Anyone that knows me knows that. I can talk and talk and talk ALLLLLLL day. I mean ALLLLLLLLL day. Most people are annoyed by it, but hey, it’s worse since I work at home and don’t get regular human interaction! That’s my defense anyway… But either way, I love great conversations so that was really fun for me!

Sunday was our pre-Christmas Christmas. David and Debbie cooked yet another amazing meal! They cooked a crown roast with stuffing, potatoes, gravy, rolls, etc. It was THA BOMB! And many of you know that I’m trying to lose weight. So I was calorie counting the whole time I was there, except for Sunday. That was my cheat meal. And boy did I cheat. Luckily I still managed to lose 1.5 lbs while I was there. After dinner came the present opening! I was sooooo excited for them to open the gift from “Colby and I” when really it was just from me There is a whole big story behind this gift, but I’ll make the story short because I don’t feel like typing that much out. Long story short, David and Debbie came to visit earlier this year. While we were at breakfast one morning David mentioned he had seen this thing called a Therapy Buddy. We all whipped out our iPhones and checked it out and Ohhhhhhhhhh Eeeeemmmmmmmmmm Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. That thing is the creepiest thing ever! We had a long laugh and convo about it so I knew for Christmas I was going to have to buy them one as a gag gift, only this one talks! It is AWESOME! Check out the Therapy Buddy here. I got them the one with the purple shirt. This thing is so freakin’ funny. We’re STILL laughing about it! It talks and says, “Everything is going to be all right.” Not alright. All right. It goes on to command you to “Hear my words” “Believe it” and “Feel the words.” It his hilarious. By far the funniest gag gift EVER! I decided the Therapy Buddy needed a name and we had a really hard time finding a name for her. As we pulled into the airport we decided she was a woman of color and named her Shaquanda Tamika. That’s right! Don’t be hatin’! We had all sorts of great laughs with her but I thought it would be funny to make her ride their iRobot, aka Rita Maid.

Here’s the video. Click on the below to see the video.

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Here’s a video of her talking so you can hear her creepy voice.

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Ok, enough of Shaquanda… Moving on… So we had our Christmas on Sunday. They got us some REALLY nice gifts that I’d love to dish about here but I can’t because some of Colby’s other siblings are getting similar items so let’s just say they were REALLY nice. I feel bad that we couldn’t do something nicer than Shaquanda and coffee from Gloria Jeans but it’s all good. Some day we’ll be able to.

Then Monday came I didn’t like Monday. Monday was the day we flew back home. Luckily we didn’t fly out until 8:10 at night so we had the whole day to spend together. We went out to breakfast at a great little restaurant called LePeep. It was yummy! After that we went home and packed I hate packing. Then we helped David and Debbie move some furniture. Then we ate left over tacos, which were even better than the first time we ate them, and then had to leave for the airport. I hate leaving. There’s always a sense of sadness. We decided, wait, more like I decided, to bring Shaquanda along for the ride. Debbie and I just about died laughing in the elevator when she pressed the talk button and Shaquanda started saying, “Everything is going to be all right” in her creepy voice and people started getting on the elevator. I couldn’t stop laughing. I was laughing so hard I was crying. We had a few minutes before we needed to go through security so we sat and had some coke at a little cafe and then had to say our goodbyes. I hate goodbyes. They are the hardest. Colby and I both get sad when we have to say goodbye. As we entered the line for security we saw Shaquanda waving to us in the distance with Debbie and David behind her to support her in her time of grief. We waived our last goodbyes then sadness occurred… I was later told Shaquanda tried to run away from Debbie in the airport bathroom. I like to think she was trying to come with us… hhahahahahahaa!

Anyway, we had such an excellent time! It was so great! I can’t wait until we can come back and visit again. It’s been 5 years since I was there and 3 years since Colby was there. We definitely won’t be waiting that long again. You know how newly wed finances go though… We’re in a better place now! hahha! Anyway, I want to thank David and Debbie SO much for their hospitality, the laughs, the laughing cries, the awesomeness, the amazing food, the sweet Christmas gifts and the wonderful family they are! I love them!

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

By the way, most of these were taken with a point and shoot. I was not in the mood to be messing with my lenses and stuff. Sometimes a point and shoot is ok!

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer