Annoying my cat…

In the numerous years that I have photographed my 16 year-old Ashley, she has never once sat still. So, I have a bunch of blurry pictures of her. Oh well. Here are some that I took this morning, playing with my macro lens. Our A/C is completely dead so the house is a little warm right now. As such, she has taken to stretching out as long as she can make herself on the bed to cool off.

“Will you please get that camera out of my face?”

“Why are you photographing my hairy toes with black bean feet?”

Scrounging through my old photos…

I came across Lindsay's and my trip to Colorado on the motorcycles. It all started out so well.

We spent our first night in Holbrook, Arizona exploring the downtown life. It's a fairly small town right off of Interstate 40, but has a great Rt. 66 history to it. I thought these dinos were too fun not to photograph. I probably like dinosaurs almost as much as Carson.


Our second day in, took us to the beautiful city of Southfork, Colorado. We stayed in a wonderful little cabin and were greeted every time we stepped outside by the local orange tabby. I spent my evening photographing the numerous hummingbirds just outside of our cabin and Lindsay spent the evening watching "Dirty Jobs" on the Discovery Channel. That seems to be our regular schedule when we are on vacation. Since we don't have "television," we watch Discovery when we're out and about.



Traveling over the Continental Divide, we stopped to take this picture with Mr. Happy, our companion puppet.


This would be the GSX-Rs last stop as a bike without damage. I recall this rest area being up a pitted dirt road overlooking the San Juan Valley. Though it was cloudy, we had no idea what the afternoon would bring.


I took this image after making sure Lindsay was unhurt from his accident. We were so lucky that day that both of us were all of our motorcycling gear as well as the fact that Lindsay was completely unhurt when he totalled his bike. I guess I was too distressed to take photos of his bike, but I wish I had in hindsight. It didn't actually look totalled, but sure enough it was.

If you look at the zigzag of dark directly in front of my bike, that is the course Lindsay was on. Hail and bikes do not mix. It's like riding on ball bearings coated in oil. Not good!

And here is Lindsay after we got his bike back upright assessing the damage.


We haven't taken a long motorcycle road trip since this vacation, but I'm sure we'll get out there and do another one. Maybe not to Colorado though. We should have left earlier in the morning. I know better than that – there are always thunderstorms that pop up in the afternoons in a Colorado summer.

And because Lindsay can go about a minute without a bike, we replaced it with this:

Official Business Owner

Well, it's been about 3 weeks since I opened for business. Only the future will tell if I opened it at literally the worst time in my working life! I am officially incorporated as Kerrie Robertson Illustration, Inc. I have to place my papers in a local newspaper or other approved source for 3 days in a row, otherwise my incorporation will be dissolved.

There's so much to do that you just can't learn without all of the small business resources out there. Thankfully, I've been able to find a little help getting things done. But the paperwork! Whew, I'm a full time illustrator, designer, admin, accounts receivable, marketing person. Yep, the list goes on and on.

Every day, I keep thinking, I need to do this, that and some of that too. First up is to get my REAL website up and running. I feel so weird sending people to my blog to see my portfolio. I've also been networking like a crazy person. I have made a few contacts and there are a few people interested in my work, and luckily I've been able to do some local freelance for some companies around town.

The only thing I'm still waiting for is my actual business license.

A Break, Worries and Hopes

…and if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you...

Last week Lindsay and I took a much needed break from work, business and the world in general. We escaped to the outdoors of the Grand Canyon taking only what we could fit in the trunk of a Miata. For those of you who have never witnessed one, it barely fits one small suitcase. We trekked through the beautiful vistas of Northern Arizona, traveling through the always stunning Sedona along the Oak Creek into the backside of Flagstaff. Heading north out of Flagstaff you are greeted with tall pines mixed with stunning aspen trees almost ready to turn bright golden yellow from the waning fall days. On northward we traveled, moving up onto the Colorado Plateau through Tusayan and finally to the abyss of the canyon itself.


My photos clearly do not do this magnificent place any justice. It is an overwhelming place to visit for both its immense size and trying to take it all in just how long this canyon took to develop. Lindsay and I camped within Mather Campground for 3 nights (cold nights at that - 38°!) and on our last night sat out on the rim by ourselves and looked at the stars. There is no light around the canyon and there were so many stars it was hard to make out the constellations. Being in the outdoors always gives me great appreciation for what we have. Clean clothes, a soft bed, and warm dry feet. All is right in the world when you can sit on ancient seabed rock while wishing on shooting stars at the edge of the abyss.


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So that brings me to my worries. This past week was my first week of - for all purposes - self inflicted unemployment. Every day I read about a new bank collapsing, a city having gas shortages and politicians questioning if this will be the next "Great Depression." I think to myself, "what have I done?" I've thrown away a perfectly decent job where I made good money at one of the most volatile times I've witnessed in my lifetime. All that I can do is keep on swimming.

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So, now my hopes. I have always believed that people are basically good. Yes, there are a lot of really bad people out there, but most people I meet are very sincere and helpful. If things really go bad, you better believe I'll be one of the people out there to help give a hand. So, I move forward with confidence that if my business or my plans do not succeed it is not for lack of trying.



These photos were taken in quick succession as I scrambled onto the side of the canyon with a 1,000 foot drop almost immediately behind us.

A Transition In Life

Well, only one more week to go at my current employer. Part of me is sad to go. I've been with them for 4 years now and have learned a tremendous amount in that time. But I am very excited with this next stage of my life. It is now up to me alone to be successful in this endeavor and while I can tell you it scares the bejeezus out of me (what if I fail, what if I succeed?), I am thrilled that I have this opportunity. I wouldn't have it, were it not for Lindsay's pursuit of his own career that we've been through these past 4+ years.

I appreciate everyone's kind words over the past few weeks. It was a very stressful week at the office, especially with one employee in particular who took my leave as a sign of me purposely wanting to hurt my company. I only hope that someday they are able to get past their own neurosis and look at the bigger picture. I just wish I could shake their remarkably unkind words.

Anywho … my whole point of this post is that I will only post here things that are not illustration related as I have started a new blog that is only illustration related. That would be here: Kerrie Robertson Illustration. I hope you all can check it out and give me some feedback.

Business Cards…

As a designer I find that one of the most challenging things out there is creating an identity for yourself. It is so much easier with other companies. How do I come across sincere, but professional without looking like I have too much self importance?

So, I present to you 3 business cards that I've worked up over the past couple of days. These are just temporary that I have to print out so that I can hand them out to some people at an upcoming event next Thursday. After that, I really work on my identity! Yikes.

As you'll see to the right, there is a poll. Hmmm… I guess I really should have added in a "none of the above."

Choice 1:


Choice 2:


Choice 3:

Post Script

Well, I did it. I got some strange responses, some upset responses and one "so you just chose this time to quit to screw us?!?" Hmmm … that was actually the polite way it was put. No, I didn't do that to hurt anyone. Anyone who knows me, knows that I always put others before myself.

Anyway, my Creative Director looked visibly upset but understood why I was leaving. Now, I have two weeks to survive!

A Great BIG Desicion for Me!

Well, with a title like that one might think children, divorce, moving … well, children are already on the RADAR, no way am I divorcing - my marriage is quite strong, and moving? Well, we've already started our countdown on that one, but that'll be a few more years.

No, today (actually tomorrow, as I've pre-written this) I will be handing in my letter of resignation. This is a big decision for me – read BIG – because I have no other concrete job lined up. I've been working nearly non-stop since I was a 15 year old kid burning fries at McDonald's by Crossroads mall. Does that place even exist anymore?!? I have been working at establishing my career as a Graphic Designer over the past 10 years, and one might say I've been successful. I have often worried that Graphic Design has a short shelf life as a career - as you work your way up in the field, people either don't want to pay you for what they believe they could get out of a recent hire, or you simply cannot continue to work under a Creative Director. The latter is where I stand. I have to find my own voice as a designer.

Why would I leave a company one might ask? I have a steady paycheck and well, let's see, that's about all. I'm not growing as an artist, and I need to see if I can hack it out in the big bad world of freelance. Plus, I have been getting increasing ill from this job. It's not a bad place - in fact it has some great aspects to it, but the stress level is becoming increasingly intolerable. Why continue to put up with it if I don't absolutely have to?

So, the first day after I have left my current company I will go downtown, get my business license and start my own illustration business.

Playing with the camera…

This photo was taken looking north
towards the Catalina Mountains.
I even caught a little bird in the shot!

Lindsay and I went to check out the new (pretty cool!!) Dodge Challengers today and on the way I stopped and took some photos of the fabulous cloudscapes around Tucson. I'm still learning how to use my camera – a Canon Powershot A530 – and thought these images would look good in black and white. I tried to find a setting for a black and white mode on the camera itself, but no such luck. Just sepia. So, into PhotoShop they go and here they are.

This photo was taken on the manual setting with a 1/500th shutter speed, which is probably why it is so grainy. I then took it into PhotoShop and added curves, levels and a bit of hue/saturation. I opted to due a saturated blue, rather than a black and white on this image.

Thanks For a Great Vacation Mom!

It was a another great yearly vacation in Breckenridge, CO. I always look forward to these family visits. It was great to see my Grandmother and we got to discuss a few things. I wish her well and will send her some pictures to hang on her bedroom wall soon.

I had a great flight into Denver International with these two little red foxes as escorts. It has been a long time since I have seen the Rocky Mountains and it's always interesting when you get to see them at 20,000 feet elevation.

The accommodations were beautiful and I got a great workout with 4 flights of stairs every day! Whew. My altitude coping abilities need to come a long way. My sinuses were bothering me every day with a 2-day sinus headache to start off the vacation! But, the beautiful surroundings more than made up for it.
Everybody's cooking was amazing and as usual Mom brought way too many groceries. I wish I'd been there to help pack up to leave. We were able to find a great little hiking trail near the Blue River that ended up in downtown Breckenridge.
My trip back down to Denver started with a snowstorm. Yes, a snowstorm in August! There were icy conditions at Eisenhower tunnel and hard rains the entire drive to Denver.
The flight home was mostly turbulent and marked with thunderstorms surrounding the entire state of Arizona. Because of the full moon, you could see the cloud tops and the lightening in the faraway storms the entire trip home. Now, I'm back in Tucson and back to work tomorrow! Bummer.