There’s pixie gold dust in Eudora photographer’s pictures; Eudora ready for Great Kaw Adventure Race; Baldwin City selects streets for repaving
Fairies have been very good to Janene Rothwell and her Pbj Photography studio.
Rothwell took over the studio in an old gas station on the corner for 10th and Main streets in Eudora at the start of 2015, remodeled it with a 1950s theme and moved into living space upstairs. In the beginning, Rothwell focused on the bread and butter of small-town photo studios: graduation pictures, portraits, baby photos and the like. And while those opportunities remain integral to her business, she has found that branching out to fairy photographs has added magic to her business.
“I’ve always loved children, and I’ve always loved fairies,” she said. “It’s really becoming a thing. I’ve probably photographed 500 fairies.”
Rothwell explains that she invested in props like mushrooms and fairy wings that she bought at $100 a pop. Although she has photographed fairies from babies to grandmothers, most of her fairies are children, she said. She and her assistant help set the mood by dressing as fairies themselves during a photo shoot.
“The children get so enchanted, they lose themselves in the role and forget about the camera,” she said. “That’s how I get those unique photographs.”
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Rothwell said she has had five two-day photo shoots so far this year, which have all sold out, and has another booked session set for October. Two of those photo shoots were in the studio of a friend in Topeka, Rothwell said. All draw customers from out of state.
“People schedule vacations around the shoots from Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas because they are so unique,” she said. “They stay in motels in Lawrence and come over to Eudora. I’ve had a family from Alaska come through. One photographer said it was flash in the pan and would go away. I don’t think so. I’m taking this to startling places.”
Fairy photography will take her to Colorado next month with Mary Kirkendoll of the Eudora Yoga Center to attend John Schallert’s Destination Business BootCamp in Colorado. They were selected by the Douglas County E-Community Committee and the Eudora Chamber of Commerce to go to the workshop in making businesses destination sites.
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To help build her Eudora studio as a destination, Rothwell is planning to create an enchanted fairy garden with small fairy houses. Still, she’s not putting all her marbles behind fairy photography. Rothwell said she traveled to New York City to study under a renowned baby photography and has aspirations of building that side of her business.
The Kansas Professional Photographers Association recognized her overall work with its first-time entrant award for 2016.
“I’m learning to handle stress and function well,” she said. “I ask myself, ‘Is this what success feels like?’ I don’t sleep, I hardly eat and I’m working more than ever. I guess it is. I’m just covered in pixie dust.”
Everything is in place for Saturday’s Great Kaw Adventure Race in Eudora.
Through the help of numerous community volunteers, the event will be more than the race in which at least 28 two-person teams will test themselves on a running course through Eudora, a canoe or kayak trip from Eudora to De Soto and a return bicycle trip on mostly gravel roads back to Eudora.
A coalition of Eudora partners has made the race an event for the contestant’s’ families and the community, said Kelli Szrot, coordinator of the event. The race itself starts at 9 a.m. at Bluejacket Park, but Repetition Coffee will have the first of the day’s food trucks open from 6 to 10:30 a.m. at CPA in downtown Eudora to wake up contestants, volunteers and spectators for the day ahead, she said. A local barbecue vendor will set up at 11 a.m. until food lasts to help with the hungry midday crowd.
Things really start getting active in the park at 2 p.m., when a kid’s zone opens with petting zoo, inflatable obstacle course and two bounce houses, Szrot said. The first band of the day, the Wakarusa River Band, also starts playing at 2 p.m. The remaining band schedule is Tabula Rosa at 3:45 p.m., Lotus Feels at 4:45 p.m., Minimal Animal at 6:15 p.m. and Kawehi at 7:30 p.m. The 23rd Street Brewery will have a beer garden starting at 3 p.m. and Barbed Wire Barbecue and JB’s Taco will have food trucks at the park, Szrot said.
In addition, the Friends of the Kaw will provide floats from 3 to 5 p.m. from Eudora’s Wakarusa River boat ramp to the Kansas River, Szrot said.
Baldwin City government is preparing for its annual asphalt overlay of select city streets. The city is now accepting bids for the work, which is traditionally done in the fall. Streets to be improved this year include Baker Street from the 200 block through the 500 block, the 100, 200 and 500 blocks of Chapel Street, the East 100 block of Dearborn Circle, Dearborn Street from the 100 block through 500 block, the 100 through 500 blocks of Elm Street and the 400 and 500 blocks of Grove Street.

