Curtis Lee Cosens

*Words to describe Curtis- Caring. Adventurous. Protective. Creative. Quirky. Inspirational.

*Favorite stories of Curtis' life- One night Curtis and his baby sister Jennifer were doing mud masks together. Sarah, his other sister, was talking to them via instant messenger and asked what they were doing. They replied that they were doing chocolate masks. Sarah thought that was really cool and asked what kind of masks they were using. Curtis told her that it was just chocolate sauce. "You go to the store and find the most expensive fudge sauce you can find because it's better quality." About a year later Sarah was at the store and remembered about the chocolate masks and called Curtis to ask what was a good brand of chocolate sauce to buy. He started to laugh hysterically and asked if she was serious. The conversation that followed went as follows,
Curtis: "That was a joke. We didn't use chocolate sauce."
Sarah: "Are you freaking kidding me?!"
Curtis: "You really thought we smeared chocolate sauce all over our faces?"
Sarah: "Well you guys do some weird stuff."
Curtis: " You would get such bad pimples if you actually did that."
Sarah: "I can't believe I believed you guys! I told so many people about this being a good face mask!"
Every time Curtis and Sarah went into a store he would ask her if she needed to pick up some chocolate sauce.

Curtis' mom always cut his hair. It wasn't always perfect. Some times she would sneeze mid cut with the sheers and cut his hair shorter in one spot than it was supposed to be. She would realize her mistake and just start laughing while trying to apologize for giving him a bald spot. He must of not minded too much because he was always in her chair with his hair at her mercy.

Curtis was always so fashionable as a child. He loved his MC Hammer pants and moon boots. Even in the summer. One year when Curtis' dad was coming to pick them up for a summer visit he drove into Deer Lodge and right off saw some weird kid walking down Main Street wearing Hammer pants and moon boots in June. Frank new right away that was his boy and sure enough it was.

Curtis loved baseball. He would always play baseball in Grandma Pat and Grandpa Joe's back yard in Sequim trying to not hit the ball too far and breaking any windows. He would make Sarah try to catch his pitches when he wanted to practice but she never would catch it because he would always throw the ball pretty hard. Grandpa Joe got him into the Mariners. He would take Curtis and Sarah to Mariners games and watch them with them on TV. Every time Sarah came to visit, Curtis and Sarah would go to a Mariners game. No matter how good or how bad the Mariners were doing he was always a loyal fan.

Curtis loved for Jennifer to tickle his hands. Didn't matter where they were, if he stuck his hand out she knew he wanted his hand tickled. When she would be done with one he would put his other hand over for her to tickle. Sometimes he would even pull off his socks and have her tickle his feet. At least on his feet he had the scars on his feet from when he was a baby and walked over a heat grate in the floor while in his walker.

When Curtis told you to do something, you did it. It didn't matter if it was dangerous, illegal or would make you freeze, you did it. Whether it was having you go stand under a freezing cold waterfall so he could get a cool picture or Jennifer jumping up on stage after a concert to get him a playlist he wanted as a souvenir. He always put it as, "Hey you should go do 'insert thing you really didn't want to do here'". You may of hesitated or initially say no but he always got his awesome picture or the souvenir he wanted.

Curtis never forgot anything. Anything! One time growing up his sister Sarah decided the walls in their trailer would make a good color page. She colored on it with many different crayons. When their dad discovered the drawings and asked who was responsible Sarah immediately told him it was Curtis and their stepbrother Bobby. Frank believed her and Curtis and Bobby got to clean off the wall. Every time Curtis saw Sarah he would bring it up. When he wanted some lunch she would hear, "You should buy me lunch. Remember that time I had to clean off the walls when YOU colored on them?" He got his lunch every time.

Curtis loved learning about different cultures and their food. He was visiting his Dad one year and did a 'Cooking with Curt' video where he made a Bangladesh dessert. He also made some cookies that night that made about 400 cookies. Not joking.

*Some significant accomplishments- Curtis received his first degree, a Bachelor's Degree in computer graphics and web design. He built many websites for friends and upcoming businesses. It was in these classes where he took photography and learned how to view the world in a different way. Curtis recently received his second degree as a surgical technician. He found the work in the operating room crunchy yet satisfying. Curtis has had a few photos published in multiple publications including National Geographic.

*One of our fondest memories- Every day with Curtis was making good memories. He made everything memorable and special. If you went to spend the day with him in Seattle he wanted to know what you would want to do and then find out where to do it. If it involved walking somewhere he would reassure you it wasn't very far. Five plus miles later you would finally arrive. No matter where he went his camera was never very far from his hands. Whether it was around his neck or in his camera bag on his back or in his trunk, he was always ready to capture those memories.

*Occupation- Photography was not only his passion but it helped pay the bills or to buy new camera equipment. He would sell his prints online or get them published. He worked with numerous models to get them amazing beautiful head shots for their portfolios. He also would create unique photos to make theirs stand out above the rest.

* Words that describe his mission in life- Finding the extraordinary out of the ordinary.

*Business associates- Curtis helped create websites for up and coming businesses. He would take the photographs himself for many of them just so they would be just how he wanted it.

*Favorite family activities or special family functions- Curtis loved finding new hiking trails and taking people up there with him. Especially if it lead to a waterfall. Most of the time he would tell you that you should go stand under the waterfall so he could take a good picture. Growing up Curtis loved camping and fishing in Montana. He would bring his bike and do tricks and jumps down the dirt roads. Sometimes crashing and having Sarah laugh at him thinking it was just another stunt he was trying. It wasn't until he yelled for Sarah to go get mom that she realized he didn't mean to flip over his handle bars and roll in the dirt a few times.

*Personal activities and hobbies- Curtis loved going to concerts and anything that was related to the arts whether it be plays, museums, art shows or movies. Photography was his passion. Curtis loved learning new things and always had a new book that he was reading. He loved all different kinds of music. Curtis also loved to travel. He visited places such as Canada, Mexico, Morocco, the Sahara Desert and many states. In his free time Curtis liked to draw and write stories or screen plays. He also started collecting old photos. He would go to estate sales and antique stores looking for photo albums. Some of his favorite photos he would find were ones of medical oddities and the Victorian era photos. He also specifically looked for Victorian era post mortem photos.

*Favorite experience in life- One thing he did that he always talked about was going to Morocco. He planned that trip for a while and was very excited when he finally got to go. Some of his favorite photos he has taken was from that trip. He got to go to the Sahara Desert via camel and watched the sunrise over the sand dunes. Curtis also loved his music festivals. Some of the ones he went to was Coachello, The Gorge and Sasquatch festival.

*Favorite songs or music- Flight of the Conchords, Crystal Castle, Massive Attack, Weird Al Yankovic, Deep Forest, Arcade Fire, The Cure, Daft Punk and too many more to list.

*Favorite color- Dark blue and chocolate brown

*Favorite sayings- "You will call me Betty." - Kung Pow Enter the Fist

* Pets- Curtis had a cat named Kitty growing up that was always his cat. She loved him more than anyone else.

*Other thoughts- Curtis was always asked by friends and family to do their engagement/wedding photos. They were his least favorite photos to take but he always did it even if he was going on two days of no sleep. He would do your normal wedding photos but then he would have you hang out of a second story barn door with a 15 foot drop if you lost your grip, get pictures of you from a different perspective no other photographer would think of or have you walk in the water with your dress on. Like we said, if he suggested you do something to get an awesome photo, you did it.
If you would like to view some of his photography his website is www.simpleinsomnia.com