Snapshots of Life

On Formal and Procrastination

2012-02-27T14:13:00.001-06:00

As I write this I am putting off my much needed piano practice. But I'm not just doing this from the safety on my room. No, my procrastination knows no bounds. I'm actually sitting in a practice room at a piano. Listening to some student play Zelda music on the piano actually, it's rather awesome.

But I digress! I'm actually writing this post from my phone. *insert gasp* what is this world coming to? I don't know, but I'm liking it so far.

Saturday night was Formal, a sort of college prom minus the slow dancing :( and plus a lot more drunk people. It was awesomeeeee. Anyway! Being the photographer I am I took my baby and snapped away as everyone started their transformation from normal beauty to gorgeousness. ((also, being the photographer I am I have absolutely no shots of me :( sad day))

To edit these pictures I actually transferred them to my phone to edit them in Instagram. Yes, I am that obsessed. I just haven't found a comparable photoshop actions.

Anyway, I loved the retro look Instagram gave the photos anddd the blurring options they have. It's pretty epic. Just saying.

Since it's been a little while since I posted I thought I would just procrastinate some and write this little update of my life. :) by the way, I have no idea what's gonna happen to the pictures when I hit post....so let's see!

My New Love

2012-02-23T10:44:00.000-06:00

So I have a new love in my life.

And, no it's not a guy.

It's Instagram.

I know, I know, I'm kind a little late joining the bandwagon. For a while, Instagram has been the only thing I've been hearing about. How amazing it is. How fun it is.

I just was never convinced. I downloaded the app once, but then got confused. I didn't realize you had to make an account just to edit any photos, so I deleted the app and continued on with my life.

Recently, though, for some reason or another, I download the app again and gave it another try.

And I have to say; I'm in love. It's pretty amazing.

Not only does it add pop and interest to your iPhone photos, it also does wonders to any other photos. These photos were taken by my baby, the SLR. I pulled them from Facebook, and then ran them through Instagram.

And I have to say; I'm love the results! It's similar to finding an amazing set of Photoshop actions to edit all your photos by. I've searched for Photoshop actions similar to the instagram actions so I can continue the amazingness on my my computer, but so far I've come up short.

So it looks like all this love and amazingess will have to stay on my phone for a little longer ;)

On a separate note, I found a way to wirelessly sync my photos from my phone to my computer. This means as soon as I take a photo on my phone, it is sent to my computer, granted I'm in a wi-fi network. Pretyyy epic.

Anyway, instagram is reminding me how much I love taking photos on my iPhone. It used to be my only camera. Then I moved onto my compact, and then onto my SLR. While the iPhone can't, of course, rival the clarity or ability of my baby, it does get props for just how convenient it is. I always have my phone on me, while I don't always have my SLR on me.

Dix-Neuf

2012-02-17T19:30:00.000-06:00

Aujourd'hui, j'ai dix-neuf ans. :) Today, I turned nineteen years old.

It was the first time in a while where I had a chance to celebrate my birthday. For the past couple of years I've been at All-State during my birthday. Eight hours of practice is not much fun on your birthday :P But, luckily for me, my All-State years are over. :D Today, I got a cake for my birthday, courtesy of the amazing Hendrix caf staff. It was so much fun to eat with my friends and have caf; a good birthday lunch. And for dinner, I was able to eat with my parents. And today, I've gotten two good tests scores back; so overall it's been an amazing nineteenth birthday.

Nineteen years......is it sad that I already feel old? I mean, I do plan to live to be 107 and eleven months and all so technically I'm not that old. Still...nineteen...one last year as a teenager. Then 20, then 21 :D ...then the rest of my life.

Anyway, this is a short post; just wanted to document my nineteenth birthday :)

Il Fait Neige!

2012-02-15T14:51:00.000-06:00

Or at least it was, on Monday :) Snowing, for those of you who don't speak French.

Even though the weather channel said it was supposed to snow, it also predicted warm weather. So, I wasn't getting my hopes up. Then, Monday morning I wake up, and run to the window, peering through the blinds.

And saw that the ground had been lightly covered in snow. The snow was still raining down, the soft flakes falling against the wind.

I only had one class cancelled. After all, the roads weren't bad at all and everyone who goes here pretty much lives on campus/close by. After classes, my friend and I eagerly ran out to play (take pictures) in the snow, which was already starting to wash away thanks to the afternoon rain.

Our beautiful campus, covered in snow ;)

It was nice to see the snow, even if we didn't get much. After it being 70 something at the beginning of February, I had ruled out the possibility of snow this winter.

There were these three fir trees, nestled close together that were beautiful with the snow still clutching to their branches. For some reason, whenever I take a landscape picture, I'm never happy with how it turns out; it's always just too bland. I prefer close ups. Regardless, the fir trees were a perfect portrait opportunity

My friend :) This was my favorite out of the bunch; I like how she isn't looking straight at the camera. I've always preferred natural pictures to posed ones.

And a rare photo of yours truly ;) Being the photographer I'm always behind the lens rather than in front of it. Still, I set my camera on auto and gave it to my friend, who wanted a picture of me.

The fir tree ;)

We wandered around campus, shivering as the wind tore past us. By the end, I couldn't feel my fingers; but it was worth it. All for the shot, eh?

:) Valentine's day was yesterday, and I have nothing to complain about. Who needs a guy when you have such great friends?

I wish

2012-02-09T10:26:00.000-06:00

I promise I have a legit reason for not posting for so long. ((though I swear it feels like I just posted yesterday))

My life has been crazy, and not in the good way. In the stressful-I-hate-college-why-does-my-life-suck kind of way.

But on another, more cheery note, I did another tattoo recently. :D I was hanging out with some friends, and this picture of a tattoo was on the computer screen. It was really pretty, a dandelion that being blown away. I kept staring at it, and really wanted to draw it. So, I borrowed a black pen from someone, and sketched it on my arm.

I kept extending the little strands of dandelion until they curled around my arm and dashed up my hand.

Sadly, the ink faded reallyyyy quickly, and it was all gone in a couple of days. I would love to make my tats a bit more permanent, but no where near a real tattoo ;) I've thought about using a Sharpie, but that's a really harsh, black line. I prefer the lighter marks of pens.

And this is how crazy my life has been recently. I scheduled my day, from 1 to 11 trying to get all my work done. ((and yes, I did schedule in Criminal Minds...hey, a girl needs a break every now and then)) Somehow I managed to finish everything that was due today without too much stress.

Hopefully, things will start to slow down, just a little.

Hopefully.

Jerry-Rigged Chinese Food

2012-02-03T14:36:00.000-06:00

So I've been thinking recently.

And I think that this picture accurately sums up my college life thus far:

It's left-over Chinese food in a cup. The previous night, some friends and I headed to our favorite, dirt-cheap Chinese restaurant. They give you sooo much food; too much for a normal person to eat all in one setting, so I brought the leftovers back to the dorm and stuck them in the fridge. The next day, Tuesday, was my crazyy day. I have class from 8:15-9:30, break, class from 11-4, band 4-5:30, dinner 5:30-6, film showing for my class 6-8.

Anyway! It was during my break before 11, and I was hungry. Not hungry enough to go all the way to the caf for an early lunch, but still, hungry. Then, I remembered the leftovers still in our fridge. So I pulled out the Styrofoam take home box full of cold rice. Then I realized that we didn't have anything microwavable safe in the room. So I searched the room, and found one thing, a plastic cup, that didn't have the 'non-microwavable safe' label on it. Totally legit, right?

So I loaded the cup with the Chinese food and stuck it into the microwave. The cup now has these kind of weird crack looking things at the bottom but oh well. :P The food was good!

Anyway, I felt that that epitomized by college life. Cheap and Jerry-rigged.

Also, I've been messing around with some songs recently. Perhaps I'll post a video of my singing them.......proobbaabblly not though. ;) I only let a couple of friends hear me. Who needs judgement anyway?

My piano set up :) so much easier to practice when it's midnight, raining, and I don't feel like walking across campus to the music building.

Reason #15 why I love Hendrix: Themed Lunches. We had a Luau themed lunch :D One of the beloved caf workers-- who knows everybody's name by the second week, no joke-- handed out leis to everyone. :) They had shrimp, and crab, and all this fresh fruit; it was amazing. One of these days I'm gonna bring my camera into the caf and photograph my food ;)

Anyway! Just another little college update. Love life:non-existent. Date to Formal:non-existent. Annnd that is all.

Subliminal Messaging

2012-01-30T20:58:00.002-06:00

I dreamed about blogging last night.

I dreamed that I was writing a blog post. It was another list; like my previous ones. I think my sub-conscience is trying to tell me something. For once I have decided to listen. I haven't been taking any photos, so I haven't been writing any blog posts. It's a bad parallelism, I know.

I just never have my actual camera on me. However, I always have my iPhone on me. So I've been able to snap a few photos of my college life thus far.

Saturday nights, the cafeteria isn't open. ((You know you go to a small school if...)) This semester, my friends and I decided that we should get together Saturday nights and cook dinner.

The first Saturday it was supposed spaghetti with a cheese and red sauce, courtesy of my roommate and I (mostly her, I was just gonna make brownies from a mix). Well, she got stuck at work and couldn't make it. So, I ran to where she works on campus and recorded her telling me how to make the two sauces. Of course no recipes were involved in this discussion, nor any specific amounts. 'Just a bit of that, some that one thing, stir it for a little while, then it should be good.'

The tiny dorm kitchen was packed with all of us-- plus some other people who had the same idea we had. The scene was mainly chaos; me running about with a sack of flour in my arms, flicking the flour off my hands to a friend who questioned my cooking abilities, everyone laughing, talking, and shouting. The noodles were easy-- I almost had a heart attack trying to make the sauces. I borrowed half the ingredients from the other people cooking. I needed more flour, so I just stuck my hand in the bag a pulled out what vaguely resembled a tablespoon. The butter was evaporating, so I tossed more into the pot. The vegetable stock made it too runny, so I dumped more cheese in. The cheese wasn't melting, I ignored that, though all I could think of was 'how could this ever turn out into anything edible?' I had a few friends who helped try to tame the chaos that is a forty year old kitchen full of energetic college students with minimal cooking abilities.

It was so much fun. :D To my surprise, both of the sauces were not only edible, but quite delicious.

The picture was the noodle sculpture that resulted with one of my friends, not knowing the noodle box was opening, picked it up.

This is from the second cooking night we had; this time someone else, who had an actual recipe, was cooking, so it was less hectic. While waiting for the noodle dish to cook, we played this fun game called Banagrams. It's like Scrabble.

And this was my fortune from the Chinese we had tonight. There's this small Chinese restaurant right by campus-- they give you a ton a good food for not that much money.

So, life. I still don't have a date for winter formal...aka college prom. And here I thought high school was over. Guess not. Oh well, I'm working on it ;) We shall see....*ominous music*

Why I love Hendrix pt 3

2012-01-23T15:42:00.000-06:00

And the epic series continues! ;) Hendrix is a small college tucked away in it's own little bubble. Even though I've only been going here for a little over a semester, I'm already in love.

Maybe I love it so much because of the amazing youth group I'm in, and the retreat we did at Branson. I was driving with my friend, and the second we saw this overlook our jaws dropped and we pulled over. Well, to be more exact, first I drove past it, then past the best place to turn around, had to whip into a steep, crumbling side road, throw the car in reverse and zoom out, as there was a hill and I couldn't see if anyone was coming, and the awkwardly cut over to the overlook.

Um, yeah. My questionable driving skills aside, the overlook was amazing-- it was one of those things that was so beautiful in person, yet so hard to catch on film.

Or maybe it's because of the crazy, late night Chinese runs my roomie and I have. Turns out, no Chinese restaurant is open at 9 o'clock Sunday night. Figures. Good thing Wal-mart is always open. :D

Or maybe it's because I was able to play in the orchestra here, where I got to lug this monster around. The piece called for two different clarinets, one in the key of B-flat, and one in the key of A. Yeah. I'm a music geek.

Or maybe it's the impulse late-night Walmart run my roomie and I have which result in Oreo ice cream and a dozen doughnuts...and then maybe some popcorn we popped in the room........yeah that was a fun night ;)

Or maybe it was how we decked out our dorm room for Christmas...

Or the little snow we got? Me and a couple friends ran out, squealing, looking for the shady patches where the snow had lasted.

Or is the thank-goodness-finals-are-actually-over poker night my youth group had?

Or maybe it's this amazingly trippy tunnel we have to go under a major road. Jackie and I stopped there once after a workout just to take a picture of its gorgeous color. It's lined with lights that change colors-- and there are things you wave your hand over, and it plays a pitch. There's a riddle-- one night this really drunk guy was stumbling about in the tunnel, and showed us what the solution to the riddle was, and made the whole tunnel flash and play this tune.

Or maybe it's the picture that inspired the whole thing? After I snapped a shot of this gorgeous sunset I thought about quickly posting it, just a glimpse of how beautiful Hendrix is and much I love being here. As you can see, it grew from one little picture and a caption to...this three part mini series. I'm lucky to love my home-away-from-home this much. There are so many reasons why I'm lucky; that could make up it's own mini series. ;) But for now, I'll just stick to why I love my hippie school. :)

Why I Love Hendrix pt 2

2012-01-21T17:51:00.000-06:00

So I was totally planning on posting this yesterday but it was Friday, and Friday's are always busy. It's sad how much it hurts to write this-- like actually hurts. Quidditch practice killed my finger tips.

Umm...anyway! Continuing the love fest of Hendrix...

Maybe Hendrix is so awesome because of 1)awesome friends 2)who do awesome things like go ice skating. ;)

Or maybe it's because of the awesome church family I've made, who held a party at a pumpkin patch where this cute guy was ;)

Or maybe it's the fact that I joined the Quidditch team and then went to NYC to play in the amazing World Cup. :D

We flew to New York City for the weekend. We were up around six every morning and didn't get to bed till around midnight every night. It was an exhausting, but fun.

Also, it was sub-zero temperatures. That part might have been just a little miserable. ;)

Maybe I love Hendrix so much because of 1)the amazing friends 2)the way they talked me into dying my hair red on a whim

Or maybe it's because the opportunities I've had here, like to be apart of a chamber group. Two clarinets and a bassoon ;)

Or maybe it's because the only legit snowfall I've seen this winter was at Hendrix. The flakes were huge, softly falling to the ground. It wasn't anything more than a dusting, but it was still beautiful to watch.

Or maybe it's the amazing cafeteria/cafeteria staff, who decked out the dinning hall for Christmas.

So I really should do the physics homework I keep procrastinating about...or just keep watching Friends...

Decisions, decisions.....;)

Stay tuned for part 3!

Why I Love Hendrix pt 1

2012-01-19T20:16:00.000-06:00

I used to do this facebook status, reasons why I love Hendrix. There were some pretty epic ones, like reason #17 I just saw the milky way for the first time, and reason #1 Veasey won shirttails. I haven't written one in a while, but this post is sort of like that on steroids. I can't rank these, they are all equally amazing.

Maybe I love Hendrix so much because the epically amazing orientation trip where we went to a dude ranch?

I mean look at that face. How could you not fall in love?

Maybe it's the amazing friends I have made here?

Seriously. This was Dr. Who night. It was a scary episode ;)

Or maybe it's this wicked arm tattoo I did back in the fall. (temp! promise;)
((and okay, maybe this isn't entirely relevant, but hey, check out that tat))

Perhaps it's because we have Sundaes every Thursday??

Or maybe it's this amazing little coffee shop we have, just down the street. Perfect for spending a lazy night with friends.

Or could it be because sitting out under a tree and reading a book is a perfectly common sight? ((Les Mis if anyone is curious;))

I realized that there was no way that I could cram everything I love about Hendrix into one post so! Stay tuned for pt 2...and maybe pt 3...and maybe more depending on how many pictures I have ;)

On Calculus and Frosting

2012-01-18T21:50:00.000-06:00

aka, how my first day back at college went. It started with me staying in bed till 9:30, yay for late morning classes, and ended with my eating frosting from the can.

Good stuff ;) I had three of my four classes today; physics II, French II, and Calculus II. I have Intro into Film Studies tomorrow morning at 8:15. Which sounds like an interesting class so I'm excited. :D

Anyway, after classes, and band, and then dinner, we headed to the gym to work out, aka watch the new criminal minds episode. So good!

And now I'm eating my roomie's frosting out of a can. It's really good, even if all I have to eat it with are some crackers.

Still delicious. So worth it.

Anyway, I just wanted to post a short update. I refuse to ignore the blog during college like I did last semester ;)

Back to Normal

2012-01-17T17:08:00.000-06:00

Whatever normal is. College normal in this case, I would guess. Classes start tomorrow-- luckily for me it's a relatively easy day, classes from 10-1. Tuesday is gonna be my hell day, class from 8-9, then 11-4. D: At least I have a break for lunch.

Anyway, today I picked up my music for band, which starts tomorrow.

Also, I went shopping around town with some friends. There's a winter formal coming up-- apparently a college version of prom-- and we all needed dresses. I wasn't going to buy a dress at all; I was on this whole 'I'm not even going to go, it's not like I have a date' rant, how I wasn't going to do a pity date and preferably not even a friend date. My entire high school career consisted of my asking my guy friends to go, just as friends. Just for once I want to have an actual date.

So, I entered the shopping trip thinking 'I'm a strong independent woman, I'm not even going to go to this party'. The dresses, for the most part, were absurdly expensive. Like five hundred dollars expensive. O.O My senior prom dress I bought at a consignment shop for 25 dollars, and I loved it. There was no way that I was spending that much money on something as temperamental as a dress. ((Now a camera...that's a different story ;))

And then, as I was poking around in the expensive store, I stumbled upon a dark corner, with a small, handmaid sign posted on the wall. 'Sale, short dresses 30 dollars'. Mildly interested now, I flipped through the dresses, my 'strong independent woman' resolve crumbling like a poorly constructed sand castle.

It's a pretty knee length black lace dress with a nice silhouette. :) I fell in love with it, and for the price, I couldn't pass it up. So now I have a dress...which means I'm going to the dance....which means I have to find a date...D:

And here I thought I was actually done with high school.

Think again!

Anyway, I thought that I would post a picture of our newly arranged and slightly picked up dorm room. I have a 18-55mm kit lens and while I normally am happy with the 18 mm focal length, it just couldn't fit the entire room in the shot.

So I made a panoramic ;)

Looking past the clutter-- which is actually the best it's been since we moved in-- you can see that we have a large open space in the middle, moving just about every piece of furniture in our dorm room had it's advantages. ;)

My Break in Photos

2012-01-16T11:17:00.000-06:00

My break, sadly, is now over D: Back to like actual life and work now, like physics and calculus. Anyway, I thought I would post a summary of my break, in photos. Note, most of these were taken with my iPhone, so there may be a little lack of quality..;)

These pictures weren't actually taken coming to/from home for Christmas break. This was when I was taking a friend home. Still, same road ;) It's also considerably easier to taken photos when you are not driving. I might happen to know this by experience....

GIFTS

I got some amazing tennis shoes for Christmas; my other ones were literally falling apart. Side note, the stuff on the bottom of tennis shoes is actually important. It's tread. Cutting it off, and then trying to run is not recommended.

I also got the amazing new Zelda game for the Wii. :D :D Zelda was my childhood-- my memories are of my brother and I battling our way through Windwaker, with reliant K playing in the background :)

This actually wasn't supposed to be a Christmas present, but my parents gave my grandmother a similar one, and when I freaked out about just how cool it was, they gave me the other one they had found in France. This summer I plan on buying it film and experimenting with it ;)

CREATIVITY

I was on a creative kick this break. These are my delicious cookies that I whipped up one night on a whim.

These are my newspaper nails ;) Super easy, yet super cool

My greatest creative endeavor, making a skirt. I still haven't decided what I wanted to do with the green fabric-- perhaps cut it and sew it on the skirt rather than just tying it? I don't know.

Anyway, in other news, I traveled back to college yesterday. It was surprisingly hard to leave home, but I knew that after a month, it was time to go back. Classes start Wednesday, and we'll see if this semester is as crazy as last semester. :)

A Purse

2012-01-13T16:00:00.000-06:00

My project, all of Christmas break, was to make a purse. Unsurprisingly, only a few days are left in Christmas break so I finally got around to making it. Purses are the only thing that I feel slightly competent making. It was perhaps a year ago when, stuck at home due to an extended snow break, I got bored, and then inspired. After all, how hard could it be to sew a purse? It's just a bag. So, I gathered all the scraps from my mother's sewing kit and set about to make a purse. No pattern or anything. And, against all odds, it's actually turned out and I've been using that purse ever since. Now, it's a little-- okay gaping holes-- worn out, so I found some cute fabric from the Walmart clearance section.

I used my old purse as a model to cut the new fabric.

I've never been one to cut straight lines, but it hasn't stopped me yet ;)

The purse is basically two bags-- one is the purse and the other is the front cover.

This is the fabric for the main bag.

This is the fabric for the cover flap.

First I made a bag of the blue, and then use that to cut out the fabric for the front flap. Haha wow, I suck at writing this out. I'm more used to talking about cooking, or taking pictures of flowers. ;)

Anyway, after making the two 'bags' I sewed the flap onto the blue bag, so it flips over...like a flap..flips.

Yeah I'm just gonna show pictures now....((I also cut a thin strip of fabric and sewed it to be a strap))

Fun, custom made purse : $4.50
Gratitude at you, the reader, suffering through my writing : Priceless.

Snow!

2012-01-12T11:43:00.000-06:00

Or perhaps more accurately, snow flurries. :) Still, for someone who lives in Arkansas, snow flurries are sometimes the closest you'll get to snow. They are beautiful little creatures, like little puppies, eagerly nosing their way about. The wind blows them about, sending them scurrying left, right, and even up, a paradoxical ascent.

While these beautiful snowflakes are fun to watch, they are awful to try and photograph. However, I had to try ;)

To begin with, the snowflakes are on a different plane than the rest of the background-- they are closer to me. So, I did my best to focus on them, using manual focus and a bit of luck.

Surprisingly, I got better results once I gave up and went inside, looked out the window and grabbed my camera.

They were just so cute, rushing down before quizzically being thrown off their path by a brush of the wind.

It was completely unexpected-- the paper called for a cold, only partially cloudy day.

And while they were too small to actually accumulate on the ground, they were still fun to see.

After all, beggars can't be choosers!

Cookies :)

2012-01-10T18:08:00.000-06:00

So last night I was bemoaning the lack of sweets in our house when my mother reminded me there was nothing stopping me from baking some.

So I did. ;) There definitely are perks to being home; I'm not restricted to instant, just add water, mixes, I can actually make any types of cookies from scratch. So I opened a small cookbook tucked away in the corner of a closet, devoted entirely to cookies and desserts. Flipping through the pages, I stopped at an unassuming block of text, drawn in by the promising name frosted chocolate cookies (or something like that, to be honest the only part I really read was the chocolate).

First off, first problem. I was supposed to cream butter and brown sugar.

I beat it for a while, but it just turned into a pebbly type mixture. I just shrugged and went on to the next step. Always a good attitude to have about cooking-- eh, close enough. ;)

By the way, it is incredible difficult to both cook and take pictures of you cooking at the same time. It would be awesome to take pictures of someone else cooking. Eventually I had to set my camera aside after a little...incident of attempting to juggle both roles. Let's just say that it involved a copious amount of flour coating both the kitchen and my camera as I tried desperately to catch the falling, very open, container of baking soda.

And moving on...;)

After 'creaming' my ingredients I added more, such as milk, eggs, and vanilla. Just as a side note, there is a huge difference between vanilla and vanilla extract. The real thing smells amazing. :)

Then, I stuck a couple of squares of chocolate in the microwave to melt. Technically, as I found out later, the squares were about a year expired. *shrug* couldn't tell!

By now the mixture had a nice creamy texture to it.

I loosely chopped up some pecans from the freezer. They were from our backyard; picked in '05, yet still tasty. ;) I was rather envious of all the cooking shows I watch as I clumsily tried to both chop the pecans and keep all my fingers. The pecans kept sliding out of the way as I tried to wield the long shinny deadly looking what-you-use-if-an-ax-murder-breaks-into-your-house blade.

The now sponge-y like batter. And no, I didn't get a picture of that knife. I think my description does it justice-- aka, there is no way I'm multitasking with that blade in one hand.

They recipe was supposed to make 5 1/2 dozen cookies, and I was supposed to cut it in half. Opps...so what I did was scoop out generous size cookies.

Don't they look delicious??

While they were baking, and in between my frantic attempts to erase to amount of destruction I had unleashed upon the kitchen before my parents got home, I snapped some shots. Most turned out blurry-- the fate of many of my pictures that night. Because of the lighting, and my stubborn refusal to up the ISO above 800, most of my pictures required a 1/15-1/25 shutter speed. I once read some rule about how long a shutter speed can be with regards to focal length but at the time I had no clue what focal length even meant so I kind of just ignored it. Now I know what focal length is, but not the rule. Anyway! With the long shutter speed, and my attempts at multitasking and holding the camera precariously in one hand, a lot of my pictures ended up too blurry to post.

Eh, voila! Here is the final result. Now, also the recipe called for making a little frosting-- more like a glaze-- for the cookies. Oy, long story short, I tried to cream cold butter, here's a side note: it doesn't work; and then just stuck the whole bowl in the oven to warm to butter, and then tried to cream the now almost cooked butter, and make some sort of frosting. As it turned out, the cookies were amazing on their own, and the frosting contained pebbles of powdered sugar.

Eh, c'est la vie :)

Creativity

2012-01-09T14:35:00.000-06:00

And just like that, the streak is over D: Really over, like cold dead. I just haven't taken any photos really. Today though, I was bound and determined to break the new streak of no posting that was starting to form. ;)

Foster (aka MuFosta, nickname from one of my friends), ever a cutie ;) I took some pictures of him, but as it was inside it was dark, long shutter speed, so most turned out blurry. It doesn't help how he rarely sits still.

So I haven't just been sitting and watching copious amounts of tv-- I've been creative too! I stumbled upon (haha, not actually stumbling...ha ha which is an internet site...okay never mind)a cool technique to painting nails recently. It's super easy-- I might post a mini tutorial. Basically, after you paint your nails, you dip them in rubbing alochol and lay strips of newspaper on them for thirty seconds. ;) eh, voila!

So I was in Walmart recently, buying more yarn to complete a late Christmas gift, and I was browsing through the patterns. I've tried to create skirts before, but they've never turned out. They've always seemed so simply, theoretically speaking. I mean, after all, it's a circle. I've tried different patterns, but they have just never turned out. I was looking at dress patterns at Walmart, and they looked easy enough, simple silhouettes. I thought about how simplistic a skirt /should/ be and was suddenly bound and determined to actually make a skirt. No pattern, no nothing, just with scraps I found in my mother's sewing kit. How hard could it be? A measurement, some thinking, lots of seam ripping, and just a little frustration (okay, a lot of frustration over the horrendous machine known as a sewing machine) later----

I had myself a skirt ;) It's nothing much, but it didn't have to be; I was planning on putting this pattern fabric over it. The pattern fabric was see through-- I didn't even want to think about sewing any more.

So I took the pattern fabric and tied it over the brown, like a long sash or something. :) I'll post a picture sometime. I loved it-- and wore it to the movies later that night. As the night wore on, the pattern kept slipping until the skirt appeared almost floor length ;)

Anyway! I just wanted to write a quick update about my break. Less than a week left...not sure how I feel about that. On one hand I'm excited to go back, to start new classes (meet new people), and catch up with all my friends there. On the other hand, I'm going to miss all this sleep, and tv time, I'm getting ;)

This is my other cat, Gracie (aka Meow Meow, a very appropriate nickname one of my friends gave her). The second I sat on the floor to take pictures, taking advantage of the natural light from my window, she raced over, wanting to sit in my lap. When I shooed her off, she ran to lay on my new skirt, now covered in cat hair. ;)

Cute Custard

2012-01-06T17:51:00.000-06:00

Sorry, couldn't resist the alliteration ;)

So I really was going to end my streak today. I just haven't taken any photos! I've been soaking up the last of my break, watching lots of tv and lounging. On a side note, I've found this new series to watch, even though it was cancelled after it's first season. Still, it's good ;) And I still have the entire last season of NCIS and Criminal Minds to catch up on-- I have some more watching to do. ;)

I almost wrote a blog post entitled 'How playing the legend of Zelda taught me about Physics'...but then I realized no one would read that. Though! I must throw this in; it reinforced the idea of red/blue wavelengths in regards to the motion towards/away of stars.

Moving on! ((Zelda is ammazziinngg)) Besides my brief consideration of writing a post about my own geekiness, I was at a loss of what to post. Until I walked into the kitchen. My mom, on a dessert spree of her own, had cooked a custard pie, by itself amazing, but not considerably photogenic. Until I saw the cutest little mini custard pies she had made as well.

To make things even better, my mother had left her cookbook open. Now, it's almost a rite of passage in my family. When you get married, you get a 1950s (ish) Betty Crocker cookbook. Ya know, the one where having grey hair and wrinkles was a symbol of the knowledge and wisdom attained over your years-- not some shameful natural process to be reversed at all costs. Ahem. Okay, moving on from the social critique....

I loved the old pages as a backdrop to the mini custard. On a side note, my white balance was too warm for the entire shoot-- I've really got to find a way to fix that. Besides just using Photoshop, of course.

It's odd-- this angle seems like the one that I would want to avoid. Straight down; it seems like an angle that would be far too commonplace. Strangely, though, I like it; I like the perspective it gives, also featuring the cookbook it's sitting on.

I could never decide how warm the picture should be to accurately represent my kitchen.

This one was my favorite angle of the bunch. I loved how it focuses on the cookbook, a subtle reference to the actual custard which is slightly out of focus. Also, the portrait view is a nice break from all the landscape view photos. And so the streak continues! :D for now....

Cooking at College

2012-01-05T17:45:00.000-06:00

...or baking besties....angelic..uh..okay, I'll stop at my botched attempts at alliteration.

You didn't think I would break my blogging streak did ya?? No way! Well...almost. I haven't taken any photos since the sunset, so I was like 'well, I don't have anything to post'. But! I stumbled on a folder-- my photos are in folders by date of uploading, just the way my camera works-- of my roomie and I baking at college! I had taken the photos, put them on my computer, and promptly forgot about them, too busy with work.

There are some things that before college, I would have never imagined myself doing at college. Playing quidditch (don't judge) is one of them, baking desserts is another. ;) My roomie and I discovered the joy of instant mixes, and community fridges, this semester. We baked all sorts of cookies-- but we don't have a cookie sheet in the dorm kitchen, so we've had to use cupcake tins. We always end up with cupcake cookies; taste just as good as normally shaped cookies. ;)

However, this time we were making actually cupcakes, angel food cupcakes to be exact. ;) It was just a normal day (friday? wednesday? who remembers?) so we mixed up some cupcakes. The rules of community fridges are, no name, anyone's game (yeah so what if I just made that up off the top of my head?), right? Well, those are the rules we played by anyway. Thanks to whoever bought the unmarked thing of oil ;)

Angel food mix is probably the most magical of them all. To make this beauty by scratch would take like ten egg whites, and one very strong arm. However, with the mix, it just takes a bit of oil (and maybe an egg...all of our cooking runs together...).

And, voila! We had ourselves some cupcakes, perfect for giving away to friends, and hoarding the rest in the dorm room.

I thought I would give you a little glimpse of college life, even if it's a couple months late :P

Frozen Sunset

2012-01-04T11:37:00.000-06:00

At least that's how it felt. Of course I chose to go take sunset photos on the coldest day of the week. o.o I was wearing this sweater/tights outfit which, while arguably cute, offered no protection against the freezing wind. It tore-- at least it did in my mind-- against the lake, going right through my skimpy layers, and numbing my fingers until I could barely press the shutter down.

All for the shoot, eh? ;) Anyway, this was my first time shooting sunset pictures at the lake in a lonnngg time. My friend wasn't able to show up until after the sun had fallen behind the trees, so it was just me and another friend who, after finding the swings, was content to just stay there.

My friend is actually swinging on the other swing; I had to time my pictures so that he wasn't in them ;)

This was my first time at a winter sunset; I was surprised at how quickly the sun disappeared. I was reading this article recently, and it suggested that you find a location and sit for five/ten minutes, taking everything in, and looking for photo opportunities. If I had done that, by the time the ten minutes were up and I could actually take pictures, the sun would have been gone.

I just loved the color of the water. It was so beautifully clear, and most likely icy cold. It's probably a good thing that I didn't have anyone to be a model, like I did with my friend in the summer. They wouldn't take too kindly to my suggestion that they stand in the water so I could get some good silhouettes... That was another difference between this session and all the other times I had shoot at this lake. It was just me and the water. I couldn't rely on replicating my previous shoots, I was forced to try new stuff. And while I didn't walk away with any particular favorite, it was a good exercise, making me try new approaches to photographing the lake at sunset.

Also, I have a before/after to show you. I kept my camera on auto white balance the whole time I believe-- I just never paid any attention to it. So, my photos were rather cold. But after a while I get sick of the 'shade' setting because everything is just so warm! I read a book that advised to always shoot in 'shade' setting, as a way to warm up the photos. Normally I do, and I like the results. However, after a while, it gets tiresome, every photo being so warm. Besides, 'shade' does not work at alllll in the house. *shudder* I took a whole series of photos with the shade setting in my house once. I was young, didn't know any better. They were all so warm it was awful.

Anyway! Enough with the past mistakes ;)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I just tried to make the photo look more like it did to my eye; warming it up, enhancing some of the golden tones, ect.

Strawberry Delight

2012-01-03T10:54:00.000-06:00

So continuing on the French dessert kick mon pere is on, he attempted to make a strawberry dessert, one commonly found in all the pâtisseries in France.

It started with homemade pie crust-- problem number one. My poor father still can't make pie dough that resembles a dough consistency, but he just takes the sandy mixture and forces it to form a roughly circular shape in the bottom of the pie pan. His stubbornness normally pays off-- while it may not look good, it tastes decent.

However, this time he wasn't so lucky. He put the crust in the oven, forgetting to place a pan over the dough, weighed down with uncooked beans. This weight keeps the dough from rising too high, and pulling down on the edges. With two minutes left on the timer, he realized this mistake, and ruled the entire dessert ruined. Luckily for me, he kept going, making the custard like filling and cutting the strawberries.

Once the custard like filling had thickened and then cooled completely, he poured it over the pie dough, which had risen to a thick height. Then, he covered it with sliced strawberries.

He stuck the pan outside to continue cooling. I loved the setting. I would have never thought to put food outside on stone steps and take pictures, but I have to say, I love the results! The lighting was nice, and the stone provided a nice texture to shoot against.

When I came back inside, my dad laughed, asking if I had just taken photos of the dessert on the steps. It did sound a little odd, but like I said, I think the results made up for the odd set up.

It looked delicious, even if things hadn't gone according to plan. After a while, we brought it in and, with a little trepidation, cut out a slice. It was a little difficult hacking through the thick crust, but overall it tasted wonderful. The crust wasn't amazing, and the custard was slightly off, but c'est la vie I still thought it was tres bon

Did I mention how much I loved the stone backdrop? ;)

Desserts!

2012-01-02T10:53:00.000-06:00

Recently my parents have been on a cooking kick. Not that my mother doesn't always cook, but recently my father has been trying all sorts of new recipes he sees on tv. While he still can't make a pie crust to save his life, other attempts have turned out much better. ;) Last night we had this amazing dessert. What made it even better was just how easy it was to make it. Basically, you dump some applesauce in a pan, squeeze some lemon juice over it, and stick it in the freezer. Pretty foolproof, eh?

After sitting in the freezer for a while you pull it out, and use a fork to scrap some shavings off. These shavings going into a cup along with a dollop of yogurt that has been sweetened with maple syrup, and a dash of cinnamon.

I've pretty much pigeonholed myself as a nature photographer, but every now and then I like to break out and do something different. Food photographer has always been fun, though I know that I still have a ways to improve.

With nature photographer I have taken thousands of photos, and experimented with many different angles, ideas, ect. I've only taken less than a hundred photos of food, I just haven't had the time to really improve.

That being said, I still enjoy it ;) The main problem I had with these photos was the warmth. Every photo I take inside my house turns out really warmmmmmm, even on auto for white balance. I can change this with Photoshop, but I'm never sure what's the sweet spot being coolness and warmness for the photos.

Anyway, I'm excited for tomorrow. My friend and I are going to the local lake for sunset; hopefully I'll get some good pics! :)

Winter Lake

2012-01-01T13:36:00.000-06:00

So yesterday I hung out with my friend-- she had just got a new camera and so we headed to a local lake/park. I tried to help her-- haha, as though I know a lot about photography, the more I learn the more I realize I am such an amateur-- and show her some tips about taking photos.

Anyway, as it's winter, almost everything is dormant. All color that had graced the lake during spring and summer has now faded, replaced by the cool tones of winter. Normally, I would not have gone there to take photos-- after all what would I take pictures of?-- but regardless, that's where we headed to test drive my friends camera.

As a side note, this is the lake where I've taken all my sunset pictures at. However, we were there in the middle of the day, so sunset/silhouettes were out of the question.

I was surprised at how many photo opportunities there were, even in the dead of winter.

This strange plant was my favorite-- we have a large one in my backyard. I'm not sure what it is, but I really liked the texture of it.

I love this photo because not only do you get the good texture of the plant, but you also get the perspective and color of the lake behind it.

As always, there were some geese just hanging around. I really want to get a 55+ mm lens (aka, I want to zoom more) because my powers as a goose whisperer are sorely lacking. I try to sneak up on them and snap some closeups but they always dart into the water. What I need to do is bring some bread and tempt them with some food ;)

The sky was a beautiful winter blue, and I loved the bright color against the monotone plant.

It was the most awkward angle for me, as the plant was rather low to the ground. Still, as I crouched on the muddy bank of the lake, my tight-covered knees pressing into the damp ground, squinting the bright sunlight as I twisted my neck to get just the right angle, all I could think of was 'I love this shot'. ;)

In other news, I actually made a facebook page for my Photography! :D
Click here! It's small, but I'll be adding more photos as I go along. :D

So I can't believe this is my first post of 2012! The blog is on its way to be one year old....wow, that's old. My other blog that I started before abandoning, didn't last very long at all. This one I've been stubborn with-- I don't care if no one reads it, I am going to continue to post. Readers are just a plus ;)

2011 was a year of huge change when I sit down to actually think about it. I graduated from high school and I started college in a new city. I lived away from home for the first time. I made new friends. I improved in my photography. A lot has changed....but that just makes me excited for 2012. What will it be like, exactly one year from now? What will my reminiscing be about? The amazing summer bar tending job I landed? The boyfriend I got? The friends I made? I don't know, but I'm excited ;)

Before and After: Drastic

2011-12-31T14:23:00.000-06:00

Okay! Now for the pictures I promised! On a side, note, third post in three days-- I think I'm on a blogging streak. We shall see. As soon as college starts back up this streak will be gonnnee I can assure you that.

Anyway, I was able to hang out with my friend today-- so glad! I was beginning to feel socially deprived; being bedridden can do that to ya. I was trying to help her with her camera, though it's auto settings really through me for a loop. Granted, when I started out as a photographer I used my iPhone; totally auto. Even when I moved onto my compact camera stage it took a lot of convincing from different articles and books before I made the plunge to full manual. It took a while to get used to; but once you go manual you don't go back. ;)

I couldn't imagine using an auto setting now; I'm too used to being able to chose where I want to focus and how I want to expose. My baby spoils me ;) On a sad note, this baby is not a boyfriend, it is a camera. o.o Oh well, c'est la vie.

Anyway! Enough talking. Now, this change is not as good as it could be. I'm not perfectly happy with the end result but what I really wanted to do was to show you what's possible. With Photoshop, everything about a model can-- and sometimes is-- changed for advertising. Notice the hair color, the finger nail color, the shape of the face, the make-up, the smooth, light skin. Model Source

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Like I said, not perfect. However, I hope that you can see from the small example, how much can change. I tried to get rid of the fake flowers on her head but that was a messsss :P I did not have enough patience.

If you're interested in a more in-depth example (with more emphasis on the whole transformation, not only photoshop), check out this really cool video...

Dove Evolution

:)

Photoshoot with the kityyy

2011-12-30T14:33:00.000-06:00

I know, I know, I made all these promises about another drastic before and after ;) Wellll, it's taking longer than I thought it would. I can't find any of the old ones I did-- they are probably lost on a computer at my old school. It's actually really hard to find a photo to edit. There needs to be a drastic change, so the photo can't already looked polished. The best photos are pretty people who think that they only way they will look sexy are in unflattering angles and closeups. That was my last one I did, but anyway, I'm working on a couple now to post later. ;)

So yesterday I read about this thing called 'slow sync flash' which is a weird technique that I kind of understand. Anyway, I had my camera out and was just messing with it. Foster, the most adorable kitty in the whole wide world, was sleeping next to me on the couch. I started to snap photos of his adorableness

Kind of like portraits, right? Just with a furry client :P

He was an easy subject to shoot, languidly watching me as I took his picture.

Cutest. Kitty. Ever. And of course, I'm not biased at allll.

;)

Before and After: Portrait

2011-12-29T11:15:00.000-06:00

It has been a while since I've posted two times in row, but I'm currently sick as a dog, confined to a couch surrounded by Kleenexes and cough drops so I've had some free time. ;) In between huddling under a blanket and taking as much prescription drugs that my doctor would let me, I've been messing around on Photoshop. It seems like forever ago, but it's been less than a year, I started to get into Photoshop 'makeovers'. I knew that advertising companies did these to the extreme to create the finish products that now grace the covers of magazines and billboards everywhere. Most people have at least heard that models are airbrushed, and their beauty in debt to Photoshop. Still, hearing this, and seeing the drastic before and after are two very different things. So, I started to learn how to completely change a person in Photoshop, aiming to show that the misleading advertisements rested solely on the magic of Photoshop.

Recently, though, I've been interested in editing portraits. I've only ever done drastic changes, so I set out to edit a portrait with the aim to only enhance the natural beauty. It was hard to resist the urge to go back to what I know-- to change the facial structure, to add makeup, to change the hair color, to make the eyes larger, ect, ect. All this I was used to doing, but this time I tried to scale it back. I wanted a finished product that was just an enhancement, not a completely different person.

Before:

Now, the start out, the picture is way too dark. The main problem is the face area-- the rest of the picture is rather light. So, I used the levels function of Photoshop to lighten the picture up and then applied a layer mask to get rid of the areas that didn't need any lightening.

It's hard to explain every little thing I did to enhance to the photo-- but if you have any questions, just ask. I will draw your attention to how I got rid of the brown roots, enhanced the eyes, and lightened the area underneath the eye. Also, I made the teeth whiter, and got rid of some minor blemishes.

*drumroll* and the final result is....

After:

The changes I made weren't overly drastic, just enough to enhance what was already there. I tried to stay true to the original-- it was hard not to turn the eyes green, or blue. ;)

In the next post I'll show you a drastic before and after-- how advertisement companies drastically change a model to fit societal 'ideals'.

A Change of pace

2011-12-28T16:11:00.000-06:00

Merry belated Christmas! :) I spent Christmas day at my grandparents house. It was so nice to see family, and eat far more than I really should. It's sort of like a second Thanksgiving.

Anyway, we took a walk around a nearby lake to work off all that food-- so worth it, but I'm going to have to live at the gym next semester.

It had recently rained, so there was an abundance of puddles, and thus reflections. Which are like my favorite subject to shoot. The trick to the flip the photo are you take it-- so that the trees are pointing in the 'right' direction. What I want to do is include people in my reflections. Reflections always seem like a glimpse into another world, so crisp and clear. The only problem is sometimes they are too crisp and clear, and people don't realize that they are reflections.

We came upon the cutest little duckling. It was just a ball of fluff. I slid along the mud of the shoreline, trying to get a closeup of the baby. It chirped and complained, ran to hide behind its mom, before it admonished me from this safe location. It's mother didn't share the worry, and placidly continued to clean itself. I didn't want to actually lay down in the mud to get the picture, but I did want that ground level perspective.

This Christmas was the first one that I took pictures at. All of the pictures of my cousin's two kids were taken with compacts-- nothing wrong with that-- and with heavy flash. Heavy flash just kills the shot. It gets rid of all the natural lightening, makes the background too dark, and the subject too bright. It just doesn't look natural. I was looking at those pictures and thinking 'hey, I could do better than that' so I grabbed my camera and started shooting.

The lightening was awwfuulll. It doesn't look dim when you're there, but when you try to take a photo, you have to up the ISO or your shutter speeds will be farr too long. So, most of the pictures I took while we were opening presents are grainy. And even then the shutter speeds were long enough to get some motion blur-- but I was all for it if it meant no flash.

He is a cutie! About 80% of the photos I took of him were of him with something or other in his mouth. At one point he was just gnawing on the presents themselves. ;) The light hurts his eyes-- another reason why I really want to avoid any flash.

This was outside-- it was amazing the difference it made. It was cloudy, so I didn't think it would be bright, but it was far brighter than inside, making shooting photos a lott easier.

I've never really taken photos of people; my main subject is nature. This is mostly because that's what has always been available to me-- I just have to step outside. Shooting people takes a lot more work...yeah that does sound wrong. Um, anyway, this was my first time to focus more on the people than anything else. And I have to say, I enjoyed it. I never thought that I would be into portraits, but I would really like to try my hand at it. Free portraits anyone? :P

Recently I saw someone my age who is also an amateur photographer has a photograph page on facebook. It's something that I've thought of but I also figured that was a little bit down the road, when I'm a better photographer with a better portfolio. Besides, who would like my page now? While I've taken a lot of photos, and improved a lot, I still have a loonnnnggggg way to go.

But that's what makes it fun ;)

Morning Light

2011-12-24T12:28:00.000-06:00

Well, kind of. Even though it is noon, the sun had this soft, light glow about it, nothing harsh at all. Guess that just comes with winter. Sorry about the delay in posting-- I just haven't taken any photos, so no posts. ;) However, as I was about to sit down to watch some tv a single red leaf, stubbornly hanging onto a bush caught my eye. I had dismissed the yard as soon as I had come home. It looked dismal and dull-- what could I possibly shoot? Still, that one leaf had caught my attention so I bundled up and grabbed my camera.

The leaf that started it all ;)

And then I caught up in the wonderful light and tried to do self portraits-- which I absolutely suck at. However when you're the photographer, there are never any pictures of you-- only pictures of everyone else. So, often times the only way to get a picture of yourself is to take it yourself. Regardless, that took up most of my time-- experimenting with different settings, different angles. I learned that back light is the way to go-- it painted the scene with a soft diffused light.

Recently I dyed my hair red, and started just messing around to see if I could capture the way the light hit it.

And I rather liked the results ;)

Fun with Lights

2011-12-20T15:56:00.000-06:00

Christmas lights that is ;) We set up our Christmas tree yesterday. The only trees left to buy were skimpy, sad looking ones, but hey, it's still a Christmas tree.

Recently, I wondered if it was possible to take a double exposure with a SLR camera. When I looked online, everyone was just like 'oh, do it in photoshop'. However, I believe there is merit to unedited photos. I love photos that are magical straight from the camera, the ones that don't need hours of photoshop work. So, I was playing around with my camera last night around the christmas tree. It was rather dark in the room, so I had a long shutter speed.

So, I started to just mess around with the camera, seeing what would happen. I found that I could make the lights turn into whimsical streaks of light that I could command.

Then, I lowered the ISO to a crazy low number-- like 100-- just to give me more time to play around. I ended up with a shutter speed around three seconds. On the mantle of the stone fireplace sat a key. I have no idea where this key came from, or if it opens anything, it was just lying there. Probably a souvenir from France, bought at a Sunday market. Anyway, I had already been experimenting with what I called 'manual double exposures'. I had three seconds to shoot, so for half the time I would point the camera at one spot then spin around and point it at another spot for the rest of the exposure.

I loved the results-- almost like a double exposure, except there were no clean lines, as the shutter speed was so long everything was blurry. I might check to see if I can remotely set off the flash, and possible freeze an image before moving....create some clean lines...hm. Ah, my winter break will be busy ;) Anyway, back to the magical key. It was lying there so I picked it up and balanced it against a picture frame. Then, I took a picture, with around 1.5 seconds of the key and around 1.5 seconds of the Christmas tree-- way out of focus, since the focus had been on the close tree. The resulting picture was my favorite of the bunch. :)

Christmas Break

2011-12-18T16:52:00.000-06:00

...has officially begun :D I'm finally back home with my family, ready for a month of relaxation. My body waited until the moment finals were done before deciding it wanted to make my life suck. Fever/sore throat/the works. Anyway, I'm just glad I didn't have to go through this during finals.

Now I don't want to just do before/afters buuuttttt there was this dramatic one that I just had to show you. My friends and I were walking through this meadow, it was overcast, and getting dark. None of the pictures turned out as I wanted them to; I just wrote all of them off as hopeless. Then, I just started to play around with one of the pictures, just seeing what I could create. I came up with this beauty ;)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This was taken when I first got my SLR-- I wasn't used to all the settings and such; I think my white balance is off. Anyway, I thought it was just hopeless until I opened in photoshop and started working on it. I tried to recreate what the scene looked like to my eye. I don't know if I prefer the after-- I don't know how true to reality the image ended up being. I just kept editing and editing :P

Still, I like how drastic the change is ;)

Before and After

2011-12-14T14:15:00.000-06:00

So yesterday, after it really hit me that school was over for the semester, I started to edit all the photos that I didn't have time to touch during school. I came across one that while cool, seemed hopeless. It was too dark; hard to tell what was going on-- I wasn't sure if I was going to post it on facebook or not. ((Sad side note, that's where my pictures are put. Facebook. Where no one ever looks at them. I put some up on DA but it takes forever to upload one photo-- and you have to name every one.))

Anyway, I just started to mess around on photoshop, trying to salvage the photo. I remember what the scene looked like to my eye-- I tried to recreate it. Below are the fruits...haha...of my labor. :)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

...c'est finis?

2011-12-13T16:42:00.000-06:00

...it's over.

First semester. Over. Gone. Done with. Don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic that finals are over. I have never been through something so stressful and difficult. I just finished my last final. And I just checked my grades-- I have that one A, calculus, required to keep my scholarship.

I guess I'm just in shock. It hasn't hit me yet that it's all over. It'll probably hit me tomorrow night, or the next day, as I drive to my grandparents house. It'll hit me that all my friends that I made this semester will be gone, and I won't see them for a month. O.O Granted, I'll get to see my friends back home, so that will be fun too.

Still...after all the stress...after all the hard work...first semester is over. It's odd-- I had just constructed a new routine that I'll now miss. I'll miss have physics three times a week with all the guys I met. I'll miss having Calculus with Lauren four times a week. I'll miss my amazing Cal teacher. I'll miss my journey's class, and all the amazing people I had it with.

Though I must say, I am really looking forward to a month full of sleep and relaxation. I feel like I need it-- finals really killed me. I've gotten so little sleep, and so much stress lately. And now all I can do is wait for the grades to be posted.

But until then! I figured that I would post a couple pictures of our decked out for Christmas dorm room. I never did post any pictures of the dorm like I said I would....;)

Snow Pictures

2011-12-09T13:38:00.000-06:00

So this morning was my Physics exam. It actually was better than I thought it would be-- I think I did decent on it; though it will probably be a while before I know my grade.

Anyway, before we head home to pick up a friend, I had some down time and decided to finally get around and edit my snow pictures. ;)

I had to take an out of focus picture simply because I love the dreamy way it paints the scene. It gets rid of all the small distracting details and presents you only with the large picture.

We had only got a dusting of snow so our snowman was a baby one ;)

Snow Day

2011-12-07T22:01:00.000-06:00

At least that's what today felt like. ;) In reality, it wasn't like college was closed for the brief dusting of snow we received. However, class are over....and finals have begun. I'm lucky as I have until Friday for my first final-- and reading day started on Tuesday. So both Tuesday and Wednesday and most likely Thursday were comprised of a weird combination of sleep and intense-- or at least the attempt there of-- study. My hardest final, physics, is on Friday and I'm worrieedddd. I would love to have a later post saying how the final really wasn't my worst nightmare in hellish reality and that in fact it went rather well, and I escaped with a B in the class. However, while the teacher did assure me that most likely I would end up with a B in the class, providing I didn't bomb the test, I'm still worried.

After all, I'm supposed to be a Physicist. Are they supposed to be good at Physics? It's just so different from everything that I have ever done. I love it. I love the moments when all the fog flies away and I realize that I can describe the physical world with math. I keep telling myself that's what matters-- that I enjoy it, not that I don't have a natural knack for it.

We watched Water for Elephants last on Monday night. Also, I died my hair red Monday night. Hahaha I may post pictures last. Anyway! The point of this was to say that while watching the movie all I could do was think 'that could have been me'. Not the whole circus act but Robert Patterson's character. The vet. That was almost me. I wanted to be a large animal vet until I was like sixteen. I had it all planned out-- I wanted to work outdoors, I wanted to go from farm to farm, doctoring the cattle, the sheep, the horses, goats, chickens, whatever need help.

And now I'm on my way to become an Astrophysicist and quite possibly an astronaut. Sometimes I wonder if I was really sure when I turned down the idea of being a vet. What I wanted, was really James Heriot's job. He was a farm vet in the 1930s over in England. I told myself that things had changed, that my job would be different. Vets have become crazy specialized since then. I heard the horror stories about how arrogant horse people are. Eventually I fell in love with the heavens and everything changed. I can barely imagined what things would be like if I had kept true to my first dream. I wouldn't be at Hendrix; I think there was one school in Arkansas that had veterinary sciences. I wouldn't be surrounded by the people I am now-- it would be a lot more country folk. It's not like I ever thought that the job would be glamorous so I wouldn't be surprised by the blood mud and guts I would have to deal with.

It's just so weird to think about how everything could be totally different. Normally I don't think about it, but watching the movie, as Robert Patterson's character doctored the horses, it just reminded me.

That could have been me.

So close

2011-12-02T21:24:00.000-06:00

...and yet so far. Finals are coming up-- the end of the semester is coming up, Christmas break is coming up. It seems like we are just so close to leaving, yet so far, seeing how finals are the barrier standing between me and break. o.o

Oy.

Anyway, I thought I would post some pictures in an attempt to procrastinate from studying for finals. ;)

I love the dreamy, out of focus vibe on this one...

I love the vintage feel of this-- as if it was shot during WWII and not a week ago.

Berries of the Gods

2011-11-26T16:44:00.000-06:00

So this morning I ventured out into my yard. It was cloudy, but I knew that it was only going to get worse and start raining this afternoon so I figured I would get some shots in while I could.

It surprised me how quickly fall had turned into winter. One of the saddest realizations since going to college is how I'm going to miss so much from back home. I'll miss all the days I took for granted, watching the leaves turn, taking photos. I guess I'll start trying to get home more often so see not only my family but also my yard. Hendrix has the most beautiful campus, it's true, but it's not home.

Anyway, I went out in the windy weather to take photos. Seeing how it was dark and windy, getting clear shots was tricky. I had such a slow shutter speed that wind easily blurred my photos. So, I upped my ISO and went on. I got some good shots-- decent, but the fun was found in taking them. Then, I stumbled on the 'shot of the day'.

Every time that I take photos there's something-- some location, some perspective-- that makes me immediate go 'that's the shot, that's what I have been looking for'. Today I discovered this bush that hangs over our fence. It was covered in purple berries. As soon as I saw it I was like 'this is it!' I knew that these would be the best photos out of the lot.

And what can I say, I love them! Granted, after I loaded them onto the computer and further examined them, I saw that a lot of them were blurry. :( What looks clear on a camera screen does not look clear on a computer all the time.

Still, some of them turned out. :) For some reason I seem to have an obsession with berries lately. They are my new white flower :P There was this white flower that bloomed in my backyard. I took a picture of it at least once a day-- it was the flower I went straight to once going outside. Eventually I told myself that I would have to branch out, but I still loved shots of that white flower.

On another note, I have to post some before and after's soon! I've kind of developed my own action, one that I love dearly :D It lightens the photo and adds a purple-ish tint that can very easily be switched to any other color. It was used on the first two photos above. :)

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T16:26:00.000-06:00

Weird thing is, I've been wanting to post ever since my last post but I've been away from internet connection during Thanksgiving. Now that I'm home, I can post away! While my grandparents may not have internet connection, they do have a beautiful, and large backyard. (couple of acres I think)

I'm worried that I'm reverting to any old phase I went through-- over photoshoping....I don't know though, I love the light, almost washed out dreamy feeling these photos have. I should post some before and after's sometime.

I loved the perspective of this. I was basically shooting blind-- I turned my camera up, put it below the flower and just clicked away.

This is a more normal picture of the flower :) Like I said, I hope I'm not over doing the photoshop on these pictures.

You have no idea how much I love reflections. ;) Soo muchh..

I had some difficulty in capturing this reflection, there were leaves below the water and I didn't want to focus on them, just the watery tree.

So I'm back home now-- slightly sad, seeing how mes parents aren't here aussi. But oh well, I'll see them soon enough. Next time I see them I'll be on Christmas break. :D

Fall Break Photos

2011-11-21T17:17:00.000-06:00

What? Another post so soon? Ce n'est pas vrai!

Yeah, so my parents are in France currently and I'm super jealous. I'll be spending Thanksgiving at mes grandparents, without them. Mais, I'm also very happy for them to get the opportunity to go to France again.

Anyway! This is kind of my treat for finishing my lab report before orchestra practice today. It was my last bit of work standing between me and Thanksgiving vacation. After orchestra tonight I have to turn in my report and go to Cal class on Tuesday and then I'm free. :D

I'm lying in my dorm bed now, typing away. It's really sad-- I've pretty much given up on NaNo. College and life have been keeping me incredibly busy; I'm roughly 10k behind. I may try to catch up over break but I also really want to just relax and enjoy myself. This last few weeks have been crazy busy and stressful and once I get back from Thanksgiving break it will be even more crazy and stressful. So I do need to actual relax, and not stress out over Thanksgiving.

Oy. Stress. I haven't really noticed it, I mean I know I'm stressed but it never bothered me much. However, I may be getting TMJ because of it-- my jaw hurts like hell whenever I open it to like eat or something.

Anyway! I haven't posted pictures in forever so I thought that I would post some of my pictures from my fall trip home....if they ever load....

I loved the feeling of this-- all faded and artsy.

I love the lighting of this one.

I loved sitting/crouching under the tree to get this perspective.

I just love the faded feeling of this photo.

Oy.

2011-11-20T22:42:00.000-06:00

Wow, it really has been forever since I last posted! I'm only posting to avoid working on my physics; I have a test tomorrow that I just might fail D: so much to learn, so little time. I know, I know, I should be studying-- which is what I have been doing for the past few hours, as soon as my trio performance let out. It's just so much to learn....though I think I'll manage. Either way, when she adds the lab to our grade, my grade will drastically improve. Which reminds me, I need to finish my lab report due Tuesday...I'm almost done with it, I have to write the abstract and that's it.

Oy. Life. It's just been crazy hectic. If I have time, and internet connection over Thanksgiving break I'll try to post pictures of my crazy adventures, like going to the Quidditch World Cup in NYC. :D

Yup, I play quidditch.

And I wonder why I'm single...

Juuusttt kidding, quidditch is not the reason why I am alone. Wow, this is taking a depressing turn. New topic! About how much I dislike physics currently. Yes, a much better topic to talk about. I would love to post photos from my fall trip home but I just lack the time. Once I'm doing procrastinating here, I'm going to take a shower, then read as much for Journey's as I can before I fall asleep.

Fun times, fun times. I would say I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving break-- and I am-- but not as much as everyone else because mes parents decided to leave me and go to France for a month; which means I'll be at my grandparents for Thanksgiving and then home alone for the rest of break.

Oh well, plenty of time to take pictures. ;)

And now I really must end this little effort at procrastination. It's really all my fault-- I was the one who chose to go to the movies with my friends this afternoon. Movie sucked, but it was so much fun to hang out with friends.

Time Flies

2011-10-15T13:42:00.000-05:00

I know, I know, I keep rehashing this idea of how the time flies by but it's so true!

This weekend was fall break for me-- I came home for the first time in nine weeks on Wednesday. I wish I had another week off, but I have to head back to college on Sunday. Upon arriving I have only a couple of days to write a paper, due my physics homework, and get ready for a mid-term.

So it's gonna suck.

But then, we're going ice skating :D Light at the end of a very dark, dingy tunnel. :P

So, guys suck. Nothing new really. Oy.

Anyway, on a happier note, fall break has been so much fun-- seeing all my old friends back home, seeing my pets, family, piano...;)

Which reminds me, I need to go practice said piano.

See ya!

2011-09-22T12:38:00.000-05:00

Oy! It seems like I wrote that last post just last week, not half a month ago.

College is crazy like that. In youth group he asked us how our week was going/had gone. I summed it all up into 'equal parts stress and fun'.

Foam party was fun. :D

Journey's paper is not.

My....date.....*insert dramatic theme music* was fun :D

Mission Trip Admission essays are not.

Oy I'm running out of fun things.

But I still have a list of stressful things that I can run through. But I'll spare you.

Anyway about my date..... Technically my first date ever though it didn't really feel like a 'date'. Haha k kept referring to it as 'those things' as though he didn't want to use the word date. Hm. It was nice-- he's cute and really funny, though most of his jokes I don't get. For example :

Him: You know what making an assumption does...
Me: *groan* Yesssss my friend told that every day
Him: It makes an as out of umption.
Me: ...that's not as good as assume....
Him: Well it was a joke...I figured you knew assume so I said assumption....

Yeahhhh. He's funny without the jokes :P Annyyywayyy. I don't know! We hugged goodnight. Which is cool? I guess. It's an improvement over nothing I suppose. ;)
I don't know! The major problem with it is I was the one who asked him out to coffee. I liked him, but was unsure if he liked me back. So I eventually mustered up the courage to ask him to coffee-- sick of wondering if he would ever show any interest.
I hate being the guy in the relationship. I would much rather be asked out than to do the asking.

Beggars can't be choosers?

Relationships Suck

2011-09-09T17:29:00.000-05:00

Not like I'm in one or anything.They just suck.Mostly in the way they make you feel. And not the whole lovey-dovey gooey happy way. The whole 'oh course they don't like me back, how could they?'. The whole internal debate on whether or not your crush feels the same way about you. And if they are like most guys, it's neigh impossible to tell. So you over analyze everything motion that they make, every word they say. Every time they don't text back. o.oYeah, it's stupid. And that's why I hate relationships. Tomorrow I just may post a post about how I just love relationships. We'll see.

Life so far

2011-09-04T21:38:00.000-05:00

So I just finished my first full week of classes.

Goodness, it seems like we have been here a lot longer than that. o.o And we have-- we've been here for half a month plus a few odd days. Anyway, it's the holiday weekend, which means a chance to finally catch up on some sleep. ;)

Saturday night was full of Dr. Who-- I'm so hooked. It was only my second time seeing it but I'm already in love.

Too bad that can't happen with some guy here....O.o

Anyway! I adore that show and love spending my nights with my friends, huddled under a blanket in the SLTC grabbing each other and screaming every time something scary happened. which was quite often ;) goooodd timessss.

Anyway, today was pretty laid back. Church, then lunch with friends, walmart run with my car loaded down with car-less friends, productive music practice, dinner, then hairspray. :) First time watching the movie-- I loved it and it made me want to dance. Which I really can't do. But still.

So it appears like this has turned from a photo blog to a blog blog. Sorry 'bout that. I may change the privacy settings so only I can read it. Secret blog diary. ;) Haha we shall see.

Winning!

2011-08-28T10:09:00.000-05:00

We won!!!!!

I supposed I should tell you what we won.

SHIRTTAILS!!!!

Shirttails is a dance competition between all the dorms here. At the end, a winner from the girls dorms, and a winner from the guys dorms is chosen.

Yeah, we won. :D

The victory was especially sweet because of stuff we had heard the other dorms saying about us. The other dorms said that they didn't care who won as long as it wasn't Veasey ((us)). Which made us wanna beat everyone that much more. ;) We are just viewed as sluts-- though all the dances were equally racy. It's just the stereotype of Veasey. However, we worked our buts off this week preparing the dance. It had intricate formations and tricky moves. And it had the Veasey crawl. ;) Of course.

Anyway, I have bruises all up and down my leg, and a monster one on my hip-- Shirttail scars. It's bittersweet because it's all over. One performance and that was it.

But it was amazing. When they called our name as the girls winner we all rushed towards the brick pit and formed a massive huddle. Then, we all took off for the fountain and jumped in-- winner's rights ;) though the grounds people/faculty of some sort weren't too happy about this.

After we all got soaked we ran back to the dorms. We had roughly thirty minutes to transform sweaty and soaked into sexy and fresh. There was a concert/party right after Shirttails. Super Mash Bros or something like that. So we quickly changed and tried to wipe off all the sweet and then headed to the concert. The concert was my type of party-- I could have stayed there all night. Dancing, music, and not in an enclosed dorm room space like the Martin parties are. My roommate prefers the Martin parties-- why I have no clue. I prefer the more open, concert like parties.

Unfortunately we didn't get to stay long because we were all starving. So, we-- Brittany, Lauren, and I-- all went to my car and headed to Taco Bell. Haha cause that's just what Veasey girls do.

After Taco Bell, we really wanted something sweet-- but it was 11 and everything was closed. Except McDonald's! So we went there to get some dessert. Then, it was back to Hendrix where Brittany went off to the Martin party and Lauren followed mostly to see what a Martin party was like. I came up to my dorm room and collapsed into bed.

And that was the night :) Today I'm meeting my parents are a local Lutheran church around 10:45 then going out to lunch. They brought with them two small bookcases for our dorm room-- much needed storage space.

Anyway, just another college check in. :D It was so loud in Veasey last night, every girl was screaming at the top of her lungs, the sound bouncing off the stairwell walls.

So much fun :)

1st Party!

2011-08-25T00:02:00.000-05:00

So, the most important news of today is that I found my phone! :D Some kind soul returned it to lost and found, where I picked it up and starting squealing. And texting. And calling. And playing games.

It's so nice to have it back.

In other news, I went to my first college party-- aka my roommate/best friend drug me to a party.

*shrug* I didn't have a bad time per se, I just didn't have a good time. It was in a dorm, so there were four dorm rooms which were the 'dancing' rooms aka small torture cells. ;) Justt kiddinnngggg. It was packed, hot, and people were sweaty. There was no way to talk to anyone-- most people were too drunk to talk to anyway.

Oh, well. I left early, and practiced our Shirttails routine with some other girls. I can now say that I've been to a party-- and I also know that I haven't missed out on the others that I chose not to go to. ;)

Anyway, the only way that I went to this party was because I have absolutely no classes tomorrow. Some people there partying had 8 am classes. O.o Not too smart.

Tomorrow, the only thing on the list is possibly laundry, playing for the band director (oh no, not intimidating at all), a walmart run, and shirttails practice for three hours.

Oh the life of a college student ;)

College Woes

2011-08-23T13:31:00.000-05:00

Yup, it's started early.

You see, I lost my phone. I've checked everywhere I can possibly think of, to no avail. Hopefully someone will find it and turn it in to the lost and found soon.

Hopefully.

Besides that, I've gone to a total of two college classes so far. The first one, Journey's wasn't bad and I had Cal I this morning, which was fun. Haha, at least my definition of fun.

We had Shirttails practice last night. Shirttails is this dance competition here at Hendrix. All the dorms preform dances and then judges determine the winning dorm.

To put it in the nicest possible manner, the dances here aren't...really classy. However, that's just Shirttails. The dance my dorm is doing is athletically challenging-- by the end of the practice I realized just how out of shape I really am. ;) My roommate is soaking it up and having a great time-- she is a dancer so the moves come easy for her. Regardless, it's gonna be crazy. Our routine is five minutes long, and we preform this Saturday. And so far we know maybe thirty seconds-- at most.

So on top of classes and homework, we also have two hour Shirttails practices at night. But it's gonna be fun ;)

Duddeeee

2011-08-21T16:26:00.000-05:00

I just got back from the dude ranch. :D

So much fun.

There were two ranch dogs and one ranch kitty.

So cute! :)

Of course the horses there were beautiful as well. I didn't take my fancy camera along on the ride but I did manage to snap a few photos with my iPhone that I'll post later.

So, college officially starts tomorrow, though we only have Journeys. On Tuesday, all classes start.

Wow. That's soon. I mean I just kind of got used to living here, the idea of being here, and now all the sudden, another element is thrown in. Actual school. ;) Up till now it hasn't really felt like school, but some sort of summer camp. It's just starting to hit me that I'm not going home in a couple of days. o.o

College Life

2011-08-17T10:32:00.000-05:00

So I'm sitting here in my dorm, in the briefest moment of free time before lunch. Lunch is the final parent goodbye thing. Brit's parents already left, but mine stayed the night.

So moving in was crazy. So mucchhhh stufff! So much. Probably too much. ;) Oh well. Our dorm room is starting to vaguely resemble a somewhat organized dorm room. The only problem is the beds are approximately eight inches from the ceiling-- I've already hit my head multiple times.

It's also been crazy busy here. This orientation week-thing is jam packed with all sorts of stuff. I just got done with my French placement test. I'm thinking I'll place in 2nd semester French I but I'm not sure. Some of it was easy and then some of it....*shudder*. Suffice to say, I've never understood future tense nor the whole de/des/a/ect. And then at the end of the test they had some culture questions. Though I just looked up one of the culture questions and found that I guessed right! They said that most people ended up in either 1st semester or 2nd semester French I.

The only problem that I forsee with the whole French thing is that they have one French teacher here at Hendrix and I haven't heard anything good about her....but oh well, I shall see.

Whew, it's been crazy. ;) Super busy. Today we're setting up our tentative schedules online and then tomorrow we're meeting with our adviser to set up our schedule. And then for the OR trip-- dude ranch! :)

2011-08-14T17:30:00.000-05:00

Wow. I can't believe it is already the 14th. The 16th is when I move into college. The days just keep flying by me-- it's surreal.

Anyway, we got back from our family trip last night-- late, late last night. Tonight, I'm dying my hair. Nothing too drastic, mind you. Just a nice little red streak in my hair. :) My friend, and future college roommate, is dying the tips of her hair purple.

We will be ready for college :D

Well, sort of.

As ready as we're gonna be.

Oddly enough, this is starting to turn more into a blog, blog rather than a photo blog.

Sorry 'bout that. I'm busy, getting ready for college, and don't have too much time to spend editing and uploading pictures. I will have tons of pictures of our dorm and such, don't worry :D

Quick Update

2011-08-09T20:08:00.000-05:00

I do believe that this is the longest that I have gone without posting in a while...sorry! I've been busy-- I'm on vacation now. Last vacation with the family before I go off to college. Which is soon.

Really soon.

Like, one week from today I will be moving into the dorms.

One week.

That's it.

Wow. Umm, yeah. Anyway, one week. I move in, we go on a horseback riding trip :D and then school starts. It's going to be surreal, not walking into Chem everyday, sitting next to Cody, and talking with Brittany. I won't walk with Katie to every class-- I won't have the seven student French class with the sweetest teacher. I'll have all new teachers-- all new classes, all new classmates, all new campus....

Gonna be fun ;)

Anyway, no photos today, just me freaking out about college. That is all.

;)

Two flashlights and one dark meadow...

2011-08-06T13:04:00.000-05:00

Add two friends, and it all equals one fun night ;)

To begin with, the sun was just setting...

And it was beautiful (: I also took a panoramic, which I'll post later. Anyway, just as I was admiring the sunset, which was very quickly fading, my friends were fed up with the attacking bugs. We had, of course, neglected to bring any bug spray. I was so enamored with my new camera, and trying to work my tripod that they bugs barely made a dent in my mind. ;) However, the sun was just low enough so the sunset was mostly over, but it was really too light to do light trails. So, we drove back into town to my friends house and grabbed some much needed bug spray.

Then, back to the meadow for more photos. (: The 'meadow' by the way, has its own back story, I don't believe I've told here... It's this beautiful field, surrounded by trees, on the outskirts of town. I honestly don't remember how I first heard of it. I think it was through one of my friends, who heard about it through her friends. One guy from our school had found it, and had left a note for the owner, asking if he and his friends could come there sometimes-- to stargaze and the like. The owner responded, though a note I think, that as long as he didn't do anything destructive it was all good. And so it trickled through our friends and I heard about it. The first time I went was with two of my friends. It was mostly called the firefly meadow then because that is why we went-- to see the fireflies.

We got there, it was pitch black, lit only by the moon. It was pretty isolated, surrounded only by other fields. I hesitate to say 'fields' because nothing was being cultivated. Imagine long pastures, with large trees bordering it. (: Anyway, we climbed over the gate, nervously peering into the darkness. I had seen too many tv shows, and so everything I heard just had to be an ax murderer waiting in the shadows. Then, I looked over the meadow. Hundreds of fireflies flickered across the long grass. It was magical.

Over the years we went back many times. First, it was just to see the fireflies. Then, it was to stargaze. One time it was a group of roughly ten of us going. The farmer had balled the grass/hay/alfala/whatever grows there into large circles. With a little, okay a lot, of help I jumped up on top of one. I had just got a new star app, which allowed me to tilt it to the sky and see the names of the constellations I was seeing.

We were all enjoying the night when a strange sound echoed through the meadow. It just sounded like a really pissed off bull frog to me, but to everyone else it sounded like a rabid badger that was intent on ripping us limb from limb. Thus, the night ended as we all tore off for the cars. ;)

Anyway, once I learned of the magic of long exposure photography, the meadow took on another meaning. It became the perfect place to take pictures, and that is what I wanted to show you today.

Thanks to the tripod and a friend, I was finally able to test out my wing idea-- the create wings of light behind a person.

:)

My creative friends then did their interpretation of wings.

I loved the way it all turned out-- so different from what I originally imagined-- so much better. ;)

Next up was another idea that I had had in my head. I wanted to have two positions and streaks of light-- yes, it all made sense in my head somehow ;) What I wanted to do was to really convey motion, in an abstract and swirly way but also to illustrate motion in a very concrete way, with the person stopping in two different positions, putting the light on themselves to 'freeze' them there.

I rather like the result ;)

The last picture was not something that I had planned on. My friend was experimenting with creating a 'lighting' type scene but it just looked like I was holding a weird wand-- thus the idea was born. Being the geeks we were, we just had to look like we were holding wands.

It's a little 'washed' out because my friend was standing behind the tripod flashing her flashlight on us for a good five seconds. It would have been better to be closer, and move the light/have on for a shorter amount of time. Anyywayy, I still love the photo :D

So hopefully the story time wasn't too lonngg and the pictures made up for it ;)

Cammppinngg Fun

2011-08-04T19:41:00.000-05:00

I thought that I would post just a few more camping photos. :)

Here, we were just walking along and came upon a puddle. Reflected in the puddle was the beautiful blue sky above, dotted with white clouds. Just looking at it was beautiful, but as I tried to capture that beauty on my camera, every picture I took seemed to pale in comparison with the reality and I just wrote it off as impossible. That is, until I loaded the pictures into photoshop. With just a little editing, I was able to better bring out the reflection.

More beautiful sunset :)

The next photo is comprised mostly of two photos taken of the sunset. :) I love the colors, even if the quality seems a bit low-- why, I don't know....

Well that's it! If there are any more amazing camping photos I stumble across I'll be sure to post them :)

The Wonders of Light Painting

2011-08-03T11:59:00.000-05:00

Lighting painting trumps normal painting.

It just does.

One, it's a lot easier.

Two, it doesn't require much talent, just patience. :)

What is light painting you ask?

Light painting is where you take a long exposure at night. During this exposure someone does something with a light source in front of the camera.

The result?

Beautiful trails of light. :) And the description is vague because so much can be done with light painting. You can use a flashlight, a phone, a phone with a flashlight app, fire ((haven't tried this yet...it's kind of scary)), or any other light source that your mind can come up with.

For these photos I made use of this amazing tripod that I found in the back of our closet. :D And here I thought I was gonna have to buy one...;) I set the ISO to the lowest possible, and put my exposures anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds. I didn't make use of the bulb setting simply because everything I wanted to do was feasible during 30 seconds.

I was bound and determined to create a little stick figure holding a little light saber. But light painting can be tricky, and requires a lot of trial and error. After all, you can't see what you're doing, you just have to take a stab at it and then go see the result. My little stick guy never turned out like I wanted it. Eventually I realized that there were cooler things to try, and moved on. ;)

Recently I read an article about light painting. In the article, the guy did not use the techniques that I was used to-- creating light trails. Instead, he had his friends do something-- like swing on a swing-- and then set off a few flashes, freezing them in that position. The multiple flashes equaled multiple positions. Let me show you my interpretation...

This was a 20 second exposure. At certain points I would stand still and flash the light over me, creating a pretty solid image of myself. The beauty of this is that I could then move to a different spot, do the same thing, or continue with the random streaks of light.

:)

Even though it was pretty dark outside, around 8:30-9:00 it was still crazy hot and humid and the bugs were attacking me like crazyyy. Buttt it was still worth it.

Another technique that I tried out last night was writing.

It's not as easy as you would think. Since you're facing the camera with your light source, you have to write backwards for it to turn out.

I promise that soon I'll post some more camping photos...unless my new camera surprises me with something amazing as it has been doing. ;)

My baby :)

2011-08-02T12:58:00.000-05:00

My baby came in yesterday. :D

Myyy precciioouuss...

Sorry, couldn't help it. My friends and I are watching the third LOTR movie today. :)

Anyway! I was just about dancing with joy when the UPS man dropped the package off at my house. It's just so beautiful! To zoom, I twist the lens-- it's so fun. It's like Christmas. :D

So, after charging the battery and skimming over most of the manual, I took it outside to see how she works. It took some getting used, but after pressing random buttons, I understand how to work the manual mode.

I've never been one to actually use the viewfinder on my point and shoot-- I've just always used the LCD screen. On my SLR, I'm switching over to the viewfinder. The main reason for this is because when I'm using just the viewfinder, it takes like one second to focus. When using the LCD screen it takes like 5...

However, the viewfinder is going to take some getting used to. I'm so used to seeing exactly how the photo is going to turn out-- exposure wise. When using the viewfinder, you don't get that. You have the meter, which tells you if it's underexposed/overexposed but visually, you don't see it. Which means I've taken a lot of photos that look amazing in the viewfinder, but are awfully under/overexposed.

One of major worries about the camera was that I would not be able to take close up pictures.

Well that proved to be a lie. ;) That picture is about as close up as I wished to get, and I still got clarity and focus. :D Major win.

I just love the way the pictures turn out. For some reason, they just seem...better? than with my point and shoot. Whenever I took landscape/ect photos on my point and shoot, nothing seemed to pop, it just seemed...like there was no detial? I don't know how to explain it, but to say I do not have that problem with my beautiful SLR.

Of course, the major win is to be able to focus on objects that aren't ten inches away from my camera.

Here, I still get that nice pop and fuzzy background, even though it isn't a real close up-- something unattainable with my point and shoot.

Suffice to say, I'm happy :D I can now do more portraits.

The AF has really been a lifesaver. I'm not used to having the camera do all the work and let me tell you it is a blast. Yesterday I was out taking pictures when a beautiful yellow butterfly landed on a flower I was nearby. I was able to easy zoom-- without losing quality, by the way, like on my point and shoot-- click the shutter, which AF quickly and take photos.

:D

It's going to take some getting used to, that's for sure. There are so many more options, and getting to used to the viewfinder is something that I need to do. Overall, though, I'm in absolute love. :D

The camping continues...

2011-08-01T14:34:00.000-05:00

As much as I enjoyed camping, I must say, it is nice to be back in civilization, with air conditioning.

So nice.

Though I really do miss having the lake that you could just go and jump into. Trade-offs I guess. ;) Anyway, my Canon is supposed to be coming in today :D I can't wait to get it and start exploring all of its features.

But back to camping! These pictures are still from our first night exploring

The water was so nice, cool but not chilling cold. A welcome break from the heat and humidity.

As we watched the beautiful sunset, we decided 'hey, the sunrise would be just-- if not more amazing and beautiful!'. It definitely seemed worth getting up crazy early. When it's this hot, it's hard to sleep too late anyway.

The plan never worked out. ;) First night we forgot to set alarms, and then a storm cut the whole trip short. So, I just have photos of the beautiful sunset.

These next pictures involve a technique that I discovered. It was getting dark, which caused my shutter speed to start to go up too far for nice clear photos. On a whim, I set it to a long shutter speed, like 1/5 or something and then rotated the camera clockwise/counter-clockwise while the camera was taking the photo. The result?

:D I let out a squeal of joy when I saw the first results. The middle of the rotation is the clearest, as it stays relatively still, while the sides rotate. The result is the ability to frame something-- like a person-- in the middle, letting them come out relatively clear compared to the rest of the image.

:D

Well, that's it for today. :) More photos of sunsets and water and motion tomorrow. ;)

Lions, Tigers, and Zebras-- oh my!

2011-07-31T16:43:00.000-05:00

Yes, there was a zebra. In Arkansas.

But anyway, story for a later post! I just got back from our expedition into the wilderness.

Here there be humidity.

Okay, sorry, enough with the murdering of quotes. Anyway, it was lots of fun, even with the sky high temperatures, humidity, and lack of air conditioned bathrooms.

You wouldn't think it would make that much of a difference.

Believe me, it does.

Oh well, at least we had a bathroom with plumbing within eyesight. Gotta have priorities. Anyway, I'll be posting pictures from our camping adventure over the next few days, possibly interrupted by the fact my SLR is supposed to come in tomorrow. :D

While it was crazy hot, there was the lake, which kept it from being truly miserable.

I just loved this shot. Not necessary the picture itself, but the road which led straight into the water, the pavement disappearing under the waves. Very Inception-esque...

As soon as we began to set up camp-- which included two tents and a screen tent for the table-- we found what seemed like a whole brood of baby frogs, just hopping around. So we spent the next ten minutes chasing them and squealing at just how cute they were. ;)

After we set up the camp, we went on a walk just around the water. A good number of the trees had been scorched by the sun, their leaves dying off. It looked like fall...it just didn't feel like it.

The lake is in a constant state of flooding-- there were multiple camp sites flooded when we were there. A surprising number of normal non water trees had survived being immersed in water.

It was dark, but I still was able to somewhat 'freeze' the water which rushed in, lapping the rocky shore. I didn't do this out of some photographic 'oh let me frame this picture' but rather I totally forgot about making the water 'smooth'.

And then I remembered ;) I'm glad that I didn't start out with the smooth water, because I do like freezing water, but often opt for the silky smooth more. I just love long exposures ;)

The lake really was beautiful, and worth the heat

In other news...I lost a friend today. Like, all out, I don't want to be your friend anymore, from her to me by the way. It's sad....we were really good friends, but I can't do anything if she doesn't want to be friends anymore.

I much prefer losing friends the slow way. Growing apart, telling myself 'oh, we'll see each other sometime', talking every now and then. Thinking them as your friend, even if you haven't seen them in months. And then, eventually, a long ways down the road, you look at them, and remember fondly the times you had together, not the harsh ending which could have happened.

Long analogy short, I prefer my relationships to have a hazy, gentle ending which gracefully blends from middle to end rather than an abrupt harsh ending springing from previous actions.

But then again, doesn't everyone?

Photoshop is funnn

2011-07-27T13:52:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I know, I've written before about the amazing-ness of Photoshop.

I just thought I would reiterate. ;)

Recently, I found a new (to me) feature of Photoshop, called 'selective color' or something to that effect. It allows me to edit just specific colors, rather than editing the entire photo.

I love playing around with it.

I love how the recoloring looks almost realistic, how the new colors blend so well with the orignal ones. It's not like I took a paintbrush and just started painting, it blends better than that.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

It's just so much fun! Granted, then I have to post a disclaimer, how the photo was a product of Photoshop. Otherwise people might think I have mutant purple sunflowers in my backyard.

Which would actually be really cool. ;)

But totally not happening.

So, tomorrow I leave for the lake! I'm going with my friend and her family. First time this summer to go the lake, first time ever legit camping. O.o Did I mention how much I hate bugs? Oh well, it'll be fun. (: I probably won't post again till we get back, sometime on Sunday. Hopefully I'll have a ton of photos to share. :)

It's done. +movement!

2011-07-26T17:09:00.000-05:00

So, I did it.

I bought a camera.

:D

Granted, I bought it off ebay so it'll take a while to get in and I probably won't get to hold my baby until next week, after my adventure in the woods. ;) I've been camping only once before, with my friend and his family. I slept in the trailer, and it was nice. So it's gonna be interesting to actually 'camp' with tents. And spiders. O.o

Anyway, cameras! I went with the Canon EOS T3 because one, I couldn't find any faults that would really affect me, two, it was cheaper, and three, hey I've always like Canon. ;)

Besides, I figure any camera I get-- either Canon or Nikon-- will be of roughly the same caliber. I'm not going end up with a crappy camera.

Anyway, I wanted to finally post the Lake-- haha the park in my town-- photos.

Right off the bat it was apparent that our original plans of getting good sunset colored photos was not gonna happen. The sunset was completely and utterly covered by clouds.

What we did find were little frogs. One happened to hop across our path. I squealed and attempted to get a photo, but it he was too far away by this time. That's when my friend graciously stepped in as the frog whisper. Or frog wrangler. Take your pick.

He's a cutie isn't he? He was pretty tame, sitting in Brit's hand for like ten pictures. Unfortunately, most of them were out of focus, just enough to annoy. It was dark and an odd angle, so I wasn't able to fully tell if the picture was in focus.

Once the frog decided he had posed enough, and hoped off, we continued toward the westward facing water.

That's about the only good water photo I got that night. It quickly became apparent that with the clouds covering the sun there were no nice colors...just kind of grey-ness....

So we headed back to the playground, because one of my friends wanted to swing. ;)

As they were swinging, I ended up sitting on the ground. Then it hit me-- hey, perfect photo opportunity!

I loved how even at the low shutter speed ((random side note, the canon was tested better for combating camera shake, consumer reports loveedd the canon over the nikon actually. anyway, sorry for the interruption...)) the background remains in focus, while my friends turned into colorful streaks.

It was while I was staring at the ground that I got inspiration for my next photo. I've really become intrigued with the whole 'zooming' while the camera is taking the picture. I like how it kind of propels you into the picture.

It also makes it look like your traveling through space at warp speed. But that's another story. ((Yes I'm a geek. Sorry. Not really))

For the next photo...my very gracious friend slid down the barred slide roughly thirty times so I could
a) get a good motion photo
b) try my hand a 'panning' a technique I've always wanted to master.

While I got good motion, I didn't fully master panning..but oh wellll. Some other time? ;)

For the last photo I stopped trying to do anything, and just kept the camera still, which turned her into a curved streak of light.

I was ecstatic. My friend said her butt hurt.

So we moved on.

I just love the feeling of these...like attempts at flying.

At breaking gravity...

And just flying away...

Victims of the Heat

2011-07-25T16:52:00.000-05:00

So it's hot here. Hot as in, heat indexes of 105-110.

Understandably, this heat has its effects.

There are many victims in my backyard.

It's a combination of the sky high heat and the little watering they got while we were on vacation...

Either way, they are deadddd and they look burnt. But that's probably just me.

So, on the DSLR camera discussion...I've actually switched my alliances. The Nikon d3100 is 600. One of its competitors, the Canon EOS T3 is 518.

Right off the bat, that sounds good. ;) Pricing aside, the Canon doesn't lack any of the features of the Nikon. The Canon actually has more-- it has the AEB I've always wanted.

Nikon doesn't have that.

The Canon isn't good for those who want sky high ISOs, as they are pretty noisy.

I hate using moderately high ISOs, so this doesn't apply to me.

The Canon isn't good for those who need to continuous take pictures, like a sports photography.

I photograph plants. They tend not to move.

The Nikon has some weird requirement with lots of technical terms-- the only thing I got was something about it not working perfectly with some of Nikon's lenses.

The Canon doesn't have that problem.

Sure, the Canon's menu isn't as good as the Nikon's. I'll deal. Sure, the 'feel' of the Canon is supposedly 'cheaper' than the Nikon because it lacks some sort of 'rubber' grip. I'll deal.

The Canon (with the lens that comes with the camera) has a min focus distance of 9 inches. Yes, this will hurt me.

However.

The Nikon has a min focus distance of 2 feet. That would kill me.

And of course I can eventually get a lens that can focus closer. Eventually. For like Christmas. ;)

My Little Kitty ;)

2011-07-24T14:44:00.000-05:00

So, I've finally decided. Well, somewhat. Mostly. I think.

I'm getting a SLR camera.

:D

Thanks to various things, I'll have around 600 coming in-- just enough for an entry level DSLR.

:D

Right now, I'm leaning towards a Nikon d3100. It seems like a good camera...even if it doesn't have AEB =/
Oh wellll...I'll live. ;)

Trying to find the right camera has been frustrating. There are so many out there! And they are so expensive.

However, I've been wanting a SLR for a while now. My point and shoot is nice, but it just lacks some capabilities. I'll be able to get interchangeable lenses. :D That is, if my bank account ever recovers....

Anyway, I wanted to do something besides just talking about the possibility of a new camera, so I thought I would post some pictures of my kitty Foster. He was actually one of the first pictures that I posted on this blog, wayyy back in my first post.

I'm gonna miss him when I go off to college...at least I'll be able to come back and visit. ;)

See? Active little kitty ;) I love long exposure photos. I just love the motion that they convey-- something that photography is not know for. Which reminds me. My very nice friends were willing models for another lake shoot. This time the sunset was completely covered by clouds, so there was no nice light. What there was, though, was motion. And frogs. But mostly motion. And playgrounds. And stealing swings from little kids. Ahhh, next post ;)

Close-up. ;)

Sunset continued

2011-07-23T14:41:00.000-05:00

With the setting of the sun...

2011-07-21T16:29:00.000-05:00

...comes amazing light.

And subsequently, amazing pictures. ;)

Yes, I dragged my friend to a local lake last night for the sole purpose of taking pictures. I have no shame ((nor no one should. The wood is just trees, the trees are just wood...sorry.;)). Luckily for me, my friend is a very willing model. But the night started off with nature shots.

There was about forty min till sunset when we arrived at the park. We had parked in a bad place to view the sunset, so we started to walk around the lake to get a good westward view. These little flowers caught my eye as they were illuminated by the warm rays of the sun.

For the yellow flowers...I took roughly twenty pictures, and only two/three actually turned out. The problem was the angle. Unless I literally wanted to lay on the ground-- keep in mind I was wearing semi nice clothes and the ground was covered in mud and goose poop-- I couldn't see what I was shooting. I just set the manual focus ((I don't believe that my camera has auto focus...if it does I can't find it)) and blindly shoot. I would look at the result, squint in the sun, and try to determine if it was in focus. If it wasn't, I would change the focus and try again. ;) There's gotta be a better way to do this...I just haven't ((met you yet)) found it yet. Sorry! Song lyrics can just be so applicable in everyday life. ;)

Anyway! The purple flowers were a much better angle so I could review the shot as I was taking it.

As we continued to walk around the lake, we came upon this nicely situated little bench, where the setting sun peaked through the trees to illuminate.

My lovely model. :) I really like how the sun lightly colored her hair, but was unable to fully capture that color in a photo.

Next we came upon a little pier. We finally had reached a bend where we were looking over the lake, and facing westward-- perfect for the shots. ((I really felt like it was a photo shoot. Scouted out the location, brought a 'model', and set up the photos ;) getting into the big leagues!))

It was odd, I had already taken a lot of photos but had just now getting ready to take the photos I had planned to take...I guess what I mean to say was when I was thinking about the photos I wanted to take, I thought a lot about just silhouettes and closeups of the water and such, like the photos that I had taken during my only other sunset photography. ((side note, that early 'session' was taken primarily with my iPhone D: it's odd how things change. Now, I wouldn't go anywhere without my camera. The iPhone's good, but the camera's better. The only reason I know that is I had to send my iPhone off for work during the summer and was forced to use my actual camera. Thank goddess! Otherwise, I would still be taking pictures with my iPhone))

So the moral? I guess that you should not focus on replicating early photos, but be open to things that spontaneously arise once you're there. For me, I hadn't planned on taking pictures of flowers/ect but I really like how they turned out.

Anyway! Long post...I think I'll break it into two posts.

A couple last photos...There are a crazy number of geese ((story on that later!)) at this lake. ((side note, it's gonna soon be illegal to feed the geese, as they are getting to be /that/ much of a nuisance)) So when we finally got to the perfect little stretch of...mud? there was this goose feather just laying there, illuminated beautiful by the last rays of the setting sun.

One again the angle was odd, and the ground was filthy, so it was really hard to get a good, in focus photo.

But I managed ;)

Photoshop Free!

2011-07-20T16:36:00.000-05:00

So I wrote this semi long post and lost it.

But I really wanna show you this...I just have to muster up the energy to rewrite stuff.....

Okay! So recently, I've been having fun with the magic of Photoshop. However, there's something to be said about photos that are amazing straight out of the camera. I read a photography book not too long ago, which listed some cool techniques at the end of the book. One of those cool techniques was to have a long shutter speed and then zoom in/out while the camera was taking the picture.

So I found another limitation to my point and shoot camera. It stubbornly will not zoom in/out while taking a picture. All hope was lost, or so I thought. Then, yesterday, I was out taking pictures of this...yellow flower patch we have in our yard. I had already taken some traditional pictures of them, and I was looking to do something different. Because they were in the shade, I could set my shutter speed to something long, like 1/20 or 1/15.

Then I figured out that I rely too much on technology sometimes. Sure, my camera couldn't 'zoom' but I found a way around that. I could manually 'zoom' the camera-- zooming it through space-- to achieve the same effect.

So that's exactly what I did.

I was rather excited when I saw the first results-- I loved the feel of it, and the fact that it was not a result of Photoshop magic but rather photography magic. ;)

So after discovering this trick, I started to use it on everything. And yes, I mean everything. I have like fifty pictures consisting of mostly streaks of colors, with the occasional one like you see above/below with some sort of order to it. ;)

Funny story...it wasn't like I went outside and said 'hey, look at that texture! wouldn't that be a cool picture??'.

Nope.

It went something like this.

*dash through the backyard, missing the sprinkler*

*find some sort of suitable shadow in which to hide from the 110 heat index sun with was bearing down with medieval wrath*

*take as many photos as you can in this little enclave from the heat*

*get bored*

*look around for next shaded spot*

*see the tree, throwing a nice dark shadow*

*dart over to the shadow, barely missing the sprinkler again*

*look up and go, 'hey, I like that texture!'*

And that is my story for today. :)

The End.

HDR Success!

2011-07-19T12:58:00.000-05:00

So I've always loved HDR pictures.

HDR = high dynamic range. ((and not high def as I once thought ;))

The iPhone 4 has a HDR setting where it attempts to replicate a HDR 'feel' to a photo but it doesn't fully do justice to a true HDR photo. I always thought that I would need a good DLR camera to take HDR pictures because they come with AEB ((I think that's the right acronym...)).

AEB = Auto Exposure Bracketing

Which basically means you push one button and it takes like four pictures at different exposures very quickly, which helps eliminate any shifts or differences between the different exposures. Because I have a point and shoot, I have to manually set my exposure between shots. What this means is that my shots are never perfectly aligned, they contain minute differences from the camera shifting.

So, I just resigned myself to not being able to take fully amazing HDR photos. Recently, however, I've been doing pana-type pictures and I was like 'hey, photoshop is amazing. Why can't it simply align my pictures? It can do all this other stuff!' So, I decided to try once again. Outside, I came upon this really good HDR opportunity. The ginkgo tree had these branches that had an amazing blue sky/cloud backdrop. A normal picture could either expose for the bright sky or the dark branches-- but not both. HDR is where you take two or three pictures, exposing for different elements and then merge those pictures. So, I took three pictures at different exposures.

Then, I went into photoshop and clicked 'automate HDR Pro' and selected my photos. Then, it worked its normal magic and gave me one picture. However, there were 'ghost' leaves. Leaves that didn't align because my hand moved the camera between shots. I hadn't found a way to fix this, but I looked closer at all the options this time-- after all, photoshop can work some amazing magic, it should be able to fix this. That's when I found this little check box that said 'fix ghost images' or something to that effect. I checked it and BAM the ghosts were gone! The images were perfectly aligned.

Long story short, I can't believe I didn't know about this before.

So, after a little editing, the final product was....*drum roll*

:D I can't wait to try this out on sunsets and other scenarios.

2011-07-18T14:41:00.000-05:00

This morning, I braved the heat ((it's actually the coolest day in a while, just in the 90s)) to take some pictures. I haven't been out in my yard to take pictures in a couple of weeks, a combination of heat and travel.

Anyway, it was weird, how much the yard has changed in what seems to me like such as short time. All the cone flowers were dead, probably victims of the heat. There was this huge flower which had risen out of nothing, I didn't even remember seeing a sprout there.

Oddly enough, this new plant was where I got my best pictures this morning.

It's a sunflower, I believe. Whatever it is, it is /tall/. Like six feet tall. I had to reach up and pull it over to see the top.

Anyway, the heat was worth it. ;)

Too Hot.

2011-07-13T16:05:00.000-05:00

It's been forever since I last posted! I was up in Iowa with family last weekend, and thus out of wifi zone. Not Iowa, but my grandma's house I guess I should say. ;) Anywayyy another reason that I haven't been posting is that I haven't been outside taking pictures because it is quite simply too hot. When the heat index is 110 and above, I just kind of stay inside. ;)

Yeah. It's been hot. I'm really hoping for some rain to hopefully cool us down a little.

Oh! I know what I want to talk about. Okay, so recently I was on stumbleupon, which is the most amazing website. Anyway, it took me to this online photo editor which was actually really amazing. I think that it is supposed to simulate different emulsion effects you can do to a developing. But that's just a guess.

Anyway, the site is http://pixlr.com/o-matic/ and it is reallyyy good for a photo editing website. Basically there are three steps. Step one you can apply all these actions, like on Photoshop, for different effects. Then, you overly things like bokeh on the photo. Lastly, you can add all different types of frames.

My result:

I'm quite happy with the end result :) I don't like most photo editing websites, but this one is really cool.

Just another pretty face...

2011-07-05T13:54:00.000-05:00

So this weekend I stumbled upon a goat/sheep pen...

((Seriously, I thought it would be easy to distinguish between the sheep and the goats...it's not))

Regardless, they are adorable. ;) I didn't have my camera with me, so I whipped out my iPhone and started snapping away. Major disadvantage-- auto focusing. It was like a gamble, whether or not the pictures would be in focus. Luckily, I won the gamble a couple of times to get some cute pictures.

Awwwwww...

Both sheep and goats can have horns, and none were noticeably 'fluffier' than the others.

Suffice to say I am a city girl, lacking any experience with farm animals. Except for that one time in 4-H where I judged cattle. That was fun. But! Besides that-- and well horse camp, that'sssss another story-- I am just not around farm animals. ((Except for that time in France! Haha, and then on the way back home they have that sheet 'have you ever...' well not like the game, because you don't just lose you could be like quarantined so the rule of thumb is to check 'no' on every single one of them. At least, at 15, that seemed like the way to go. And it was. The truth is just so inconvenient. Honesty is never the best policy-- I have another story for that one! But! I was talking about sheep, right?....))

Haha, okay story time is over. For now. ;)

I thought I would show a little before/after shot. I was still using my iPhone for this photo and the exposure did not turn out as I would have liked-- the highlights were far too bright. A little tweaking, and a fun action later, I'm happy with the photo.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Caverns of the Deep

2011-07-04T17:50:00.000-05:00

Happy July 4th!

I just got back home from our little trip. For the most part, the only pictures that I have, are of the caverns that we toured. :) And I think I've caught the wide-angle/panoramic bug.

I just think everything looks better with multiple pictures spliced together.

Anyway, shooting in a cave was, understandably, difficult. A lot of the pictures, I really upped the ISO to like 800 just so I could either zoom ((which, for reasons currently unknown to me limits my aperture, I can't make it as small as I want it to be)) or make my shutter speed faster. We walked a lot, so it was hard to just snap and shoot, seeing how the majority of my photos were taken at 1/4 of a sec. You're not supposed to hand hold these shots because of the risk of them turning out blurry, but hey it's not like I had a tripod in my back pocket :P I've fine tuned the art of holding really still...for the most part anyway.

Here, I sat the camera down on the bench ((we sat down like twice)) and upped the shutter speed to the speed it actually needed to be at-- something like a second and half, or something. It's an awkward angle, but perhaps more properly lit. :P

The cave really was amazing. Spectacular heights, beautiful formations-- the works.

It was also nice and cool, 21 stories underground. Whicchhh was a nice break from the crazy heat and humidity above.

Look familiar? ;)

Hmmm...July 4th. Last July 4th I was watching fireworks with a friend who I'm not really close friends with anymore. It's not like we had a falling out...we just drifted apart. It's sad. However, I know that it's just the first of many. When I go off to college, my high school friends who are still my friends will start to fade. Some will stay my friends. Others will just...drift away.

And then, when I go to graduate school ((MIT!! with any hope)) some of my college friends will just drift away. C'est la vie, I guess.

Have you ever wanted to skip ahead to a certain part of your life? You know, just kind of hit the fast forward button. Just until the awkwardness of beginning a new school is over, and new friends have already been made.

Of course, as soon as I write that the old fable pops into my head. Of the man who was granted just that-- the ability to speed ahead through certain parts of his life. Of course, what started out as a dream turned into a nightmare. For how can you truly enjoy the good parts of your life if you have no bad? Your life is compressed down to only a few fleeting glances. He grows old too quick and wishes that he would have never been granted that ability.

So, I guess that I should just enjoy my life. Pretty soon I'll be looking back on college like I'm looking back on high school and shaking my head on how much time has flown by.

The Wonders of the Night

2011-07-02T10:47:00.000-05:00

It's 4th of July weekend and soon mes parents et moi are taking off. :) Before we did that, I thought I would write a little post, and put up some pictures. I don't believe that I've shown my night photography here yet. I took the pictures a while ago, and just never put them up.

Anyway, there's this little meadow on the outskirts of town that my friends and I like to go to sometimes to stargaze. A month or so ago we went there and I decided that it was the perfect place to take long exposure photos. There was a full moon that had just risen, and it provided the perfect background.

Each picture was probably around 15 second exposure. I held the camera, and my friends used their phones to create the streaks of light you see.

That was the closest I got to spelling my name :P

That last one was a mistake :P I was trying to take a photo of something and while it was taking the picture, I pulled my phone out to check something. Even though it was a mistake, I still love it ;)

Well, that's it, I gotta run!

Happy 4th of July (weekend) everyone :)

It's July!

2011-07-01T14:52:00.000-05:00

The summer seems to be flying by. And while sometimes I can be bored out of my mind, I don't want for it to pass by quickly. Because once summer is over, fall begins.

And fall means college. It means a new school, with new classmates, new city, new room. It means community bathrooms. It means finding that tricky balance between being social and getting school work done.

And while I'm incredibly lucky to be going to college with a friend, it still is nerve-racking. Buttttt I shouldn't worry about it, it's in God's hands. It will be fun! I'll learn Physics. I'll take Photography. I'll get the opportunity to travel, to do volunteer work. Meet new people. Be in a new band.

Anyway! I wasn't planning on musing on the future, but oh well. What I wanted to show you was the wide-angle lens photos I had made.

After all, who needs a SLR camera with a wide-angle lens?? Not me!

((Who wants a SLR camera with a wide-angle lens?? ME!))

All my previous attempts at faking a wide-angle lens photo were about landscapes. Today, while I was out taking pictures, I was like hey, what if I did wide angle photo but with close up pictures that I'm used to taking? (hey, it totally made sense in my head) So, I took a series of photos:

And combined them using the magic of Photoshop.

The result is a wider pictures which encompasses more detail than a simple one shot. I like the depth of it, even if it is a product of Photoshop.

When I first graduated, I wasn't sure what to do with my graduation money. I really wanted Photoshop, but I also wanted a SLR camera. With a student discount Photoshop was 200. A SLR camera would be more like 600. So, I went with Photoshop, and have loved it tremendously. My little point and shoot is actually not that bad of a camera, compared with most point and shoots. I have full manual control-- something not all point and shoots have.

Anyway, back to faking wide angle photos. ;) I took another series, this time on one of my favorite flowers.

The final result:

For this one, I combined more pictures, though I think that I could have combined two and gotten the same end result. Regardless I like the effect that was achieved. Once again, the picture gains more depth.

I'm sure that the end results aren't as good as an actual wide-angle photo. However, seeing how I don't have the necessary equipment, this is as good as it's gonna get. ;)

Early Morning

2011-06-30T20:46:00.000-05:00

Early = 8:30

You have to admit, that's pretty early.

Anyway, I found myself awake at 8:30 this morning (I'm a horrible teenager). I figured if I was up, I might as well take advantage of the beautiful morning light. Granted, this wasn't right after sunrise, but the sun was still amazing and fresh, as morning light always is.

The way my house is situated the beautiful morning light floods my backyard. The more temperate evening light falls onto my front yard. So, I grabbed my camera and headed outside. The sprinklers were running so it took ten minutes to plan and successfully evade those shots of water ;)

In short, it was so worth it.

The light was just so fresh and bright.

Funny story...it wasn't like I thought 'hey, I should photograph the back of the flower-- that'll totally be a new perspective!' Haha, no. You see, the front of the sunflower was facing the top of the storm cellar. In order to get to there, I would have to brave this wall of buzzing bees which had chosen to congregate around the cone flowers that surrounded the storm cellar.

I've done it once, but wasn't brave enough to risk it this morning. ;) Besides, I like how the light is bursting over the flower, something I would have missed if I shot the front of the flower.

Morale of this story? Sometimes, being a wimp actually turns out to be beneficial.
:D

...I like the texture, and the way it was illuminated by the sun. :)

Before And After

2011-06-29T12:40:00.000-05:00

Today I thought I would showcase some of my before and afters. None are dramatically amazing, I'm afraid. However, all of them are good photos that have been enhanced by Photoshop. Most of the before's are pictures that I didn't like. They were too dark, they were too faded-- something about them made me not like them. So, I went into Photoshop and attempted to fix those issues.

The first photo is one at sunset. I loved the way that the sunlight was breaking through the flowers. However, when I took the picture, it turned out too dark for my liking. So, I used the HDR toning feature of Photoshop CS5 and attempted to make the photo more like an HDR photo, bringing out the shadows and highlights.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The next photo, I liked the original. I just wanted to add an effect to make it...different ;)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The next photo was one in a series of similar photos. The other photos in the series turned out amazing; this one seemed just a little washed out.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

These baby geese were adorable, but the shadow/highlights seemed really harsh. So, I used the aptly named 'shadows/highlights' tool in Photoshop to fix the picture.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This was another picture that I liked, but wanted to add a special look to it. So, I complied a few actions on it to achieve the desired result.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

A Lesson Learned

2011-06-28T14:42:00.000-05:00

Remember, not too long ago, I talked about light? How it was nice and important but for the most part I didn't pay much attention to it?

Boy have I missed out.

Yesterday I was in my front yard taking pictures. Normally I only take pictures of the back yard but I decided to venture out front for a bit. There aren't as many photo opportunities but I figured that there would be a couple. Our miniature rose bush still had a few blooms holding out. I just finished reading a photography book and one of the things that he did was arranged certain flowers, introducing new backgrounds just for the sake of a good picture. So, I decided rather than simply taking pictures of the roses, I would pick one and arrange somewhere to showcase it's beauty.

I liked the contrast from the color of the rose, to the lack of color of the stone. There was also a contrast from the smoothness of the rose to the roughness of the stone.

Then, I noticed some clover or something green thing that was bravely poking up through the stone on the ground. I bent down and snapped some photos. On a whim, I put the camera so that the lens was almost level with the ground and shot the picture.

The result took my breath away. I did not realize what a unique perspective one was granted at this level. I loved how the little plant dominated the picture, how the small strand appeared almost like a tree. My eyes now glued to the ground, I spotted some more green plants poking up through the stone, surrounded by green moss. I sat down and started to click away. A little moth had caught my attention--

Suddenly, the clouds shifted, and the warm late evening sun shone through onto the stone where I was at. The atmosphere was radically changed from cool to warm. The sunlight painted everything with this amazing golden hue. I realized just what I had been missing out on.

Then my camera died. I sat there for a min, lamenting my fate before hurrying inside to grab some new batteries. Then, I went back outside to the same spot and continued to snap pictures.

:D

Light is important. No, really it is. Of course I would have been happy without the amazing setting sun, but it really added that extra sparkle to my pictures.

There once were two eggs...

2011-06-27T14:09:00.000-05:00

...and then there were none.

Sunlight

2011-06-22T18:50:00.000-05:00

An oft repeated rule of photography is that the best time to take photos is half hour before sunrise (and maybe after sunrise) and half hour before sunset. Normally, I ignore this rule. Especially during the school year-- I would just take photos when I could. However, as it is summer, I have a bit more leeway as to when to take photos. And, as much as I don't like to admit it, photos right after sunrise have a beautiful quality to them.

The sun has this fresh, illuminating quality that really highlights my backyard. Granted, these photos were taken slightly more than just a half hour after sunrise, but still, the idea holds.

Also, I wanted to post a small before/after Photoshop picture. A lot of people think that when you 'Photoshop' a photo it becomes more 'fake' as though you are taking away some inherent quality of the photo. I mostly use photoshop as a way to enhance what's there naturally. Sometimes when I take a photo, the picture on the computer screen doesn't match up with what my eyes see. So, I edit it slightly in Photoshop to bring out its beauty.

Before:

After:

...granted this was slightly more than a little editing ;) still, I wished to bring the color out.

Fun in Photoshop

2011-06-21T14:28:00.000-05:00

Photoshop can do magic. That is already an established fact of life. What is non established is the breadth of magic Photoshop can do.

I have a normal, point and shoot camera. What I do not have is an amazing SLR camera with a wide angle lens. So, I decided to try and replicate a wide angle shot. I used my normal camera and took a series of photos of a certain spot in my backyard. Using Photoshop magic I combined the images into a more panoramic shot. Doing this caused a little distortion and the edges were transparent, as there was just no info for the photo to be created from. So, I used another part of Photoshop magic and filled in the edges.

:D

Another part of the magic that I wished to share with you today is the out of bound photograph. It's a cool technique that has been used many times to make an object appear to leap out of the photograph.

I have rarely seen one used with a flower but I was like hey, I wanna use my own picture instead of a stock one. Anndd what do I take pictures of? Flowers! ;) So, here's my first OOB photo. The worst part is having to cut out the flower, and I can be rather impatient so I hope it doesn't look rushed.

Who said magic didn't exist?

A Father's Day Gift

2011-06-20T14:28:00.000-05:00

So, as everyone knows, Father's Day was yesterday. I washed my father's car, and baked him a delicious french chocolate dessert. While I was getting the ingredients ready I was like 'hey! This is a perfect photographic opportunity!'

It seems like I'm pigeon-holed into a certain type of photography--nature, and most of the time, close-up (but not really macro) photography. I actually have done cooking photography, mostly for classes. I'm not sure if I've shared with you those photographs...anyway! I decided to do a recipe/food photography for a change of pace. Also, the recipe is super easy and super delicious.

Ingredients:
5 oz of dark chocolate ((I use a cup of dark chocolate chips))
1 stick of butter ((doesn't it sound amazing already??))
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of flour
A pinch of sea salt

And that's it! Now, the last time I tried to take pictures while making a dessert the pictures turned out fine, but the dessert was a mess that tasted horrible. Since it was for a photography assignment that was okay, but this time the dessert was a gift meant for consumption. Last time, I focused solely on the photographs which meant that I put the wrong ingredients in at the wrong time and let it sit forever without mixing. This time I knew that I had to sneak the photos in while I made the dessert.

First, I cut the stick of butter up and put it in a bowl to stick in the microwave along with the cup of chocolate chips. The more traditional way to melt butter is to use a double boiler. o.o However, the easiest way is just to stick it in the microwave.

So I totally didn't take pictures of me adding the chocolate chips, putting the bowl in the microwave for a min, taking it out, stirring it, putting it back in, taking it back out, and stirring it some more. Rest assured, it totally happened.

Next, I turned to the eggs.

I cracked two eggs and threw them into a large bowl. Then, I took a smaller bowl and cracked a egg, doing my best to just get the whites in the smaller bowl. Then, I took the yolk and added it to the main bowl. I did this once more, thus ending up with four yolks and two eggs whites in the large main bowl.

...thought that was cute :P

Anyway! Next, I added a 1/4 cup of sugar to the egg mixture. By the way, you can either add the sugar slowly while beating the eggs or all at once before you beat them. I've done both ways and nothing awful happened when I accidentally just dumped the whole thing in there. ((I was too busy taking pictures to realize that that probably wasn't the best of ideas...))

So, slowly adding the sugar or not, start to beat the eggs until the are light and slightly frothy. Once that's done, add the egg mixture to the still warm melted chocolate and whisk together. Add the tablespoon of flour and continue to stir.

What I used to shape mine were little glass bowls. The original recipe called for making your own mold with foil cupcake liners. Whatteeverrr you wanna do. Fill the containers with the batter and stick into the oven. Depending on your containers size, cooking times will vary. I cooked mine for like seven/eight min and the interiors were still molten, like they are supposed to be.

Yum! Doesn't that look good?? Absolutely delicious. :)

Welll I hope that you enjoyed the slight detour from normal photography ;)

Lucky

2011-06-19T16:18:00.000-05:00

I'm lucky, as a photographer, to have such an amazing backyard. It's larger than most, considering it is smack dab in the middle of the city. My parents love maintaining it so it is constantly flourishing. My mother is a master gardener, so there are tons of flowers blooming everywhere.

So, whenever I want to go take pictures I simply walk into our back-- or front yard. I prefer the back not only because it is larger with more photographic opportunities but also because there are no cars passing by giving their judgmental looks as I crouch on the muddy ground trying to get the best angle of the flower. Their assumed judgmental looks I should say. ;)

Either way! While I did recently have the opportunity to take pictures of a local lake at sunset for the most part I don't travel far for photography. Generally it's just a convenience thing. If we are going to a botanical garden I'll grab my camera and get some good shots. ((Or I am crazy enough to pull an all-nighter with my friend and decide that the best thing to do at sunrise is to go to a local park where my friend ran around the entire lake, well then I grab my camera and get some good shots))

There's this one blog that I follow, and she recently was back home and she mentioned how nice it was to take pictures of her own flowers, rather than her neighbors.

It's gonna be odd when I go off to college. The college I'm going to will be picturesque. There will be photo opportunities, it's just not home.

Though I suppose a lot of things would fit that. 'It's just not home.' Including, but not limited to,:

--Community Showers
--No family around
--Proximity to youth consuming mass amounts of alcohol
--Sharing a room with someone ((even if it is my best friend))
--Not having the ability to just call ((aka text)) a random friend up to go to the movies/go somewhere and eat.

But! There are good lists to be made! College is where I will:

--Study physics for the first time
--Take Cal I, II, and some weird Cal class after that
--Take photography
--Learn more French
--Mission Trips
--Hopefully study/travel abroad
--Hopefully undergrad research
--Make a lot of new friends
--Meet new boys
--Have fun. :)

Photo Frame

2011-06-18T13:55:00.000-05:00

So recently I've been filling this photo frame for college. I tried to pick my favorite pictures.

Surprising, what looks great on the computer screen doesn't necessarily look great in real life. Pictures turn out a lot darker than they appear on a computer screen. It's really odd to see my stuff turned from abstract to reality. It was even weider the first time I printed out a poster for EAST, at school. I had been designing stuff for a while now, but it was always confined to a computer screen, nothing more than a conglomeration of pixels. When I printed out my first poster, it was just an odd and cool feeling. The poster was huge (and took up more ink than was probably good;) and suddenly /real/.

Photos are slightly different as they are already half-way 'real' even when they are on a computer screen. Still, it's so much fun to hold them in my hands. This was my second batch of photos to print for the frame. When I printed my first batch they were almost all iPhone photos. You see, the majority of my iPhone photos are in portrait orientation because that is just how you naturally hold the phone. So I had to really look for some landscape ones and the ones I found were just 'okay'. Now that I have started to use my camera as my primary well camera most of my photos are in landscape orientation because that is just how one holds the camera naturally. However, I have the best of both worlds because as I'm taking landscape pictures my mind is also thinking 'how would this look as a portrait?' That way I'm not stuck just thinking and taking pictures in one way.

I can't wait for college. To get there, move in, and decorate my room. I'm lucky as I am going to college with one of my best friends and we are rooming together. That way I don't have the anxiety of not knowing who my roommate is going to be. Also, that means that I already have a friend there even before we step foot on campus.

Hottest Place on Earth

2011-06-04T16:21:00.000-05:00

At least that's what it feels like. We have records highs, and the heat index is well into the hundreds. At least I'm not at band practice ;) Last summer, we had band practice, and every day the heat index was at least 105, if not 110. I learned what it felt to be in the sun for prolonged amounts of time as one day I stayed late into the hottest part of the day to repaint the field.

It goes like this:

1. It's hot. You're sweating, complaining, wishing marching band had never been invented.

2. You get chill bumps running up and down your arms. Not because you feel cold really, but still in the blazing sun you shudder.

3. Everything anyone says is hilarious. Another flag girl and I had to carry this heavy container to the other side of the practice side. While we attempted, and failed, to walk a straight line, the girl told this story about some animal. Everything she said was funny. We were both almost falling over laughing, swerving from left to right, just trying to make it to the other side of the field.

Ah, fun times. ;) I will miss marching band, in a very, very small way. The college I'm going to is a small one, and does not have a marching band. I will miss flag, that's for sure.

Anyway!

Photoshop is fun. :)

Another reason Photoshop is fun: it's magic. O.o

Don't believe me?

Before:

After:

Like I said, magic.

Back from the 'happiest place on Earth'!

2011-06-03T16:28:00.000-05:00

I just got back from my Disney world trip! Totally exhausting, yet loads of fun. It was nonstop roller coaster of a ride through all the parks, including the Universal one. Side note, highlight of the universal theme park? I got paid to watch a tv show.

It doesn't get much better than that.

Oh wait, it did. We then went to the Islands of Adventure. Guess where I spent most of my time?

The wonderful wizardly world of Harry Potter. So amazing. Just, amazing. :D I didn't buy a wand or anything, but I did get an awesome messenger bag with a Gryffindor design. The ride through the castle (while nauseating) was thoroughly amazing. Down to the very last detail. I was unable to take pictures because I had to secure all my belongs in a locker before getting in line. The line wound its way through the castle, going through classrooms and other parts of the castle.

Anyway, the ride itself was surprising both realistic and involved? Not jerky but I didn't realize it would be that crazy. I have to admit, I closed my eyes during most of the dementor stuff ;) Better than my friend who held her breath so they couldn't take her soul.

That's my roommate!

;) So besides the castle ride, the rest of the Harry Potter world was crowded, but still cool. The only downside to the entire thing was the pounding rain which waited forever to abate. But still, so worth it. :)

I have over a thousand photos to shift through, from both my phone and my actual camera so I'll be posting a lot more snapshots from my amazing trip. I just wanted to give you (haha that one reader who I just know is out there) a little update and some cool features.

((I'm sure that I have mentioned this before but the main audience that I'm appealing to is myself. I don't entertain ideas of attracting hundreds of followers. Rather, my highest hope for this is that it is like a photo diary for me to look back on as I grow older.))

Storms

2011-05-27T15:24:00.000-05:00

Recently some storms came our way. While they did not hit us, things did look sketchy. The plus side? The clouds were amazing ;) They were practically racing across the sky, which also presented a challenge. By the time that I took a photo, the clouds had changed. I love taking photos of clouds. ((Side note, that's almost how I started my diary, a billion years ago, with the same love of clouds)) To me they are just so beautiful. Once, while flying to France, we flew through some amazing cloud structures. They were like a mythical palace, with corridors and towers. Any second I expected Pegasus to dart out. ;) And then the clouds started to get darker and darker, there was a storm cell over the airport where we were landing. One of the most memorable moments was when we exited one cloud, and were like in this little pocket between two dark clouds, with a glimpse of the outside world before once more retreating into another storm cloud.

And then lightening flashed by my window, and the woman in front of my started to cry, and the storm wasn't as cool. Clouds=cool ;possibly deadly lightening=not so much.

But anyway! I'm leaving on a trip tonight. The band (yes, I am a band geek) is going to Disney world! Soooo I don't think I'll be able to post much. We'll be there for a week. And if I manage to take any good pictures while down there, then I'll post them when I get back. I've never been to an amusment park before so it will be...interesting. We'll be there for a week, well we leave tonight, get there tomorrow afternoon and then leave the following Thursday I think...

The only downside is that we have to march ;) in that classic Disney parade-thingy. Buuutt it should be a short parade so not too bad. Even if our outfits are made of velvet. Anyway (I know, I overuse that word. I'm sorry) I can't believe we leave tonight! It's an odd setup. We leave at like eight something at night, and then the bus driver drives through the whole night and we end up arriving in Disney world at like noon the next day. Pretty cool, as we get to sleep the majority of the trip ;)

I'm mostly packed-- oddly prepared for me. I've taken quite a few band trips before actually. Three years of All-State and All-State auditions will do that ;) Buttt this is different as it's longer and doesn't have just the best and brightest of our band :P But that's totally alright. Most of my friends dropped out (of the trip) so it's just brit, chelsea, me, and miranda all rooming together. And it's supposed to be a good hotel I think. ;) though very little can be better than the Embassy we stayed in one year for All-State :P

I love those flowers ^^. I really do. I think I have like twenty pictures of just those flowers :P

Though I think this one is my favorite ;)

Summer

2011-05-26T15:25:00.000-05:00

--is amazing for taking photographs. Instead of being confined to a certain time (normally around three when I got off from school)to take photos, I have so much more flexibility, thanks to summer. I can take photos in the morning, afternoon, evening-- when ever. In fact, most of the photos that I'm gonna post were taken right after sunrise.
Side note: the one reason I was up this early was because I never went to sleep the night before ;) Ohhh sleepovers are just so much fun. Word of advice-- NEVER watch Blue Valentine. EVER. EVER. It's the worst movie I have ever seen. Vulgar, pointless, depressing, absolutely awful. *shudder* But on a more positive note, Titanic is an amazing movie! First movie that I've ever cried while watching.

Anyway, back to photography....I really want a DSLR camera. Right now I have a Canon point and shoot and while it is really nice, I really want the extended capabilities offered by the DSLR. Buuutt there's the price. o.o DSLR cameras are awfully expensive and seeing how I still don't have a job ;) I don't know if I want to spend a large chunk of my graduation money on a camera.

So for right now, I'm stuck with my point and shoot. Which isn't a really bad camera at all.

A lot has changed since my last post. Most of all, I graduated from high school! Next fall I will be going to college. O.O Scary stuff...
In college, I really hope to take a photography class. But for right now, I just hope to keep taking photos and improving.

Rain is a good thing

2011-04-11T18:08:00.000-05:00

*hums country song*

Anyway! Today it stormed, bringing down the really high temperatures we have been having. Rain is also so beautiful. The sky is cloudy and rather gorgeous.

This afternoon the clouds went away and the sun came shinning through, allowing me to dart outside and snap away.

I bought this extension-- the only one they have, they aren't like those companies that keep bugging you to give them more money-- for camera+ app that was called 'darkroom'. It's pretty cool. What it really makes me want is an old film camera and a darkroom. It would be awesome to learn how to expose photos-- something I hope to learn when I go off to college.

Which will be soon! I have like, what, thirteen school days left??! So close! It's bittersweet, it really is. I always thought that I would be super happy that high school would forever be over with. Public schooling, for that matter seeing how I'm mostly likely going to go to a private college.

So the end of my high school career means the end of some friendships. Some will hopefully stay, but I know that there will be a lot of people I call my friend now that I will not talk to after high school. *shrug* But apparently that's just the way of life.

Oh well! I've picked up friends and a new found love of photography in high school. I've grown/cut/permed my hair. I've gotten contacts. I learned flag (like legit flag not jr. high flag). I learned how to march. I learned that chemistry is amazing. I learned that within a group of friends, friction will always exist. Girls will always squabble. Guys really aren't that great. Not having a boyfriend does not diminish who you are-- even if everyone else you know has one. I discovered some amazing books-- like Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, In the Year of the Butterflies.

I'm kind of curious what's gonna happen in college. What'll change. What'll stay the same.

The sky

2011-04-09T14:50:00.000-05:00

*skips past excuses for lateness in posting*
In other notes, I got a rating of 1 (highest) for the three things I performed for solo and ensemble :)

On the way to solo and ensemble-- and on the way back-- I was taking pictures like crazy. One, I was bored. Two, it was a scenic ride. (it would have been more scenic if the trees weren't dead:P)

Anyway, not many of the pictures would have been remarkable, had it not been for the discovery of the pure awesome-ness that one of my apps holds. It's the Camera+ app I've already talked about. I learned about the true amazing-ness of the 'clarity' function.

Behold.

Before:

After:

O_O

It just brings out these details that would have normally gone unnoticed. And it works wonders on pictures other than the sky ;)

Before:

After:

It looks amazing...even with that awful glare ;) Stupid buses...

Anyway...I just took some pictures outside after I washed my car. These are also thanks to Camera+ which allows you to set the focus by taping and then move it to new plant/new location without losing your set focus. Just learned about this by accident today and it's kind of cool.

Processed

2011-03-30T20:16:00.000-05:00

Creative title right? Totally amazing and catchy. It's what I excel in. Anyway the actual purpose of this post was not to laud my writing talents but rather to show some of my photos that have been edited. I got to thinking when I wrote my last post. Sure the photos looked nice, but would any processing make them look better? Processing has always bothered me-- it seems to take away the inherent value of a photo. Is a great photo one from the camera or one that has been edited?

Either way, I do enjoy editing photos. The ones below were edited with this amazing iPhone app called Camera+. Not only is it an awesome camera (it gives you the ability to focus on one area and expose another) but it also a really nice editing feature. The newest edition is something called 'clarity' which does really cool stuff to normally too dark photos. But I digress!

More of the tulip magnolia's ;)

I still wonder, though, if the only reason this photo is a good photo is because of the app.

Oh well, I love it anyways. ;)

Il pleut aujourd'hui...

2011-03-29T15:54:00.000-05:00

See? I'm back! On a random side everything always looks/sounds better in French. I don't know why. When my family when to France the first time, way back when, we joke that they could say anything-- like, 'oh the floor is dirty'-- and it would sound beautiful and romantic.

Anyway, il pleut just looked better than 'it's raining' in my opinion. Every way you say it, it's wet outside. Yay for spring showers I guess...

On a brighter note, I thought I would post some Spring photos that I took recently. Basically, I spent all my spring break outside in my yard taking pictures. Mostly during that wonderful time in the morning when the light is bright yet still delicate, though some I took in the glare of a full blown afternoon sun.

We have this tree in our backyard called a tulip magnolia and there is this magical period, right during early spring, when hundreds of these beautiful flowers burst into bloom.

They don't last long-- the town is marked by their sudden color and beauty. I spent a long time outside, just clicking away...

What's particularly odd about this photos, for me at least, is that they are not edited in any way. They are straight from the camera. Now I'm a big photoshop person. Well, until recently I had to resign myself to GIMP, free program similar to photoshop, but now I am able to use photoshop during school.

But when I saw these pictures...I loved them the way that they were. In their unedited glory. ;)

I am so glad I have an iPhone 4. Not because it's the newest, hippest thing or because of the (admittedly) amazing apps. No, I love my iPhone because now I can do more than just enjoy the beauty of nature-- I can share that beauty with everyone else.

Welcome!

2011-03-28T19:17:00.000-05:00

I promise that this is more than a creative form of procrastination from my AP Chem homework.

No, really. It is. I've been thinking about creating this site for a while now, and finally got around to doing it. Hopefully it won't fall into the typical blog abandonment and death that has curiously plagued my other attempts at blogs.

This will be different! I will at least attempt to post every day which brings about the question /what/ will I be posting about every day?

Photography! My new found love. Like really new found. As in I ended up shoved into Art II Photography because that was the only art class which fit my schedule at the beginning of the year. One semester later, I had found a new passion. I mean, sure, I've taken loads of photos-- one does not travel to France and return without hundreds of photos-- but there is a distinct difference between just taking photos for the sake of the memory (and the pretty medieval churches) and being a photographer.

Or so I think. I am just an amateur (which seriously can not spell) without even a legit camera. (*insert gasps*) A photographer that lacks a camera? Ce n'est pas possible! (I speak some French, by the way)

Alas, c'est vrai, I do not have a legit camera. What I do have, however, is the prowess of the iPhone 4 camera at my disposal. I don't know how it relates to the iPhone 3 camera or anything but I am in love with it. (well there are some things that bug me, but about them later)

I realize that there will probably be very few humans reading this wonderful little blog of mine. So this is more for me, I guess. A way to measure my advancement into the wonderful world of photography.

(Might as well post a couple pictures...if I can just find out how...this blog might be doomed from the start O.o)

Volia!
Meet the most adorable little kitty every, Foster.

That's kind of an old photo, he's gotten so much bigger...