Lucky

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

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

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'!

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

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

--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

*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.