Friday, March 29, 2013

The Snowy Mountain

For those of you who don't know, I live in a valley, on one side of a mountain that I cross often to go to Charlottesville. It's an absolutely beautiful drive that I take for granted because I see it so often. The road runs through the mountain and it overlooks a huge stretch of land that you are able to see all at once during parts of the drive. When it snowed the other day, the snow wasn't sticking to the road and I desperately wanted to go sit in my car at one of the overlooks and just watch it fall onto the town below. I knew it would be foggy but I also knew it would be peaceful and beautiful. So I drove over that mountain with my film camera and my digital camera. Unfortunately, it was even foggier than I anticipated so I couldn't see much but I still took a few shots anyway. I traveled around Crozet afterwards, stopping my car on the side of the road and jumping out to photograph different things with my film camera since I had just loaded my first roll of professional film! It's possible that I am more concerned to take pictures sometimes than to keep myself safe, but hey, I'm excited to see how the film turned out. I'll be sharing that in the next month or so. :) Have a glorious Friday everyone! As much as I enjoyed that snow, this beautiful Virginia weather today has me ready for spring and summer. :)



Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Questions

Being in front of the camera is not the easiest thing for me but getting past that and being able to share with you is totally worth it. I picked a few questions and put them into a video. Hopefully I did an adequate job of answering them.


Music in video by Parachute.  

As promised, here are the links of the bloggers I mentioned:
- Michelle Moore
- Katelyn James
- Jasmine Star
- Stephanie Fay
- This Modern Romance
- Jose Villa
- Jonathan Canlas

Monday, March 25, 2013

Dogwood Bud

I went outside on Friday to help my mom trim back some zebra grass and as I was walking around the yard, giddy that I saw buds on the trees, I really starting thinking about how amazing the life of a tree is, or any plant for that matter. They sprout buds in the spring, they grow leaves in the summer, they lose those leaves in the fall, and they die back in the winter. The cycle is repeated each year as they grow stronger and bigger. I went over to the dogwood tree in our side yard that's been there for years and pulled one of the branches down to look at the tiny bud the size of a pomegranate seed and I noticed that it had just started to open. The protection around the bud had split apart and soon, a big, white, symmetrical dogwood flower will appear, perfect and alive. I'm amazed at creation every day and my fascination with a simple bud tells me that I truly find God in his design of nature. It's evident more each day. Hope everyone's Monday is a good one! Here are some photos from the past couple weeks.










Friday, March 22, 2013

Pinterest Photo Safari

I was inspired by Jasmine Star's reSTARt course to put together a inspiration board of sorts. I haven't had a chance yet to go out with my own camera and do my own photo safari but I combed through some photos I had pinned on Pinterest and this is what I came up with. It's a little unorganized and I'm sure there are things I should remove to really narrow down what I like but this is the board in its early stages. :) If I were to rebrand and have my blog redesigned which I hope to do in the next year, this is a version of what I would give the graphic designer. After putting the board together, I noticed that I love....

- pinks, blues, and greens, mostly pastel shades
- chevron
- handwritten, scripty fonts with bold elements
- succulents
- food (haha, unfortunately, this probably doesn't translate well for a designer)

It's hard to make sense of someone's inspiration board and I totally admire graphic designers for being able to do such a good job with it. Like I said, mine probably could use a little more narrowing (if you're a graphic designer, don't hate me), but I thought it would be fun to give you guys a look into what could possibly be a future blog. :)


Wednesday, March 20, 2013

So Long, Winter

I'm so ready for winter to be over. I enjoyed our big snowstorm but I'm ready for days where I can lay outside to tan with my headphones in and a book in front of me. It's already the end of March and I think it's about time the beautiful flowers start sprouting. I always get in a rut this time of year because I don't want to go outside but when I think about warmth, not having to wear a jacket when I leave my house, my friends coming home from college, trips to get ice cream, and the two weddings I'm shooting this summer, I can't wait for this cold season to be over. I'm going to make the bold statement of saying that Monday's ice/snowstorm was the last one we'll get for another year. :)











Monday, March 18, 2013

Playlist III

Happy Monday! I hope everyone enjoys this rainy day and takes a moment to relax and listen to the music on my most recent Spotify playlist! You can listen to it here. :)



Friday, March 15, 2013

19

Yesterday was my birthday and I turned 19. This past week my friends have been home for spring break and I realized more than ever how blessed I am to know them. Thank goodness they were home for my birthday to make it worth while. :)



Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Canon 1V

My Canon 1V came in the mail early yesterday and I wasn't even expecting it until late that night. YES. Love when that happens. It had been raining when it was delivered but by the time I discovered it was out on my front porch, the sun had come out! I was so thrilled. I immediately opened the box and put on my 50mm 1.4 (I bought it because it works with my EF lenses... and because it's a fabulous camera). I bought this camera used in "bargain" condition from KEH and there are definitely some scuff marks on the body but hopefully the camera itself is fine. It seems fine. I put in a roll of film yesterday I got for fairly cheap from CVS and finished up the roll in a couple hours, knowing I needed to see if it worked before my return time was up. CVS scanned my film and I was so excited to know that every one of my pictures turned out! HALLELUJAH. My only worry is that there there was dust and hairs on the scans but I think that was CVS's fault when developing. But anyway, although I haven't shot with professional film and I haven't gotten professional scans done, I think the camera is in working order!! I'm beyond excited to be able to incorporate film into my work! :)













Monday, March 11, 2013

Movie Monday

My goal for March was to make a quick little video for you guys. I absolutely love when photographers do videos so I get to know them better in a way other than just through words. I'll definitely be posting another video to answer any questions you may have so ask away!! Have a delightful rest of the week!!


Friday, March 8, 2013

Reality

My life the past month has been full of silly, outrageous things. Let me share with you.

• Our van broke down at Food Lion on Tuesday (right after I told mom we shouldn't drive that unreliable car) so we asked someone for their car to jump it. It didn't work. Meanwhile, another woman locked her keys and her elderly father sleeping in her car... I mean, what? After she and everyone else in the parking lot banged on the window and yelled, "Joe, Joe, Joe" for twenty minutes, he finally woke up and saved the day by unlocking the car. We made sure to stay and see the firetruck come only to be told everything was fine. We ended up leaving with a nice old lady from a repair garage with our groceries in her trunk.
• I showered without power on Wednesday in a bathroom with no windows. I put a candle in the shower with me. It was interesting.
• I got asked if I was a teacher while in a drive thru. I'm 18. I'll take it.
• I considered sledding down my deck stairs with all the snow we got. I still need to make that happen.
• I tripped in heels in the mall. I caught myself but I blame the carpet on the ramp that I went down. I thought it was hilarious but I think everyone watching felt bad for me. It's okay.
• I was driving in a new area this past week when I found myself needing to turn around at the bottom of a very steep hill. My car, being an inch off the ground, screeched and dragged the whole way up the hill. At one point, I wasn't even moving as I was pressing the gas but terrible noises were happening. I feel like I make bad decisions.
• A couple months ago, I thought it would be fun to take the case off my iPhone. I wanted to have a naked iPhone. You know how that goes. Well, it fell out of my back pocket and onto our kitchen tile. It was done for. I laughed. 
• On my way to North Carolina last week, I stopped for lunch at a Subway. I went in, ordered food, and proceeded to the bathroom. As I went in, I noticed the door was hard to close. I ignored it, used the restroom, and when I came out, well, I couldn't get out because the door was jammed. I didn't bring my phone with me so dramatic me thought of the worst: The Subway ladies were terrorists who locked me in there on purpose. Totally rational. I took a deep breath and banged on the door. After a minute, I was rescued and laughed at. I told the lady they should fix the door and she said, "You just have to jerk the handle." Ummm, no.



Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Snow, Summer, and Film

I'm the happiest girl today because of this snow. I was at a friend's house last night just hanging out and all of a sudden, I got a text saying that it was snowing. WHAT? Already?! It wasn't supposed to start until midnight. Well, it was 9 p.m. and the snow had started. I rushed home and this morning I awoke to..... a lot of snow. :) I've been waiting for it since the first day of winter and FINALLY, a significant amount of has fallen just for me. :) 

With that being said, I've spent a lot of time in North Carolina lately and I got used to the slightly warmer weather. Because of that, I can't say I would mind summer right about now. I'm excited for my family's beach trip and today, even as the beautiful, dainty (maybe more like chunky) flakes fall outside my window and continue to blanket everything in sight, I'm thinking of my beach trip from December. Although it was winter and we didn't get tans and float on tubes in the water, it was peaceful. And renewing. And fun. And memorable. I'm thankful for that time I had with my friends that I miss so much. Gosh, I love beaches. I think I'm longing for a vacay.

While I was there, I took a roll of film on my AE-1. I'm really in an experimental stage with film. I took Photo I and II in high school and learned so much about developing but now I'm really just trying to figure out what types of film I like, how they work in different light, and where to get scans done. I am cheap and sent these to CVS and regret it. They scan low res and every time I've used them, there's dust all over my scans. ARG. Never again.

But I'm learning and I'm also thinking about buying a Canon 1V. :) I'm still looking around and asking people what they shoot with but I've seen shots taken with the 1V and they're glorious! It's not medium format but for now, I think it will do the job. :) I hope to shoot a couple rolls of film at every session I do from now on and I'm just excited thinking about having a nice 35mm film camera.

Here are some of my recent shots from the past six months. What do you guys think? Do you shoot film? Have you heard of any really great film cameras?















Monday, March 4, 2013

In Front of the Lens

I posted a couple weeks ago about my day in Charlottesville with Rachel and Amy but I only posted the photos I took. Now it's time to share the photos that they took of me! 

I take self portraits every month or so for outfit posts or to practice lighting/posing, but I rarely have a professional photo taken of me by someone else. In fact, my senior pictures were the last time I had someone take a professional photo of me and I didn't even like those pictures. Haha.

This day with Rachel and Amy was eye-opening because I realized I'm really not good at being photographed. It may seem like it because they were coaching me, posing me, and talking to me the whole time but it was still hard. I'm glad I can finally understand the awkwardness a client may feel sometimes, especially if I'm not talking to them. Yikes. Thankfully, Rachel and Amy and I all understand that being confident in yourself and your abilities to pose and instruct behind the camera is so important. So thank you both for a learning experience and also, some photos that I actually like of myself!


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