Friday, June 30, 2017

June Light (so far)

Junes light is my absolute favorite. It comes in so many different forms, so it's been a good exercise for me to focus on something simple that I love to get back into regular photography.

 (from the top of a ferris wheel)











Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Let's play catchup

I put off writing this post until I could successfully link to an up-and-running-looking-fantastic squarespace, but that time is coming slowly, slowly, so here we are now and the site is not up. Let me tell you were I've been. (believe me, it's good.)

So the last blog post I wrote was on the 13th of February. It was never posted. It ran like this:

"Guess what. I missed a day. Pressure's off.

I feel like my photos can take a chill pill now because that feeling of "I need to get A shot to post" has worn off and in it's place is a newfound joy in the simple art of taking a picture. I can chill. I can learn. And I can really start project 365. Ready.

Hi."

That was it. I didn't finish Project 365 and I didn't finish the blog post.
And then I took a trip up to Indiana to stay with my sister for a week (which was fun and slightly scary.) I binged listened to u2's greatest 80s hits up there and became a fan. I spend two hours, three days in a row, on the water front, before the library opened at nine and I walked down to hang out there. (my sister works 45 minutes from where she lives. I'm not allowed inside the chemistry plant so I hung out at the library/waterfront while I waited for her to get off work.) It was a scary and fun week. Despite the temperature hovering around freezing degrees, it was surprisingly nice. It was nippy, sure, but I had music and notebooks and books and I love outside. I have incredibly happy memories of that week, honestly. all to the soundtrack of u2.

(sorry, I went to my first concert this week and now I'm kinda on a u2 high. It may or may not go away. I promise to not try to incorporate cheesy references to song titles.)

The sunsets were beautiful, though. That alone was worth the trip. (though Series of Unfortunate Events was good, too. and hanging out with my sister was nice.)

My mom checked the calendar yesterday and found that we have had someone traveling/a wedding/guests Every Single Weekend since March 4th. No joke. It has been In-Sane.

So then my sister moved back down here and school finished and summer started. Which meant it's been just as crazy as when school was in session, but more driving.

Baseball games.
Vacation.
Amusement Parks.
Plays.
Camping.
Art Festival.
Summer jobs.
Movie nights.
Library Trips.
Birthdays (six since the end of march)
Online Courses.
Concerts (!!!!! okay just one, but)

and soon to be a vbs, a business trip for my dad, a conference, hopefully another road trip...

did I mention the guests?!

But in all honestly, I could give you the rundown of what life has been like. A minute by minute commentary and it's all there. It's not like I've been doing nothing with my days (though I have become a more consistent napper, which is weird.) We have been, and are, busy. Busy in a super fun way. Busy in the best-year-of-my-life-so-far sorta way. But also in the we-need-more-than-a-vacation sorta way.

It's not busy that got in the way, it was priorities. It's always priorities. I thought about this blog a lot, but I never came back here.

Let me take another step back, and refocus for a second.

In March I just hit this genius. It was combo of a lot of thought buzzing around inside my head, which I won't go into detail about, but it hit me as this: I have a marketable skill and I could make some money at it. I have a ton of knowledge about business strategy and clients and all that jazz, and to not put it to use, I mean, what an idiot move. I can gain so much experience right here in my going-nowhere town. It's not my dream job, no. But it's also not my last job. and the stepping out and doing SOMETHING is hard for me. the making a choice actually based off the options and not fear is good for me. the learning how to manage money is good for me.

So I'm looking into photography and the business. okay, a little more than looking into. a lotta more than seriously considering, too.

and I wanted to let you know. That's where we stand. I'll leave a link when I'm up and running.

and on that note, can you leave a note & a link where I can find you & what you're up to these days?

Friday, February 10, 2017

week five . of all the days to be over, this was a good one

Some words from Tuesday: Today was such a wonderful day to be done.

I had to clean out the play structure (The Maze, and believe me, it's aptly nicknamed) because a child had a nose bleed. For some reason he started to go down one way, changed his mind, and gone down a different way. He must have sprayed blood in every single section. And the maze takes up about half our square footage in that room, which is not only a lot to clean, but also very challenging to keep 40+ kids in about 35 ft² of space. And reduced to half the regular staff, at that!

If there's something that I should say, it's this: I hate blood.

What I really hate is the idea of the cut that caused the blood, so nose bleeds do not send that same chill up my spine, but it is definitely not far down on my list of things that I don't enjoy thinking about.

And this morning I woke up with a nose bleed. And swallowed a lot of blood.

I don't think I fully realized how much blood I'd swallowed until I got up into the highest level of the maze and started to realize just how bad the air flow is up there.

Hint: it's bad.

The taste of blood is not quickly forgotten, and, just like stomach acid, is easily perked up by the smell. Thankfully, I did not throw up.

I'll leave out the fact that I also don't like heights. Or being asked at the rate of a least (and I do not exaggerate!) three kids a minute if the maze is open yet.

Hint: No. It's not.

But it is hot and unpleasant up there and hot and unpleasant make me crabby... If you wanted to know.

But let me tell you, to go home was bliss.

I absolutely love that feeling of working really hard and then bring able to say goodnight and fall into bed so tired. I love working hard all week and being able to forget it all Sunday.

There's something so satisfying about working hard, especially when it's something you are not enjoying, and then being able to rest from your labor.

That was my (not so) fun story for the week. here are the pictures.

day twenty-eight . snow on sunday is too exciting to not play in (even if you're already dressed for church!)

day twenty-nine . life hack : rain boots double for snow boots in a pinch.

day thirty . this is my mom's bulletin board. it's got a little piece of all our history.

(oh, look. there's a picture of deryn. and TWO PICTURES of you, Janelle. you be so famous.)

day thirty-one . this is our school room. it's got a little bit of everything. It's beautiful.

day thirty-two . (february!!) lego playing has happened like every day since like the beginning of their lives.

day thirty-three . cup song like yo. (we always learn new things when lizzie spends the weekend. this time we learned footloose. we rock.)

day thirty- four . shadows.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

week four. good BYE, January.

hint, hint: I'm not even sorry to see you go.

no, take that back. you guys all know I hate january with a passion. But. there is a small, tiny something in me that's always sad that it's over. More, I think, that we've finished the first month of the year, than that we've finished January. (there's a big difference there.) it's like the month (and motivation) of "IT'S A NEW YEAR" is done and gone are all the "GET YOUR NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS DONE THIS YEAR" blog posts and all that's left in it's wake are "what to get your soul mate for valentines day."

Rolls eyes.

No, sorry, I'm getting carried away.

Point: yay. january's done. also, it's feburary.

once a very wise person (also, very sad person. I don't know if that's causation. just puttin' it out there.) said, "February is the shortest month of the year, so if you're having a miserable month, try to schedule it for february."

*wipes tear

truer words were never spoken.

To me, February, in some ways, feels like the real start of the year, because it's like the first serious month of the year where you actually have to get down to the day-to-day grind without the romantic idealism that january brings (which is maybe ironic, I'm not really sure.) In that way, I find I almost hate february more than january.

maybe I'm just a hater. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 day twenty-two : fairy house... tell me you didn't make a fairy house when you were a kid... once we even tricked my younger sister and her friend into thinking that all the little flowers on this one tree were actually fairies. It was never clear if they actually believed us or if they just humored us. It may have been some of both.
 day twenty-three : we had three sisters spend the week (monday, wednesday, and thursday afternoon, to be fair.) while their mom took a class. It was a week filled with sippy cups and pretzel bags.
 day twenty-four : when it's nice outside we spend the day outside because winter is a sucky time.
day twenty-five : I'm gonna be completely honest here on two things: 1.) I woke up like this, and I don't think anyone has any trouble doubting that with that lovely hair (it always does that!) 2.) I rarely wake up like this...

because I get out of bed wayyyy before the sun is up (jk, I watch it rise on the way) to go to the gym to run.

So, actually, it's a total luxury to sleep in. which I did on wednesday.

(read it audrey hepburn voice:) it was wouuuuuunderful.

and take it from a girl who used to always sleep in til like ten: it feels so good to get up early.
day twenty-six : hang out session turned tattoo parlor. (note: we didn't have henna so the natural substitute is sharpie.)
day twenty-seven : rubik's cubes have become a kinda new obsession for me. I have no revolutionary thoughts about them, except once when I came up with the idea that like it would be awesome if there was a site you could enter what you had and it would tell you how to solve that.

"yeah, they have that." thanks, mom.

In closing, I know I'm having trouble staying on time with blog posts.

But I recently saw a post somewhere that said, instead of apologizing say thanks. thanks for waiting for me. thanks for caring. instead of sorry for not showing up.

so thank you for reading.

Friday, February 3, 2017

post-processing questions

I need help editing this picture. It's totally different from really anything I've done before.

I rarely stray from my usual editing technique, but this picture calls for something a little extra.

Some pictures don't fully capture moments, but when you play around with it in the editor they turn into something much more magical. (a much more magical moment. how's that for cheesy?) Make it black and white and it conveys something completely different then when it's left in color. remove a distraction (that's true to life, but not true to your memory of it.) Or maybe you just crop and take out unnecessary distraction. Focus the viewer's attention. Use the rule of thirds or center the subject.

Point being: We hold the power of making an image, even after we press the shutter.
So I took this picture. and honestly, not all thaaaat impressive (the one at the top, in color.). On the camera screen, especially, you can barely see the girl at the top of the hill and I almost deleted it.

But here's my deal. I have trouble with having a vision for what I want the picture to be. I can put words to the vibe (the girl at the top of the hill standing for hope and change and the girl running from dark and loneliness and danger, even. The viewer's eye is drawn up the hill, the mountain of difficulty, into the hopeful future. which is represented higher and brighter.) But how do I portray that? Do I crop to focus the viewer's eye? Do I remove those lampposts and mailboxes? Do I add texture? Do I burn and dodge the area's I want different?
I still think maybe a little texture would be nice, but I'm waffling a little. maybe the trees are a little bit of a distraction, too...

your thoughts?

Thursday, January 26, 2017

week three . Spring weather, winter colors.

We got a little bit of warm weather and spent every second of it outside. which is as it should be. Unfortunately, the outside is not pretty in winter. I'm looking for ways to show the beauty of winter, even if the scenery is ugly.
 day fifteen . excuse the mess on the counter and in the sink. it's our typical sunday afternoon. (we like to leave the dishes til monday.)
 day sixteen . ah, the classic legos shot of winter. I think when I take pictures of legos it's proof of how uninspired I am.
 day seventeen . oranges taste like winter.
 day eighteen . nap time's a joke anyway.
 day nineteen . I don't know what this game is called, but I'm pretty sure any of us who've ever been a child have played the don't-let-the-balloon-touch-the-ground game. it's a classic. (note! new glasses!)
day twenty . this weather is beautiful but the scenery is ugly. I'm looking for ways to portray my moods in winter when nothing looks like my mood. tips, anyone?

day twenty-one . we took advantage of this weather like nobody's business. We're alllll ready for spring, no joke.

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

check it out, dude

whoop, whoop! Favorites from the so-far year.

4 Tricks to Catch up on Editing - just just what I needed to get back to editing. Those holiday photos (all 700+ of them! ...not counting the 700 on camera to cull + edit) aren't going to clean-up themselves!! 

Interesting article on saying NO - "Then, just say no. It will hurt. But make it a habit. And moment by moment, no by no, you will see your prioritized life take shape." like, best advice ever, amiright?

5 Ways to Avoid Being Boring (in photography) - wowowowowow I can't say it enough. I can't tell you how much I've been thinking about this article lately.  I need to reread whenever I go to pick up my camera. I guess I'd say, if you're in that awkward place of better-than-a-beginner-but-don't-know-how-to-take-it-to-the-next-level welllll, this is for you! Go give it a read. you WILL NOT regret it. promise.

11 kind, free things you can do for yourself - this list has so many super simple, yet totally fun ideas that I'm all game for. like I've mentioned before, this weather gets me down every year. but year by year, I'm getting a little bit better at fighting it and maybe one day I'll get to the point where I actually enjoy it. but that's too far in the future to see. 

Give me your favorite links from around the web! I'd love to check them out!