New Stuff! Whoo!

 

 

 

Notice my shiny new blog header?

I was pretty impressed with myself for making it...until I saw that it isn't quite long enough to go across the whole page. Ah, well. I'll leave it that way for now. ;)

This past week has been full of excitement and anticipation. I've been planning on getting a new camera for a while now, and it was only recently that I was able to actually buy one. I had actually put in an order to Sears, but the order got messed up somehow and we ended up having to cancel it, so I actually had to drive down to get the camera I wanted. Of course, there weren't any stores in my own town that had the one I wanted, but I still had a fun time spending the day with my sister in the city.

The camera. MY GOODNESS. It's like a dream come true. I've spent the whole day getting to know all of its new features, and so far it's all pretty exciting. I have a family photo shoot this coming Saturday, so I am looking forward to shooting with my new lens.

I'm serious when I say that I've spent the whole day getting to know my camera. Here are just a couple of shots of taken today.

  This first one was actually taken last night at about 11 or so. AT NIGHT. Just in case you missed that. ;) I was very impressed at just how sharp everything looks, considering how dark it was at the time. I couldn't even see that well when I took the picture!

 

 

 

 
Okay, this next one might not look all that impressive to you guys, but this is actually the first ever clear photo I have ever gotten of this dog. She can never stay still enough for me to get a good shot of her--until now! The photo was also taken in medium-shade, and yet you can't even tell. :o

This last one is one of my favorites. Taken in my dim kitchen with a simple kit lens and flash (and really fast shutter speed). I really love how the background is reflected in the water drops.

So there's the sneek peek at my day! :)

Miss Tara!

Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of taking my good friend Tara's senior photos! We had a blast, and she looks amazing in every photo.

Thanks for asking me to photograph ya, Tara! You're absolutely gorgeous. Inside and out! :)

 

A few of my favorites from the day. Then again, pretty much all of the 200 some-odd photos are my favorites!

The Coolest Web-mag I know!

 

  Okay, so I don't know of any other web magazines besides Lilies Among Thorns. But it's a magazine I write for, along with lots of other great Christian girls, so it should be a pretty great magazine! I definitely think it is, and if you haven't checked it out yet, then head on over to http://www.liliesamongthornsmagazine.blogspot.com/ ! Like us on Facebook!

  Our magazine is dedicated to helping young women deal with the thorns of life and to striving to be lilies among those thorns. We write spiritual and inspiration articles to help you through the tough times and lift you up, fun articles to give you ideas for crafts and activities, fashion columns to show you simple and modest outfits to keep ya stylin', and lots more.

  Our editor, Haylie, got the idea to start an online Christian magazine written by teenage girls sometime last year, and I was lucky enough to be asked on as one of the regular writers. Our first column came out last October, so we've been at this for nearly a year now. So far, we have 55 followers, but I know we can do better than that!

  I also know that I can do better than just ONE follower. Right? Yep.

  Take a look at the mag, follow it, like it, let us know what you think!

An Upside Down Day

  This past weekend, I went to an amusement park with 7 of my friends, along with my parents and aunt. We had a blast, and I thought I'd share some of the photos from that day.

  First off, let me go ahead and tell you that we went on all of the rides. ALL of them.

The scary ones that about made me pee my pants...

This thing went ridiculously high, and it was simply held down by bungee cords. Probably not the safest thing ever.

And this one went upside down way too many times.

The  ones that weren't scary at all...

This one actually had no buckles or restraints even though it spun around in the air. But it was rather boring. Go figure.

We even rode the Carosel. Don't judge.

I think we had way too much fun on this ride. :D

  All in all, we all had fun. We spent nearly the whole day in the park, and by the time we left I had screamed so much that my  throat hurt (I think most of my friends were surprised by how loud I can scream since I'm usually such a quiet person).

  I think we may even try to go again before the park closes down, since we all had such great fun and we have 5 tickets left over. If we do, I'll make sure to get more pictures...as proof for how truly crazy we all are. Seriously.

A Way to Pass the Time? Get Ghostly

  With all of this snow we've gotten these past two weeks, my family and I have had to stay at home more than is usual for us. It's definitely been a long two weeks. Not that I don't like being at home with my parents; I do! I love it when they're both home for the day. This last week alone we've watched movies together (some of my favorites), laughed together (which we do quite often anyway), and just had fun. But it's still hard to stay completely un-bored when at home for the whole day every day.

  So a couple of days ago, I was messing around with my camera--as I tend to do when there is nothing else to do--and I got the idea that I would love to take some ghost pictures. I was home alone, so I quickly got dressed in all white, set my camera up on it's nifty tripod, then commenced running and jumping around in front of said camera like the maniac I am. And I actually got a couple of cool looking pictures, believe it or not. It also helped me pass some time rather quickly.

  I also did some more ghost pictures with my mom the night afterwards, and they turned out really good. I made it where she was whole but I was a ghost beside her, all see through and just half there. So fun. I love how you can do all sorts of awesome things with photography!

   I would love to put some of these ghost pictures up but my computer is acting up on me (again) and the pictures won't load. Maybe I can get them up sometime later??

  But for right now, I need to get some writing done in one of my books! I'm in a very important part and I need to get it written before I forget all that I have in my head. That's happened more often than I would like to admit...:)

Picture Frenzy

 I'm actually in a photography class with some of my homeschool friends, and every week our teacher gives us an assignment for what kinds of pictures she wants us to take for the week. One of the assignments for this week is a landscape picture, which I love to take. So after getting home from my homeschool group yesterday, I thought I'd head outside and try to get some pictures of a field that is just across from my house.

 And this is when the picture frenzy began.

 It was not long before I realized that my camera has excellent zooming abilities, and I was so thrilled that I decided to test just how awesome those abilities are. Let me give you an example of one of the pictures I took:

 I was standing in the middle of my front yard and I heard a hawk cry out. When I looked up to see where the bird was, I was delighted when I saw it perched atop a tree about 100 yards away from me (I guess about the length of half a football field). So, standing in the same spot, I zoomed in on the hawk...and the pictures came out clear as day! You can even see his eyes!! I was excited I even did a little jig. In my front yard. In freezing weather. Where everyone could see me. And I never do happy dances.

 

 One of the very first pictures I took was of a small house thing in a field that was about a mile away from my house. The picture is so clear, it's as if I was standing right in the field in front of the house, not in my own yard. Awesome? You bet it is!

 This picture frenzy went on for about an hour and a half, complete with excited jumping up and down, and exclamations of "Oh, my gosh! This is awesome!" and "Jake, can you believe it?!" Jake is my Brittany Spaniel, and up until yesterday it was nigh on impossible to take pictures of him since he is such a hyper dog. Now all I have to do is stand about ten feet away from him when he doesn't know that I am watching him and snap as many pictures as I please. It sort of makes me feel like a stalker or something, since I have to be all sneaky. :D

                                             

 All in all, it was a fabulous day. I would say Doug's word, but I believe I've used it in this post even more than Doug himself...Okay, I'll say it anyway: Awesome