HIRE ME! (Please)

Tuesday was a monumental moment for me.  I drove to Anthropologie after school determined to buy a dress that was way too expensive and, after about an hour of indecision, left empty-handed.  Why would I do such a thing, you ask?
Well, before I got my 5D, before I even got my Tamron, I had my eye on the Canon 35mm f/1.4.  Every couple of months I come back to this beauty, consider buying it, realize how very expensive it really is ($1400), and give up.  However, this weekend when I was shooting with Katie and using some of her L-series lenses, I looked at the screen on the back of my camera and was blown away at the quality of my photos.  Thus began my return to lusting after this lens.  But this time, I am determined to buy it.

Many people's staple lens is the 50mm f/1.4.  I wish that was mine because it is about 1,000 cheaper, but alas--I guess I have expensive tastes.  Nah, I just like to be up close and personal.  And take landscapes.  And shoot wide with my subject in focus.  And take non-blurry photos in low light.  And use the lens Nick Onken repeatedly uses in his book, Photo Trekking.  


So.  Help me reach my dreams!!! Hire me!  Tell all your friends and family!  Buy prints (all photos you see anywhere are for sale, just contact me)!
I am working on updating my site and expanding my "business" to family photos, newborns, events, engagements, and probably anything else you can think of, so spread the word!!

THANK YOU!!

Sidenote: Andrew Belle's latest cd is downloadable free here (but not for long!) and it's pretty awesome.  Get it!

I Need More of This

...please snow please snow please snow.

Irrelevance.

Monteagle on film.  October 2010.

I used to lose things all the time.  Mostly at school.  Pencils were the first to go.  I also had (and still have) a strange need to have good writing utensils around, so that wasn't a good combination.  Then, I tried to borrow, but I just ended up losing those too.

Then, there were the times I would just leave my locker open with the books I was going to put in laying out in the middle of the hallway.  How I could just forget to finish this simple, routine activity is a mystery to me.  

I got really frustrated with myself, so I trained myself to pay more attention (a hard task for me when it comes to school) and I slowly grew less absentminded.  I bought new pencils and gave some to people whose pencils I had lost.  When I left a classroom, I learned to turn back and check my desk to make sure I had everything.  I consciously returned pencils to the right pocket after class.  I finally grasped the concept of closing locker doors.  Life was good, for a few years.

Then came today, when I walked in the school carrying my trusty Camelbak and an AP Statistics study book, and walked out with a new US Navy lanyard and a lame Bruin ice scraper, but neither of the aforementioned items.  

I have no idea where either could be.  Maybe my 7th period.  But school is canceled tomorrow and by Monday (I mean Tuesday, because we won't have school Monday) I'm pretty sure both will be gone forever.  

Life is depressing.  (Both are necessary to my current lifestyle, both were fairly expensive, and neither have my name written anywhere.)

....on the upside, maybe I can buy this now.  I drink more that 16 oz. during a typical school day and I don't find glass water bottles particularly necessary, but the design is so nice and clean.  I've been checking it out every day since Claire pointed it out a couple weeks ago.  Maybe this is all a sign....[yeah, right.]

1:15 AM

I spent $6 on ice cream today and I don't regret it.  Returned to Hot & Cold today with Kate and Amanda and got a Flaming Frosty (see above) with Brown Butter Almond Brittle and Salted Caramel ice cream (first photo).  Possibly one of the better decisions I've made in my life.  And I didn't spill this time.

PS: Please excuse the quality of these photos; I wasn't intending on posting them here but its 1:15 and I don't want to go to bed so what better to do than share the goodness of the Berstein's brilliant creation?  Also, I'm pretty sure Amanda hated me for taking this photo so let's keep it on the dl that it's up here.  I don't think she ever checks this thing....

Preview: Michelle

PS: Wouldn't Michelle be the perfect J. Crew model??! If only you could vote people onto these things... 

I never used to take photos indoors because "my camera does not work well in low light."  However, some indoor things are pretty awesome and I needed to learn to accommodate, so I have recently but upping my ISO, stopping down to 2.8 (widest my best lens can go), and taking advantage of window light.  I am particularly proud of this photo because although there was great light through the large window in this room, I was able to even it out across her face and highlight her features with my HOMEMADE reflector (applause for Alice!)!!!!  I'm pretty proud if you can't tell.  

fake photo...please excuse my face. (reflector made with aluminum foil and poster board.)

PS: When I was googling how effective foil reflectors were, the first website I came to was in fact not about photography on a budget, but growing marijuana on a budget.  Good job, world.

Boggis, Bunce, and Bean, One Fat, One Short, One Lean...

Because I'm starting to go a little crazy after being stuck in my mom's room for two days (rest of the house feels like its in the negative degrees!!..and its been a little tough to get out of my driveway due to the snow), here's a little list of some things I'm lovin' at the moment:

- Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Just watched it again with my mom who is hard to impress when it comes to movies and we both loved it.  Definitely one of my favorites.

- Headbands.  here and here (and ebay for that matter.  I love ebay).  I've always thought headbands looked a little ridiculous on me, but I might just start wearing them anyway.  

- Etsy shops with pretty little jewelry pieces like this one.

- This blog and the way they portray DC (and everything else!).  Makes me want to live there even more.

- Not the biggest G. Love fan, but this video is pretty awesome.  I like the clapping..?

- Sweaters and coats like this one here.  No surprises there.  I went to Hillsboro Village the other day to check out Hot & Cold (yum!) and do some studying, but ended up buying a coat instead.  Considering I'm really hoping to be living in LA next year, this may not have been the smartest investment (buy hey, it was on sale)! 

- Mocha Club.  I think I've written about five essays about it so far, but it's helped me realize just how awesome they are!  If you live in Nashville, go volunteer!  If you don't (or even if you do) click the link and join the movement!

..and because this is called a "photo blog" here's a picture I took on my phone using Instagram!

the backyard

Tomorrow, more essays and if the roads are okay, a photo shoot!

Just So You Know,

I spent the morning of my snow day filling out and submitting the FAFSA and CSS Profile, and my afternoon completing alllll of the GMS Scholarship (8 essays).  Submitted the scholarship app with 10 minutes to go.  Wuddup.

Also, our heater is broken.  I have barely left my mom's room (different heating system) all day.  Life is good.

Wise Ol' Dumbledore

"A word of caution: dementors are vicious creatures. They will not distinguish between the one they hunt and the one who gets in their way. Therefore I must warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. It's not in the nature of a dementor to be forgiving. But you know happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light."

-Professor Dumbledore

It's been two days and school is already quickly sucking my soul away.  Like a dementor.  Vicious.  Half of my waking hours are spent as if I am Imperiused...if only I could blame it on that.  My first grade of the new semester was a whopping 60.  Good predictor on what the rest of the year will be like..

Well it is now 8:40pm.  I'm sitting on my bed listening to Kanye West (not my usual, don't worry) and sipping water from my Butterbeer souvenir cup, about to start on homework.  And even though I don't understand anything I'm doing in any of my subjects and am well into my senior slide, I am determined to take Dumbledore's advice and remember to "turn on the light."  Especially because it's one of my goals.  Anyway, there's only ninety school days left, and hopefully at the end of it, I will be on my way to one of the following cities:

Los Angeles

New York

Washington D.C.

Btw, got some awesome prints and things in the mail today from my kind friend Wesley Kirk.  Highlight of my day.

twenty-eleven.

The best part about New Year's Eve, in my opinion, is being able to say "See you next year!"  Never gets old.  Actual New Year's Day is less exciting.  However, there is much to look forward to for me this year.  Probably the biggest thing is graduating high school and going off to college.  Really looking forward to that, apart from the debt I will suddenly be in and the current possibility I will be somewhere both cold and not-my-top-choice.  But let's think positively!

Another, much less major, thing I am looking forward to this year is getting my own laptop.  As lame as that sounds, for me it means being able to get Photoshop (hopefully), changing my editing process and hopefully creating better images in the post-processing side of things.  Sadly, that'll have to wait until probably August, so in the meantime, I've redownloaded GIMP so I can make diptychs and such for your viewing pleasure.  Here's one of Cate and a sweet dog we met yesterday!

A Very Potter Christmas

This Christmas, Nashville experienced it's first White Christmas in over a decade--what would've been the second White Christmas in my life and first in my memory had I been in town.  But no regrets for me as I'm no fan of snow and anyway, I was celebrating Christ's birth in short-sleeves at a much more magical setting (literally and figuratively)--Harry Potter World.

I must admit when I heard about the creation of the HP theme park, I was a little skeptical, especially of the rides.  But I needn't have worried because the rides, which we experienced first, were awesome!  We were welcomed into the Forbidden Journey with a "Welcome, Muggles!" complete with a terribly fake British accent, but they made up for it later since the ride was so cool.  We would have ridden it again but when we returned, the wait was 75 minutes.  Then we rode the hippogriff ride which was less exciting but heey, I rode a hippogriff?  And last but not least, there was the Dragon Challenge.  We rode this one twice to experience the ride from both perspectives, and both got an Outstanding in my book!

After the rides, we headed on over to Honeydukes and Zonkos, then Dervish and Banges and Ollivanders (the stores were connected), and finally dined at the Three Broomsticks/Hogs Head.  It was pretty much just a huge money-making extravaganza, but executed well enough to make even me, an extreme cheap-o, break out the cash.  Sadly robes were $100 and wands were up there too, so we had to pass on those.  But we did buy plenty of food, which was the coolest anyway!  My sisters and I got frozen butterbeer, regular butterbeer, pumpkin juice, and a cauldron cake!  Everything was delicious.

Here are some mediocre pictures of our adventure: