Angles, Angels, and S'more

Last weekend was a blast. Katie and I met in downtown Newark, where there were practically no people but plenty of gorgeous bronze statues and wonderful murals to take their place. I fell in love with this little ghost town, especially once I came across their example of "vandalism".

249/365; Sept. 17; Yes, those are marshmallows.

The next day was just as great, if not better. Katie and I made some fun jewelry for our Indian-inspired shoot, and my car was stuffed with things for all the models to work with. Unfortunately, all but one had to cancel on us, so it just ended up being a 2-hour shoot with an absolutely breathtaking young girl named Katilyn. I'm actually thankful that it just ended up being her, as she was so pretty and sweet that I couldn't stop taking pics of her.

Three edits of one of my favorite shots. BTW, I made the bracelet and hair accessory!

Since she had a time constraint, we weren't going to have time to curl her hair up for the second half of the shoot. Luckily, I happened to have my trusty brown wig with. It matched her hair perfectly! We just blended her hair with the wig and got started. Here's my favorite of that set.

250/365; Sept. 18; Lens flares added for fun. Otherwise, just played with variations and called it a day.

The next three days were spent in Columbus, so here goes.

251/365; Sept. 19; Church windows. I felt like playing with HDR, but then also wanted a film look, so here's the combo.

252/365; Sept. 20; El Jefe, the epitome of man... and his favorite purse?

I couldn't resist capturing this shot of my grandfather. He is so wonderfully comfortable with himself that he can sit there looking all intimidating whilst holding his wife's purse and shopping bag. Better still, his shirt reads "The beatings will continue until morale improves."

253/365; Sept. 21; More playing with HDR.

The 21st was supposed to be my first day of attending Ohio State University, but instead it ended up being the day I withdrew from all my classes :( In any case, I was on campus. The next day (and still today), however, I didn't feel very much like leaving the house, so the next two shots were taken in my living room.

254/365; Sept. 22; Zoom-panned wall decoration.

Can you believe that one's almost completely unedited? AND it was my first shot?! I was taken off guard when I saw that I actually got the shot I wanted right away. It was taken in Monochrome with a yellow filter since the wall's yellow and the sun is a warm green. The apparent vignette was caused by the darkness of the surrounding room and the highlights and shadows were from my flash. All I did to this was use a subtle Unsharp Mask on the face. O.O  For once, I'm finally believing I'm getting better. :)

Finally, we get to today. My grandfather rearranged all the furniture in our living room, and now I sit much further from the lamp I photographed on September 9th. I'm ridiculously exhausted today, so I've barely left the couch. :( Took this while lying down.

255/365; Sept. 23; The Golden Hour Came Late

In other news, Kaytlin and I are planning a bigger, more public shoot for the weekend of October 22nd, so be looking out for those details. Also, I have a job interview for WalMart's PictureMe studio on Tuesday. Hoping for the best. I could use some good luck on the professional side.

Aw, Nuts!

248/365; Sept 16; Peanut in an oddly lit bar

Ohio State still hasn't gotten back to me, and Welcome Week starts on Monday, so I guess I'm not going. :-( Monday was supposed to be the day I went to campus to get my parking permit, locker, transfer credits straightened out, and some fun time during all the WW festivities. Doubly sad.

Oh well! Tomorrow's another day. I've applied at a couple more local photo studios and am hopeful. Also, tomorrow I get to spend the night at my friend Katie's house. We'll hopefully be taking some shots of her gorgeous baby sister dancing, preparing for Sunday's Native-American-inspired shoot, and just being our silly selves, so if I don't post for the next night or two, it's only because I'm busy taking a ton of pictures (or resting from it). :D

Now, just for fun, I'll throw a few of my favorite shots from my shoot with miss Brandy Cruz née Gilbert.

Random Photo Catch-up Post 2-- DONE!

I'VE FINALLY CAUGHT UP WITH MY EDITING! Kind of. At least for this challenge, anyway... -bites lip-
Okay, on to the randomness.

219/365; Aug 18, 2011; Playing with an angel statuette

220/365; Aug 19, 2011; Barely edited flower in a neighbor's yard

221/365; Aug 20, 2011; Gotta love restaurant signs.

222/365; Aug 21, 2011; Bee and wildflowers on a photo walk

232/365; Aug 31, 2011; Otherwise unedited HDR-style tomatoes given to us by a friend

233/365; Sept 1, 2011; Duck? Vintage duck? Taken from the car

234/365; Sept 2, 2011; "The Mile-High Club"

235/365; Sept 3, 2011; Weed in my dog's yard

236/365; Sept 4, 2011; "Think she can see me?"

237/365; Sept 5, 2011; Um... random neighbor's lawn ornament.

238/365; Sept 6; Really interesting texture on a bridge

239/365; Sept 7; Must have had a texture complex those days... Another *ahem* interesting texture

240/365; Sept 8; A wall that must have looked pretty cool to me at the time.

241/365; Sept 9; The view from my seat every night

242/365; Sept 10; I love my friends already. Even If I only met them within the past month. LOL

243/365; Sept 11; Speaking of people I love, these are my favorite people in the world!!! My grandparents. <3

244/365; Sept 12; Creepy little toy that my dog hates. (Small because it freaks me out.)

245/365; Sept 13; Speaking of my dog (LOL! Coincidence, I promise), this is her waiting for Gma to get home. So tyoot.

246/365; Sept 14 TODAY! YAY!; Awesomely distressed foam head in my bedroom.

Okay, hopefully I'll keep up with the editing a little better from now on. But I doubt it, so don't hold your breath... LOL

Random Photo Catch-up Post 1

I had a plan for how I wanted to give these photos to you, but now that it's been well over a month, I don't even care anymore. So these are some of the challenge photos I haven't posted yet. Sorry for the odd array. lol

204/365; Aug 3, 2011; Crystal in Columbus

206/365; Aug 5, 2011; Child playing on a cloudy day in Columbus

209/365; Aug 8, 2011; People-friendly deer in my front yard

210/365; Aug 9, 2011; Photo-crasher in my back yard

211/365; Aug 10, 2011; Child not playing on a sunny day in Columbus

212/365; Aug 11, 2011; Jesus in my basement

213/365; Aug 12, 2011; Interesting plant on a photo drive

214/365; Aug 13, 2011; Power washing the back porch

215/265; Aug 14, 2011; Knick-knack in Grandma's craft room

216/365; Aug 15, 2011; Statuette in my basement

217/365; Aug 16, 2011 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LIL BRO!); Statue found while out and about

218/365; Aug 17, 2011; Vintage weeds and bee during photo drive.

As you can probably tell, I'm starting to enjoy being able to drive around now. :-) More soon! These were all edited in the past 24 hours, so we'll see how it goes. <3

Eyesores

FINALLY, tonight will be the last night I post a photo of my class artwork. Tomorrow I will be spending the day with a photographer friend and a few people she's bringing along, so it should be a fun day! The next day, I have orientation for Ohio State. If I don't post that day, it will only be because I am exhausted. lol

Alright, so today's photo... yeeeah, I'm not really going to explain it since the explanation's in the pic. Enjoy!

As for August 2, I was still not feeling well that day, so I took another pic in the yard. Unfortunately, I'm not as pleased with it as the one I posted yesterday. I liked it unedited, but it was freakishly vibrant and hard on the eyes for anyone who's not [insane? tasteless? blind?] me. Since it was so bright, I decided to completely go the opposite route and try a somewhat vintage look on it.

You decide. Do you hate it, love it, or feel nothing at all?

Broken Over Break

Well hello there, my good fellows! I've missed you guys! I am officially on Summer Break now, so let me tell you about how Finals Week went.

Monday:
What a crabby day that was. I was feeling sick and had an advising appointment in a city almost 2 hours away. We drove all the way there, got to my appointment right on time (2 o'clock), and I still had to wait to see my advisor FOR TWO HOURS. And then my appointment lasted all of five minutes. On the plus side, I found out I could be graduating in one school year. Of course, a few days ago I realized I still will not because of issues of where we will be living and how few people I could intern for in this area, but it was nice to know I COULD HAVE been graduating in just one year.

That day, I took a photo of a student's feet. He was wearing the rattiest Chuck Taylors I ever saw, and he crossed his ankles so pleasantly that it amused me. I really liked all the writing and pictures on his shoes as well. But that photo is one of maaaany that have disappeared from my stupid, messed up SD card. :( On the bright side, I wasn't really happy with the way the photo turned out anyway. It was rather dark.

Tuesday:
The day of my Drawing final. It was a bittersweet day. I got an A+ in the class (YAY), but I also had to say goodbye to the one professor I've had almost every quarter that I've been at this school. She and her husband-- also one of my favorite professors-- have retired and are moving on to California. That day I simply took photos of a few of the drawings from that class. Again, the photos are missing thanks to the SD card. >.<

Wednesday:
Took my Art History 213 final exam early in the morning, and I'm fairly certain I aced it, so I have a solid A in that class. Took a photo of the school's pet turtle, Kruizer, in his little pink kiddie pool outside. Yet another photo that's gone missing. That's the day I realized my photos were starting to disappear, and I bought a new SD card. Didn't take any more photos for that day, however, as I realized that my Art History 211 final essay was due the next night instead of on Friday. Can we say "PANIC!"? lol

Thursday:
Spent almost the entire day working on that final essay, with the exception of a 2-hour-long break to eat and take photos. As we rode by an awesome building with a ton of abandoned vintage vehicles out back, Grandpa decided to let me stop and take a bunch of pics. Here is where you can finally see some PICTURES. lol

I'd LOVE to add a texture to this

Totally makes me think of a grumpy old man

How to Park Your Car

Objects in Mirror are Larger Than They Appear

Friday:

Slept in after a long day of essay-writing. For dinner, we went to a little bar down the way that was once very popular and has recently reopened. I have to say, I was extremely impressed by their perch. Now if only I knew what that place was called... LOL

Southern Comfort

Today (Saturday):

Spent the day running around, and then Grandpa took us to yet another bar to have dinner. This one was a biker bar about half an hour away. Not as comfortable, but the food was decent! :) As you can tell, we don't eat at home much.

And now, I will end this gargantuan post with a couple blurry shots of things I found amusing at today's bar.