Horseback Riding and an Engagement

Glorious day - I had so much fun on this shoot tonight. We went up South Fork and rode horses up to a meadow where we took some beautiful engagements for my cousin Kinzie and her sweetheart, Quinn. I love how they turned out and can't wait to show them to you. Yay :) Here is me riding a horse for the first time. It was also Britani's first time riding. That was fun to experience this with her. I'm glad I wasn't the only rookie going ;)

Oh and here are some from the actual shoot! Enjoy :)

Don't Fear the Darkroom: 1

Here, ladies and gents, would be a lovely photo that I took down in St. George this past weekend, which I love and wanted to share with you all. Kinzie was holding my camera and taking some shots and so I decided to take one of her crouched down with the sweet shadow. I added a 2.5 contrast filter and did some touching up because of water spots on my negatives (ha, totally my fault). Anyways, here is this beauty. My first public share of my darkroom stuff. :)

Date: 13 April 2013

Location: Snow Canyon - Utah

Medium: Gelatin Silver

Expressing Thankfulness [Day 3]

For as long as I can remember, my family always separates our cans from our other garbage, and every once in a while, we gather all of these cans up and take them to the recycling plant down on Geneva Road and trade them in for cash. So what I've decided to do is collect all of our cans and put that money towards my mission fund. I absolutely love the fact that we are able to do this. Granted, aluminum is only about $0.60 a pound, but hey, every penny counts. I'm so grateful that our family has been doing this for forever and that I can collect all these cans for a good cause. Of course this won't get me all the way to $10K, but it's a good start :) (Just for a rough estimate, this is only about $15-20 worth of aluminum, BUT it's better than nothing! :))

Is there ever any time to read a regular book?

I don't even remember when this started, but sometime this year, I started buying a vast number of books off of Amazon as well as walking myself down to BN after work some days during the summer. I've got quite the collection now. It's not quite as magnificent as I would like it to be, but it's getting there. There's another thing... I haven't really had all that much time to read them, therefore, some of them sit there without having been read and I really would like to read them, but these thoughts always cross my mind everytime I look at them and am craving to read them:

Either: "No, I really shouldn't read right now. I've got other things I could be doing. I have to do chores and homework and get(stay) caught up on everything. I just don't have time."

OR: "I shouldn't be reading those books when I could be reading my scriptures. I wish I could read the Book of Mormon for hours on end like I do other books and just wiz right through it." (I wonder if there's a reason for that... Is there a reason that I can't just read the book? It's probably my perceptive mind and my strange ability to have to think about it. Interesting.) I also find myself thinking "I should be spending time reading the Book of Mormon so that I'll be able to finish the challenge by completing it by the end of March." (It was a challenge given by our bishopric.) So what happens when I do finish? Do I just start over? That's another thing. I have a hard time reading a book twice if I can remember what it's about. But then again, by the time I finish and start over, it won't be the same. I'll always find new things? I think so. Especially since it takes me so long to read.

Anyways, see all these thoughts going through my head? I just feel as though you can't successfully read that special book without studying it. It's not the same if you don't. Well, one day I'll have time to read all seven books of the Chronicles of Narnia (that I have in one big awesome book, by the way...) and one day I'll have time to sit down and find out what happens to Cassia and Ky in the "Matched" trilogy to see if they ever truly fall in love and run away together or wait and see it she ends up marrying Xander.

Meantime, I'm off to clean bedroom, do laundry and catch up on some homework (mainly the reproductive systems in health... can you tell why I've been putting it off? yeah, me too). Now just to do them in a fashionable order, while staying downstairs as to not catch mom's... illness... I guess you could say.

Put A Puzzle Together With Dad.

#5 on the list is complete. It's awesome. I bought a puzzle with Nikki last Friday night (along with some ice cream) and since Nikki and I didn't finish it (the puzzle that is), I thought that Dad and I might enjoy it. It would be some good "time for bonding". While we did it at the kitchen table, not much was said except for, "Where do you think this piece goes?" or "Which building do you think this piece belongs to?" or even "No, no, no, that piece doesn't go there." The puzzle was of temple square. It took us together about 3 hours to do. It was totally worth it. It's beautiful. I even had a frame all ready to go that I had found a few months ago for it to go in. It's incredible. The picture that I put up doesn't do it justice. You'll have to come by and see it for yourself sometime :)

Been Feeling Crafty

I was feeling crafty tonight.
I'm pretty freaking proud of myself.
Just so you know :)

Just in case you aren't aware of what's going on, this is a picture frame with some cute scrapbook paper in it. Then you just take some dry-erase markers and have at it. I decided to make it a to-do list! Let me know what you think!

Displaying Photos: Here's Some Ideas

I love it when I find new ways to display photos. It's creative, exciting and SOOO EASY! I absolutely love pinterest just for the spark of ideas. :)

I love pinterest. It sparks so many lovely and creative ideas :) I think I will be going and purchasing some clothes pins in bulk now, just so I have them for the future. :) 

Just in case you didn't know...

I LOVE photography.

I love photographing people:

• Families

• Couples e.g. engagements, married people, friends (even though I haven't had the opportunity yet, I'm sure I will)

• Seniors (or any individual for that matter)

• Children (harder, yet doable)

• Brides

• Dance Groups (date dances, dancing groups, singing groups, groups, I love working with a large amount of people)

To be perfectly honest, it's just flat out the best time of my life.

I've even started considering University of Utah.

If I read correctly (and I'm not being fed false information),

then they offer a Masters Degree in Photography.

Which is EXACTLY what I want.

Now don't start hating me if you're a die-hard BYU fan.

The Y is in my options too.

Just need to do a bit more researching.

It's only a matter of time when I'll have to finally decide where I'm going to go to school for the next 4-6 years. No big deal or anything.

I love what I do and I love capturing moments,

faces,

life.

It's kind of like capturing life as you know it and then watching yourself change by comparing yourself to that moment.

I don't know about you, but either way, it fascinates me.

Anyways, if you need your pictures taken, let's have a photo shoot. :)

TIMPANOGOS

A Letter to My Future Spouse

Somewhere, out in the world that we all live in,

is my future husband.
I know he's out there somewhere,
and I don't know if I've met him yet,
it's a possibility,
but who knows?
Not me...
He could be a good friend of mine already,
or I could have no clue who he is whatsoever.
But he's out there :)

For a while I've been wanting to write a letter to my future husband.

Nothing too fancy,

just simple and meaningful.

The hardest part was deciding what to say.

I finally figured it out and decided that it would be a good "Sunday afternoon project".

I just wrote about the things that I expect from him and

what I know he'll be like.

For example,

I told him that he would be sitting in the temple while he read the letter.

I wouldn't expect anything less from my future husband

but for him to take me to the temple.

Just stuff like that.

I would definitely suggest writing a letter to your future spouse.

Nothing too definite, but pretty general, but all in all, personal and meaningful.

Put it in an envelope, seal it,

then save it in a special place where you won't lose it,

(don't forget to date the letter!),

and then give it to your "soon to be" spouse on the day of your wedding.

Boys, very few things will earn you more brownie points from you future wife

then if you write her a letter way ahead of time.

Haha, just go with it.

It's fun to think about and do.

At least for me anyways.

Just try! Just for fun!

And always remember, life is good. :)

Let's Review, Shall We?

So having had a junior year bucket list, here are the things that I accomplished (bold), things that didn't get accomplished (italics) and then of course those things that are right there in the middle (both).

Here's the list:

• Go to every dance (Homecoming, Sadies, Bargain Ball, Preference, Prom and Morp - IN THAT ORDER!) 
• It was so much fun. I loved going with all the guys that I did. (Some more than others...)
• Ask a football player out on a date
• Um... yeah. It was good, but not the best choice I have ever made. 
• Be elected Student Body President
• Not exactly. I was all for it, and then I decided to run for something else. So I'm on student council. Yay :)
• Reach out of my comfort zone to make lots of friends and meet a lot of new people
• I felt as though I made a lot of friends this year. And not just petty relationships that will never last. I have some really close friends now that I'm only gonna get closer to during senior year.
• Make Footloose a success, and become as reliable as I can be
• Footloose was stressful, but SOOO much fun and definitely worth all of the time it took. I really enjoyed every little bit of it. (And bossing people around was lots of fun too :) ) 
• Get an A in Calculus (come on... at least one term...)
• Oh brother. Hardest class EVER. I hated that class. Have some good memories with it, but all it brought was pain and misery. Stupid B-'s all year...
• Take summer school to get ahead and so I'm not miserable Senior year... haha
• Not even. Just had to make a few sacrifices in order to fill up my FULL schedule for senior year. It won't be difficult though. I promise I won't be miserable at all.
• Go to every dance with someone different
• Definitely a success. It was a total blast. Izak, Tanner, Andrew, Kaden, Jordan and Alex. So much fun.
• Get Driver's License
• That was exciting. The idea was to get it before my permit expired. I definitely made it happen.
• Get A's and Honors credit in seminary all year
• Ha, yup. Still have some stuff to do, but it shouldn't be too difficult :)
• Pass Calculus AP test at the end of the year with a 4 or a 5
• I shall let you know in July... when we get our scores... :P I felt good about it though.
• Actually TAKE the ACT
• I will be on Saturday... wish me luck!
• Finish the Book of Mormon
• Nope. That's been pushed to a summer goal. And I wrote it down. And it's going to happen.
• Finish Harry Potter Series (I'm on Book 6!!!)
• Oh yeah. Definitely on my favorite books list now.
• Make Show and Chamber
• Nope, I didn't even try out. Had a change of plans and I'm taking photography instead. I'm gonna miss choir a TON, but it'll be totally worth it and I have a lot of memories associated with choir. No worries. I'm gonna miss it a lot, but at the same time, I'm gonna love being able to enjoy all the concerts. :)
• Get braces off
• Urgh... We're shooting for July.

awesome.

My mom got a new calling.
IN THE YOUNG WOMEN'S!
WOOT!
Guess what else?
She's the personal progress advisor whatchamacallit!
And guess what else?
Amber is the young women's president!
One of my most favoritest people in the entire world!
Oh, glory be.
I'm rather excited.
Because that means that I have even more motivation to
get my personal progress done this summer.
It was already in my list of projects to do...
But that's just plain awesome. Right?
Yup.

And you know what else?
I have a photoshoot with an amazing family on Tuesday.
The Blackham Family.
I love them with all my heart.
I'm probably over there hanging with Alex more than anyone else's house.
Which is sad,
cause I don't hang out with peeps all the often anymore.
(Let's hang out, k?)
Oh, and by then,
I'll be done with finals!
Awesome? I think so.
And then Wednesday is yearbook day and I'm determined to get all my pages filled.
It'll be so sweet!
*cough* I mean awesome! AWESOME. This post is all about awesome.
And THEN come Thursday,
mwahaha,
I get to help set up the 'T' on the mountain for graduation,
which just so happens to be in Provo at the BYU Marriot Center.
And I get to help usher that in my cool lookin' (awesome) brand new
student council jacket. Yep. Awesome.
Life isn't only good, it's awesome.
Just like it should be.
Now I just need to pass my English final... :/