Pet Week!

Over at i♥faces they are still celebrating teens with a special pet photographer as the guest judge and so they made the theme for this week be pets! Thankfully they allow any type of animal picture because my dog is really not into getting her photo taken. I merely pick up the camera and she runs. Good thing I spotted this little guy the other day. He just let me do my thing. Granted he may have been slightly frozen in place due to the huge person pointing a big black thing at him but either way I got a good shot for this week:

Say hello to Mr. Toad! I found him on our back patio and bolted upstairs to my camera so I could get his picture before my dog scared him off. Thankfully the dog did not capture him but I did with my camera instead.

Well, I hope you like my entry! Comments are much appreciated and I will try and return the favor! Want to see other great entries? Check out i♥faces by clicking the logo at the beginning of this post!

Love,

PS: My blog is back under construction for another revamping- just on the layout and header though. Have you noticed a change? Yes indeed, the pictures and posts are bigger! Yay! Thanks to Tracy from The Journey (visit her HERE) for helping me make that happen! But my old layout did not look good with the new sizes of my posts so I found a new one but now need to redo my header and everything. So bear with me- I hope to have it done soon! But what do you think??

This is my 100th post

and I'm celebrating teens with i♥faces!

This week is teen week and I happen to be very happy with that- since I'm a teen myself. So you can say I can easily relate to these exciting three weeks celebrating teens. Picking a picture though..not so easy. Given I am a teen and so are all my friends I happen to have a good amount of pictures featuring teens. But I only had a few that I thought considerable. All in all I chose this one even though Whittney might not be too happy with my selection because she hates this picture but I like it: I think it shows what being a teen is all about. Having fun, being crazy, living for the weekends- enjoying the moment and putting homework worries behind you.

Whittney thinks this picture makes her look silly but I think it shows her fun personality and the way she just enjoys life. This would be a way I would want to be thought of and I love how this picture captures that live out loud side of her.

What do you think? Comments are always appreciated and I will even try to return the favor! Oh and don't forget to go over to i♥faces and check out the other entries! To do so click on the i♥faces logo at the top!

Love,

Small update and some changes!

Wow, it seems like it's been forever since I've sat down and wrote a post for my little corner of cyberspace here, and for bloggy world that may ring true since the more "famous" bloggers seem to pull time out of their butts and update their blogs almost everyday. But since my blog is not struggling against the demands of thousands of readers nor have I mastered the art of pulling time out of my butt, my blog has been slightly shoved aside so that I could accommodate the ever increasing demands that summer has brought along.

I can see that I'm not the only one that summer has kept busy though as I've noticed maybe one new post a day come through my feed reader. Hopefully this means all is going well for you all out there, I can say its been well for me, just really busy. I've got a bunch of little jobs I'm working as of right now: 2-3 babysitting jobs, weeding and cleaning for my aunt and uncle, and working in a shop downtown although unfortunately that will be shut down soon due to the economy and lack of business. So at the end of the month I will lose that job and will have to try and find another to make up for what I'm missing there. Ah, the whole summer job thing is stressful, especially since my small town and the downfall of the economy has left me with very little to work with, o well.

Moving on from the not so fun part of summer- the fun part of my summer has been doing very well! Whittney and I have been out and about doing fun stuff every chance we get. We even made a list of fun things we want to accomplish this summer, some of which are very funny! I'll have to share that list with all you and update you all on it as well- it's promising some fun times and I'm sure some great stories and memories! I have also got to spend some time with Kelley, as well as with Jodi and the girls, all of which I haven't gotten to see much of lately due to the clash of work schedules and free time as well as just being busy. But they all seem to be doing pretty well themselves, which is good news for me to hear.

Now that you've gotten an update I would like to tell you about a few changes coming to my blog. It's nothing major and actually, if you clicked on over here to read this you may have already noticed some of them- first of all I redesigned my blog! Yay for a new background and header! So far I'm really liking the new look- what do you think? I also wanted to expand the size of my blog posts so that I could enlarge pictures but with the new google blogger tool I can't seem to figure out how to do that without changing to one of their templates- Does anyone know how I can go about that? Also, I have a new about me section in route and about a month ago I changed the title and tag line of my blog although I have decided the URL will stay.

Then for the "biggest" change. I have been debating on this for a long time and have finally decided thanks to a article I read (Click HERE to see it and the link in the article is good to read to). I have decided that I am not longer going to watermark my images. I think that article had very good points and I have come to agree mostly with it. I still don't want people stealing my pictures- the very few worth stealing- but I would rather them present them in a nice way if they did instead of botching them up with the clone tool or cropping them funny to get rid of the watermark. I also find that blogging will be much more enjoyable without the added stress of having to watermark them all. Plus, my photos will be better presented on my blog without that distracting them. So that's my decision. I might change my mind again down the road but right now, I think that not watermarking them will be better.

What do you think? I would like to know your well thought opinions and what you prefer to do. So let me know! But for now here is an unwatermarked picture of one of my favorite summer things:

Hope you are all doing well!

Love,

i♥faces photowalk!

This past Saturday I was one of the lucky people who got to attend the i♥faces photowalk across America! I was pretty pumped- I have never done a photowalk or met up with other photographers before and was excited to give it a shot. Although I have a bit of a confession to make... I never would have had the guts to go if it wasn't for my wonderful neighbor and photographer buddy Randi. When I found out about the walk and that it was in a city that is close to me, I thought it would be cool but that was as far as my wishes went. I did not want to go alone...then it dawned on me..maybe Randi would want to go? Lucky for me she did and we bought the tickets the next day.

The photowalk itself was a really cool experience- getting to be around a huge group of people who love taking photos as much as I do, having a beautiful, new place to take these photos and three beautiful models who had the modeling thing down perfect...It was amazing! And despite the nervousness I had the entire time...I would do it again!

Here are some of the photos I took. I took over four hundred photos, but I will just share some of my favorites with you:
That girl was an awesome model. She knew exactly what she was doing and really gave me some wonderful shots. Plus she was gorgeous!

I probably took the most photos of her because most of the other photographers kinda flocked more around the two littler girls and I wanted to get the shots lesser people were getting which lucky for me was this amazing model!

I mostly stuck with the people because that's what I like shooting most but I did get some good shots of the flowers to.

She really was just so much fun.

I like this imperfect flower- sometimes imperfection is beauty!

Of course- being in Ohio it had to rain..... Do you recognize this little girl? =]

This is my absolute favorite shot of the day..I just love everything about it! The lighting was just perfect for pictures despite the rain..I barely edited most of these!

The other model..isn't she just adorable as well!

The prop basket..they had brought plenty of little props for the girls to use!

Have you figured out who this beauty is yet? How about the founders daughter..that's right..

We got to meet and take pictures with Angie! The co-founder of i♥faces! It was so cool to be able to have her lead our walk and meeting her was even cooler! I have met my own blogging celebrity..*big smiles* Living in Ohio that's probably the biggest celebrity I will ever meet (well, I did meet the lady who is on channel 10 news, that was pretty cool) and so I can die happy knowing I met a pretty famous person ;)

Even though the lovely Ohio humidity frizzed and poofed my hair which I had spent the time on to make look nice, I still got a pretty nice photo of the three of us as well as a wonderful experience at the photowalk!

Thank you i♥faces for hosting a wonderful photowalk!

And thank you Randi for being willing to go with me- without you I would have never went!

Love,

PS- I did not watermark my photos so that if the models wanted them they could have them..that doesn't mean anyone is free to take them, so please don't! thanks!

I♥faces - play

This week at i♥faces the theme is play! This theme leaves so many options open for entries and I have so many I wanted to enter but in the end I chose this one:

I went with my neighbor and her kids to the park the other day. Gavin was having so much fun swinging. It was about time we got a big ol goofy grin out of Mr. Serious. I love how happy he looks!

Have you entered your photo yet? Do you want to see other entries? Go check out i♥faces - you won't be disappointed!

Love,

Good Friends, Sunshine & Summertime ♥

So, about a week and half ago, right after I finished up that 8am math final, summer officially started for me. Boy was I ready, this year was great, but it was pretty rough and I was certainly ready for summer.

And so far it has proven to be a great one. The weather has been wonderfully warm just as it should be in the summer months. I have kept busy mostly with fun things to do which is a must have for summer. The only problem I have had is the whole job situation- I just found out that the job I was planning to have isn't going to really exist anymore because of economic decline..ohhh great. So, I need to find another one but for now I'll enjoy the freedom and keep working on finding one.

Like I said, a lot has been going on so far. Less than two weeks in and I'm thinking picture highlights are in order: how bout it? =]
The start of my summer was on fire.. well with a van fire anyway, it went up in flames right down the road. It was the biggest event my county has had in awhile! lol. The guy was talking on his cell phone and didn't realize the back end was on fire. My neighbors saw him driving by and yelled at him to stop and they also called it in. He stopped and got a gas can he had in there out and then we all settled in to watch. No one got hurt, luckily. Unfortunately though, my Nikon was in for cleaning! That's when the good picture opportunities come of course, when your good camera is gone. But I did have my trusty rusty Kodak and I think it did pretty well.

Next was my cookout/bonfire. I had it for my college friends and the best friends to celebrate the wrapping up of school. It wasn't as big as expected and only a few college buddies showed up but it was still a good time. Kelley and Whittney came and stayed well into the night and we had good conversations. Best friends and a bonfire is all I need.

After two weeks, I finally got my Nikon back- nice and clean! I was so excited, I had missed it so very much! It stayed with me and I took so many pictures! Including one of this little guy who decided to chill on our back patio thing.

Remember these little ladies? It has been a long time since they have been on my blog- maybe because its been so long since I have seen them myself. I got to spend a little bit of time visiting with each one of them during the other ones softball games. I am hoping I'll be seeing them much for often over the summer, I have missed them so very much.

Whittney and I have pretty much been attached at the hip so far this summer. We have gone and done so much and it's been a complete and utter blast. I think we can make almost anything fun and even the boring stuff is so much better when you got your best friend by your side.

Okay, we can make almost everything fun. Except sunburn (which we are showing off in this picture although you can not really see it lol). That's not fun. Even if we were the stupid idiots who decided to lay out for like an hour an a half..twice..in oh, almost ninety degree weather because when we looked it did not look like it did any good the first time. But we were wrong and three days later we can still feel how stupid we are with every movement. But its okay, at least we weren't stupid alone I guess. lol.

Well that's all I have for now but I'm sure I will get more to post up here really soon. In the meantime- How is your summer going?

I know mine has been great- after all - all I need to be happy is Good Friends, Sunshine, & Summertime =]

Love,

PS:

I'm going- are you? ;)