"Summer Days are Gone Too Soon.."

So, it's September again.. well, the end of September at this point. I've been going insane between working, school work, and PFA I haven't had much time for photographic anything.

With the exception of today.

I know, Pinterest is such a fad and everybody gets their ideas from there, but I saw a picture that inspired me to do some eye layering edits. So I'm going include some of those, along with some of the other things I've been working on, insignificant as they may be.

This was my first attempt at eye layering, and I liked the result, but I felt like it was kind of.. evil looking. Just one red flower in the eye, I don't know.

 

So, I tried again, including the bouquet in the pupil, and I'm a lot happier with it. I really like it. (:  PS: My boyfriend gave me those flowers, and I took the picture of my eye myself. Score!

 A couple weeks ago we went to the beach. It was cold and it rained. We had fun anyway. (:

~Becky

♥ Just Because Shoots ♥

Yesterday evening my friend [future sis-in-law, might as well be sister] and I met up with one of our most favorite couples at a local county park to do a just because photoshoot. And man, did they turn out gorgeous!

















They've been dating for 2 years, and are absolutely adorable together. They were a blast to do a shoot with, and I'm sure there will be more shoots to come with them.



We met right around 5:30 and the sun was just beautiful. It was like a photographers dream.

 ~Becky

Sunshine and Summertime

I was bored this afternoon and hadn't done a model shoot in a while, so my sister and I went to work. (:

















I had had a few posing ideas and editing ideas I'd been wanting to try out, so this shoot was the perfect opportunity. The time of day was less than ideal, but the bright sun actually worked to my advantage.

I shot these all completely manually and in RAW.

I'm a firm believer that RAW files are the only way to shoot. (:

~Becky

Summer Lovin'

I am officially on a long awaited summer break! This summer holds promises of being one of the best summers yet. Or atleast I hope so. (: Even if it's not the best, it'll be pretty great. This summer is going to fly by, which is quite alright with me because then I'll be entering my SENIOR YEAR of high school!

I realized a few days ago that I haven't blogged or gone on a semi-formal shoot in months, so today I set out to take some pictures of daisies in some of our flowerbeds, but it quickly turned into something more than that.

Oh, and on a side note. The difference between shooting a picture in RAW and JPEG is incredible. I personally shoot in both simultaneously, but the quality of the RAW images are so much better! The image is sharp and clear, and the colors are so much truer.


I found a little bitty grasshopper, also known as a nymph (thank you Mrs. H's 4th grade science. I still remember that! ..and a lot of other stuff about flowers and bugs and birds and whatnot that has proven to be very useful.)!
He was so cute.

I love bugs. Grasshoppers and lighting bugs in particular.

Then I started wandering around my yard and over to the gardens. Corn is one of my favorite things to watch grow, but it's hard to take cool pictures of little corn.



When it gets tall and tassels it'll be better for picture taking.





So I decided to take pictures of the growing onions. It's not very exciting, but I thought it was still kind of neat. 



I think I like them because they're so colorful. There's the brown and purple and different shades of green.

I don't know, I like looking at them.

However, I don't like eating them.

 

~Becky

Phlox and Foals

I love spring. Flowers are blooming and babies are being born. (:

Today I cut some branches back to give my phlox more sun, then I ventured over to the farm where my boyfriend works to check out their foals.

They're cute little buggers. (:

~Becky

Building Photography

My dad owns a construction company and recently built some additions for a homeowner. He asked if I would take some pictures of the final product for his company's portfolio.

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day and perfect for taking pictures, so I took all the photos of the additions and the property itself.

I don't normally like to take pictures at high-noon, but for taking pictures of buildings with trees, landscaping, and other buildings around them, it was perfect. The sun didn't cast any problem shadows that I would have been frustrated with if I had shot earlier or later in the day.

These are all SOOC. I might add some contrast to them and boost the blacks, but I like the colors for the most part.

Back view of the house and addition.
Side view of addition.
The addition.

Front view of the barn addition.
Back view of the barn addition.
This is just because the artist photographer in me just couldn't resist that color.

I just can't get over how gorgeous today was! The weather was perfect, the sky was so blue, and the grass was so vibrant!

~Becky

Romans 12:12

This is my favorite verse and I am constantly coming back to it. It's such a great reminder as to how we're supposed to respond to situations. It always helps me to take a step and think clearly about whatever is going on.

I designed this in my graphic design class for a quote design project, and it ended up getting hung in our Winter art show.

I hope other people saw it and took a step back and thought about the words.

I don't know if you would consider this a promise from God or not, but I always kind of feel like it is. I feel like it's a promise that if we are praising God through the good times, working with Him in the bad, and praying about everything, He'll take care of us.

~Becky

Environmental Portraits Round 2

So, here are some more of my environmental portraits that I've been shooting for this assignment. I didn't get do all the things I would have liked to for the assignment, but I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out.

There are so many things around me that I never really see until I look through my viewfinder.

What always attracts my eye is the color, once I look through my viewfinder I see the composition, or get an idea for the composition. I love the photography process.

Sorry if blogger is doing dumb things with my pictures. It messes with quality sometimes.

I'm in love with the pop of blue from his shirt in the monotonous yellows and browns.

Lines. Horizontal, parallel lines. All different colors. That's all I can see in this.
This was an attempt at a self-portrait environmental portrait. I'm pretty psyched with the way it came out.
~Becky

My DIY Camera Straps!

This past week I was inspired to make my own camera straps. I was sick of the black and yellow straps that declared "NIKON USER!" Not that I'm ashamed of my Nikons, I actually love them. A lot. I just wanted something a little more.. me. So after searching relentlessly for a DIY on the internet to make one, and not being happy with any of them, I decided to just wing it and make my own.

Sorry there aren't very many pictures during the actual process of making it. I was consumed in my work.

Don't worry, though, it's super simple. Especially if you cheat like I did and start with a pretty scarf.

I'll apologize right now for my lousy point-and-shoot pictures of the final product. I wanted a picture of both straps on the cameras, but it's hard to take a photo that you can upload to a blog with a 35mm.

So anyway, here's how I did it..

Today I ventured to my local thrift store in search of fabric remnants to make my neck straps, but ended up falling in love with some super cute scarves that were just what I was looking for. I purchased the striped one on the 35mm for $0.98, and the yellow and green one on the DSLR for $1.75.
Best 3 bucks I ever spent.

I started out by folding my scarf in half, with the patterned side of the scarf on the INSIDE of the fold. You want the ugly side facing out. Then I pinned along that edge.

With this scarf it didn't matter which way I folded the fabric, both sides were the same. However, on my second strap, it did matter. The pattern was on one side but not the other.

The picture is supposed to be flipped the other way, but for some odd reason, Blogger keeps rotating it the wrong way. Sorry for the neck ache.
After that I sewed along the edge, but then realized it wasn't as thin as I wanted, so I sewed a parallel line to the first one along the middle of the scarf.After I had it the width I wanted, I flipped it right side out. Now you'll have a nice, not as visible, seam on the back of your strap.


When that was done, I just tied it onto my camera! I'm really happy with the way it turned out! Just what my cameras needed.

Here's a picture of the other one I made for my DSLR. Had to go about making this one a bit differently, but it wasn't a big deal. Instead of just one strap I had to cut my bandana in half and then into two strips. After that I did the same thing as before and just sewed the two sides together.
And here is one more lousy picture of them around my neck.
~Becky