Welcome Home!

33. Buy something new for my camera

My morning started early. I woke up at 5:45AM to take senior pictures. All I was thinking was, "I want to get my 50mm." I have been wanting a new lens for a while now, but I haven't had to the chance to get it. And now that I have sessions coming up, I really wanted it. I begged my brother to take me to the bank and then to Best Buy. He said he would take me! I was SO excited to go! When I went to the bank (which was recently redone with newer technology), there was a super long line. It is rare for there to be such a long line. I was probably waiting for 15 minutes. It was crazy. When I finally got to "go" the women said, "Thank you for waiting so patiently!" Haha! So I got money out of my account and my brother Zach and I headed to Best Buy. I walked into Best Buy not knowing exactly where I could find my lens, so I found the "camera" section. I looked for a little while and then my brother was in a rush so asked someone to help us. He said, "Just a few minutes please, I'm almost done here." Ugh, we waited for a while again, just to find out they only have lenses in Canon and Sony. I was super bummed out because I really wanted my lens before my family session this week. My brother said that after his dentist appointment, he'd take me to National Camera Exchange. Such a nice boy!

After waiting a few hours, we got ready to go and left. When I got there, I walked up to the counter where all of the lenses are. A guy walked up to me and said, "How are you? Can I help you with anything?" Boy did that guy make me happy!! He helped me right away, found what I needed, let me test it out, and he knew what he was doing! I was in and out of the store in about 5 minutes. Amazing. 

So here I am with a new lens. A 50mm, 1.8 aperture. I have fallen in love with my camera again and I can't wait to share with you pictures from another trip that I will be taking this weekend. I absolutely love the bokeh it produces and how much more crisp my photos look. I hope you will enjoy the pictures I take with my new lens.

Which photo is your favorite so far?

2012 Independence Day {v.1}

 Yes, it has been a week since the 4th, but I'm just now posting about it.

 Our morning consisted of going to a  neighboring city for a parade.

Boy, was that parade long.My mom threatened to leave early because it was so long and the temperatures were unbearable.

 After our morning parade, my older two brothers went off on their own and did their own thing, so my younger brother Luke and I were home and completely bored.

 We begged mom and dad to take us somewhere, but because of the heat, there wasn't much outside that we wanted to do.

 So what did we do? We went on a house tour. Haha! No, I'm not moving, but we looked at all sorts of houses (the lake houses were my favorite) while listening to my new CD by Jamie Grace.

 We were looking at houses for a little over an hour before the sun went down and it was time for the city firework show {that apparently is the best in the Cities}.

 Let me tell you, this picture made my night. Gah!

 I never knew that fireworks were create such great bokeh! :P

The finale.

 So even though I didn't go out of town like I have every year, it was nice to experience something new and in my city for once. Last year was close to a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But this year, I just might have found some enjoyment in it.

What did you do for the 4th? Were you restricted from fireworks because of the drought?

A Glimpse of My Spring

Eep! Look at that bokeh!!!

~flowers budding

~flowers blooming

~bees buzzing

~bubbles blowing

~sidewalk boiling

~balls bouncing

~skin burning

~mouth babbling

~crafts building

~sun beating

~dandelions breaking

~birds bellowing

Lately

Merry Christmas Eve!

 Lately, I've been in a blog slump.

Lately, I've been stealing other people's idea for blog posts.

Recently, I've learned that teaching Kindergarten and 1st graders the game Sorry, is really hard.

Lately, I've loved bokeh shots... especially bokeh with many sides, not just circle bokeh.

Lately, I've been really wanting to show you all pictures, but I just don't feel like it's a good thing to. :/ It's complicated.

I would love it if any of you guys could think of something you want me to post about, and comment on this post what it is. I want my posts to bring inspiration and move you in some way, and with your help, I can strive to accomplish that.

Thank you!

Photo Dump

Well, last week was quite a busy one... with over 5 tests, two concerts, and days with volleyball practice, I was not able to have a nice quiet time to work on a post. I did take a lot of pictures though! Here are some random ones.

 Me before my concert... no makeup, no fancy hair. I showed this to my friend and she thought I looked even prettier this way.

 Last week consisted of cleaning around the fire place so we could make a fire! Yah! A fire is amazing on a cold Minnesota day, even though there is currently no snow on the ground.

 My Christmas tree bokeh. A lot of people are posting their Christmas tree bokeh. This is still just our little tree upstairs. Our actual tree that we decorate and put up is downstairs.

 Last week I got the focus fixed on my camera! Yah! And yes, it was broken because I messed with the settings again {yes...again} and turned the focus to automatically always we on manual. Woah, oxymoron going on there!

 Me singing during our concert. I let my mom use my camera. I put everything on the right setting and gave her a cheat sheet on how to put the lens on and what not. She said if I didn't make that cheat sheet for her, she wouldn't even know how to put the lens on. Haha! I love you, Mom! Anyways, 1/2 photo credit to my mom.

A {horrible} picture of me and my brother after the concert. I look really weird, but oh well, it's a picture.

P.S. The songs that we sang at our concert were Silent Night, Let's have a Christmas Celebration, and Halleluiah Chorus. For Halleluiah Chorus, we got a standing ovation. It was awesome. For our dress rehearsal we did... let's just say, not so great. So it was amazing that we did really well for our concert on Thursday night.

Signs of Christmas

Christmas is coming!!! {I sometimes love to state the obvious:)}

 We have lots of cold, snowy days, often dangerous (snow and cars don't meet), but kinda pretty.

 Icicles! Isn't that awesome?!

 These pictures were taken right after the first snow... with my camera. The actual first snow I didn't have my new camera, so this was the second big snow during the day. Sorry, I can be really confusing sometimes. So these pictures are all taken with my new camera!

 Bokeh!

 Christmas lights... Thank you Dad for putting them up so our house looks very jolly!

The "JOY" sign and the angel both light up at night. It's really pretty! 

What Christmas "signs" are you seeing?