Self

My Christmas break is going to last about a week longer than everyone else's. Since I only have classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays this semester, and because Monday is a holiday, I am taking Friday off so that I can stick around at home and catch a few extra basketball games. Otherwise I'd be going up to Madison for ONE day of classes all week. I emailed my professors and they both seem cool with it (first day of class is usually just "read through the syllabus" day, so I don't think I'm missing much.)

Today I prettied myself up a bit and had a little self-photoshoot. I wanted to do more, but the lack of a tripod makes things difficult. I have to pile boxes and other objects to get my camera at the right height for the photo, which gets frustrating after a bit. Also, a remote would be INCREDIBLY helpful. Someday I'll have those things and everything will be just a tad easier. I know one of the worst excuses in photography is "I don't have the right equipment"...so I tried to make it work with what I do have. Making things happen because of hard work and not because of the "right" equipment is a pretty great feeling.

Anywho, here are some photos from the past couple days:

Oh! Also take note of the little logo on my photos. I felt super inspired after seeing someone's logo, so I grabbed my pen and created my own. Took me about 5 minutes. Ha! Sometimes good things happen quickly. What do you think?!

103/365: My little photoshoot. Sunlight is such a great friend.

102/365: One of my "Too Close Tuesday" photos. Shot it yesterday. (Take a guess as to what it is in the previous post!)

101/365: WELCOME HOME! Shot this out Kim's Exploder window while she ran in to the bank after picking me up at the airport. Gotta love that SD snowfall, after being in sunny Cali for a week.

The rest of my day/night will consist of making/eating supper with my family, and working on the logo for Something Clicked Photography. Creative days are my favorite.

Also, I am super proud of my boyfriend. =) Just wanted to throw that in here.

Too Close Tuesday!

Since I've been horribly neglecting my Tuesday posts, which actually seem to be the most popular, I've decided to throw in a few extras for today.

So here are FOUR new(ish) shots...Can you guess what these are photos of??

#1)

#2)

#3)

#4)

Think you know what they are? Leave a comment with your guesses, along with the photo's number. I will reveal the answers in a few days, so keep checking back. =) Good luck!!

(PS - Derrick, you are not allowed to guess numbers 3 and 4, since you saw me take the photos. Ha!)

BIG ONE!!

So here we are. I made it back to South Dakota safely. Hearing the weather report made me a little nervous for the flight, but I knew that if we were unable to fly out today, I would be able to stay in Cali until Friday (I'd miss a day of classes, but oh well)...So the idea of a cancellation wasn't so bad. =P

We had one incredibly busy week, it seemed. I feel like it lasted longer than a week, just because we did a lot of stuff and were constantly going somewhere.

Ready for some photos?

On Monday I actually didn't get a shot ALL DAY. I know, I know....But I was traveling all day and was just SUPER worn out by the end of the day. HOWEVER...As I was lying in bed that night knowing I failed the project for the day, I knew what my photo WOULD HAVE been. So I made sure to get it and just throw it in where it should go. Here it is:

94/365: NEW LENS!! Brian got this 50-200mm for me as a Christmas gift. He is definitely the best and knows the way to my heart. Haha! I was (and still am) super excited about it.

Monday evening when I arrived on California soil, we went out to dinner with Brian's godparents. It was a very fun feast and meeting them was pretty special for me. We came home and I showered and slept VERY soundly due to being worn out and having a very comfortable bed to sleep in. Ha!

On Tuesday afternoon we drove around the area and Brian and I had some good conversations. I love how we always can go weeks or months without seeing each other and then meet up again and can't shut up. Haha...We drove up to Signal Hill because the skies were very clear and we could see the mountains.

Love this one. Thanks, new lens. =)

Los Angeles is way back there.

95/365: I enjoyed this view a lot. Can you believe that green grass in January?!

Our reason for the trip. Worth it. =)

Grabbed this one from the car window.

We had lunch at a Hawaiian BBQ restaurant. Brian ordered this for me...I put my trust in him to choose something I would like...And he most definitely succeeded! I couldn't finish it, though...of course.

On Wednesday we headed to the beach late afternoon and caught the sunset. First we stopped at the yummiest little bake shop and got some sweet goodies. Brian got a police car cookie:

And I got this chocolate chip fudge cup. Mmmm!

96/365: SO PERFECT! If you use your imagination and open your mind, it looks like she's putting ripples into the sky.

So nice. Brian was continuously telling me to shoot the sailboat. So I did. =)

Lots of surfers at sunset. This one was my favorite.

Thursday we visited Universal Studios Hollywood. They had a pretty fun tour and some great rides and attractions. Too bad we didn't see any movies or TV shows being filmed. A lot of 3- and 4-D stuff going on. Aside from getting squirted in the face with water during the Shrek show, they were all pretty fun. Ha!

Here we are in front of the globe. This took quite a while to get our positioning right. Instead of just being smart and asking someone to take the photo FOR us, we made 10 attempts and finally settled on this one. (The one before it is better, but Brian's eyes were closed. Grrr)

97/365: Cutest family ever? I believe so! Look at that coordination!!

Giant gummy bear sucker. (I did not buy this, sadly)

 Funny story here: To get to the "Lower Lot" portion of Universal, they have this series of 5 escalators which are all pretty steep and high. For some reason, we thought it would be fun to take the stairs on one section instead of the escalator. Here's the view from the bottom:

112 steps up.

 

 

 

And the view from the top. Yeah our legs were DEAD after that ascent, especially after walking all day first.

Friday we had a sort of "date night"...We did a little shopping (key word: little) and had dinner and went to a movie.

We parked next to a Ferrari in a parking garage. WHO PUTS A FERRARI IN A PARKING GARAGE?!

Crazies. Can you imagine what their other cars look like?

98/365: Sunset reflection on the car.

 Saturday evening we headed to the Huntington Beach Playhouse and saw the musical "Oliver!" performed by area kids and adults. I fully enjoyed it, not sure if Brian did though. Ha!

99/365: The set.

Sunday we drove down to the San Diego area and looked at some houses with Brian's parents. Then we checked out LegoLand, which was very impressive.

SWEET POOL!! (and view!)

I have a TON of photos from LegoLand, but I'll wait for another post with those. It can be an entire post in itself!



When we landed in Sioux Falls today, I realized that I sort of missed the snow all week. I do have a soft spot for our winters here in SD (something about bundling up during the day and cuddling at night is just very comforting) so spending a week away, although refreshing and amazing, was a big change.

I'm staying at D&E's house tonight, since the roads/weather are so icky. Hopefully I'll get home tomorrow and then head back up to MY home in Madison later this week. Praying that the weather cooperates for me. I can stand the cold, but I can't handle the ice!

Quick post just to let everyone know that I'm still alive. I've been visiting Brian and his family in California since Monday. It's been a busy and fun week and I can't BELIEVE I can step outside into 60+ degree weather in January! Something I've never experienced before. Heading home on Monday and then going back to school. Brian will be joining me back in Madison on the 21st, which I'm already excited for. Ha! Check back soon for photos. (Or just look at my facebook album, they're all on there.) =]

Chance

SO much catching up to do! I've been feeling very uninspired the past couple days, so these photos are less than great. Just a disclaimer. Ha...

I haven't been feeling the greatest, either. I'm hoping this cold, or whatever I have, goes away soon...at least before I fly to Cali on Monday. Being sick while I'm there would be no fun at all.

So now I'm sitting here waiting for Brian to call me while listening to Chance snore incredibly loudly on the floor and watching My Fair Wedding. (Can't get enough of this show! Gosh, I'm a nerd.)

Anywho....Here's a few to catch up:

91/365: Some marble stones, turned negative. Tonight's photo....Didn't care much.

90/365: Candy in a jar. Once again, didn't care much.

89/365: Chance sleeping, similar to what he's doing now. He's a cutie.

88/365: 3-Pointer

87/365: Monday night I hung out with my bestest friends. Went to get my camera out of my bag, realized I forgot my SD card in my computer and had taken my extras out of my bag the night before. Woops! Crappy camera phone to the rescue! And Scrabble with a made-up word to end the game. Ha!

 I need to take some medicine and sleeeeeeep.

Photo Update

Couple photos from Christmas weekend:

85/365: The perfect Christmas evening photo. =)

86/365: "Land-fill" reading the book I got him for Christmas - "Where The Wild Things Are"...Fits him perfectly.

Joni and Tuck playing with Prudie the cat. I put the bear in his hood and he didn't even know it!

Love this.

Love this even more. =)

Joni made me some hot cocoa with these deeeeelicious additions of chocolate covered marshmallows with peppermint pieces. Sooooo good! Best hot cocoa EVER!

Sunday morning.

View from church.

My tiramisu cheesecake dessert all finished. It was (and still is!) pretty tasty!

Last night I got to hang out with my two bestest friends. Unfortunately, I forgot to put my memory card in my camera, and also had taken my extras out of my bag. Woops! So I grabbed a shot on my phone of the Scrabble game we played. Yes, our idea of a fun night is frozen pizza and drumstick ice cream and a movie and board games.THIS is why I love my friends. =]

Headed to another basketball game tonight.

Three Quick

Just wanted to throw a quick message up here to let you know that I'm still alive and well. It's been a really busy past couple days with Christmas. I have TONS of photos, most of which I already posted on facebook - so check them out there.

I need to filter through them and decide which ones to post here, so until then I'll catch up with my POTD's.

I don't have one yet for today, because I have an idea I want to try out before I choose one. So we'll start with yesterday:

84/365: She was super excited about this, can you tell??

83/365: Dad and I spent Thursday evening baking goodies for our Christmas feasts...This is my parents' SUPER old mixer. I believe they got it as a wedding gift way back when. It struggled to mix through my 4 packages of cream cheese + sugar + butter. But it did get the job done.

82/365: I made a custom aperture shape and tested it out. Still have some practicing to do with these. Still fun, though.

Tomorrow we're having our immediate family Christmas party. I'm pretty excited! It'll be the last of our celebrations. Bittersweet, I'd say. This Christmas season has worn me out!