Family Portraits

Alright, this is a very bad photo of the drawing, but I will have a better one posted soon.  This is a portrait--both self and non--was done about a month ago.  I've never finished it, but I thought I should post it anyway.  Unfortunately my motivation fled and has never returned for this particular project, but maybe another time.

Anyway, this is Sienna and myself (very poor drawing of myself), unfinished but still here.

35mm SLR - first photos

I was FINALLY able to take some photos with the 35mm SLR that Craig lent me!  I took them to CVS to get them developed.  After failing twice, I was thankful to find that there were actually photos on my film!   Unfortunately I discovered that the film had been damaged while it was going back into the canister (or whatever it's called).  So when I went back to pickup my photos, my coworker Amy talked to me about the damaged film and we decided to try running it through the machine anyway.

Thankfully the machine took the film even though the edges were almost completely torn off.  A lot of my photos didn't turn out, but here are some of the best ones--but I will post more soon.  I am hoping that after seeing these photos, I will be able to modify the way I am using the camera in order to get the effect that I am after.

We'll see how it goes, I obviously have some work to do--but keep in mind that the scanned photos are not as good as the original photo anyway.

Again, the photos posted are a few of the ones that actually turned out the way I wanted - in one way or another.  (although a few of them still have issues that I'm looking into)

19 Going On 12

Hair cut and braces removed (finally!)

My braces came off last week and that was a relief--my teeth have looked pretty much the same since november and I wasn't about to go back to school with them on if I could get away with it. I did end up finding a way and now they're off! At last, my days of being mistaken for a 12 year old were over!

Or so I though.

But then I decided to get my hair cut. The ends were not very happy with me and it just needed to be done. So I told Tina, my hairstylist, that I wanted it shorter and, well, she gave me what I asked for! It's shoulder length, something I have not tackled since 4th grade when I looked like a huge triangle! We'll see how it goes, the way she dried it makes the ends flip out so I look like a kindergartner--all I need is a doll, jumper and matching headband to complete the look.

Thus I made the unfortunate return to middle school, and will doubtless be mistaken for a 12 year old once again.

And the above photo is not what my hair looks like right now, but that is me back when I was about 2.5 years old =)

Blank and Blushing

I was hoping to have some new photos up from the 35mm SLR that I've been using.  And I was excited about the opportunity I had (from CVS) to develop the film myself (just running it through the machine), rather than having someone else develop it.  To be honest, I was a little embarrassed to have my coworkers see my photos--I'm sure that it would be no big deal, but I still didn't like the idea.  On top of it all, I wasn't sure how many of the photos would actually turn out.

Yesterday (Sunday) was my first day as Photo Tech.  I was nervous because the company kinda just throws you into that position without any real training and you have to learn your first day on the job (panicking the whole time, while on the phone with an experienced coworker).  That didn't go too bad, and I only had one roll of film to develop the entire evening.  So about halfway through I thought I would develop my own as another practice.

I prepped my film and developed it in one of our foreign machines.  After my break I excitedly looked over the film to get a sneak peak at my photos.  *GASP*  The entire strip was completely BLANK!  Empty!  Gone!  The photos were never there at all!  I had done something wrong when I had loaded the film and had waisted the entire roll.  Devastated, confused, and frustrated, I was relieved that I had developed the film myself rather than having my blunder discovered by others!

As soon as I experienced this relief, I turned to a coworker who was at the register and told him about it.  Stupid, but oh well.  I made light of it, laughed, and was able to moved on.

I also bought more film so that I'll be able to try again! haha

Hopefully I will have some actual photos up soon...

Oh, and the photo is from Mississippi a year ago.

Camera

Craig lent me his 35mm SLR!  I need one for my photo class this fall and I was hoping to find one that I could buy or rent for fairly cheap, but thankfully I was able to talk to Craig and he said I could use his for free!

I'm really excited!  I've been carrying it around with me EVERYWHERE! haha, I feel like such a kid.

I can take totally different photos with this camera than with my digital.  Hopefully the photos that I've taken will turn out.  I would be bummed if none of them turned out.  And absolutely clueless as to how to continue--but I guess that is what my class is for!

Hopefully some photos will be posted soon!

Oh Hush

Once again, I have experienced the importance of putting myself on the back-burner and listening to someone who just needs an ear.  Not only have I personally felt the benefit of someone taking the time to let me talk their ear off, but over the past few years I have learned that God can use me to relieve some of the emotional turmoil that those around me are experiencing.

God wired us to be relational--and it can mean a whole lot for someone to just pay attention to us once in a while.  To set aside their own agenda and put someone else first.  

Is it really that hard to keep our mouths shut for half an hour?

Sorry about the lecture, but sometimes I'm surprised about how out of shape our ears can be while our mouths run marathons daily.