Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Weddings continued...


Lastly, I want to say that I also love how happy people are after the ceremony. I love capturing the smiles and the celebration.

Weddings...

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of photographing my first wedding where I was the "hired photographer". So I got to be right up front, I got to tell people when they were in my way, and I also got to pose people how I wanted. It was so great, I really loved it... But those are not the only reasons that I loved photographing the wedding. There is something so special about documenting that day for people. I love seeing how excited the bride and groom are while they are getting ready for their big day. They have thought about this day for months and planned everything out as much as they can, but now none of the details matter anymore. Even if the frosting on the cake doesn't match the bridesmaids dresses, or if the bouquets arrive with lilies instead of roses, the wedding is still going to happen! Its now or never, the worrying is put aside and its just time to do up the hair and put on the dress.


One of my favorite parts of the wedding was the actual ceremony. Seeing the groom's face while he was waiting for the bride to come down the aisle and then the bride's face when she gets close enough to see the tears in the groom's eyes... Its such an amazing moment, and I got a front row seat, not only that but it was my responsibility to document that moment so that they can remember exactly how they felt.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Student Teaching Comes to an End!

Well, I wasn't sure how I would feel about teaching Health and PE to 9th graders.

I had tried that before for a 20 hour practicum
that I had to do and I wasn't too happy with that experience. The kids were soooo lazy and had way too much attitude for me! But now I find myself graduated from college and finished at Liberty High School where I had 8 weeks to spend with 5 different classes of 9th graders and I have to say that I am sad and missing it
already.
Just so that you can get an idea of the kids that I was teaching, here are some group pictures that I took of them on my last few days.



It didn't take long for me to realize that I really love teaching
high school kids.
Were they lazy? Of course! Did they give me attitude? Every day! So Why do I miss my time there?
Well just look at the pictures! 9th Graders are funny! If you have a job where you can laugh a few times a day, consider yourself blessed!
It's moments like this that got me from one attitude to the next. Its moments like this that make it all worth it. The lesson planning, the teaching, the grading, its all worth it because these kids are worth it.
















They deserve to have people in their lives that care about them enough to put the time and the effort in. Even when they gave me attitude and they frustrated me to the point where I felt like ripping my own hair out, I kept on planning, and teaching, and grading and smiling, because they deserve to have someone in their life that doesn't give up on them.





Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Photo Shoot with my Sisters




I got to go home for easter this past weekend. It was really neat because going back now I saw everything with a fresh perspective. All of the farm land looked so beautiful and unique. While I was living there I never thought the farm land was beautiful and definitely didn't think it was unique. Its funny how we take the beautiful things right around us for granted. I decided to take advantage of the beautiful scenery and plan a photo shoot with my sisters. I made Chris tag along to take some group shots of us girls. I am sure you will agree that my sisters are absolutely gorgeous, and they make for great models. It really was so much fun photographing them in the scenery that we all grew up in. The fun thing about being around my sisters is that we are always laughing so much. The only thing missing from this shoot was my other beautiful sister, Liana.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Florida Keys

So....the second part of my Christmas break was a little different than my snow days in Pennsylvania.
We were very lucky to get this campsite on the beach at Long Key State Park. This place books up months in advance, but we pulled in to the state park just to check for a cancellation. Sure enough someone had cancelled minutes before we drove up. Our tent was literally 20ft from the water!
By the way I didn't cheat and have someone take this photo for us.. I used my lovely tripod, external flash, and my 10 second timer...

The reason someone cancelled their reservation for the campsite was because of the unusually cold weather for the keys. But for us, compared to Virginia weather, this was perfect.
We left the rain fly off of our tent so that we could see the stars through the tent. In the morning we opened up the front door to see the morning light on the ocean water. What a spot! This picture here was our amazing view.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Snowed in at Grandma's house

So...It turns out that being snowed in at Grandma's house isn't so bad after all, especially when Grandma's house is in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
.
When I took this photo the snow was still coming down, so Chris was holding an umbrella over me as I tried out all different angles.

My favorite part about snowstorms is how quiet they are. The snow was coming down so hard and yet is was the quietest day of the year in Gettysburg.

At this point I was walking down the middle of a street that is usually busy and loud with tourists trying to see every monument and read every sign. Instead I was walking through a ghost town....All I could hear was the snow falling on my umbrella and the snap of my shutter button.