~Etcetera~

November 21, 2017November 21, 2017 | Allison

Guys, I have SO many extra photos. And that happens pretty much all the time. So I decided to make a new little series: these “Etcetera” posts will have random photography as well as recent life, thoughts… etc. XD (kind of like monthly wrap-ups, but different). I hope you enjoy reading them!

Now, where to begin? I have SO much to cover. Aha, Maggie is a good subject to start with.

Maggie

I was trying to take a picture of Maggie’s eye but she kept MOVING. XD I did get this one good one, though:

I also got some other, less close-up shots of her. I just love all of Maggie’s expressions, hee hee. It looks like she’s saying, “Aww, you shouldn’t have,” don’t you think?

Such a pretty pup. ♥

It looks like she’s praying. 😛

Dad just finished combining (harvesting corn) for the year. WOOHOO! Now maybe we can jump in the grain bins…

Mini Sister’s Photoshoot

Speaking of fields, Megan and I (and Maggie) did a little mini photoshoot in the soybean field while it was golden green and brown. Isn’t the lighting AMAZING?

If you guys like my photography/lifestyle posts, you should totally check out Emmaline Figura’s blogs, Lucillian Photography and Crystal Ice Studio! Her photography is AMAZING – she deserves so many more followers!

I love this picture, but it sure took a while to clone out the soybean that so rudely butted in front of Megan’s chin. XD Humph, I shouldn’t have said that. Now you’re all probably inspecting Megan’s chin…

Megan got a few pictures of me but most of them didn’t turn out or I had a weird expression, heh heh. This is probably the best one. Still have a weird expression. XD

Guess what? My younger brother and I were driving to piano lessons today, and when we got there we found that one of my car’s tires was completely flat. O.o But guess what again? My brother changed it himself, while I was having my lesson! I really want to learn stuff like that – I’m much better at art than mechanics. XD

Sunset Bokeh

The sunset did capture well on my camera, but it did make for some neat silhouettes and bokeh!

Singing hymns is one of my favorite things at our church. The congregation sings beautifully, and it’s glorious when we do an a capella verse. ♥ I like singing for things like that, but not enough to take voice lessons or anything. I usually just hum and whistle at home. 🙂

Do you guys have any special plans for Thanksgiving? We’re having three different celebrations because we have a rather large extended family. 😉 Are you traveling? We aren’t – most of our family lives quite close by. But if you are, here’s a tip: salty snacks like chips really take carsickness away. Well, I mean they help if you eat them. They won’t do much good just sitting there by your seat.

Flowers

Dad and the kids always pick out a hanging flower basket for Mom for Mother’s Day, and it lasted all the way into late fall this year! Isn’t it pretty?

Ugh, I have to write a 15-30 page research paper for school. *Long sigh* At least we’re taking this week off for Thanksgiving!

We also have a rose bush (well more like a rose vine) by our door, and it’s a weird mix of knockout-type roses and “real” roses, as we like to call them. There are usually only a few “real” roses a year and this was one of them. ♥

To find the rose you must first get past the thorns. To find the rainbow you must first walk through the storm. Bad things make the good more beautiful. And always remember, my dear, there is beauty even in brokenness.

GUYS. LOOK AT THIS PHOTO! I just pressed the button and the moth behind just happened to fly in at the right moment. I LOVE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS.

Pretty butterflies + pretty zinnias – my photobombing car = a mildly pretty picture.

The Big Apple

We have one very old apple tree that usually produces nothing but food for worms. XD However, this year it actually grew real apples and they were DELICIOUS! I don’t know what kind they were, but they were stupendous. And I found this one extremely large apple – see? (The one on the right is a more normal-size one.)

It weighed 15 OUNCES. ALMOST A POUND.

Golden Garden

These might be some of my favorite pictures ever! I just love the golden lighting so, so much, especially with the golden tones of the flowers. ♥

Sometimes I feel wise and knowledgeable, and then I wonder if that simply means I still have so much to learn. I guess that happens when you’re a teenager, huh? 😛

(Side note: I rather dislike the word “teenager” for some reason. Don’t exactly know why.)

And would you look at all that bokeh? AHHHHH.

This picture seems relaxing, like you can feel the sun and hear the breeze through the willow branches. 🙂 I can sort of remember planting this willow tree, even though it’s quite a good sized tree now – it’s a curly willow so it grew SUPER fast.

This isn’t really a garden, but it’s golden. Even dust is beautiful when the sun shines through it.

I think cameras can make anything beautiful. In fact, here’s a challenge: find three things you think are ugly and try to take a beautiful picture of them.

Etcetera

We also have two black and two English walnut trees in our yard. I strongly dislike the bitter taste of black walnuts, but English walnuts taste great! (They’re the kind you get in stores.) We don’t usually shell these though, because it’s a lot of work for not much result. Have you tried black walnuts?

This is rather random, but I wanted to take a picture of a begonia blossom from my grandmother’s hanging flower pot because I noticed the beautiful, intricate curlicues in the center of the blossoms. I love the little things like this. 🙂

I got a picture of my youngest brother pressure-washing one of the wagons. 🙂 His birthday was today, actually! The frame was supposed to be transparent but it’s showing up black here…? I hope it works once I publish the post, but I’m doubtful.

I like the way shadows look on this barn. 🙂

And now we have come to the end of this post. Wow, Allison, what a moving conclusion. *clap, clap*

ANYWAY, I hope you enjoyed reading this gathering of orphaned thoughts and photos. 😛 I know it was an enormous post, but I’m only half-sorry because phew, I now have a large chunk of my random photos squared away. XD I don’t think Etcetera posts will usually be this long, though, if I do them in the future. Which category/picture/random thingy was your favorite? Do you think Etcetera posts would make a good series or are they too random and scattered (because I would kind of agree with you on that XD)?

Have a wonderful day, dears, and thanks so much for reading. ♥

***Allison***

GIVEAWAY WINNER! + Random Photos

November 1, 2017November 3, 2017 | Allison

ARE YOU READY TO SEE WHO WON? Don’t worry, I won’t keep you in suspense for TOO long.

And the winner is…

Continue reading →

Bits & Pieces #1

September 25, 2017September 27, 2017 | Allison

Hello, my dears! Welcome to yet ANOTHER random photography post, where Allison dumps all the miscellaneous orphan photos that she couldn’t fit in any other post. XD I am waaay backed up with extra photos so I hope you’re ready for a lot of photography posts! 😀

Ahem. Let’s begin.

The Eclipse

I still haven’t shown you my pictures from the eclipse? Dear me, I AM behind. XD Anyway, I didn’t get any spectacular pictures, but I did get a few through welding glass to at least document what happened. The welding glass made everything look green, but I managed to edit out most of the color except that one green guy over there. XD As you can see, we weren’t in the path of totality.

I thought the eclipse looked really neat through clouds!

And here’s just a bonus picture I took that day. So pretty!

The Enormous Bonfire

We occasionally burn a heap of brush or extra wood piles and such on our farm, and I got these pictures from one of those times. Dad pushed the pile around with the telehandler which made the bonfire practically explode in a column of glittering orange sparks. It was breathtaking!

Bonus picture of the cows that watched the bonfire with us. XD There were a bit confused about what was happening, as cows usually seem to be.

There were actually a few bulls in the pasture, and one started sort of stomping and bellowing. O.o Thankfully nothing bad happened. Isn’t it funny how he has a heart on his forehead? You can’t see it too well in this picture, but he really does!

Megan’s Birthday Party

We had a lot of fun decorating the front porch and outside table for Megan’s party. Aren’t the colors pretty?

We used zinnias from our garden for some of the decorations, and I got some lovely pictures of the bouquets. ♥

Megan wanted to have doughnuts instead of cake, which was quite a good idea in my opinion. 😉 We made the doughnuts the previous day and I also made a little happy birthday banner for the top.

Yum, fresh lemonade!

Grandma brought Megan a beautiful rose from her house along with her gift.

We had a water balloon fight for one of the party games. It was so fun, AND I didn’t get very wet, which was good since it wasn’t that hot. XD

A bonus picture of the gorgeous spreading maple in our front yard…

Bonus picture #2 of an adorable fuzzy caterpillar we found before the party.

Isn’t it cute? 😛

Moving a Piano + Another Bonfire

One night we went to our grandparents’ house to help move their piano from the basement to their room. 🙂 It was quite hard work… well actually I didn’t do much but stay out of the way and document it for posterity, but it looked like hard work. When they finally brought it to my grandparents’ room, it wouldn’t fit through the door. But then they tried turning it on end and thankfully it just fit. Phew! The poor piano.

I also got some super neat pictures of the piano without its top on. I love them, especially after they were edited!

After we got the piano all figured out we had a bonfire and picnic. Fire is so fun to watch, isn’t it?

I got a really good picture of my grandpa smiling when he didn’t know I was taking a picture. I edited it a good bit, as you can tell, but isn’t it neat?

Freshly Picked

I took these photos for my sister’s photo contest, BIBPC. I think they turned out rather pretty!

Also isn’t this tomato HILARIOUS?! It looks like it’s sticking out its tongue at you.

The Rest of Them

THESE COOKIES ARE DELICIOUS! I took pictures of them because I wanted to submit the recipe to Olivia Bell’s wonderful magazine. Be sure to check it out (and make it) when the next issue comes out here soon! You can subscribe to her magazine through the contact form in this post.

Random picture of the details on one of my Sunday dresses…

I edited this one a LOT to get rid of the power lines crisscrossing it, but this is the view from one of our upstairs windows. 🙂

There we go! That was pretty much a whole bunch of mini posts smushed into one huge one. XD I hope you enjoyed! Which topic was your favorite?

***Allison***

Raindrops {Photo Dump} + A Favor?

July 31, 2017 | Allison

Some days I step outside, look around, and go right back in for my camera because it’s too beautiful not to. I love just walking around, taking pictures of the little beauties I find. Because that’s how to be a good photographer, you know. You have to go looking for photo opportunities, not just wait for them to find you.

Sometimes the best photos are of the little things no one else takes time to notice. I like to think that through your camera lens, anything can be beautiful. ♥ Even thorns.

I love how these pictures turned out! Who knew raindrops on asparagus plants could look so neat? 😀

Beautiful zinnias…

I’m a little proud of these next pictures. XD I just LOVE how the raindrops reflect color onto the Japanese beetles!

Sparrows on a barn roof. 🙂

Phew, that was a lot of pictures! I hope you enjoyed them, dears. 🙂

BUT WAIT! Before you go, could you do me a favor? I’m entering some photographs in our county fair, but I can’t decide which of these to enter in each category. Would you mind voting for your favorites in the comments?

Wildlife:

Should I do…

1. The butterfly?

2. The snail?

Rural _________

1. Mountain?

2. Golden dust? XD

3. Fall evening?

People:

1: My dad?

2. My sister? (I would crop and edit this a little bit more.)

Landscape:

Should I do this sunset…

Or one of the Rural ______ ones?

Thank you guys so much!

Would you like to see a post of the rest of the pictures/items I’m entering in the fair?

Do you like photographing little things and raindrops?

***Allison***

Pictures, Etc.

July 27, 2017 | Allison

Ugh, I really need better names for these posts. XD Suggestions?

Annnyway, since you guys seem to enjoy random photography posts I enjoy posting them, I figured – let’s do more! 😀

****************

It had just rained and there was an interesting orangish tint to everything outside, different than the golden hour usually looks because it was so cloudy.

Ahh, beautiful rain drops.

Maggie waded into the field, looking noble. XD

HA HA look at her expression.

Okay, this picture might be a bit startling… You have been warned. 😛 He looks pretty angry, doesn’t he (or she)? This snapping turtle appeared in our lane one day and Maggie nearly went crazy. Snapping turtles are weird, ugly creatures. Blech.

Ahem. Let’s move on to cuter pictures… LIKE BABY BUNNIES EEEEE! This is the photoshoot I did to get pictures for selling them. *Sniff* Anyone want to buy a baby bunny? 😉

AHHH THEY’RE SO CUTE I CAN’T STAND IT.

Here’s Mulberry…

And Ginger…

And Herbert Naninger. 🙂 SO. CUTE. (Also if you’re wondering why Basil isn’t on here, it’s because we’re keeping her! So I didn’t need pictures for the listing.)

ISN’T THIS THE CUTEST?!

Okay, after all that cuteness you might need an antidote so you don’t get too overwhelmed. Ready for another slightly creepy picture? Here we go.

XD Praying mantises are so weird. I got this interesting picture of one cleaning itself when we were studying them in Nature Study.

While we’re on the subject of bugs, Megan found three black swallowtail caterpillars outside and we took them inside to watch. We both got some neat pictures of the first one that hatched! 😀 Aren’t butterflies delightful creatures?

And that’s it for today, dears! What was your favorite picture or category? Thanks for reading and have a lovely day. ♥

***Allison***

I Got a New Camera Lens! {+Photo Dump}

May 6, 2017May 6, 2017 | Allison

Hmm, I’ve made better titles. *Wince* You know you’re a photographer when you’re that excited over a new camera lens. XD BUT SERIOUSLY! I AM EXCITED!

I just ordered a new lens for my camera, and I am loving it! It’s a Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8 lens (see it here on Amazon), in case you were wondering. 🙂 *Update: Whoops, I accidentally said “zoom lens” at first, but I don’t think it’s actually a zoom lens. O.o* I love all the beautiful blur and bokeh it makes in the background with the subject in sharp focus. The one thing I don’t like is that I can’t get super close-up pictures unless I crop them smaller. But anyway, I’ll keep experimenting, and in the meantime, how would you like to see about a million or so pictures? Okay, maybe closer to a thousand, but still. 😉 😛

First I want to show you the difference between my old lens and my new lens. The next (awful) picture was taken with my old lens at ISO 800.

TERRIBLE! But the next picture was taken with my new lens at ISO 800. It’s so much brighter because it goes down to an aperture of 1.8 instead of 4 something, which means it lets in a ton more light and thus makes the entire picture brighter. Ta-daa! (Okay, I know it still isn’t a beautiful picture, but my youngest brother kindly brought the iris in for me to take pictures of with my new lens and I decided to experiment. 🙂 ) So in conclusion, this new lens is way better for indoor photography and other low-light situations.

Now for the actually pretty pictures. 🙂 Get ready for lots of raindrops, snails, and flowers!

I had to up the ISO quite a bit here so it’s kind of grainy, but I still like it. 🙂

Ohhhh this next one is one of my favorites!

As you can see, it was getting pretty dark when I took this picture. I think it looks kind of neat that way though!

I got quite a few pictures of this cute little snail meandering over a bush. 🙂

AWWWWW he’s so cute! 😀

↓This poor guy’s shell looks a bit shattered.

The next two photos are a little different. For the first one I shined (or is it shone?) a flashlight close to the drops, and for the second one I used flash. *GASP*, she used flash?! I know it does look a bit flash-y, but I thought it was worth it to capture the neat glittery effect.

Moss pink are such adorable, bright flowers!

Yep, it’s a fly. 🙂

Lily of the Valley flowers are such charming little things, but goodness gracious, their perfume is so strong it nearly knocks you over! (Ha ha, I guess it can be that way with humans too. XD )

I really like the next picture for some reason. It’s so crisp in the foreground and beautifully blurred in the background.

Ahh, so pretty!

I love this next picture! The blur makes it look so much more professional! 😀

Taking pictures of clouds and landscapes isn’t really what this lens is made for (you can’t zoom out far enough), but I did get a decent picture of part of a cloud.

PHEW! Are you still here? If you are, congratulations on making it through all those pictures. XD I hope you liked them!

Do you think snails are cute? Do you love raindrops on things as much as I do?

Have a lovely day, dear readers!

***Allison***

{Field and Flower}

April 26, 2017 | Allison

Last Sunday we had a lovely afternoon.

After church we had a belated but absolutely delicious Easter lunch at my grandparent’s house with our cousins.

Afterwards the kids went down to play with Marigold, a sweet, tame cat who lives in the barn.

We got distracted from the cat by a game of “Who Can Find the Tallest Dandelion.” If you have never played that game, I highly recommend it. 🙂 Sometimes the simplest, happy things are the best things.

We have hundreds and thousands of dandelions around our farm, and some of them grow over two feet tall in the fields. Seriously.

I won the contest that day, but today my brother found what could be the record breaker: a whopping 27 inch tall dandelion.

We graciously fed our dear rabbits some of the losing dandelions. Lily sat there contentedly, not moving except for her mouth and nose, slurping up dandelion stems like spaghetti. We tried not to let the dandelions run out, but eventually they did. Until they stopped she just nibbled away one after another, looking mildly disinterested and rather sleepy.

Then we gathered eggs – a not very lovely part of the afternoon, because they were extremely dirty and it took forever. The good thing is, it didn’t actually take forever, because we finished eventually.

When we were doing the dandelion contest earlier, I had noticed the beautiful crimson clover and vetch blooms in the fields. After eggs, I ran down to the house and grabbed my camera straight away.

And so here are the photos. I love the peaceful, beautiful, serene atmosphere of them. ♥

And I love that little things like dew drops and triticale and even weeds like dandelions can be so pretty and graceful.

*Happy sigh* I really enjoyed this photoshoot and I hope you did too! Thank you for persevering through allllll of those pictures. 🙂 Do you have a favorite or favorites?

Have a wonderful day! ♥

***Allison***

Random Photography Part 2

October 9, 2016October 9, 2016 | Allison

I have a bunch more stray pictures for you today! (23 to be precise. XD ) You’d better warm up your scrolling finger…

First we have some flower pictures:

allisonbaby-bunnies-flowers-090-1280x960 — Sunflowers are such sunny things!

allisonbaby-bunnies-flowers-061-1280x960 — I love looking closer at things, like this zinnia. The centers are so pretty!

allisonbaby-bunnies-flowers-060-1280x960 — A little crab spider (I think) came in with our bouquet. But he was tiny, so it was okay. XD

allisonbaby-bunnies-flowers-058 — Does anyone see any evidence that maybe the crab spider was here? I do!

And then a bunch of Nature pictures:

006-1280x960 — This is a gourd tendril. Aren’t they so pretty? They look like curly green hair. 😀

010-1280x960 — Such a picture-perfect tomato. 🙂 It had a lovely cross in the middle.

allisonpuppies-creaming-corn-028-1280x960 — I took this picture on Corn-Creaming Day when we harvested our sweet corn.

allisonbaby-bunnies-004-1280x960 — I love this shot! After I took it I noticed the fly. XD Can you find it?

allisonbaby-bunnies-007 — I was trying to get a picture of the bird taking off, but it didn’t work so well, so I finally stooped to taking a still out of a video. XD

allisoncoloring-baby-bunnies-034-1280x960 — ♥

allisonbaby-bunnies-038-1280x960 — Does anyone know what this beetle is called? It was on the side of our car.

allisoncoloring-baby-bunnies-044-1280x960 — Ohhh I love dew drops!

allisonpets-walk-skidloader-015-1280x960 — Butterflies’ eyes are weird.

allisonpets-walk-skidloader-021-1280x960 — Look at all the teensy-weensy baby spiders! They were way tinier than this in real life, but my camera has good zoom. I don’t know if they’re cute exactly, but I think it’s the closest spiders can get. XD

allisonpets-walk-skidloader-025-1280x960 — This guy is NOT so cute. But he is beautiful! Isn’t it amazing how God creates even the tiniest creatures with such beauty and intricate detail? I mean just look at all the different markings!

Are you still with me? Oh good. 😀 Then which picture was your favorite?

***Allison***

P. S. Ahh, it’s so beautiful outside today! It’s really starting to feel like fall, even though not many leaves have turned color yet. How’s the weather where you live?

By the Light of the Moon

June 21, 2016 | Allison

Hey, guys!

I snapped several pretty pictures of the moon a couple of nights ago. They might be my best moon pictures yet! I also took a video of a firefly, then made some stills from the video. Although the pictures aren’t the best quality, I still think they’re neat.