Falling Again

October 19, 2017 | Allison

Heh heh. Aren’t my puns great? *Sigh* Yes, I know they’re awful. ANYWAY, I’m super excited to show you guys these fall pictures! I’ve been saving them up for a while now and I finally get to post them. 🙂

First I want to show you our beautiful ombre maple tree. 😀 Well actually the leaves are all fallen from it now, but this is how it used to look. Isn’t it lovely?

One of the other maples beside our lane was absolutely gorgeous this year! Especially with the sun shining through the leaves… ah, it was beautiful.

I LOVE these pumpkin pictures! 😀

And back to the tree again. This bokeh… OH MY GOODNESS! ♥

I really like the composition of the next one. (Wow, I’m doing a lot of portrait, vertical photos aren’t I? Here’s a question: Should I make them smaller so you can see them without scrolling, or do you like them full size as they are?)

Leaves can make even dusty black trucks pretty. 🙂

I promise I didn’t put the leaf there. Isn’t the position so neat and funny?

And of course we musn’t forget the classic holding-a-leaf-up picture, am I right?

Ooh, and then I got several adorable pictures of Maggie looking all dejected. 😛

HA HA Maggie looks like she’s havng an intent conversation with a leaf or something and the leaf just said something shocking. XD What would you caption this photo? (No winners this time – just for fun. 😉 )

Here’s a fun fall photography prompt: try to find fall leaves in a half-rainbow, from red to green. Arrange them in an ombre pattern and snap away! 🙂 I had a lot of fun with this, but it also took FOREVER to collect the leaves.

Huh, what do you know. I’m wearing the same skirt as in this post. (I promise I don’t wear it every Sunday. XD )

I rather like this edit.

And lastly, just a few edited photos. I spent SUCH a long time trying to capture a leaf falling. XD

And we end with a photo featuring a picturesque (?) four-wheeler? Okay…

Alright, you got to the end. *applause* Actually, you didn’t. Let me talk for a bit first.

Ahem. Some people mentioned in the survey that they don’t love scrolling through so many pictures in my photography posts, and I definitely understand that. I always try to cram a ton in. XD So I shall attempt to be a little more picky and not burden you with so many at once. What do you think? More photos, which might contain some less quality photos, or less photos, but more quality ones?

Also it seems like I kind of failed my goal with this post, but let me tell you, I was much more selective than normal. IT WAS SO HARD. THERE ARE SO MANY PICTURES TO SORT THROUGH.

Thank you guys so, so much for taking my survey, by the way! I can’t please everyone nor am I going to try, but it really is helpful to hear your thoughts. ♥ Thus, my goals are…

Condense my photography posts a little. And post more people and pet photography rather than mostly random nature photos like I just did.
Keep my header but maybe change the theme and clean up the sidebar. (Question: do you ever use the category pictures on my sidebar? If not, I’ll just delete them.)
Make more art posts and start up with Art Lab again! The thing is, it’s a little hard to do a collab art blog with just me posting… heh heh. I want to get that figured out too. Anyway, I already have a fun Art Lab post in mind which I will hopefully post maybe Saturday or Sunday.
Make featured images for all my posts, not just some, for more cohesiveness.

Okay, I am FINALLY done with this post. Thank you so much for bearing with me, dears, and listening to my many questions! Do you have a favorite photo? What do you think of my four goals?

Have a lovely fall day!

***Allison***

P. S. GUYS. I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING ELSE. If you type this: :{), it looks like an emoji with a mustache. WHY IS THAT NOT A THING? Oh, right. Probably because it’s completely useless. True. BUT STILL. Okay, I’m actually done now.

Return of the Random Photos

July 6, 2017July 7, 2017 | Allison

My extra photos are piling up again, so I guess that means it’s time for another random photography post! 🙂 YAY! I hope you enjoy!

Aren’t these clouds lovely? ♥

We found this rather odd-looking bird and figured out it was a chimney swift. I think he’s quite weird. XD

I got these next few photos when we all went for a ride in Dad’s pickup to go check some fields and see how the soybeans were growing. (Sadly, they weren’t coming along very well, but Dad replanted them – twice – and now they’re doing fine, I think. 🙂 )

I love the view of our farm from this hill. ♥ Sooooooo pretty!

Aren’t mountains beautiful?

My little sister Carmen, holding a barn kitten we named Truffle:

This is a pretty edit I did of a huge, puffy pink cloud.

One day we studied ladybugs in Nature Study and went out to search for them in an alfalfa field. It was kind of hard to get pictures, but I got a few neat ones. My friend got an amazing one of a ladybug eating an aphid! But sadly, I did not. 😦 😉

I really like ladybugs, but I have to admit – they look a little creepy when you put dozens of them in a jar. XD

These are the kind of bouquets I made to decorate tables for a church potluck in May. It was supposed to be a “Farmer’s Market” theme, so I used a bunch of different stuff from our farm and garden. I think they turned out pretty well, and I love how this picture turned out too!

Hee hee, well this is random. XD We made the BEST playdough ever (seriously – it is!), just for fun one day when my friend came over. It hardly feels like playdough at all, it’s so soft and silky and stretchy. (Wow, alliteration skills. XD ) You can see the recipe here.

Another VERY random photo. 😛 I was going to do a mystery picture of a clementine, but it didn’t turn out. I decided to keep the photo, though, because for some reason I like it.

Lilies are gorgeous, and so photogenic, aren’t they?!

Okay guys, you are going to LOVE this! We’ve been feeding our neighbors’ kittens while they’re on vacation, and they are the sweetest, prettiest little things!

Look at those eyes! ♥♥

Our neighbor has a wonderful in-ground pool that she so generously lets us use pretty much whenever we want! I thought the clouds looked really neat that day, so logically, I took pictures. XD

Ahh, I LOVE this picture! The water looks so bright and clear and… almost plastic-y. XD

Mimosa tree photography…

It looks like someone climbed the tree and threw a rope into the clouds so they could climb up. 😀

Hee hee, Megan jumping:

We shall end with one hilarious picture. My cousin said this looked like a whale farting. XD XD XD

Well, I hope you enjoyed scrolling through those pictures, my dears! Do you have a favorite?

Thanks for reading!

***Allison***

P. S. Guess what?! My sister Megan wrote the next part of WordCrafters, and it’s GREAT! You can read it on the WordCrafters 3 page here.

Mountain Hike {Photo Dump}

May 18, 2017 | Allison

Yesterday we went on a beautiful hike in the mountains with our friends. It was tiring, but so fun! Plus there was a stream and a waterfall, so that automatically makes it a good trail. 🙂 I took ~~quite a few~~ absolutely TONS of pictures, so do some finger exercises, get comfortable, and start scrolling. 😛

Such a beautiful view, don’t you agree?

Ahh, so sunny. ♥

Beautiful ferns…

We’ve seen these weird corncob-like fungi before, but I don’t know what they’re called. We probably looked it up but then I forgot. XD

There were a bunch of mini cascades and waterfalls like this before we got to the big one.

A few people pictures: 😀

The kids were splashing rocks into a little pool and I got some really neat pictures with fast shutter speed. 🙂

I love how clear the water was!

Ahhh isn’t this waterfall GORGEOUS?!

I love the next picture, even though it sort of looks like Megan’s holding up the fallen log with her head. XD

Ha ha, my brother Jeff was climbing all over the place.

The fallen log kind of got in the way of the pictures, although it looked neat, too.

If you wade to the other end of the waterfall you find another, much steeper and narrower one. It’s basically just a shoot of white water.

BOKEH!

Aww, look at the cute little millipede. XD

Trying out my new lens on some flowers here…

Ohhh it was a gorgeous day, and the sun shining through the new leaves was just too pretty!

My little sister and her friend are so cute together. ♥

As we were driving back, I got a few good shots out the window. (Surprisingly, it worked a lot better when I rolled the window down. 😛 XD )

AHHH I absolutely LOVE this next photo! I love all the layers and shades. ♥

*Gasp* Okay Allison, maybe you went a bit too far this time. O.o I applaud you if you persevered to the end and actually looked at most of the pictures. XD I hope it wasn’t too strenuous of a journey. But wasn’t the waterfall gorgeous? And the mountains? Ahhh, it makes my heart happy. ♥

Have a lovely day, lovely people!

***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***

Beautiful Things {Part 3}

April 24, 2017April 24, 2017 | Allison

Are you ready for a ton of spring-y pictures? Good gracious, the trees all look very different now, even though I didn’t take these pictures that long ago. Our one maple tree has pretty much full-blown leaves now. Spring moves rather quickly, doesn’t it?

The curly willow tree beside our rabbit hutch is pretty in spring… actually it’s usually pretty. 😀

This old tree isn’t exactly the springiest, but it’s still neat. 🙂 I love the bumps and fine texture of the wood.

This is the view from one of my bedroom windows. 🙂 The triticale field is so much taller now.

Oh my goodness, how beauteous are these apple blossoms? ♥ AND LOOK AT THAT BOKEH! XD

You don’t usually think of maple trees as flowering trees, but I guess they kind of are – only the flowers are green instead of pink or yellow or something.

There! I’m catching up with my photos, except I just took about 100 pictures yesterday… Oops. XD I’ll probably post those next! (Don’t worry, not all 100 of them. XD )

Are your trees getting leafy too? Or have the leaves never left to begin with?

Have a lovely day!

***Allison***

Last Drops of Gold

November 18, 2016 | Allison

*Sniff* Fall is almost over. 😦 All our trees have lost their leaves except for a few brave maples. My favorite of those is almost a neon yellow! So pretty! Of course I couldn’t resist taking pictures – and then showing them to you. 😉

allisonfall-001-1280x960 — This is the tree! We have a bunch of really nice, big maple trees in our yard.

allisonfall-088-1280x960 — The bright gold against the blue is sooo pretty, don’t you agree?

I hope these leaves brought some sunshine into your day! 😀 Which picture was your favorite?

***Allison***

P. S. I have some very exciting news I think you guys will like, but I have to collect a few more pictures of it before posting. 😀 Hee hee, aren’t I mysterious? Do you have any guesses? (But if you already know what it is (ahem, Megan, Clara, and Grace), don’t give it away por favor. 😉 )

Autumn Photoshoot: “Undeniable”

October 26, 2016October 26, 2016 | Allison

Bonjour! (Or hola, since I’ve been studying Spanish…)

I’ve wanted to do a lyric photoshoot for a long time, and I finally got around to it! I love the song “Undeniable” by TobyMac because it’s so uplifting, and so true. Especially on these gorgeous autumn days it’s easy to see God’s “evidence piling up” in the beautiful world he created for us. Click the play button on the video below, then enjoy the rest of the post while listening!

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

There are moments that I doubt You.
Blind to the beauty that surrounds me,
I try to push away the need that I’m needin’ proof.
And this struggle that I have, it ain’t nothing new.

But the evidence is piling up, yup.
You change my heart isn’t that enough?

You give me life that I can’t take credit for;
Call me to walk through an open door.

Undeniable, You are, You are, You are;
Unmistakable, You are, You are.

You’re the bright and morning star,
But still You speak to my heart.
Undeniable, You are, You are.

Your work doesn’t stop with me –
Your signature’s on everything we see.

From the hills of Negril, Jamaica,
To the kid that the doctor said would never make it.
Which is harder to believe: that You don’t exist,
Or that You orchestrated all of this?

Living in the world that is so confusing,
You’re the argument I’m never losing.
‘Cause I believe.

Undeniable, You are, You are, You are;
Unmistakable, You are, You are.

You’re the bright and morning star,
But still You speak to my heart.
Undeniable, You are, You are.

From the hymns that my Daddy sang,
I know I was made to glorify Your name.

And from the prayers that my Momma prayed,
I know I was made to glorify Your name. [x3]

So undeniable, You are, You are, You are;
Unmistakable, You are, You are.

You’re the bright and morning star,
But still You speak to my heart.
Undeniable, You are, You are. [x2]

Which is harder to believe: that You don’t exist,

Or that you orchestrated all of this?

Living in the world that is so confusing,

You’re the passion that I’m never losing.

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

I love that line: Which is harder to believe: that You don’t exist/ Or that you orchestrated all of this? Seriously! Which makes more sense: that a Creator God designed our incredibly complex and beautiful world, or that God doesn’t exist and everything just happened to evolve this way?

Living in the world that is so confusing,/ You’re the passion that I’m never losing.

‘Cause I believe.

***Allison***

Drops of Silver

June 5, 2016June 27, 2016 | Allison

Like drops of liquid silver

Capturing the light.

Clinging, falling,

Slipping, rolling:

A silver shower.

If you’ve followed this blog for long, you’ll know that I simply love dew drops or raindrops or anything of the sort. 😀 The raindrops on these leaves looked so silvery and beautiful that I couldn’t resist taking pictures of them.

Here’s a picture of a bedewed peony bud to add in. 😀

Ahh, so pretty!

And lastly, I made a little edit with one of these pictures. I really love this Bible verse! It’s one of my favorites. Does anyone else know the song with these words? I really love that song too. 🙂

Have a wonderful Sunday!

***Allison***

P. S. The flock of chickens we have right now is going to be taken away tonight! (We have around 24,000 chickens, (yes, seriously!) although it gets less toward the end of a flock like this.) WOOP WOOP! That means we won’t have to gather eggs for a few months until a new flock arrives. YAY! But then at the beginning of the new flock we have to weigh each of the thousands of eggs before putting them in flats, which takes quite a while to say the least. Ugh! Well, I’ll just not think of that yet. 🙂

Lady-Slipper Hike

May 15, 2016 | Allison

The title sounds rather strange, but don’t worry: the hike wasn’t actually littered with lady’s shoes, it just had some lady’s slippers flowers along it. Okay good, we got that cleared up. 🙂

Of course I took many pictures when we went on the aforementioned trail with my aunt, who kindly offered to show us the lady slippers.

When we first got to the path, there were about twenty butterflies – mostly tiger swallowtails – sitting all in a clump, maybe eating or drinking something. We didn’t even notice them until we walked right up to them and they exploded and flew away. It was AMAZING to see! Since I didn’t know they were there the first time, I didn’t get pictures then, but later we waited for the butterflies to come back and a few did. But only a few – not nearly as many as we had scared off before. Oh well, at least I got pictures of those few!

This is a bee on a lupine flower. In the second picture you can sort of see the bee’s proboscis… I think.

Pretty lupine leaf…

And the stars of the hike – I present the lovely ladies’ slippers. 🙂 (Click on any picture in the collage to enlarge it.)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 060 (1280x960)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 061 (1280x960)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 062 (960x1280)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 065 (960x1280)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 066 (1280x960)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 067 (1280x960)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 068 (960x1280)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 071 (1280x960)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 072 (1280x960)

-Allison(lady slippers, doll, thunderstorm) 073 (1280x960)

Spring + Hike + Camera = Flower Pictures

I like the shape of these leaves.

I edited this picture to make it look more like a fairy hotel. Isn’t it magical-ish? XD

We found this weird but pretty metallic green beetle.

And last, a simple picture of forest floor.

I hope you enjoyed the virtual walk! It was quite fun, and it was easy hiking compared to the trails I went on for my birthday, but… that’s a post for another day. 😀 Which was your favorite picture?

***Allison***

P. S. You know that riddle that I asked you a long time ago about what word has all five vowels in it? Lots of you actually came up with answers that fit the riddle, but none of you thought of the word I was thinking of! (I guess it wasn’t a very good riddle if it had so many answers. Oh well, it was fun!) The word I was thinking of was… sequoia! In case you don’t know, a sequoia is a type of tree that grows to be ginormously tall – kind of like a redwood. And with that, I leave you. 🙂