I ♥ Faces: Pets - my new pet rock :D

Ok, so this probably doesn't really count as an animal picture, but I can't have pets while I live in the dorms :( So here it is, my BRAND NEW PET ROCK(s) :D :D :D


!!!!!!!!!!!I'M ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!

He does such good work! I was allowed no input on this one - all Mike's choosing :D

We went out to Cafe Milo for lunch (one of our favorites - the spicy italian is fabulous!) and a movie and then he made me promise to play along for something fun, blindfolded me and drove me out to a park and asked me. The best part is in the initial plan - I've gotten pretty used to him taking my purity ring off that finger and playing with it while we watch movies, TV, etc. so he was planning on being all sly and switching the rings during the movie and making me freak out quietly... but then the movie was AWFUL so he had to work on the fly. But he still had both rings and had jokingly faked a proposal earlier, so when I was "playing along" I was completely planning to open my eyes, see my old ring and beat him up a little bit for getting my hopes up. Apparently that was pretty obvious when I opened my eyes to ^^this guy^^ because he could tell by my reaction :)

Now on to planning (I'm not gonna lie, I'm super excited for that too)

To do list: 

Attempt to focus on finals this week : P

Get ring resized (it's like half a size too big- he was so close!)

Figure out a date

Continue to freak out that I'm ENGAGED!!

Click the camera to see some actual pets :D

I ♥ Faces: scenic b&w

I do! I do! Landscapes are my favorite! That could be because I'm still learning about capturing good shots of faces, but I think it's mostly that it sits still enough for my camera to keep up with. :(
BTW - I am always open for comments AND constructive criticism. Can't get better without knowing what I'm doing wrong :)

 Another from Haiti - I've been missing it a lot lately. Please continue praying for the people there. 

There is still lots of poverty, pain and illness there. 

Click the Camera for more black and whites!

I ♥ Faces: Pink

          Okay, to tell you the truth, I don't really heart the color pink. I don't really own anything pink, I don't wear it. I'm more of a blues and greens kinda girl. Or cardinal and gold (go Cyclones!)... or purple and gold (go Vikings!) but never really pink. Even as a kid. But I do love what pink stands for this month. Campus is covered in Breast Cancer Awareness stuff, which is fabulous. For this week's challenge I had to go with one of my sister, Melissa - I had some fun with this one, gimp-ing the two shots I got of her getting ready for a wedding this summer. I love the contrast of "fine I'll take a picture" with the oh-so-real "would you stop bothering me so I can get ready?!?"

 Love her so much :D

For more pink pictures click the camera

ISU Campus Fall 2010

A couple weeks ago I had time to walk around and take some pictures of the gorgeous leaves around campus that are all frozen and gone now -
Here's my favorite:

And a few others:

Constructive Feedback Friday

So I'm super excited for Fix-it Friday this week. Here's the description:
"Anyone can write a blog post that has one photo in it that they’d like to gain feedback on... Other photographers in our community will then be able to visit each post to give feedback on they feel the problems could be fixed." 
As an amateur photog that means YAY!! I thought for a while and decided on a picture that is my favorite I've ever taken. It's been up here before, so sorry from the repetition, but I'd love to see what others would do with it.

 What would you do with it?

I ♥ Faces: Smirk

Who better to give me a great smirk photo than my 14 year old sister. This summer I had her do a mock shoot with me both for practice and because my mom really wanted pictures of her :)  This one may be my true favorite shot though, because it's SO Amanda. I said something along the lines of hey! I'm over here and this is what I got. :) I love her to death, she's such a joker but definitely has an attitude all her own sometimes!

To see more smirks click the camera:

I ♥ Faces: VROOM VROOM

Once again, a photo from Haiti. Please excuse the focus... this was taken from the back of a truck also driving down this road (if you can call it that) This is one of the most common forms of transportation in Pignon. The most I've seen is 6 people on one bike at a time- 3 adults, 2 toddlers and an infant. Can you say carpooling?

For more Vroom Vroom Entries, Click the camera

Fix it Friday #70

It's been a while since I've done a FIF, but needed a good distraction in class :) So here it is:
The Original (not my photo)

And here are my edits:

Number 1:

White balance, Color enhance, Color Balance (Yellow -50, Red -10), Saturation +30, Lightness -10, Contrast +10, Duplicate Image, Desaturate with layer mask bows and eyes, Overlay, Add fuzzy border (black, 50px), Layer mask to fix border, flatten and watermark

Number 2:

B&W duplicate layer of #1 at 80% opacity over edit #1

Click here for more edits of this little cutie!

I ♥ Faces: Photojournalism

Oh how I LOVE the idea of being a photojournalist. I used to read national geographic and dream of how cool it would be to travel the world and open the eyes of fellow Americans to how the rest of the world actually lives.
      I really debated whether or not to use my Haiti photos for this entry, and maybe I should have, but I finally decided on a collage of 4 photos from my summer as a summer camp counselor.

The set up for the story they tell? I was 17 that summer. Those are my FIVE campers, all of whom are going into the FIRST grade. Yeah. 5 six-year-olds for little old me to be mom for for the week. Yipes. If any of you are in search of a good birth control for your kids- this is it. I love these girls to death and I'm excited to have kids of my own, but there's no way I could handle taking care of them myself.

Click the camera for more visual stories :)

I ♥ faces: Gotta wear Shades

What can I say? My friend Jeremy's a star. This one is also from camp 2007. I love digging out old photos :)

To see more entries featuring people in their favorite shades, click the camera:
                  

I ♥ surprised faces!

I had to dig for this one. So much potential in a theme called Surprise! But this one from working at camp summer 2007 is my favorite surprise in my files. There apparently was quite a splash from this event in the water olympics :)

To see even more surprised faces click the camera

Kimmi & Dave {Wedding}

I'm so excited to say that my beautiful cousin Kimmi got married to Dave Schlauchtenhaufen this weekend! The rooftop ceremony was beautiful and was blessed with no rain, cooling clouds and no bugs! Amazing, I know. These are just a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

These two are my parents with Kimmi. They both read at the wedding, and she was their flower girl 22 years ago. :)

i ♥ faces: Purple

Okay, so maroon is pretty far towards the red side of purple, but it's the closest I have. This is from my... freshman? maybe sophomore year in high school, back when our football team (the Mustangs) was worth watching. I love the range of emotion from these guys, especially Ben (A). This is a favorite of mine just because it embodies the atmosphere of  small town life. I come from a high school of 400 students and the entire town seems to turn up for every game, which is why I black and whited the background- too busy!

I'm also a little disappointed that I don't have better purple pictures! I attended a beautiful purple wedding in June and only took like 3 pictures and none had any purple. I was a guest of a guest so I didn't feel too comfortable yet taking lots of pictures, which I now know I definitely should have! :P And my cousin is getting married in 2 weeks and she's having a purple wedding as well. Doesn't help with this weeks challenge, but at least I'll be SUPER comfortable taking lots of pictures there.

To see more purple pictures head over to iheartfaces.com by clicking on the camera

I ♥ Faces: Over my Head

This week at i heart faces the theme is "Over my Head". I thought this picture was absolutely perfect and probably a lot different from many of the entries this week. This is from my summer working at camp in 2007. I love all the different expressions as these two staff members surprise our program director. I think my favorite though, is the face of the camper in the bottom right who apparently thought I was taking her picture and had no idea what was going on behind her. : )

To see more of what flies over our heads at www.iheartfaces.com click the camera below

I ♥ Faces: "My" Country

Okay, okay, so it's not officially my country. But it sure feels like home when I'm there.

My dad first went to Pignon, Haiti in May 2008 with my uncle's church. This is my favorite picture of him, at the orphanage we work with there, taken I think by my uncle Steve. I LOVE the complete coincidence that he wore his AWESOME DAD shirt from father's day. He sure is an awesome dad. :)

That coming November, my dad organized and led a team consisting of then-18-year-old me, nine men and two 60+ year old women. I knew from the start it was going to be at very least an... interesting trip. It all worked out very well though, with all of the "actual" adults (the youngest 13 years my elder, married with two kids) treating me very well, never once making me feel inferior because of my age.

As the youngest of our
group I was constantly
surrounded by these
beautiful faces

I fell in love with Haiti that first day, as we walked around town. Being white in town makes you quite a spectacle, and the little kids point and holler "Blanc, Blanc" (white, white) as you walk by, or run up to smile at you and hold your hand, one little girl even tried to wipe off my hand as if it were dirty :) These children are the main reason why I love Haiti. They are so full of joy! I went back again in March if 2010 and can't wait to be back again!


Most of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken are from my time in Pignon and the surrounding areas, here are a few:

To see more picture of countries people heart, click the camera and head to iheartfaces.com-

For more information about trips to Pignon, Haiti check out http://promiseforhaiti.blogspot.com/ (the entry "Larry Madole March 2010 Trip" is about my trip this year) or scan through the Haiti tab of my blog, there are just too many stories to tell. Thank goodness that a picture is worth 1000 words!