Drama In The Sky

I thought it might be good to post something other than graduate work (something a bit more simple), so I went digging into my folders for things I had meant to share but never got around to. A few weeks ago (I guess it was back in August, so a bit more than a few weeks ago; yikes time has flown by) we had some scattered storms roll through Manhattan. I sat and watched this one move for a while, enamored by the dramatic clouds and the clear distinction of where the rain was.

Happy Monday everyone; I hope your week is off to a great start!

 

Fishing in Kansas

I could have sworn I already shared some of these images (since they are from this spring), but apparently they got lost in the shuffle.

Scott and I both really enjoy fishing, and this spring we went quite often. Unfortunately because of the heat, both of us fighting some long-lasting illnesses at the beginning of the summer, and our generally busy schedules we haven’t gone much lately. I also was pretty bad about actually shooting images with my camera (I got lazy and just used my phone most of the time) while we were out, despite bringing it along. But, here are the images that I did capture.

Happy Sunday everyone!

The Thought Process

It had been ages since I shot a self-portrait before this one. I had some vague ideas that I was wanting to shoot but never seemed to have the time, energy, or motivation. This summer has been a bit of a slump for me artistically, but I’m hoping I can turn that around once the craziness of this month settles down.

Anyways, about a month ago I went home with Scott (the boyfriend) to his parents’ farm. They have some big wheat fields, which, as previously posted, are one of my favorite things. I had the itch for a self-portrait, though I didn’t really know what it should be. Before we left for their house (which is close to a two-hour drive) I had thrown in a bunch of tulle and other fabric thinking I could do something with movement and wind (since Kansas is ALWAYS windy). That evening, around sunset I decided to just go out and see what would happen. It was all very spontaneous and unplanned, which is often the best for me. When we were walking to the spot that I wanted to shoot at there were some hazy clouds covering the sun and light wasn’t very exciting. I was sort of bummed out and even debated not shooting that night. But, I decided to go for it anyways, and it paid off. The haze ended up lifting while I was shooting, making for some wonderful golden light in most of the images.

I have sat on these images for a while, unsure of how I wanted to edit them, and share them. Finally, as I am sitting in a hotel in Lexington, KY about to shoot a wedding I decided I was sick of having them sit on my hard drive. I will make another post with a few more, but this one was my favorite, and when the title popped into my head this morning I thought it deserved its own post.

Happy weekend everyone!

RMNP Day Four

Our fourth day at Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) was the most memorable one for me. I already told the full story of the day in my 365 post, so I won’t go into much detail here, but if interested be sure to click the link and check it out for even more pictures as well.

My family and I had decided to climb up Longs Peak on the fourth day since it looked like the weather would be the best then. I was nervous, but was intent on making it to the peak. However, altitude sickness got the best of me and I had to turn around right as the sun was beginning to come up. Luckily I was able to make it a ways up before sunrise so I was still able to get some sunrise picture. Although, I didn’t want to add any extra weight with my tripod so I had to hand hold everything (or rested my camera on a rock).

I don’t usually share personal pictures, but I thought I would share this one that I took of me and my mom on the hike back down just for fun.

While we were hiking up it was completely dark, and so although I could hear a bunch of waterfalls and streams I couldn’t see any. Turning around early ended up working out well for photographs though, because the light on all of the little streams was just perfect.

Once we got back to the parking lot we took some naps and read and just relaxed while waiting for the rest of our group to finish their hike. After a bit we decided to go on a short little hike to an old mining sight. There wasn’t much left there, but I did get some more pictures of streams and waterfalls of course.

When we got back we didn’t have long to wait before half of our group (one of my brothers and my sister) got back to the parking lot, so we chatted with them until my dad arrived to bring some of us back to the campsite. The storms were starting to roll in at that point, which created the usual amazing clouds. I couldn’t resist taking pictures so I stuck my camera out the window once again.

At the campsite I sat in my hammock reading and sleeping until my other brother and his wife came back with my mom. Since they made it to the peak they didn’t finish until 3:00pm or so. Once everyone was back we went in to town to shower for the first time all week, and eat a quick dinner since we were all too tired to make anything. On the drive back into the campsite there was a rainbow right over the valley, so I hopped out of the car to get some pictures, and was surprised by a second rainbow showing up. All I could think of was the double rainbow video, which if you haven’t seen it be sure to go check it out if you want to get a good laugh for the day.

I had been wanting to capture the mountains in the valley at sunset all week, and this was as close as I was going to get, which luckily ended up being pretty good timing.

And now I have finally shared all of the pictures from our stay at Rocky Mountain National Park; it only took me a couple of months. I hope you all enjoyed them!

RMNP Day Three

On our third day at Rocky Mountain National Park we decided to take it easy, since we were going to be climbing Longs Peak the next day. We woke up and took our time getting ready for our hike more than we usually do, so I had time to grab some pictures of the flowers around our campsite with the morning dew and sun.

Our easy hike for the day ended up being to Bierstadt Lake. The hike was a pretty steep one, and we were mostly in the woods so there wasn’t much of a view except for a few times.

When we arrived at the lake I was in awe. It was absolutely stunning there, like a dream. We spent the afternoon sitting by the lake, reading, with my feet in the water. It couldn’t have been much more perfect.

The water was so incredibly clear, and it was surprisingly warm for being a mountain lake. It was perfect for dangling my feet in while I read.

For those of you who have been following my blog, you may remember that my 365 for this day was a duck. We were sitting there relaxing and this duck swam up and just hung around us for a while. So of course I took a ton of pictures.

Then the afternoon storms started to roll in. We wanted to get down to our car before it started to rain, but my brother and dad had gone off to hike to another lake so while we waited around for them I got some more pictures of the incredibly scenery and the clouds that were moving in.

My brother started skipping rocks then, which I couldn’t avoid taking a picture of, so I went with it.

And lastly, I couldn’t leave the lake without showing some love to my analogue sunrise decorated nalgene.

 

RMNP Day Two

The second day of our stay in Rocky Mountain National Park was yet another amazing day. As I mentioned in my 365 from that day, we drove up Trail Ridge Road and had stunning views the entire way.

I will start things off with some pictures from the drive. We stopped at one point at a pull off to take in the views. There was a trail that led up to the top of that particular mountain, and we were surrounded by tundra, clouds, and more mountains. It was absolutely amazing, and I was left in awe of it all. The pictures don’t do it justice.

There were a bunch of little lakes tucked in the mountains, was yet another thing that made me fall in love with the area. It would have been amazing to be able to hike to some of them. If you look close in this photograph you can see one.

Besides the amazing, grand view, there were some tiny little details that had me in awe. I fell in love with all the little tundra flowers that were growing up there. They were so incredibly small, but have to be so strong and resilient.

After our brief stop we continued driving. I took a crazy amount of pictures out of the window while on our way, but I will only share a few. This first one I really wish the trees weren’t there, but I still love the rest of the scene so I thought I would share it anyways.

After weaving through the mountains on the country’s highest paved roads we arrived at the trailhead for the Lulu City hike and started on our way. The Lulu City was an old mining city, but all that was left of the “city” was one, barely noticeable cabin that was rotting away; only the bottom few logs were left. The hike itself didn’t have the best views but it was still a really nice hike through a drastically different type of landscape than the day before. That is one thing I loved about the Rocky Mountains, the huge range of landscapes that you come across in just one day’s hike even.

We had to cross a crazy amount of streams on our hike. There were some bridges that broke during the flooding from the snow melt that spring so it made things a little more exciting. Most were just tiny little streams though, but they added something special to the hike none the less.

And of course more flowers. I absolutely loved all the wildflowers blooming out there.

The trail ended up at the Colorado river, where we stopped to rest and eat lunch. Talk about a great spot for a picnic!

On the drive back we stopped at the Alpine Visitor Center, which had some amazing views. When we got there a huge cloud had moved in and you could hardly see anything, but luckily it moved out pretty quick and then the clouds were pretty amazing.

These two images were are very similar, but they showed off some different things and I just couldn’t decide between them.

We also stopped at a lake on the way back, since it was just a short little walk to it.

And, just like on the way to the hike, I had my camera stuck out the window for most of the drive back.

 

 

Rocky Mountain National Park Day 1

I finally finished up the editing of all the pictures from my camping trip to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) that I went on at the beginning of August, so now it is time to share. I decided the best way to do so would be to have a separate post for each day, so get ready for five long posts with lots of pictures. Hopefully you all enjoy them!

Our first full day in RMNP was close to perfect. Since it was our first day in the high elevation we went on a nice starter hike to get acclimated. An easy starter hike for my family isn’t exactly the typical easy hike though. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the trail that we took, I just know that we went past Cub Lake and hiked past Big Thompson Falls, which I thought was appropriate.

We turned back a little earlier than planned because the afternoon storm was moving in quick, and it looked like a bad one. But I have to say I enjoyed these afternoon storms, because they created some awesome cloud conditions.

That evening while we were hanging out at our campsite we got a little bit of rain, but it was completely sunny throughout the entire thing. It was absolutely beautiful, but unfortunately my photographs didn’t come close to showing just how stunning it really was.

 

 

Red River Gorge

I have millions of pictures of the Red River Gorge on here already, but, since I have been hiking there twice already this summer, I have tons more to share. So here are some extras from the past two times I have been.

 

Trey and Deeanna

I had the privilege of shooting Jay and Deeanna’s wedding a few weeks ago. We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day, and everything went so smoothly it was just wonderful! Congratulations you two!

We started off the day at Deeanna’s house with hair and makeup for her. The natural light in there was a dream, and with Ana Crane-Simpson doing the hair and makeup it was such a great start to the day.

After finishing up Deeanna’s hair and makeup we had a slight break before group shots at the hotel, so I managed to get some detail shots of her beautiful dress, jewelry, and shoes.

This was such a cute little memory from the day for me, a text from Trey while getting ready. It is a little hard to see here, but it says “still wanna do this? :)” Such a perfect example of how fun these two are.

Then it was time for the guys to get their pictures taken. My partner for the day, Susannah, shot most of them while I was with Deeanna while she got dressed.

And then came the girls. It was a bit tricky because Trey and Deeanna didn’t want to do an early reveal, so it took some coordinating to make sure they didn’t accidentally run into each other.

After wrapping things up at the hotel we headed to the beautiful Estes Chapel to get ready for the ceremony and do some pictures there.

Trey’s gift to Deeanna was so beautiful, and the card that was with it was so touching.

Because the chapel was so beautiful and so full of natural light we stayed inside to get some quick group shots.

We then headed across the street to get some pictures with the beautiful greens all around. The light couldn’t have been more perfect there.

Trey was waiting in the background, and for the first couple of shots I didn’t notice that he was in the frame. But it ended up being a fun little addition to the image in my opinion.

Self-Portraits

I liked a few other self-portraits from the very first day of this project, so I thought I would share them.