Splash!

I'm actually not a huge fan of fish (at least how they look, they taste great, however!)

I've caught fish before, but it still kind of freaks me out when the fish is flopping on the end of the line. I'm like, "What do I do now?!? Help!!!":P

Alyssa and I had our own beta fish at one time... and when we would change it's water and clean the bowl, we would move the fish to another container with a strainer. Of course the fish would be flopping around in the strainer before you got it moved to the other bowl, so you had to put your hand over the strainer. At least that's what Alyssa did. I did NOT want to touch the fish at all though, or feel it flopping against my hand. So guess what? My fish hopped right out of the strainer onto the kitchen counter, and lay there flopping until I convinced Alyssa to pick it up for me. 

I guess it's something about their skin that reminds me of snakes... 

So needless to say, I really don't like seeing this fish picture. He just looks kind of scary. 

But it's for a photo contest for the Fish Hatchery, so who am I to say it's ugly and gross? :P

-MarLeahJoy

"Here, Fishy"

I was at the fish hatchery yesterday for a few reasons. They have a photo contest going on until June 9th where you submit photos that you have taken there, so I wanted to check it out. But also, I haven't been there since I can ever remember so I wanted to just go and explore it. It was kind of sprinkling and so the fish were jumping out of the water and just being pretty lively, so I was like "Man! I wish I would be able to take a picture of one of them jumping!" But the pond was so big that there would be no way I could predict where they would jump. I started to head towards my car, but on the way there I saw a little sign that said "Free Fish Food". Awesome! So I got some and started throwing it out in handfuls into the water nearby, set my camera on high-speed continuous and fired away.

So sometimes I wish I had a full-frame censored camera, but then I remember the fast frame rate mine has and then it's all good ;) I think I can deal with having to buy lower millimeter lenses for the ability to capture fast action things...

-MarLeahJoy

On a Walk

Yesterday, I had some extra time before my evening class so went portrait location scouting. I'm still wishing for all the other deciduous trees to catch up with these pines, but at least the grass is turning green! :D

-MarLeahJoy

Heirloom Seed Co.

Last night I suddenly remembered that I took a lot of pictures at the Heirloom Seed Co. earlier this month, and I haven't really done much with them. 

I decided to upload them to flickr instead of making a whole long post.

So you can hover over the image and click the right arrow to view what I took there at the farm.

We started out with a vegan meal at their restaurant, which was actually really good! Then we went down to another little building there in the "village" where they sold the best cinnamon rolls! We munched on those while we walked around and looked at the animals. After being in the seed store a while, I started to feel a little conspicuous with my camera when a worker made a comment to me (a nice one) and then asked if I had got any pictures of myself. "Well, no." So she took the picture of us three. Haha :) And when I realized that my mom and her friend were going to spending hours (literally) in the seed store I escaped outside to just walk around some more.

The very last panorama of these pictures was actually taken a little ways from Laura E. Wilder's house. Once again, my mom and her friend were doing something that really didn't interest me (going to the museum that was next to Laura's house). So I just took the car and drove the time away. :)

-MarLeahJoy

Deer After the Rain

I love taking a good dig back through my archives. 

Well, this time I was really just on a search for this picture from Colorado last September.

And now let me enter into la-la land where I dream of more trails to hike and places to explore. :)

-MarLeahJoy

Crystal

This is just a quick post from my sister's phone. :) 

I'm here at a church camp meeting and we were walking back from the gym at night to go to our dorms and I just loved how the light was shining through this icy tree. 

And thankfully I have a good friend, Karissa, who was willing to keep me company and freeze her hands off with me so I could get this shot! ;D

-MarLeahJoy

My Kinda Day!

I know that my blogging is so sporadic. Haha, my apologies. ;)

After about an hour of my parents agonizing about my safety, they decided that they would let me get out on the "icy" roads so I could go to the Holiday Fest at the Carver Park in Diamond.

It's actually an event for little children and we used to go to them all the time when I was young, but this time I was going to see a friend from college who volunteers there every time they have an event.

This is my friend and her mother who is an amazing seamstress and makes a new dress for Holly each event they have here. Her dress hem was lined with the most delicate beadwork. It was unbelievable! 

The little children at work with their crafts.

Museums and displays get fairly boring to me, but there is something about getting a glimpse back in time that I love... regardless if it looks like museum. Ha!

 When I saw these binoculars out on the deck, I had an idea to take a picture through them... and try to make it look like it does when you are actually looking through them.

So these are my attempts!

After the event was over, and most people left, I went on the little trail there.

I am such a sucker for trails -- it doesn't even have to be a spectacular trail.

Okay, I have to insert a few comments here:

First: That picture I took of myself was quite a painful process! It might look like a fun thing to do... blow snow out of your hands... Ha! but really my hands were soooo frozen and it hurt to even try to put my gloves on. Yeah, but it was worth it ;)

Second: I love to be all matchy-matchy with my Facebook profile and cover pictures and I realized that this picture matched my snowflake picture perfectly! That made me happy ;D

(there you go for all you non-Facebook users) :)

Just some ice and some macro ice.

I wished my family was there with me at this point so we could get a family picture here. 

But, alas! All I got was one of me trying to represent my whole family. ;)

{Umm... and it's a good thing there was no one else around or I would have felt really stupid setting up my camera and running up there to take a picture of myself. ;P }

Once I was completely cold, icy, freezing, numb, raw, rosie-cheeked, red-nosed, and chilled through-and-through, I hopped in my car and drove home a very happy girl. :)

-MarLeahJoy

Snowfall

We had perfect fall weather Monday and Tuesday, then BAM! on Thursday and Friday we get snow!

I like it though. I do really want to go outside and be active though, but it doesn't take me long to realized that I really want to be back indoors snuggled by a fire.

I've seen several photographers take amazing snowflake macros recently. And when I saw them, I mentally thought "Cool thing to do one day... I'll go pin it so I don't forget it."

Well, in less than a week we had our own snow. So, I went outside and began to follow their tips and I was like, "What's wrong!?" I wasn't getting anything good. It turns out that macro photography (with a magnifying glass) is really probably not something for one person to do because you have to hold the camera and the glass and keep moving them both until you get it perfectly in focus. 

Plus, your hands are shaking because it's COLD! So I put my camera on continuous and took a ton of pictures to get some steady ones.

The picture on the right is kind of hard to see, but it is a cluster of snowflakes... it reminds me of geometric planes, haha.

-MarLeahJoy

This Is What I Want To Do

{My-thoughts-with-a-few-pictures-thrown-in kinda post} ;)

Ever since I started college, I became quite unsure that photography was really what I wanted to do. 

That troubled me. A lot!

I really began to question myself (and pray) and try to weigh out why I suddenly didn't feel like photography was for me any more. Within a few short weeks I realized that it was because I wasn't really taking pictures anymore. So the next few weeks, I was determined to take pictures. Well, that didn't work because I really do enjoy taking pictures of people more than anything else, and no one in my family will volunteer to be a model. ;) haha

Then within a few more weeks someone asked if I would take their family portraits (yeah, everything I'm talking about happened in "week" increments, haha. But that's really the way it went). I was happy to do it, but I was oh so nervous at just the thought of it. But, it went really, really well and assured me that me and my camera really do belong together and I can make a successful business out of this.

A double rainbow from the night of the wedding rehearsal. When Ranelle and I pulled up at the chapel I made her stop and let me out with my camera so I could take pictures. Only to realize that I didn't have a memory card in. By that time she had already sped off to park so I had to book-it to where she was. Running barefoot on the gravel, mind you! (Yeah, a really great thing to do, MarLeah! Bruise your feet right before the wedding so you walk like a chicken down the isle!) Anyway, I managed to get back to my spot to take pictures before the sky changed.

And now that I look back over the time that has elapsed since I got my camera, I have really had a lot of confirmation that this could at least work (regardless of whether or not it would be the "dream job" for me - that's always a whole other aspect of a job/career). Anyway, I say that because I haven't even been seeking out clients at this point because I'm busy enough with college. And because that's just not what I had planned... so I was fine with just having my camera, learning it, and not having clients... but the clients have sought me out. So I'm getting some experience in early that I really didn't "plan" for in my little book of "How My Life is Supposed To Go" lol. That is the best part about life though -- all of the exciting things you couldn't have ever expected or imagined!

Then, last night I was reading the assigned chapter in our business book and it happened to be about marketing. I got so caught up in my own plans for my business that I couldn't get through the chapter. Now, granted, it's never been easy for me to read out of a text book. :P But, still this time I was just getting way too excited about the whole thought of having my own business. :)

So, now I am completely sure that this is what I want to do. I don't know how I will get to the different goals I have in mind. And I know that some of my ideas might even have to be re-worked, but right now I feel happy in knowing that God has led me here.

-MarLeahJoy

"Never give up..." -Nightingale

No, I'm not giving a motivational speech here on the blog. 

I really shouldn't be blogging, in fact, because tomorrow is my sister's wedding. wow.

But I was trying to meet a deadline for some prints for my room, and without explaining why, I ended up making some picture quotes with some of my photography. 

I wasn't going to share these on here until I got the prints back, but... as it turns out, I must have missed the deadline (for an amazing promo code - somehow it wouldn't work). So with that disappointment, I turned to blogging. ;) Blogging always makes me feel better :)

An image from our travels through Tennessee this summer.

From our last family trip to Colorado this fall; Garden of the Gods

And this image reminds me to use my Lensbaby more (maybe I just need to get my camera out more). I took this one in the spring - way back in the first few weeks that I had my camera.

All of these were created with Quotes Cover.

Next week I should have a post up from my sister's bridal portrait session. She already gave me permission ;) In the meantime, I will be... Helping with last minute wedding prep. Standing up as the maid of honor. Enjoying all the wedding guest who are traveling in. Likely finding myself in some good game of Ultimate after the wedding. Saying goodbye to my sister who will be saying hello to a new life in West Virginia (wow!). Getting my whole weeks worth of homework done on Sunday. And my new life will begin Monday. My life in a household of four -- not five. 

Have a marvelous weekend!

-MarLeahJoy

Close to the Earth

It's one of those days where I will be perfectly happy to sit by an open window and do my homework. I love the low light and the perfect coolness of an almost fall day (2 more days - Yay).

The earth smells so good after a rain, especially up near our pine trees.
I spent a little time this morning, just hanging out up there with my camera.

You know what this is reminding me most of...? Colorado. Yeah I'm getting
pretty nostalgic right now, lol.

-MarLeahJoy

Hello, Right Brain!

My creative side has been feeling very deprived lately!

Today, I realized that I just needed to get out and take some pictures.

But, then I remembered why I practically haven't taken pictures in two weeks...

Both of my memory cards have been full of wedding pictures.

I wanted to be double sure that they were safely backed up before I took them off.

So I just grabbed my camera tonight with a fresh memory card
and just took the most random nature pictures ever, but at least I
feel a little more connected with my camera now! :D

Oh, wow. People have been talking about fall... and taking
this picture, just kinda made it all sink in. Fall is definitely approaching!

Yep! It's a grave stone! I normally jog at the cemetery. It's really

a nice place to go (better than a park where everybody in town 

know that you're running) though I would much rather be on a 

wooded trail... but we don't really have any of those around here.

Yeah, I'm definitely feeling fall... sigh...

-MarLeahJoy

Colorado

These are some of the pictures I quickly lumped together and showed you 

in this post here, when I was still in Colorado. So here are the full images. :)

Garden of the Gods :)

I used my Lensbaby Edge 80 on this shot to give it a miniature look.

And I think this is my absolute favorite image I have taken with the Lensbaby yet. 

And I even taught my dad how to use the Lensbaby :)

So he took this one of us

And here again is the image I submitted into the landscape contest. You can vote for me if you have Facebook, and it will *maybe slightly* influence the judging, but the contest is not based on likes.

If you don't have Facebook, go on over and check out all the amazing entries anyway. Some of them are absolutely amazing! http://woobox.com/f4nhhw/vote/for/1292609 

I brought out my Double Glass optic, that I practically have never used since

the day I got my Lensbaby, and I think I actually kind of like it. 

It gives this zoom-y effect to every picture, so I doesn't work all the time, 

but I liked it for the tourist-y shots I got around town that day. 

All of the rest of the pictures in this post were taken using the Double Glass.

From PJ's Bistro. I was terribly, terribly sick at this point, but I was still

taking pictures ;P

Have a wonderful weekend!

-MarLeahJoy