Photographs!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041706&id=1434821170&l=4b5aed8f12

That is a link to some photographs that I have taken previously, I just felt like sharing them. They are from early summer 2010. :) Some of the pictures in that album are some of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken. All of them were 100% natural in natural light, with the kids just being themselves and I was not posing them at all. Well, except the picture of ME. One of the girls took that picture of me because she wanted to "use the camera" too, and I'm a sucker for a kid with a passion. I edited some of them, some of them I didn't. It was a lot of fun to take these. I'll be posting more photographs here soon!

It's As If My Dreams Are A Reality, And Reality Is A Dream

So many incredible things have been happening lately. I feel like my dreams are being realized, one step at a time. I'm growing SO much. There are things that I can't even begin to explain, because the words to describe them don't exist. Thank you, for allowing me to have a wonderful life!

It's Called Craziness, And It Happens To Everyone

Well, it happens to me a lot anyway, so I tell myself it happens to everyone to make myself feel better. Ha ha! I have been so overwhelmingly busy lately, trying to catch up on so many things. Things I want to do, and things I need to do.

College registration papers don't fill out themselves (unfortunately!).

All in all though, it has been really amazing. I love my job, my friends, and my family. I am taking more steps toward my dreams, and getting even stronger in my faith.

I finally got "City of Ashes" by Cassandra Clare (the second book to "City of Bones") in from the library and I can't wait to read it! I've only just begun, but even though I am only on page 30 I already can't wait to see what happens next. It's gathering another crazy twist, and introducing a new character point of view!

I'll blog later,
Burkie

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (A Review) ****

Well, let me tell you I did not choose to read this book because of the cover. I want to get that out in the open first and foremost. If we were basing it on the cover alone, I may not have read this book. It's a little bit of an awkward cover, especially for me. xD

Anyway, I'm not here to review the cover. I am here to gush on and on about this book, and give my two cents worth. This book is not my typical style, there is more blood and violence in it than I am used to tolerating. Don't get me wrong, I love fantasy, and hero vs. villian, and yada yada, but this was really much more intense than what I normally like. I've already determined that the movie might make me queasier than my brother's Zombie games. I do love this book though! OH MY GOODNESS, I love it. It took me a little while to really get going in it, because I didn't have time to just sit and read it like I would normally dive into a book. I read about three pages at a time for a couple weeks. Luckily, that left me interested enough to continue, and eventually I was consumed with finishing the book. I had to know what happened! Cassandra Clare really shocks you in this book, but in a new way. It's the way where you begin to realize things, and start putting pieces together, think you have it figured out, and BAM! You're wrong and right at the exact same time.

This book starts out following the life of the teenage girl, Clarissa Fray, while she is at a nightclub with her slightly dorky but overall ordinary best friend. The nightclub is called "Pandemonium" and is aptly named. The definition of pandemonium on www.dictionary.com is as follows:

"-noun
1. wild uproar or unrestrained disorder; tumult or chaos.
2. a place or scene of riotous uproar or utter chaos.
3. (often initial capital letter) the abode of all the demons."

The irony of this is all too perfect, and I loved that. I loved the characters, for the most part, and how it made you think, cry, laugh, gasp, yell, throw and tantrum, and long for more. I don't agree with some of the things in it, but I did really enjoy this book. I can't wait for the next in the series!

I give it a 4 star rating. :):)

Reviews

Okay, recently I just came to the realization that I could also include Book, Movie, and/or Music Reviews on my blog if I wanted to so I will probably end up sharing my ideas and opinions on certain forms of media. I realize it has been a while since I have updated my blog; for that I apologize greatly. I will try to start putting useful things on here soon!

Thanks for sticking with me!

Today, in all the rush and excitement of getting my brand new camera lens, I decided to go to my Grandma's front porch because it is lovely and full of interesting things to take pictures of. :D These are some of my favorites.

I loved this little metal shoe that was part of my Gram's windchime.

Aperture: f/1.6

Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec.

ISO: 400

Focal Length: 50mm

Part of a beautiful tree :]
Aperture: f/1.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec.
ISO: 400
Focal Length 50mm

Same tree as in the picture above. I love it!
Aperture: f/1.6
Shutter Speed: 1/800 sec.
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 50mm

Two of Gram's statues. A reading boy and a cat that says "Welcome".
Aperture: f/1.4
Shutter Speed: 1/2000 sec.
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 50mm

I absolutely love my new lens. Finally I can take the dreamy photographs I love so much. :]

IT'S HERE!!!! :D:D

THE BOX!!!!!

:D

The UV Filter for protecting the lens.

THE BEAUTIFUL LENS!

Lens cap is more special than my other lens caps. It says ultrasonic on it!! :O


The very first picture I took with my new lens. Obviously it isn't great because I need more pratice, but you can definitely see the difference in how much more light it lets in! I am going to have a boatload of fun. :D:D Well now, I'm going to go have it instead of sitting here NOT taking pictures.

Bokeh Beauty

With this shot I simply put my camera on manual focus so it wouldn't freak out when I didn't have anything to focus on, and manually put everything out of focus.

Okay, so I officially love bokeh. It is truly beautiful, and sometimes the colorful little orbs can be mesmerizing. And even though I love this shot that I took on a busy street at night, I think it would be SO much better if there were something in focus as well. Why do I say this? Because bokeh is even more impressive when there is something in tack sharp focus to compare it to in the same picture. It makes peoples jaws drop while they ask "How did they DOOO that?" Or at least, that was my reaction before I started learning more about photography and got my DSLR. Honestly, I still find myself reacting that way though at a lot of pictures. There are so many ways to get so many different types of bokeh it is absolutely unreal. One of the biggest key factors is to get distance between your subject and the background that you want thrown out of focus, but to stand somewhat close to your subject. That will help a lot, especially if you don't have fancy schmancy equipment. When your camera focuses on your subject it will throw the background that is far away and distracting even just the slightest bit out of focus if you have a good camera, unless you are using a very narrow aperture (the higher numbers, like 16-22 or even higher in some cases). This was mostly just for me, and many of you won't get anything from this, but I love talking about bokeh. I apologize, but at the very least I hope you enjoyed looking at the picture! ;D

I'll probably put up some Photoshop tricks and things for your education purposes soon. Also, if I come up with any amazing recipes I will be sure to share!

Canon 50mm 1.4 EF Autofocus Daydream Comic

Ha ha ha... my apologies... I was bored, and this was on my mind. I promise I can actually draw more than just doodles and stick figures. ;D

Learning Curve

I guess the learning curve isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but I still have some learning to do. For example, I am 99% sure that my posts should only come up as little descriptions and then people should be able to click "read more" or something like that. At least, that is what I thought would happen when I clicked the little box that said "short" instead of "full. For whatever reason, it's all just laid out there stretching my page out really long. It's frustrating, because I don't want people to have to scroll through all of my ramblings to get to a particular post if they want to. What if they want to read oldest to newest, and don't want TOO many spoilers? Well, I will figure it out, but for now, grin and bear it with me! ;]

Also, in the process of learning I accidentally followed myself and have no idea how to UN-follow myself. Help? ;P Yeah, we'll see how this whole thing goes. It's gonna be wild!

Burkie Say What?

Alright, so I am new to this blogging thing. Really, I'm a fresh one. I don't even journal. ;) I hope you will bear with me as I get used to this. I figured if I spend half as much time blogging, filling up a webpage with my rambling thoughts, as I spend mindlessly reading and updating statuses on Facebook I could be pretty successful at this.

Well, maybe. Perhaps it would go over better if I wrote about things people were interested in reading, but I just don't know if I can do that. One: I am not really all that interesting. Two: Interesting things don't usually happen to me. I'll try though, to at least be expressive, jubilant, flamboyant, amusing... or just as easily frustrated.

You know what I really like right now? Photography. Yup! That's right, I like walking around with a camera and capturing embarassing moments for a lifetime (no really, that is one of the best parts!). When I can't make somebody look absolutely ridiculous, I strive for excellence in my photos. One of my favorite things is to make somebody who is doing something totally normal or totally ridiculous look amazing! Posing people to get the perfect picture is for sissies. I let the perfect picture come to me... :D Heh heh... okay, SOMETIMES I like to pose people, but honestly I am not experienced with it very much yet. I will get better. I hope.

I ordered a new lens... and I am basically salivating just thinking about getting it. It should be here Monday if everything goes well. -crosses fingers hopefully- I have been so inspired by Ree Drummond's blog website (www.thepioneerwoman.com) that not only have I decided to start my own blog, I also went out and purchased a 50mm EF 1.4 Autofocus lens. I'm going to have so much fun once I get this. It will be my third lens since buying my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi. I went kind of nutty and bought two lenses at the same time I got the camera body, but in all fairness one was the kit lens and in my mind it totally didn't count because it came with the camera. Plus, the other lens was discounted if I bought it right then. WINNER!

Maybe along the way in my photography journey I could teach you a few things I learn! That would be so super fun! Okay, all of that aside...

Yesterday it was all sprinkly rainy-like, and I was definitely loving it. I sat on my front porch with my camera, waiting for the water to stop slowly falling from the sky long enough for me to hunt for some water droplet pictures.

Now, I didn't want to venture far from home because it was sprinkling off and on all day in preperation for today's storm, but I did find some droplets that made some pictures I was (am) VERY proud of. It's actually a little ridiculous how proud I was (am) of these pictures. I have tons more, but I decided not to overdo it for my very first blog. I don't even know how much bandwidth I have for this thing. I should probably figure that out! Ha ha ha...