People: With the events and opportunities that came my way, I met a lot of new personalities that I wanted to "shoot". LOL Some of those turned into friendships while others were simply just a one time meeting. Most of them were lifelong friends that have been with me since the beginning, and others were simply a photo taken from far away that they never knew I took. All of these people have one thing in common though and that was that I saw something in them that was worth seeing through a lens
Places: To me, one of the easiest things to photograph is landscapes. I love being outside and taking walks and I realized that is where the majority of my pictures came from was nature. It is a beautiful world being outside. I noticed that there were mostly farm pictures, or just ones taken on the farm with the critters (seeing as we had a lot of new ones come into our lives this year) compared to taking more landscape pictures in other states last year.
VAL'S FAVORITES
This was actually the very first photo I took for this year's challenge. I was relaxing back by the pond and there was a perfect sunset over the farm. It was during a day that I was actually reflecting on the past year (which would've been my 1st challenge). This is now my favorite spot to go to be by myself as I dangle my feet into the water.
A lot of things happened for my best friend Kayla this year as well. She got married and she started her new job!! I am so happy for her! We regularly have our "girl's nights" with Meagan still but this photo I took of her picking flowers is my favorite one. We went on a walk to do a photoshoot in this private meadow that we found and I snapped this one candidly.
Ahhh the photo that was runner up in a national contest called "Public Displays of Affection" through Viewbug. It won me two books and some bonus cash. Tiffany and Chris posed with their kids near their home as the kids were grossed out with all their love and affection. It turned out to be a great shot that is now one of my most viewed photos online.
Unfortunately this one only got 2 "likes" on my Facebook page but it is one of my favorites because of how the lighting turned out just right to catch the detail on our fried fish. It was a fun day at the pond as we caught bass and bluegill and then took them back to the house to fry them up. I only used window lighting and I was scared it wasn't going to turn out but it did. :)
I love my nieces and nephew to death and getting to spend time with them doesn't come often so when my niece Addi and I went swimming at the pool of my apartment complex, I couldn't help but snap some pictures of her underwater. This was also the first time I got to experiment with my new underwater camera. Poor kid can't open her eyes yet and still has to plug her nose but she is adorable!
There really wasn't much of a story behind this one. I just really liked the fall colors of the windmill against the growing corn. Could make a really nice wallpaper or screen desktop picture.
This was my sister and her family embracing for the last time before her husband Eric left for his 3rd deployment, this time to Kuwait. As I was capturing the moment it was hard to see the love of my sister's life leave her for 1 year. It was emotional. WFFT's anchor Audra even did a feature on him for our Hometown Hero segment at channel 55 (watch it here)
One major thing that I did this year is I moved out of Fort Wayne and back into my childhood home with my parents. I figured it would only be for a couple of months seeing as my wedding is coming up in July, but it really brought back memories of growing up with my parents again. Some old habits have came back since living in their household again too. LOL
My first "dream" session was so much fun with Julia, a 14 year old who dressed up like the "Mad Hatter" and went on an adventure with me at Foster Park. She even used cards and a tea-set as props and made the craziest faces! I hope to do more shoots like this in the future.
My dad bought a 65 old International Harvester truck this year and he spent a lot of time fixing it up to be presentable for a special day. :) When it was all finished, he brought it over to Shane's for a special ride. He worked so hard to get this truck shining like new and I love it!
One of the funnest shoots I went on was with Brock for senior pictures. He is such a good hunter that we had to get some in the woods with his weapons. I was telling him to show me how to use his bow when he posed naturally for this image. When I say that I like to "shoot" people with my camera, I didn't mean for them to act like they were "shooting" me back but it turned out to be a great capture.
I didn't get the chance to go to very many places this year like I did last year. My family did get to all go to Disneyworld during Thanksgiving which was amazing so I had to share my favorite one that makes me happy. Fireworks and a colorful castle? YES, PLEASE!
Shane and I had a lot of great moments this year. This one comes over Valentine's Day when we decided to relax and watch Harry Potter all night instead of anything fancy. He wanted to act like he was playing Quidditch when we took a break to feed the critters. He is such a goober but I would take a fun date like this anyday. :)
My best friend Kayla got married this year and gave us all popcorn to take home as a wedding favor. I love the fun colors of my bag and I put this one on the favorites list because of that. Plus the lighting in the bag shown through perfectly for this image.
This one had to be my most favorite because of the story behind it. It was during the winter blizzard when everything was canceled so I decided to help Shane clean the house since we were stuck inside anyways. We cleaned every corner and crease with the radio blaring. Our song came on the radio an he pulled me away and started dancing in the middle of the kitchen with me. I had to pause him to snap this image as I set the camera up on a timer and this was the outcome.
Never take one single breath for granted. Always remember the little things. You don't need big things in your life to make you happy. The biggest adventure could be standing right in front of you. <3
