Bridal portrait practice

A type of awesomeness is developing and growing. This form of awesomeness is what I'm currently seeking.

I had a really fun time yesterday taking beautiful pictures of my beautiful friend looking beautiful. Life can be beautiful, you know?!

My plea for practice was answered, and what's better, I got to practice bridal shots!!

Yay!! Is there a better subject matter out there? (Ok, well flowers, but...) ;)

I learned quite a bit more about shooting portraits now with the 50mm lens that I am so in luuurve with. I've already got a pretty good handle of nature photos with it...but portraits are something I don't practice every day. --> why it was, and is, so important that I finally get to try it out for the sole purpose of portrait photograhy. 

I made a mental note or two about posing and direction ("look happy", lol). 

I also learned technical things about metering, focusing with the 50mm, and aperture. 

I loved that we were doing bridal shots because I knew the white dress would pose some challenges as far as over-exposure and blowing out. 

...and I learned a thing or two about upgrading to edit in Lightroom 4. (♥)

I would appreciate some constructive feedback regarding my photos if any springs to mind. 

Be honest (but in a nice way, please!). Remember, I'm learning ;)

Another thing I would like feedback for, and I've been meaning to ask for this for a while, is do my pictures look blue or off color in any other way on your computer? 

This is a problem my sister has mentioned, and it's annoying because my photos look spot on on my laptop...and I edit according to the histograms... so any info on colors being off would be helpful so I can figure out how to solve it!!

Another first I've done for this post, is resize my images for web use. 

Does it look different?

Thanks so much for stopping by, especially if you took the time for critique!!

And many many many thanks to my wonderful model!!!! You were awesome and helpful! :)

Hope you're having a weekend of awesomeness, no matter the form it comes in! :)

 

Camping

So, I love camping.

OK, the bug bites are horrible, the rain on the way home was horrible, the sleeping with no comfy pillows and bed was horrible....

but I had fun!

The weather on Saturday was GORGEOUS!

We got to the island without issues from our bears. Manta has a history of jumping out of boats...and Koda has only ever stepped foot in one once before and did not like it. 

...Yet the 30 minute boat ride to the island went well...
And we had a great time! :)


Koda waiting for us to get on the boat...or perhaps he was wondering at this point if he'd be expected to get on the boat with us! Lol!

Far too much stuff... for one night. :D
Sorry, I can't pack light! (And hubby's just as bad...)

Pretty boat ride pictures...

Pispala from the lake...

A sauna-boat. I want one!! :)

The island we camped on... we chose a nice spot on the far side of the island.

Our camp spot. And Manta wishing she was allowed to just go lay in the tent. Some outdoorsy dog.. ;)

Heather.

Lingonberries.

We had fun taking pictures of the lake through polarized sunglasses. The lake and sky were just beautiful the entire time we were there.

Some kind of grass. It was golden in the sunshine.

Manta bear being ridiculous.

Our dinner: zucchini, potatoes, corn (homegrown!), habanero flavored sausage. Dessert was SMORES!!!

The happiest bear ever. He had such a blast!

Oooooooh the sunset.
So romantic to sit by a campfire and watch the sunset change.

The view of the night lights from where we were camped.

Hubby had a tough time sleeping so he got up early and enjoyed the quiet sunrise himself.

...and he left me a morning message for when I woke up:

So sweet! ♥


So that was our camping trip. I wish the weather on Sunday would have been better so we could have enjoyed the day longer (instead of getting rained on!), but all in all, I regret not going earlier!!

Thanks for popping by!
Hope your week is off to a good start...only 3 more days till the weekend! :)

Garden post 10

In honor of hubby's LONG summer vacation ending, we are going camping... I'm not really a camper, and honestly, I'm only going because I was promised smore's and because I'll never hear the end of it if I don't go. 

I'll be looking forward to lake front views from our tent (silver lining folks) and watching the sun go down eating smore's. 

Before I go, I thought I'd upload and share the latest garden pictures. I'm loving the plans for next summer, we just need to sketch them out and stick to them next summer!

We're toying with the idea of taking over a 4th allotment since we're starting to run out of room for all the things we want to grow. The plot next to us has been abandoned and overgrown for years, but it has potential. Hubby went over a week or two ago and chopped down the weeds (I hate that they spread onto our lot), and the idea kind of took over from there. I hope we can get the allotment, it would be nice to have more room to play!

(...but what we really need is a farm!)

Anywho, here's garden post 10!! 

Here are the pictures in the order I took them...

Pansies! ♥♥

These were on my mom's balcony, but she brought them to be planted at the garden, hoping that they seed and grow next year. Beautiful colors!!

Our little snapdragons.

 

 ...A ranunculus. 

To me, it's amazing that this grew!!

I had no idea you could grow these here in Finland but we planted seeds for giggles...and one sprouted up!!

I know what we're planting next year... :)

"Fairy"

 

I asked hubby to take a picture of me since my summer dress matched my boots so perfectly. This was by no means a practical gardening outfit, but a cool one anyway. Lol!

 

In the picture above, you can see a part of the sadder row of peas that has nasturtium planted in between. Here's a close up of the beautiful red flower.

I'm still getting a kick out of these cornflowers. Next year, I definitely want to plant blue ones. 

We used to plant cornflowers every year, but stopped since they need support and can look a little messy. 

I'm glad we came back to them!

 

My mom's favorite rose, "Romanze". This is a hardy rose for this climate. It ALWAYS looks amazing. :) 

SO PINK!

 

Our fall hydrangea, going crazy!

 

A million cucumber flowers... 

 

Along with nasturtium in between peas, we planted some sweet peas. I love the softness of the pink. :)

 

Pumpkins! What!! :) I want this to be a big one!!

 

We added a little brick path (bricks we meant to use for our patio but didn't).  I think this looks super cute, despite the dead foxglove (need to harvest seeds) and the weeds... 

 

Hubby showing us what a perfect raspberry looks like. :)

 

Beautiful zucchini. Mmmmm....

 

More pansies!! :)

I love these orange ones. They're so exotic looking to me. 

 

And zinnia. How cute. We've never planted these before, but will have to plant them next year...they're so pretty and cute!

 

So that was a quick run-down of the garden. 

I think this garden is like a little slice of heaven. 

I can only imagine what a farm would feel like. 

♥ Dreams ♥

Thanks for reading!

Will have to share our camping experience when we get back... if we get back!

(Just kidding)

(I hope). 

:)

 

The Countryside

I can't remember if I mentioned it already, but last Saturday we took a little trip to a country town, Hämeenkyrö, about 40 minutes from here. My mom's friend lives out there and has been telling us about a great flea market...so obviously it was time to check it out! :)

The flea market was big, one of the biggest I've ever been to. It was almost overwhelming...and towards the end I just got so...tired. Is there a such thing as over-thrifting? Lol!

In the end I didn't even buy anything amazing, just a couple small things. 

After the flea market, we were hungry. Nearby was a little herb farm with a cafe and handcraft boutique. It was on a river and the sun was shining. We were blessed with really beautiful weather. 

After refueling with coffee, we decided to take the scenic route home by driving down literally "scenery road". :)

There were "fields of gold".
I had to stop the car and get out to take a picture. It was more beautiful in person!
 

Further down the road was an awesome berry farm, where you can pick your own strawberries and raspberries. They had a little cafe and shop to buy the local goods. 

There was this amazing view from the fields:

A closer-up photo of the strawberry rows...

There were also some farm animals to admire. 

This pretty hen seemed almost like she was posing for me. 

As was this rooster. He was rather protective of his ladies. 

There was also a little herd or flock (whatever the correct term is...) of mini goats.

CUUUUUUTE!

I've never been one for goats, but these little guys were so cute and friendly, they changed my mind about goats. They ate and ate and ate... corn, willow branches, weeds (thanks to some kids), and our pea shells. 

Ooooh sheep!

After my travel companions were able to drag me away from the animals (literally), we continued our drive to the local lake beach. Gorgeous photo op!

After we reached the end of the road, we drove the backroads to the next town to see where my dad grew up before his family moved to California in the 1950s. 

Interesting and fun day for sure!

The hubster and I were so excited about driving around the countryside, since it's our dream to have a secluded little farm to putter around on one day. :)

And something that has absolutely nothing to do with anything, my hubby went foraging through the forest with my dad and our big bear and found these chanterelles... YUM!

We had a chanterelle-meatball cream sauce with potatoes. 

So now I'm almost caught up with the blog... Just a garden post I need to upload pictures for... Expect that soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great weekend!