Zion National Park 2014 Calendar

We went to Zion National Park every single month this year so that I could capture the seasons and changes of the park. It's beautiful and I hiked some great trails, too.
Here is a video of the calendar I put together:

We had a lot of fun doing this, hope you enjoy it too!

November 2013 Scavenger

Here you have it!!
I know I skipped September & October, but not November!

Here's a copy of the rules:

How to play:
Any level, any person, and any camera welcomed!

Take a photo of each and post them to the flickr group, share them on your blog then share the link here, post on Instagram with the hashtag #GAscavenger, or join the Facebook group and share there! The bonus are optional. Also, things do not need to be in order!!

Whichever method you use, HAVE FUN!

Until Next Time!

My Failed Project 365 and Other Things I'm Letting Go

I admit failure. In the year 2010, I had such a fun time shooting every day and playing along with project 365. Click the image to check them out!

However, what I didn't have a fun time with was playing catch up with my editing. It almost got to the point where I didn't want to shoot in fear of adding on to my pile of photos to edit and sort through. 

So, of course I didn't remember so much of the pain, but rather how much I loved having all those photos! Memories I would have likely forgotten had I not been forced to shoot every little boring day! THAT is what I like doing it for, so I set out in 2013 for the same result. What I wasn't expecting was how crazy life was going to be. I was graduating, in a new job, and setting out on new adventures. They are no excuse, but for me, I had enough to do each day. 

Here's the thing I figured out. I love living in the moment. I love living without regrets. The best way to do that, for me, is to let go of things and only add them back in when I feel I'm ready. I tend to get very excited about things...a lot of things...all at once! So, I end up adding and adding and adding things, all on top of the other before I've even explored the first! 

For me right now, less is more. 

Sometimes you need to take a step back to be able to take a more confident and stable step forward. 

What does that mean? It means I've dropped Project 365 for the year 2013. It means, I've quit the process of editing every.single.photo. If I'm just going to scrapbook it, it doesn't need any major edits or actions for that matter, it might just need a crop ;) and I'm learning to be okay with that. 

Of course any of my professional work will still get the attention it needs, no worries there! 

I'm dropping the regret I had associated with failing my project 365, holding on to that makes no sense and helps no one. 

Will I ever do project 365 again? Very high possibility. Just not right now. Not in 2014 either. Though, that won't stop me from getting all giddy when New years hits and think I can add it back in. -__- I don't learn from my mistakes very quickly. SO here's the deal, I KNOW I'll get excited again for the project. I also know that I don't need it right now. However, here's the deal I'll make with myself. Go ahead and take photos each day, but no labeling it or promising of project 365. I'll just shoot. I'm happy just shooting. That way there's none of the stress and all of the fun! 

Exciting news coming on this blog soon!! Keep up with me on bloglovin' or facebook! All the links are on the top of the blog here =D

Are you like me and tend to pile on more than your life can handle? 

Are you a less is more or more is more type of person?

Until Next Time

Big Horn Sheep

DSC_4561, originally uploaded by gladyanne.

Spotted these little fellas while driving around Zion National Park yesterday to shoot some fall colors!
Actually, we almost drove right by! If it weren't for another observant driver who stopped in front of us, I would not have seen them!
SO glad I did. What was fun was the left one was practically posing for me! Kept moving its head around at different angles, loved it.

Zion Sneak Peek - September 2013

I know I keep posting a lot of sneak peek Zion photos. I'm working on them all, from every month, and I will absolutely have them all done in November. I say that because I'm making books with them for family. 

In the mean time, I have some super exciting things I'm working on for my photography! Can't wait to share, stay tuned!! 

Zion National Park August 2013

We go each month and I LOVE it! However, I'm not always caught up with each month's editing...but for whatever reason I got this month's visit done pretty quickly..

I saw this spot and just had to mess around! Set it all up so Daniel just had to press the shutter ;)

This little one was fearless and walked all around us, it was on a mission to chow down!

I still can't get over how beautifully GREEN it was!!

The critters were all running about when we were there. I think it had something to do with the recent rain.

The river was super muddy, a little higher, and flowing a little faster than normal thanks to the recent days of rain.

All in all, another beautiful trip to my favorite National park down the road ;)

August 2013 Scavenger Hunt!!

Find what you can and shoot your little hearts out!! Tag it with #GAscavenger
Post it on your blog (comment back here so I can see!!), on Instagram/Twitter with the tag, the facebook group, or the flickr group!!
Pass it on and get going on your hunt!
Happy Shooting!!

Here are some of mine from July:

June Photo Scavenger!

Here's the list: 

#1 flag

#2 stairs

#3 vegetables

#4 four

#5 object of everyday use

#6 clouds

#7 grass

#8 color: Blue

Bonus

#1 fireworks

#2 cat's eye view

How to play:
Any level, any person, and any camera welcomed!

Take a photo of each and post them to the flickr group, share them on your blog then share the link here, post on Instagram with the hashtag #GAscavenger, or join the Facebook group and share there! The bonus are optional. Also, things do not need to be in order!!

Whichever method you use, HAVE FUN!

Happy Shooting!

Embrace Self-Portraits

I'm a big fan of taking my own photo. My best photos of me are taken by me. If you aren't a fan of your photo, for whatever reason..get a camera and snap your own shots all day every day until you're more comfortable, until you get a good idea of what looks good and what doesn't. Or maybe you're like me and you just like to be silly and have fun. Every now and then you get a fun or great shot from the adventure. It really is that, an adventure. Make it real, by that I mean sometimes you're worth setting up lights, backdrops, driving somewhere fun and beautiful, tweaking the settings, tripods, remotes, props, etc... I mean it, make it a real session of you by you and for you. Don't be afraid to experiment, after all, it's just you. 

I've been snapping my own shots and making a deal out of it since before I got serious about photography. I like to find different angles of the camera, different poses while holding it or with a remote, different lighting and props...it's fun to experiment to make the shots a little different each time.

Here are some of my self-portraits ranging from the year 2008 to less than a week ago. I will admit, those instagram photo challenges have helped in some inspiration of the following...

Recently I got my digital hands on this book that is sure to keep me inspired and keep things interesting for my future self-portraits.

I would love to see your own self-portraits! Maybe just a favorite you have or a collection/album of them, please share away!

What Have I Been Up To?

Trying to graduate with my bachelor's...that's what. May 3rd, where are you?!?
So, thought I'd post a quick recap on some things photo related.
First, I hiked the amazing observation point at Zion National Park. Check the photo set!

Check the entire story of the adventure on this blog post!

If you want to keep up with me don't forget about Instagram! You can also find me on Pinterest, I post often in my Happy Snapper board.

I also got my hands on a new P&S, the Nikon S9500. Here it is on Amazon. I plan on sharing more on my thoughts after using it a while longer.
I'm out of time, must go work on school projects & papers. Can't wait to finish! I've got some exciting ideas to share with you all!

If you're not sick of me.....

Project 365!!!

All caught up!! For March I have a goal to at least try and edit these daily photos once a week.. I say that a lot, but these goals this year have been doing me some good. Let's hope they help me with my tendency to not publish my photos. Check out the flickr set. Some favs:

Until Next Time!

March Photo Challenges

March is coming! Can you believe it?!? Me either. Can you believe I haven't caught up in editing photos?!? Yea, me too. =\
Anyway, I'm always posting on Instagram! My favorite thing on there are the daily photo challenges! LOVE them!
Fatmumslim is the one I've been doing for almost a year! (ever since Instagram came out on Android)
Here is her March list:

Now iheartfaces also has one! Here is theirs:

Well get to it!! It's fun!

Find me following along @gladyanne on Instagram!

What's your Instagram?!

My New Camera

I officially have the D7000!!
I've been talking about getting this camera for years. You would think I would change my mind or something.  There are so many newer cameras out there, but to be honest THIS one has been calling my name for years. What have I been using?? Nikon D60. I bought it in January of 2009 and when I held it in my hands I was amazed.
D60:

Silly to think back at those confusing days, days of learning. I'm still learning everyday, but here I am again holding magnificence in my hand.

As with the D60, I bought a dummies book for the D7k. You would think after handling a DSLR for a few years now that I would know what I'm doing, but each camera is a little different. I believe it is crucial to understand the ins & outs of your gear so that you are fully capable of acquiring the image you're after, or to at least make your life easier. My dummies book for the D60 is still the best photography resource I've used. 

The lens that I have with the camera is an 18-200mm. I chose that because I currently have a kit lens (for the D60) 18-55mm and then a 55-200mm and to be honest, I absolutely hate changing lenses. HATE IT. If the deed required me changing the lens, I would almost always just use my P&S. Sad, right?

SO, some of the first photos I took were in Zion National Park! I used the presets because I was still learning how to use the camera in general (didn't read the dummies book yet). Here are some of the first shots in the camera:

Can't wait to take more!!

1000 Words

The title of this photo was "247 Butt" because it was number 247 in my project 365 for the year 2010. Butt is included for obvious reasons. Little did I know, this title would lead many to my photo. I would look under the stats to see that quite a few people would search "247 butt" in Google or something and then come to this photo, I'd venture a guess that they would be quite disappointed upon arrival. Apparently there's a website called 247 butt, you can guess what people were actually searching for at this point. I find it absolutely hilarious when I get a new tick on this photo from some person looking for some slightly more entertaining photos. 

The background of this photo is quite simple, really. I like to doodle. I doodle at school, work, just about anywhere there is a little down time. I love to doodle words mostly. So I guess they aren't officially called doodles, huh? What would word doodles be called? Wordles? Anyway, I doodle words... a lot. This particular set of words was doodled while I was supposed to be working on school work. Why would I choose the word "butt"? Well, that's kind of my nickname...or something. My guy calls me butt. Mostly because I act like one, admittedly so. I like to think it's also because I have a nice butt. Maybe that's just what I tell myself to keep the name attractive. It's funny, he just says it and I'll respond like it was written on my birth certificate. I'm awesome. 

So, I was doodling words on this paper while I was supposed to be working on school work. Go me, but why take a photo of it? Because I can. No really, I did it because it was late in the day and I had not taken a photo for that day yet and because it just so happen to match another photo challenge scavenger thing I was doing with the prompt "something in writing". What better than the word "butt" in writing. In different hand written fonts, too!

Now, why is it black and white? This has no awesome reason. When taking the photo all lazy-like, the color turned out funny and uninviting. The white paper wasn't white, the highlight and color pens I used didn't come out quite correct and the entire tone of the photo was warm and had a poor indoor quality to it. I was much too lazy to take the time to edit it in Photoshop to make it look nice, so I turned down the saturation like the lazy person I am and called it good with a little sharpening. When all was done, I really liked the result. I think that even if I took the time to color-correct it that it wouldn't look as nice. Something about the neutral feeling of black and white corresponds well to the fact that it says "butt" all over it. Maybe I'm over-thinking a silly photo, but I'm not filtering my thoughts here. 1000 words come from everything that flows in one's mind when looking at the photo. For me, that might take us to unrelated topics and if so, so be it. 

I will now explain my favorite way to doodle words. I used this technique in the photo, it's really simple. I'm all about simple. So, you take your highlighter and you write your word all bold-like. You can even draw a simple smiley face, the technique seems to work best with bold lines regardless if they're words or not. After you've written your bold word in your highlighter, of course the color is optional; you find a corresponding colored pen. You could also just use black. The black pen ink against the bright colored highlighter gives an amazing contrast. You could go a bit more complimentary, like orange highlighter and blue pen ink. My favorites are the Sharpie highlighters in their bright pink, orange, blue, and traditional yellow colors. My favorite pens are those G-2 ones from Pilot in all their fancy colors. Most often than not, I'll use a black ink pen. Anyway, back to the process. The next step is taking your pen and tracing the bold highlighter word or doodle you just created. You want to be careful that you follow the lines just right. Though, sometimes you will slip if you're hurrying, like when your boss or professor is headed your way. If you slip and go too far out or in to where you aren't following the line anymore you can try to fix it by making the pen line more bold or filling in the gap with the highlighter. Whichever works best for you. Usually, I just make the pen ink bolder and try to do so around the whole letter so it comes off more even. Man, I'm rambling. 

So now that you're familiar with my useless pen and highlighter word doodle technique I'll tell you my other favorite way to doodle words. This is much easier to explain. I like to write in cursive. Cursive handwriting is my favorite. I love the look and feel that good cursive handwriting has. If I take the time, mine looks nice, but I definitely have to take the time. I'm not one of those talented people that just have amazing and almost flawless cursive handwriting. I wish I was. When doodling in cursive, I like to write certain people's names. In the family, of course. I'm not like a creepy sixth grader doodling some guys name all over my school work. Anyway, my older brother's name is my favorite of the family's to write in cursive. His name is Jaymes. The capital J is beautiful and the y just flows. 

Would you look at that, I have actual techniques and favorites in terms of my word doodles. It makes you think that I don't pay attention or get any work done. What a butt. 

Day 17 & 18

Love the sunny grass, gives the illusion of warmth in the winter. 

Picked up this fun collection from Costco! Love me some classic fairy tales ♥

365 Update

SO where are all my damn photos?!?! HAHAHA it's been crazy busy, but I'm finally getting back on track now that the holidays have passed, school is back in, and my house is void of visitors. Here are 16 not so wonderful photos that I managed (or didn't) in that time frame of craziness.

There they are!! In this form they don't look that bad! hahaha Actually on the 10th I had to use a still frame from a video we shot for my dad's birthday because for some reason I didn't take any photos that day -__-
LAME, right?!
HAHA well we do what we do.
Go ahead and click the collage above to take you to the flickr set I've made and there you'll see descriptions of the photos, if there's anything worth saying about them....
As long as things are going well, I plan to wrap up each week of photos on here. SO that's once a week posting 365 updates, I should be able to manage that for at least most the year...