Day 250; Chicken On a Hill

I'm back from State Conference! It was SO much fun. I've had a nice relaxing day home today, before I leave for a 4-H camp tomorrow where I will be a counselor-in-training. While I'm still here I'm posting a photo of one of my brother Josiah's hens. I don't really like chickens in person, but I've always liked the way they look in pictures. For this particular photo I layered "cinerama" and "dusk" filters to get the look I wanted.

Day 249; Noah in the Dark - Funny Face Edition

My brother Noah is a little ham. He likes to make funny faces, and was not in the mood to cooperate, even though I'm leaving tomorrow morning for state conference. I won't be able to post for the next three days, and possibly not on Friday either. For this shot I used a small light to illuminate his face but leave the background in the dark. I wanted a sweet smile, but he was not in the mood tonight. I still think he's adorable though.

Day 248; The Silver Butterflies

I like butterflies in real life, but don't like to wear them on jewelry or clothes or anything. Usually. But I do love this hair pin, even though I haven't been able to wear it for a long time since I cut my hair short. I put it on a light yellow pillowcase for today's shot. I really like the detail in the pin, and wanted to bring attention to that with a black and white filter. The Holga effect was a good fit for this shot, since it added some drama to the lighting which was otherwise somewhat flat.

"Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies."
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Day 247; Black and Lace

I really love lace, though I don't wear it often. There are white lace curtains over the windows in my room which I see everyday but don't really look at. If you really look at lace there are some very interesting patterns and textures. For this photo, I laid the curtain over a blanket and took a close up of the threads which make up the lace. I love black and white, and especially with the high contrast in this shot.

Day 246; Noah and Thalia

I love my brother Noah and my horse Thalia, and especially like watching them together. Today's photo is simply a snapshot taken while Noah was walking Thalia around this afternoon.

Day 245; If the Shoe Fits

This year I'm old enough to run for our County Fair Queen. I ran for (and won) Junior Miss a couple years ago, which is simply the younger age division of the Fair Queen. I'm very excited for this opportunity, and have been working to find my interview outfit and formal wear for the evening. I did finally find the dress a couple weeks ago, and it's a very pretty black mermaid-style dress with very little embellishment. I love glitter, sparkles, and the like, so I knew I wanted very bold shoes. I fell in love with these black peep-toe heels covered in glitter as soon as I tried them on. Since both the dress and the shoes are black, a black and white effect made since to eliminate the yellow hues caused by the lighting available.

Day 244; Beaded Bracelet

My county fair is just around the corner and I have been starting to put together my 4-H projects. Yesterday I finished this bracelet made from safety pins and glass beads, and have been working on the paperwork today. The beads are shades of blue and white which are very pretty in person, but not so much on camera. Thus, black and white was the direction I went in. I used a combination of a Holga and Infrared to get the look I wanted.

Day 243; The Not-So-Ugly Duckling

Ugly is one of the last adjectives I would use to describe our new ducklings which just hatched out this morning. We brought this one inside right after it hatched for a photo shoot in Noah's hands, and it has since gotten fluffier and even more adorable.  The duckling is black, so in order to fully appreciate the details of its feathers I opted for a black and white effect.

Day 242; Wood from Retreat

I had the most amazing time ever at the State 4-H Council retreat last week and cannot wait to work with all the great youth selected throughout the year. There weren't really any opportunities to lug around my camera, but I did go outside before breakfast on Friday and got this shot of the mulch around one of the trees. The early morning light and the great texture of the wood chips appealed to me, though it didn't turn out as dramatically as I had imagined.

Day 241; On the Grass

This photo was actually taken a couple weeks ago. Tomorrow morning I'm leaving for a State 4-H Council retreat and won't be back until late on Friday. I'm going to miss both Elijah and Noah and the rest of my family so I wanted to bring out this cute shot before I left. It was actually Elijah's idea to make it look like he was giving Noah a monkey-back ride, but getting Noah to cooperate was difficult. I did love how it turned out though, especially with the texture of the grass in the background.