It's that time of the year again.... year end reviews are surfacing which the bloggers and photographers scramble to get all their favorite pictures chosen and organized.
Even though the end of the year has come and gone, I still hadn't gotten any pictures chosen or organizes...or even thought through. But a few days ago something completely extraordinary and completely unexpected happened:
I got every. single. thing. on my "to do while at home" list of 1092947 things done. Granted, I procrastinated and waited till 2 weeks before I left to go back to school, but hey, it's all done, and that's what counts! Because of this, I suddenly had time on my hands....time which I didn't actually HAVE to do something with, and so, I started scheming and planning, and now I have a brand new list of things I want to do before I leave!
It's a completely realistic list to.... if I was staying for another week....which I'm not.
I happen to be leaving tomorrow.
that's beside the point though, back to the post at hand.
Welcome to my 2015!
It was a year of a lot of change, a lot of growth, a lot of comfort zone expanding, a lot of fun, and a lot more.
The year started out with The 4th Annual Christmas Session of Hannah and Anna.
As you may have picked up, we do this every year after Christmas while we are both still on break.
After that, I flew back to school and proceeded to be very productive and make time for every single thing I wanted to do in my schedule, along with work, and homework.
not.
I did have time to do some photography though.
Kenny & Chrissy's engagement pictures were such an adventure out in the freezing
February weather!
Then.
Then it was time for a much-planned event!
My cousin was going to get engaged and He asked me to photograph it. Since then, proposals have become one of my favorite things to shoot!
Who doesn't love rose-gold rings anyways? :)
There were also one or two adventures to the nearest city to experiment and relax while taking pictures.
Spring Break was spent touring with my school's chorale! We went all over the midwest and got to spend a day walking around St. Louis. It was my second time at the arch, and it was so much fun!
After finals were over and after I worked at my school for a few weeks, I made a little jaunt to a nearby state to spend time with some very dear people of mine, my sister and her little family.
By the way, if you every plan on flying, try to remember to bring your identification....
it's kind of a hassle when you don't have it.
Not that I would know that from personal experience or anything.
My summer continued on with going to a camp to work.
This is my team. Even though we look relatively normal, believe me, these people are anything but normal. They're extraordinary and I love them so much! After spending 8 months with them, they really did become my family and are faithful to point me to Christ.
yeah, they aren't normal.
I had always wanted to try photographing the Milky Way. Unfortunately, in Washington, the weather, stars and location, never worked together to give me very good circumstances.
But in Iowa, by the edge of the lake, at around eleven at night, I shot this picture.
Bucket List Item : CHECK!
You've already read about the camping trip in my former posts about summer, but it's such a highlight, that I had to include some more pictures of it.
Spelunking and climbing around the hills and rocks were both huge highlights of this trip.
I may have forgotten my shoes on the camping trip, but hey, who needs shoes anyway?
At the end of the summer, I shot my cousin's wedding, and what a beautiful wedding it was!
Olivia was the cutest bride and she was so excited to get to see Ronnie!
Mid way through the semester, I got to shoot another proposal, another cousins. As not only my cousin, but one of my best friends and adopted sisters, it was especially wonderful to get to be there and observe Elizabeth and her Avery.
Thanksgiving Break held another engagement session! This one was another cousin's and he's marrying a very good friend of mine from college!
How great is that?!
And yes, I have a lot of cousins.
Oh! I almost forgot to mention that Caleb designed this ring for Megan HIMSELF! Talk about creativity! It's simply stunning!
After Thanksgiving break was two hectic weeks of classes and finals and then I got to fly HOME!
HOME!!*
After almost a year of being away, being home for entire month was simply glorious!
*I wasn't excited AT ALL.
During break, we did very little other than sleep in, and explore, and lounge around the house, and watch movies and eat food, and I am quite certain that I have never enjoyed doing any of those things as much as I did this month.
There were also several coffee dates thrown into the mix, as usual. And you just might recognize these cute lil' gals, Dakota and Hannah. We've been through just about everything in the last 6 years. And we've done pretty much all of it together. Now, ones married, another is engaged and the other is attending college and adventuring the globe.
And I'll give you the hint. I'm not the married one or the engaged one.
You'll hear more about traveling the globe later.
MUCH later.
The year ended just fabulously with these two! Engagement sessions are another favorite of mine!
(Remember the engaged one? Yeah, that's Hannah)
As you can see, this year went just smashingly!
I'll leave you with these few little glimpses into what my life looks like as a photographer.
Photo Credit for these two shots goes to Joshua Huang from Reflecting His Image Photography
And this one goes to Hannah at Farmgirl in Flipflops.
Have a great 2016 Ya'll!
-Anna Rose