>> HE LIVES!

Because He lives I can face tomorrow.

Because He lives all fear is gone.

Because I know He holds the future,

And life is worth the living 

just because He lives!

>>Because He lives

Happy Easter!

xoxo,

Anna Rose

>> April Goals

Well, April is finally here and I'm quite happy to announce that the first flowers have come up!

I know that in some places, there is still lots of snow on the ground, and I am thankful that I am not there.

I want to finish two school subjects.    

I can't quite cross this one off. I finished one and I am, so close to finishing another.

 I want to exercise and stretch almost every day.   

I think I did it for around 3 weeks. Then there was a week or so where I neglected them badly.

I want to work on my senior scrapbook.    

Once again this didn't happen, but that's fine because I'm working on it today!

 I want to run 2-3 times per week.   

Haha! I think I ran 3 times this whole month! But I did play some hockey and soccer, so maybe that counts....

 I want to finish hanging all the pictures in my room.  

I got one hung. But not all of them.

 Finish redesigning my blog.  

DONE!!

I have very few goals for this month, but maybe this time I'll actually get some of them done!

1. I want to quit overshooting.  I plan to get together with a photographer friend to do a portrait session, but only take 10 pictures. But I want those 10 pictures ALL to be good. I want to be able to get the exact results that I want without having to experiment a lot. And trust me, this is hard. I already tried it. 

2. I want to streamline my workflow. I want to figure out the quickest way, the best way and the easiest way. From shooting the session to uploading the pictures to an online gallery, I want no unnecessary steps.

3. I want to work on preparing for graduation. Whether it's practicing piano, making some decorations or planning food, I want that to happen THIS MONTH.

4. I want to experiment in Photoshop. I want to conquer this program. Not this month, or next month. But I want to take baby steps and have it basically figured out. My goal for this month is to learn about layer masks.

What are you goals for this month?

xoxo,

Anna Rose

>> Luke >> Just a few frames

This was going to be my post for while I was away, but I *ahem* forgot to post, so I'm doing this now! Let me introduce you to my big brother.

 I finally convinced my brother to let me take some pictures of him.

As you will see, he's a firefighter, which is pretty cool.

Last summer I took a few pictures of him in his gear, but I've been wanting to take more since I got my new lens. About a month ago neither of us had anything going on, so we figured let's do it!

And without further ado, this is my brother.

xoxo,

Anna Rose

>> Favorite pictures of the week No. 1

These cracker toffee bars were my Valentines Day present to myself.  I think they have officially been outlawed in my house because they are soo good. I found the recipe here. It is addictive, so make sure you make them when there are lots of people coming over so they can help you eat them....or you can just eat them all yourself. 

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins. Enough said.
Healthy and good, they are the most perfect addition to any breakfast.

Annnnd now, meet Olaf.

He was my very, very favorite thing of the week month. I finally took the leap and bought a laptop. Switching from Windows to Mac wasn't as hard as i was expecting it to be...although I have had to do lots of googling.  I'm sure there will be much more googling in the future.

What are some of your favorite things that happened to you this week?

xoxo,
Anna Rose

>>Just One Sentence

 

"How do we want to be remembered in this place? What would we like people to say about us when your name enters a conversation? If we could be described with one word, what word would we want that to be? If I could be granted one sentence about my character, one that I would want to be remembered by I think it would be this:

 

She was a girl who had a big heart and she chose to use all of it."

 

-Hannah Brencher

 

What do you want to be remembered by?

 

xoxo,

Anna Rose

>> February Goals

When I set out to blog once a week I didn't really have a plan. I was just going to...well...blog!

I figured it wouldn't be THAT hard. But then I found out differently.

So, in my quest to blog once a week I now came up with some ideas.

Over the years of reading different blogs, I've seen a few things people have posted about, this being one of them.

So this is the beginning of a series I will try to do once a month.

This series will contain my goals for the month and then share if I reached my goals from the month before.

And so without further adieu, my February goals are as follows: 

1. To Work on my senior scrapbook.

Time is running out, folks, and unfortunately, I haven't  figuring out which highlights of my life are worth scrapbooking. But that is definitely something I need to have finished by the time I graduate.

2. To make time for coffee dates with friends

I want to cultivate friendships that I have, to learn more about my friends and to make time to do things with them. We won't be able to have coffee dates (or salted Carmel mocha dates) the rest of our lives. It is easy to spend my time on school, music, church, and photography, but I need to make time for friends as well.

 3. Work hard on school and do well on the ACT.

This is kind of self explanatory, I want to get good grades and I want to do well on a big test!

4. To practice piano faithfully

Not just to play through my pieces, but to practice them. Going over the hard spots over and over again until I can play them in my sleep.

5. To learn at least one new technique or helpful tip about photography or editing.

This one won't be too hard, there is so much online about photography, but I want to learn something that will change the way I create. Something BIG.

6. To exercise and stretch every day.

This was my one goal for January. Annd to my delight, I think I almost did it.

There were those nights when it was already quite late and I decided to go to sleep instead. This being my New Years resolution, even if I miss a few days I intend to continue working on it.

7.To pray about decisions.

Decisions about life, my Photography business, everything. It is very easy to forget to do this, but it so, SO necessary. This will be my  hardest goal for February.  

And because no post is quite right without a picture, here's a glimpse at one of my

January projects- Flowers for my desk.

I learned how to do this

{via}

What are your goals for February?

Anna Rose



>> My Goals for 2014

Happy 2014!

 

I hope that you had a simply splendid New Year, I know that mine great!

 Every new year I write a list of things that I want to accomplish this year.

Because one of the things on my list is to blog at least once a week I decided that I should share some of theses goals with you!

 

1. I want to try more star photography, especially the Milky Way.

 

2. I want to do a ballet session.

I've always been fascinated by ballet, the strength and balance that it takes to stand on one foot. And to make it look good? That is incredible!

The last few years its been a dream of mine to shoot a ballet session, so this year I added it to my list!

 

3. I want to blog at least once a week.

You already heard about this one....

I know that during fall and winter I will be too busy to keep this up, but until then this is my goal.

 

4. I want to work on self portraits.

This one is so hard. I know how to pose others, but I have no clue how to pose myself, which is much harder. My only rule is that my self portraits must be more than 'hold camera out and take a picture'

 

5. I want to buy a laptop.

This is definitely a long-term investment. I have been using my family's desktop, which works, but is not ideal. So for a few different reasons I've decided that this is the year.

 

6. I want to experiment with photographing waterfalls.

I've been around waterfalls very little. I've seen them and taken picture, but never set out to take pictures of waterfalls.

 

I decided not to write down all of my 2014 goals, the list would go on for quite a while. But I decided that 6 was a nice number... not to many, and not to few.

 

 

What are your goals for 2014?

 

XOXO,

Anna Rose

 

>> TWENTY THIRTEEN

PASSION TRUMPS LOGIC

-PAIGE OVERTURF

 

It fit.

The first time I saw that quote it fit.

 

"PASSION TRUMPS LOGIC"

 

That is the phrase that inspired my photography for the first 9 months of the year. I had just bought a new camera, a Nikon D600. I absolutely loved it. But it did mean one thing.

 

I wouldn't be able to buy my 'dream lens'. I would have to wait much longer than I was hoping.

 

I knew that some of my equipment wasn't as good as some of my favorite photographers, but I wasn't going to let that stop me.

On my 'goals for 2013' list, amongst other things, I wrote:

 

"Learn how to use my 70-300mm to the best of my ability"

 

aaaand so, for the first 9 months of the year,

I made it my goal to learn to use my 70-300 like a portrait lens.

This doesn't sound strange, but it is an older 70-300 and has a few quirks.

Like the fact that it isn't in focus at 300mm

and that the lowest aperture is 3.5...and that is only when shooting at 70mm.

 

BUT

It worked.

I didn't have the 'right' equipment for taking portraits, but I took them anyway.

 

But while all of this was going on something else was happening.

God was providing for me.

It wasn't something I NEEDED, just something I reeeaaally wanted.

It was a 50mm 1.4.

 

When I got my 50 I loved it right away.

I did a portrait session the day that it came in the mail.

Ever since that, the 50mm and my camera of been inseparable.

 

I did notice something while I was putting this post together.

My favorite portrait session of this year was all taken with my 70-300 lens.

 

To the photography world, it shouldn't have worked.

But it did.

 

because passion trumps logic.

 

           

The year started out with Dakota and Hannah, both fellow photographers.

 

 

 

This year (of course) had plenty of editing.

 

 

Due to the fact that my computer crashed right after Dakota's session, we got together again in March for another session.



There were many drives around the valley and adventures in the mountians during summer and spring.

 

 

 



 And in May my sister and her cute family came a visited.

 

In June my family and I left our little valley and went on vacation.

 

 While on vacation, my Dad, brother, nephew and I climbed a mountain and found several waterfalls along the way.



I took lots of pictures of both my nephews.

 

And yes, the nephew below is the one who climbed the mountain with us. He was such a trooper!

 



While I was there a dear friend surprised me, which was amazing! I hadn't seen her for three long years. 

I was going to be 5 hours away from her house, visiting my brother and his wife.

We talked about if she could come and see me and she finally told me that she didn't think it would work. She just couldn't seem to get a ride.

While I was at my brothers house, he wanted me to take pictures of his newest son, which I gladly agreed to. I was in the middle of taking these pictures when it happened.

"BOO"

I saw a head pop around the corner and there she was.

I'm sure that I was in complete shock. I started crying (yes, I am a crier)

and said her name over and over while we hugged.

We talked and talked and stayed up till the early morning; then fell asleep out of pure exhaustion.

The next morning was my last day there.

So I packed up and left.

While we were there I grabbed her and said "lets take pictures" even though it was raining

Together we ran under a tree and took some pictures. It was definitely one of my favorite parts of the year.

 





We had a few good thunderstorms this summer, allowing me to photograph lightening.



 

Naomi // August 2013

This was my favorite session of the year. Yup, the one that I shot with my 70-300mm.

aaand I'm sure this is the prettiest girl that every graced a brick wall with her presence.



In September, some photographer friends and I grabbed a princess, her tiara, and a guitar and went to visit the local sunflower field.

 

 

My trusty camera and me.

 

 

In September I did a mentorship with my favorite photographer, Paige Overturf, which was a dream come true.

Because I live in Washington and she lives in North Carolina we did it over Skype.

That mentorship was one of the things that helped my business the most.

I didn't know what to do next, so she told me what she had done.

She told me to start a blog. So I did.

She helped me with blog designing, told me about buying a domain name and things like that.

 

Later in the month after a year and a half of dreaming I ordered my new lens.



Two hours after I got my 50mm 1.4, Susanna and I got together to take some pictures.

 

I was excited to see how well my new lens handled low light.

Blogged HERE

Fall was blogged HERE.

 

Savannah and I did the shoot we had been talking about for quite a while.

Blogged HERE



 

Dakota and I finally did our misty morning session

Blogged HERE

 

 

I went to visit my sister in November.

 

blogged HERE

 

While I was there I wrote a little list of blessings.

 



My Nephew was born while we were there.

 

I continued to practice my ring shots, just like Paige told me.

She told me that just because I have never done something doesn't mean I can't practice for parts of it... Whatever it is.

 Christmas was just 5 days ago!!!     

I also turned EIGHTEEN 3 days ago. :)
 



 

This year was full of times when I went out of my comfort zone..

 

...and times when I didn't.

Then wish I had.

 

But this next year is a new year. A new 365 page book, so to say.

I know a few things that this next year will probably hold.

Like graduating from high school and starting college.

 

But there are many, many things that will happen this year, that I wasn't' planning for.

 

And those things? They are sometimes the most exciting of all!

 

Happy New Year!

 

Anna Rose