EUROPE // Part 3

Now that it's around 2 years since I got back from Europe, I'm going to finish my last post about Europe. 

This is the post where I throw in a few more "real camera" pictures, but after that I will share the pictures that show more of the moments and the people I hope to never forget. They aren't the best quality, but they captured the realness rawness of our trip to Europe.


So hang with me for a bit longer while I share these last few pictures.

We did get to tour the inside of Neuschwanstien. Let me tell you, that castle was a DREAM!
I would tell you all the crazy details and all of that, but then you might not want to go yourselves, so I will refrain from spilling the juicy details, so that you want to go yourself.

"Little townnnn, it's a quiet villaaaage."

That's what these two pictures remind me of... Beauty and the Beast.  There is something about the narrow cobbled streets, the vines climbing up the Hotel Reichskuchenmesiter - it just seeps disney princess town. 

The End.

Not actually though!

Now I'll let you all see the behind the scenes phone pictures! Some of these ended up being my favorites, just because of all the memories.

^^ This is us singing in Holland. 

That was a day with many lasts in it. The last concert in Europe. The last time the program would ever be sung. The last "goodbye's", "I love you's, and "I will miss you" to new friends. One last "see you someday," because who knows.... Maybe I will get to see more of these people again on earth. I have already gotten to see one sweet lady who came to visit the United States, and that was such a sweet reunion. 

These scene below is one that happened over and over. These are just a few of the people who welcomed us with open arms, took care of us, and loved us, and then sent us on our way with many prayers. I know the likelihood of me ever seeing them again is so low, but I still exchange emails with many of them!

<3

These girls.

Thankfully, speaking the same language isn't required to be friends. Sometimes, friendship comes from tickling, laughter, being around the same hight, and laughing at trying to speak each other's language and failing... But that's okay! Through many different words and actions, they managed to tell me that they would miss me, and the feeling is extremely mutual.

I still email back and forth with them and when a friend recently went to Germany, they sent back a card for me. I keep it in my Bible, and every time I see it, I pray for them.

My trip to Europe was incredible. And now that I've actually finished posting about it, I will have to start working on a post about my trip to Africa. 

But that trip is still too close to my heart and describing just how much Africa changed me is impossible, so it will have to wait. 

xoxo,

Anna Rose

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Fresh Snow + A Slight Hike

In the small town I grew up in, we happen to be blessed with an enormous amount of fabulous scenery. This fact could not make the local photographers any happier. 

Plus, when there's a fresh layer of snow on the ground and the makings of a gorgeous sunset, it's hard to not want to take some pictures. 

So it was that after a stop at the local coffee shop, I found myself and my go-to adventure buddy, Dakota, once again chasing the sunlight before the sun slipped over the edge of the mountains, leaving us with only the light of the moon + stars.

We ended up driving almost to the top of one of the mountains.... 

Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the road was accessible ALL the way to the top and so there was no need for us to hike the last section...like we had just done.  

I'm positive one of us made a sarcastic comment about how we always manage to do things the harder way, usually on accident. There was one time that we got her Prius stuck in the snow.... but that's a different story for a different time

The climb to the top was well worth it. We got there just as the sun was beginning it's disappearing act, and had plenty of time to grab some pictures + enjoy the view.

Now, if I'm remembered correctly, there's some Blueberry Coffee Cake downstairs that is calling my name!

xoxo, Anna Rose

Iowa Bridges and Frostbite

 "But it's freezing outside!" Laura looked at me like I was crazy.

I didn't worry too much. Crazy was a word I was familiar with. 

I could have cared less that it was less than 10 degrees outside.

"It'll be quick, promise!"

And so we went. "Take me anywhere that's pretty," I told her and she did a smashing job, I would say.

We drove to the creek and poked around for a few minutes before we decided that the numbness in our hands meant that we should move on to the next spot before frostbite set in. 

We made sure to stop by the hay bale snowman standing outside of the grain bins. Desperate times call for desperate measures and the lack of snow had driven one farm boy to bring some Christmas cheer to the world in this simple way.  

Our next stop was the bridge. Ever since the first time I saw this bridge I knew it was destined to be the subject in some of my pictures. 

And this was certainly the perfect day for it too! The sun was shining and the sky was blue.... By this time I couldn't feel my fingers, but I wasn't about to turn around!

The ice in the river had frozen in beautiful circles, proving to how cold it really was- don't let all that sunshine and blue sky fool you!

Finally realizing that there was no way I could work the dials on my camera anymore we decided that heading back to warm up was probably the best plan of action, and so we did just that. 

It seems crazy that this happened just this week... and now I'm 1,420 miles away from this beautiful, COLD state, in an equally beautiful and slightly less cold state. 

But I'm still just as thankful for the warm house and wood stove today as I was on Tuesday. 

And now, I'm off to watch The Nativity Story with my family. 

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!

xoxo,

Anna Rose

Jacob { Class of 2017}

“You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!” 
― Dr. Suess

     

When did this crazy cousin get this tall, this handsome, 

and since when is he allowed to graduate?!

Just kidding. I'm proud of you, kid!

xoxo

-Anna Rose

Catching Up on Life || Part 1

It's crazy how quickly this little blog of mine can get left in the dust when it comes to living life, traveling the world, and being a college student.

And wowsers! So much has gone on.... Let's see.... What's been going on?
Ahh yes. So far this year, I've finished out a spring semester of school, shot 2 weddings, gone to Europe for 22 days with my school's chorale, flown home to Washington for 3 days, lived in Minnesota for the parts of the summer I wasn't traveling and now I'm back at school, knocking this last semester out of the water and finishing college like a boss (hopefully)

That took basically no time to write, but lets me honest, this year has been packed and my life has changed so much especially because of my Europe trip. So now, I'm going to do my best to catch up on life and let you all know what this entire year has looked like!

Now, welcome to Season 1 Episode 1 of Catching Up on Life with Anna!

I'll jump right into the middle of the semester, because lets be honest, you all don't really want to hear about all the homework and tests and late nights from college. So let's start in March!

Instead of taking spring break, my chorale traveled to Colorado, stopping at churches and singing the whole way. This is the second year that I've traveled with them around the country for spring break, and it was definitely incredible!
While we were in Colorado, we got to sing in the United States Air Force Academy Chapel, which sounded amazing.

The sunsets were so stunning, and slightly surpassed the ones that I've seen in Iowa. But only slightly. :)

We got to visit the Garden of the Gods for part of a day and that was pretty much a dream afternoon for a photographer. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing a few of the little details of my life. Stay tuned for more and I'll do my best to keep going with the updates!

-Anna Rose

The Editing Process >> For Photographers >> In which I get outside my comfort zone

I decided to leap outside of my comfort zone and show ya'll these unedited, partially edited and then finally, fully edited pictures. Before I show you the pictures though, I want you to understand something.

My goal with editing pictures is to make each image look as close to real life as possible, a camera, no matter how good, cannot capture exactly what it looked like, so my goal is to recreate the real setting, and make it look real again. 

Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way, I'm going to start with this picture. It's a favorite from a recent engagement session. 

To start out with the composition... I love the rule of thirds, but I also believe that it should be broken. 

I also love using depth of field, which is why I left the tree in the foreground. I could have easily taken a step to the right and taken it out of the image, but it adds a certain amount of interest, and it breaks up the picture a little bit.

Okay, so the original. 

Then I added my favorite homemade preset, which basically just pops the exposure, clarity and contrast. This is almost always the first preset I go to when editing. It's my fav. :) 

Okay, now you'll notice that in her flannel and in the trees, there's a little bit of purple, that's actually not there in real life and the purplish color clashes with his red flannel, so I removed the slight chromatic aberration and that fixed it right away!

Okay, now that those steps are taken care of, I simply do a little bit of dodging and burning, and brush on a little bit of graininess into his beard, so it stands out and I'm done!

Even though I love this tree, I think it's a little bit distracting, so I stuck it in black and white and that took care of it right away!

And that's it! Super easy, simple and doesn't take much time at all!

Have fun editing!

xoxo,

Anna Rose

{Throwback to Summerness } IRBC 2015

Summer is long gone, but it doesn't mean that every now and then I don't go back and look through my photos on Facebook or my computer. 

It was during one such reminisce that I realizes I had not yet shared these pictures with you all. They aren't much, just a few snapshots here and there to show some of the highlights  of my summer. 

Probably my favorite memory from the entire summer was a camping trip with all of the staff at the camp I was working. It was a great time and a beautiful view.

Compared to the beautiful brown colors I had grown used to in Washington, this place was so green!

For His glory,

Anna Rose