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

David + Emily { engagement }

David and Emily are one of super special couples that a photographer just LOVES to work with! 

I met Emily several years ago. We were both taking a module at college, and I quickly learned that she is one of the absolute sweetest people I would probably have the honor of meeting. 

That's why, when I saw on Facebook that she had started dating this guy named David, I knew he was probably a pretty cool dude - because Em wouldn't date just anyone. 

Fast forward to freshman year when I learned who was on a team that my college sent out to summer camps. There were 3 guys and 3 girls, including me. And David was the team leader. 

Then I found out, that Emily would also be working at the same camp where the 6 of us would be for the summer. 

That summer was amazing! My team became my best friends, and my family, and Emily came a very good, close friend. Their engagement, and their wedding (okay, so I'm a little behind on blogging) were so beautiful, as is their marriage!

Okay, enough gushing. Check out this super cute couple for yourself!!

See what I mean? :)

-Anna Rose

Europe || Preview

Now, since I've told you a little about what will be hitting my little blog, I'm going to leave this picture here, and give you a little taste of what Europe looked like. 

This is along the Rhine River in Germany.

Pretty incredible, huh? 

Stay tuned for more. :)

-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

{Mason + Hannah} Engagement Sneak Peek

"And some things will never end.
The thrill of our magic ride.
The love that I feel inside for you."

SOME THINGS ARE MEANT TO BE >> LITTLE WOMEN

xoxo,

Anna Rose

{Caleb + Megan} Engagement

I just want to start out by warning you. This is no "normal" engagement session. I loved getting to take pictures of this Lumberjack and his cute lil' gal. 

Caleb, the lumberjack, is my cousin and Megan, the cute lil' gal, is a good friend of mine from college. Because of the distance between us, I never got to know Caleb very well.

That is, until I ended up at the same college as him. The same college where He met his girl. 

It's pretty obvious from these pictures that Caleb is pretty much crazy about Megan. His entire face lights up when she enters the room. 

Megan is so full of joy and loves to laugh. But let me tell you, the way that she laughs for Caleb is adorable! She does this little giggle which is just adorable! 

Anyways! Enough raving about how cute these two are together... I'll let you see for yourself!

P.S. Girls, if you can, find a guy like this one. *I can say that because I'm his cousin* 

 He designed this ring HIMSELF. 

Talk about creativity and talent!

xoxo,

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