on shoot locations:

once upon a time, i had an idea in my head to make a bunch of blindfolds. with words on them. so i did. i painted the blindfolds over an empty page in my art journal (only because i didn't want paint on the table). and do you know what? the paint would bleed through to the journal. there the words were, burning meaningful holes on that blank page. in other words, i loved the outcome of the journal. the blindfolds were okay..... but that page of color and words was really beautiful.

but then, i got this group of girls to wear the blindfolds. they tried on different poses, different movements, different emotions. and then i really knew what beautiful was.

sure, my pick of locations wasn't the best, and sure, some of the photos were ruined with things like, say.... blur and blue barrels and white cars (my white car, to be exact). but i love seeing something that's been floating around in my mind come to life. and i love capturing it once it does come to life. these aren't really perfect, but here are some of my faves from the shoot:

i'd like to see all my thoughts in a jar, please.

i'm wearing a pair of my convertible mittens as i type this. i'm not really liking the phrase "convertible mittens," it makes me think of summer (the season). i have nothing against summer (the season or the person).

i'm listening to the weepies, my mind is roaming, and i'm seeing everything in mental photographs. everything.

i want a new (real) camera. click. i need a laptop first though. click. but really, i shouldn't purchase either if i'm trying to save up for a..... you-know-what. click click click.

i haven't been able to go to church in at least a month thanks to this new thing called my job. click. it makes me sad. click click. oh well. get over it. chin up, girl. click click. side note, i miss marty real bad. click click click click.

on my days off, i feel like if i'm not doing anything photography-related then my day has been a super duper huge waste. today was slightly one of those days. tomorrow won't be. click click.

i wish i had a jar full of people like tesha and claire and carrie and eb and lauren and janelle and kayla and everyone else who likes being in photos. click. whenever i wanted, i could just let them out of the jar, they'd grow to size, and away we'd go to the land of make-believe in photos. CLICK. that would be awesome. click click CLICK. because there's just something about people and emotions being in photos that even a really great still-life can't quite capture. click.

and i love these people. click click click click.

cemetery wisdom.

so i just got home from the cemetery. i've been sort of "exploring" them recently..... why, you ask?

one, the stonewall jackson cemetery is in my backyard. two, lately i've been running out of things to photograph solo. three, the making of this video really got me thinking. and four, tesha's dream job is to be a ghost-hunter. and, naturally, i want to be just like tesha.

here are some photos i took during my first excursion last week. i love how fall-esque and almost spooky everything is. cemeteries are not that scary, got it?

(my fave.)

current inspirations: where the wild things are.

this kind of makes me homesick for a place i've never been.

the sweetest cousin everrrrr.

my cousin, olivia, lost one of her bottom teeth friday night and was sooo happy that the tooth fairy was going to leave her a little something that night. she bragged about it for hours. she also skipped out on her in-gym (you heard right... innnn-gymmmm!!! really, who could give THAT up??) gymnastics team sleepover just so she could spend the evening hanging out with me. (i am so seriously lucky.)

we took photos, made up a million names for each other, played "don't laugh" and "scrabble toss" (pretty self-explanatory), and she did some gymnastics for me. i love my cousin!

did i mention she is EIGHT YEARS OLD already? where has the time gone?

signing out,
shmemily & oblivia.

p/s- my laptop is junk again, even after i fixed it. i think i need to accept the fact and move on.

mound hill.

remember the stop-motion video i made a few weeks ago? well, i loved it soooo much, i wanted to try another. i made this one on the drive to ohio. in the video, we cross over the ohio river and go through town to mound hill cemetery, where my dad told me he always used to drink and camp out when he was in seventh grade..... hm.

i took 707 photos and used each twice. so that makes.... 1414? whatever, i'm not good at math. it's why i love things like PHOTOGRAPHY. music is "sunset soon forgotten" by iron and wine. and my fave part of the whole entire video is the sky. :)

untitled.

i'm headed to ohio to spend some time with the family. though it's kind of a sad occasion, it isn't really. you know what i mean?

but i am so grateful that i get to spend a few days with the people i love so much. especially my baby cousin who so isn't a baby anymore. maybe i'll come back with new photos or something cool and stimulating like that. who really knows?

p/s- work is starting to wear me out. i don't even know what day it is anymore...... talk about the ultimate time-suck. :)