national park dork

If there is one thing anyone should know about me, it is that I am obsessed with National Parks. It all started in 2008 when my boyfriend at the time, Alex, and I drove cross country to live in Seattle. When that didn't work out, we made the best of our trip back to Wisconsin by stopping at many National Parks and taking in the beautiful vistas. Fast-forward to 2010 when I went to Yosemite (photograph above is from said trip) and it reconfirmed my love of National Parks. One of my managers usually takes a trip once a year either out of the country or checking out National Parks. I'm always jealous of his National Park stories and photographs.
Matt doesn't understand my love for National Parks. That's fine- just because we're in a relationship doesn't mean we always have to like the same things. I'm not a fan of Drake, whereas Matt, for some odd reason, loves Drake. I'm sorry but Aubrey "Drake" Graham will always be Jimmy from Degrassi to me. I can't take him seriously as a recording artist. Went off on a tangent there, sorry. But I hope that someday, I can show Matt the beauty of the National Parks that has captured my heart and soul. There's no way you can visit Yosemite or the Grand Canyon and just be like,"Meh." And if you are, then check your pulse- you might be dead.

These were shot when I had a Nikon D40 and Nikon D3000.

vsco

I recently acquired presets for Aperture 3 through VSCO, just in time for my trip to Chicago. I can't wait to experiment with photographs old and new. This will motivate me to post more often. Thanks for being patient. ♥

wordless wednesday: doors

wordless wednesday - yosemite edition

want to go to there

I am writing this from my new Macbook Pro. I have been toying around on this thing for a couple of days and I think I am finally comfortable with it. I'm a PC user so getting used to a Mac has taken a little bit of time. I also got Aperture 3 with this computer so I have been going through old Yosemite photos to learn the program. Once I figured everything out (I hate reading instruction manuals, not going to lie), it was smooth sailing from there.

These are some photos from my trip last summer to Yosemite. A Lost Feather went recently and one of my managers will be visiting there. All I can say is that looking through these photos has made me want to go back there, especially since it is cooler out today and raining really hard.

listening to: Neil Diamond Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon

one step at a time

I will resist the urge to post every single photograph that I took while I was in Chicago. I had a great time, but yesterday was a huge wake up call that my three day weekend was over! I will spare my blog the gory work details, but things went by quickly. That's all I'll say. If you care to see the rest of my Chicago photos, feel free to head over to my flickr.
Saturday, we chose to make a quick run in the rain to the grocery store. We picked up a rotisserie chicken and ingredients for cheesy potatoes. I was so hungry, I forgot to take photos! Haha, but they were delicious. Her neighbors were barbecuing. We invited them to try our potatoes and have some chicken. Laura and I always have the best food ideas :)

closing time

So, tonight will be my third night closing. I'm right in the middle of a six day closing stretch. Like Connor said, before I agreed to take his shift tomorrow,"It's a huge sacrifice with an even huger payoff." Three day weekend! Earlier train to Chicago! Hooray life! I don't think Connor realized this when he asked me, but he made three Milwaukee-born ladies very happy (that would be me, Jackie, and Laura). I haven't had much time to post or take photos. I haven't been completely without my camera (my mom got mad that I wouldn't let her take my camera to my brother's baseball game...sorry, mom, but it's my baby!), but I've been so exhausted and wanted to finish reading books before I play on the internet.

I have some photos I took as we were all getting suited up to leave the store on Saturday. Mickey (as you will see in one of the photos) was getting quite irritated that I kept taking pictures of him. He left his Canon Rebel t2i on his chair yesterday so I kept sneaking up on him while he was boxing up returns to take his picture. He's such a humble guy about his photography skills, but he had some beautiful nature shots on his memory card that I kept gushing over. Ah yes, and an explanation of the roses: Mickey & Bobby have been together 31 years! He bought 31 red roses to represent the years they've been together and one white rose to represent the next year they'll be together. SO SWEET! Linda and I were gushing like little girls about how adorable/sweet that was. Alrighty, onto the photos now...

absence

Short and sweet is what this will be because I have a lot of photos to post. I just wanted to say I usually don't post on the weekends because I work all weekend and I don't usually feel like sitting on the computer after opening and working 8 hours. There's that explanation and onto the photos...

Me: "Iztevan, why do you look so angry?" Him: "I am angry."





She wasn't crying, she was just trying to smile really hard.