parenthesize

day 288

Hey, at least I'm getting more creative with my lazy day photos. Today it rained and I danced around in it because it felt so amazing. I love Oregon rain. I love Oregon. I just love everything right now and I am so happy I am overflowing. I just got the opportunity to travel to Maine or New Hampshire for a flickr photo gathering at the end of this upcoming summer and I am saving up money to go. This world is so big, it's a shame for humans to stay in one place. Plus after spending the day with some of my biggest inspirations, I just have to meet more people and learn their stories and create art with them. That's all I want to do in life: travel and hear people's stories and create art. And I am just so happy I'm able to finally do that.

my week in instagram #20

I missed last week's week in instagram installation, so here's what happened in the past two weeks ...

1. I always draw picture ideas in class. I've heard it said that you can't wait for inspiration to come to you, you have to work for it. So I'm trying to be deliberate with my ideas and actually think about coming up with things instead of waiting around for a bolt of lightning to hit me.

2. My fall fashion article made it into the college newspaper! I work as a copy editor, but I also have to contribute at least one article to the paper, and this was my first one! I suppose this is a good a time as ever to say that my college street style article didn't make it into the next week's newspaper because of space issues, but hopefully it will show up there eventually!

3. Making things in ceramics! This class has given me a new love. Even though I'm still not very good, Matt already promised to get me a throwing wheel in our art studio home when we get married. A girl can dream, right? But seriously, I love being able to make things that I can actually use. I'm putting something into existence that has never been there previously. That is a pretty exciting thing.

4. Finally re-dyed my hair blue! It was starting to fade in everybody's hair, so we spent another weekend night in the bathroom dying our hair again. Other random people throughout the campus have started copying us, which is cool and lame at the same time since it was a way for our floor to bond. But they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I guess it's okay. Regardless, we've ordered a purple shade that fades to pink, so after the blue fades again we are all dying our strips purple!

5. Our fish, Mr. Roy G. Biv, wearing a top hat and monocle. That's all there is to say about that.

6. The other day was the first hard rain in Oregon! It's been cloudy and overcast ever since and I am so excited about that. I kind of had an epiphany too. We always complain about the weather, right? I'm the worst at that. But there's no way we can change the weather, so we might as well enjoy the day for what it is. That seems so obvious, but I guess I tend to forget that.

7. Friday was our "fall break" so some of my friends and I explored an abandoned train station. We had to ask around quite a bit before we found anyone who knew of abandoned buildings nearby, but then we found someone and he kindly gave us directions. The land around the building is still used to store construction equipment, but the building itself is unused. This has been my second abandoned building. The first one was when I got my senior pictures taken. Also, look at how little I was! Never ever going back to short hair, I can tell you that much.

8. I looked super warm yesterday with my three layers of clothing and my hot chocolate. You know you're a poor college student when you bring hot chocolate from home to the coffee shop.

9. This was taken while we were driving to a movie yesterday. I just love the tunnels of trees and really all the scenery in Oregon. I just love Oregon so much. I've told a lot of people this, but I can see myself living here for the rest of my life (sorry Mom and Dad!). This place is truly perfect.

Well I hope you all had a fantastic week! I think it would be really fun if, on top of my week in instagram posts, we did a fun post about what you guys did! That way Introvert's Introduction can be even more of a community. So let me know what you did this past week! And if you have a blog post about it, feel free to post a link in the comments so I can link to your blog! Also by doing this you give me permission to post a picture from your blog onto here, so that other people know who you are. And don't worry, the photo will link back to your blog. :) Ooh this is going to be exciting! So what did you do? I want to know!

beyond the folded woods

day 287

For this photo I used a method called freelensing, which I actually do a lot for photos but never have talked about it. It's basically where you take the lens off the camera and shoot with it slightly tilted away at one side. It adds a really nice effect to photos.

Not free-lensed:


Free-lensed:


It's super fun to do, but it does take a bit of getting used to. I've really been thinking a lot about my personal photographic style and I really love the soft feel that freelensing gives. But at the same time, I don't want to be tied down to doing one certain style because so many different types of photography are amazing.

Today was pretty fast paced considering it was our lazy day. My friends and I went to coffee after brunch to do homework, and then we ran back home for about half an hour to wait for Tabatha to come home. While we waited Ivy and I took a walk and she modeled for me. There's a giant wood chip pile chilling beside one of the roads around campus, so of course I had to utilize it for my own selfish photographic purposes. Then when Tabatha came home we all headed out to watch Hotel Transylvania (a seriously precious movie) and then to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. And now we are finishing up watching old episodes of Say Yes to the Dress. I seriously love weekends with my friends.

at the crossroads

+ abandoned building



day 286







Today we sleuthed around and discovered an abandoned train station from the 1800s. Nowadays the area around it is used to store construction equipment, but the building itself has remained somewhat intact. I really love exploring old buildings, even though this one wasn't very big. It's so interesting to think that at one point people actually used it, and that no one has bothered to tear it down yet.







Personally, I am glad it and many other abandoned buildings are still standing, because it makes for awesome photo (and cinematic) opportunities. My friend Jenna is working on a film project that involved Ivy dancing, so we headed to the gym for her to warm up and then we followed the ever trusty google maps out to the station. Today was also the first day of hard rain in Oregon. I didn't wear the right shoes and got soaking wet when I stopped caring about putting my rain jacket hood over my head, but it was an awesome day nonetheless.






While we were heading back, Taylor saw some people feeding llamas and chickens and goats and horses, and she made us pull into the random people's driveway to go pet the animals. I can only imagine what Jim (I think that's what his name was) and his little girls thought when they saw four stranger girls running in the rain towards them. But we got to feed all the animals and they even gave us fresh eggs! It was a glorious (and hilarious) end to an awesome day.