Thursday, October 30, 2014

The Happenings of a Warm October Monday


This past Monday I had just gotten home from my two week vacation in Topsail with my best friend and her family.  I was happy to be home and it was nice to see all of the fall colors.



I recently bought a new camera, it's an Olympus PEN E-P1.  I'm really happy with it so far, I like the vintage style and it takes amazing pictures.



I thought I looked kind of nice that day so I decided to take some self-portraits and try out some of the filters on my new camera.



The two filters I tried in these are Grainy Film (the black and white) and Pin Hole.


This one doesn't have a filter but look how cool the camera is!


Later that evening Carol had Isabel and I come over to take some pictures of one of her tea tours for her self-run company, Steeple House Teas.




Isabel and I had a lot of fun and we took quite a few nice pictures.  If you'd like to see more from that particular shoot we should have a post about it soon here: http://twogirlswithacamera.blogspot.com/




I was wearing monster socks that my mom bought me a while back and I like them a lot so of course I had to take a picture.



One perk of taking pictures for a tea tour, is that you get to drink tea when you're done!


It was a lovely day and I was so glad to have the opportunity to do a shoot for a friend.


To wind down at the end of the day I watched a movie called Submarine while going through the pictures I took.  I guess you could say it was an off beat coming of age film that was set in Wales. I would give it a 6.5/10  I liked parts of it a lot, the scenery was beautiful and the soundtrack was great but some of the scenes were very bizarre. 

Anyway, thats how I spent my Monday.  Hopefully I will have a post about my vacation on Topsail island for you soon!  Until next time.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Amber and Tony's Wedding

On our way home from the Bahamas we stopped by Maryland to go to my cousins wedding.  My mom convinced me to bring my camera along and I'm glad that I did!


On Friday night we went to the rehearsal, it was very laid back.


My grandma was the preacher who married my cousin Amber, and her Fiancé, Tony.


My mom helped out with the rehearsal that day and she managed to look really lovely while doing it.




The venue they chose was beautiful and serene, I thought it fit their wedding theme perfectly.





The sunset was gorgeous and I was glad I walked up the path to take a picture of it.


The decorations they had put up in the barn where they held their reception were lovely.   They had fairy lights strung across the ceiling and their table decorations were fun and country themed as well.


Overall that was a fun night but when we drove off we knew that the next day would be even better.


The morning of the wedding my grandma was really nervous about being the wedding officiant but she did a great job and everything went smoothly.



Everyone looked really nice all dressed up in country themed clothing, it was fun to see all of the people in cowboy boots.


These are the groomsmen before the wedding officially began.


My grandma and Tony talked a lot before the wedding started, I think they were both a little nervous but mostly excited.



My Aunt Cheryl looked so proud and happy to see her daughter getting married.






After the wedding they drove away in an old red pickup truck.  Everyone was blowing bubbles and it looked like a scene from a movie.



My grandparents were so thrilled to see Amber getting married.  I think they had a lot of fun at the wedding.


On the ride back to the barn where the reception was held everyone was blowing bubbles.


This is my aunt Melissa and my brother Nate being silly.


After the ceremony was over everyone was just relaxing and having fun.


It was really sweet when Amber danced with her dad, Jim.  You could tell by the look on his face that he was proud of her.


The wedding was a lot of fun and Amber was a beautiful bride.  I'm so happy for them, it's very clear that they love one another and are extremely delighted to be married.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Paradise Island

This is part two of the pictures from my trip to the Bahamas.  I hope you enjoy it!


This is an old cloister on Paradise Island.  It was really fascinating to walk around and explore.



I had a lot of fun with my mom that week, it was so nice that my brother and I got to go with her on this trip!





The Atlantis Hotel was amazing.  It was huge and it had large sculptures or mirrors or murals everywhere you looked.  Truly a grand place, inside and out.





Another neat thing about the Atlantis Hotel was the aquariums.  They had so many fish, there were indoor and outdoor parts of the aquariums, I actually got lost in the tunnels of the aquariums twice!




There were lots of exotic and interesting sea creatures in the Bahamas.  My favorites were the tiny sea turtles and the sting rays.






This statue is at the entrance to the waterpark.  My brother and I made it our goal to ride every ride once and we definitely succeeded because we ended up riding every ride at least twice!  We really liked the "lazy" river (it wasn't that lazy, there were lots of waves and you had to hold onto your tube for most of the ride but thats what made it fun).



The scenery was vibrant and colorful everywhere you looked in the Bahamas.  From the cerulean blue of the Atlantic ocean to the brilliant greens of the palm trees and other tropical plants there was surely a lot to look at.



When we went snorkeling the last stop we made was over an old sunken tug boat where we got to swim above sharks.  My brother wishes we got to get closer to them but my mom and I were fine with being at 20 or 30 feet above them (even that was pretty scary to us!).



We made a lot of great memories on the trip,  I think my brother even had a good time!  We did everything from snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, exploring the islands and trying new food.  Plus we swam a lot.


I'm so grateful that I get all of these amazing opportunities to do fun things with the people that I love.  I guess you could say I'm a very blessed girl.