friendship [I heart Faces]

This month's theme over at I [heart] faces is Friendship and I immediately knew what photo I wanted to use.

This was taken in January but I hope to reprise it tomorrow night at the Cub Scout awards ceremony.

happiness [I heart faces]

This week's theme over at is happiness.


This is one of the happiest photos in my 2012 slideshow. For Valentine's Day, Doug got me a bouquet of balloons and we went to the Chapel Trail nature preserve.

babies love books [I heart faces]

It's been a while since I've had an entry for . This week's theme is books and I knew right away I had to submit a photo of Liam. I posted this photo months ago when I went to visit him but it's too cute to only feature once (and I totally miss seeing it in my slideshow).

water [I heart faces]

This week's theme over at is water. I couldn't resist bringing back an old favorite.

Not pictured is how soaking wet I got trying to demonstrate to Melinda how I wanted her to pose.

props and fairy tales [I heart faces]

I blogged this photo once before when I first shot it but I felt it deserved to be showcased again, especially since I eventually want to print this on a giant canvas and display it proudly. The sleeping beauty shoot was originally an assignment for an art class but it took on a life of its own. I've always loved the story.

This week's theme over at is props and this photo just would not be the same without any of the props. The princess brought the drop spindle and we dyed the roving together. I found the broken tiara on the side of the road on the way to where we shot all the photos. The fake blood is made of corn syrup and red food coloring. Simple, small details MAKE this shot for me. That, and my friend was willing to sacrifice her beautiful purple dress to make a fairy tale come to life.

soft and sweet [I heart faces]

This week's theme over at is soft and sweet.

I never blogged this photo before. I posted it on Facebook as part of my spring break album and left it at that. It took me this long to be okay with putting my heart out there.
I came home from school on a Thursday. I left right after class to pick up my friend Corbin from the airport and have a fun day with him when he flew in. Truthfully, I was afraid his visit was going to be boring and awful because that Friday, I had heart surgery. That night, Doug and Corbin curled up in my bed, hugging my stuffed animals and filling them with love for me to take to the hospital.
This was one of those quiet moments that I needed more than anything. His love gave me the calm I needed to be able to walk into the OR (literally) and tell the doctors I was ready.


Interestingly enough, I managed to go on an airboat ride 2 days post-op.

slice of life [I heart faces]

The theme over at is slice of life. It's both the most open-ended theme and a restriction at the same time.

This image I chose is a leap of faith for me. It is not perfect at all. I had my fisheye adapter on my lens so I could see everyone as we stood around the grill. We were making s'mores last night during Earth Hour and I decided I wanted to take pictures. There was no way I could pose anyone; I could barely keep them from moving in the time it took to trip the shutter. The light was uneven because it was mostly flickering flames with some ambient light from the streetlights (which I wish they had turned off). No flash, on-camera or off. Not even a tripod. But it was perfect. I was laughing with my friends as we set marshmallows on fire.

express yourself [I heart faces]

I am totally double-dipping again this week. The theme over at is anything but a face, while the theme for project 52 is express yourself.

This is who I am. I am the girl who loves to watch her purple cotton candy hair blow in the breeze + take photos + listen to mix cds + LOVE.
[I am not the girl who can't explore because of her heart problem. I don't want that to define me.]

for once, my heart is in it

I know this post counts as double-dipping but I had an idea and I executed it. And now I am tired. This week's theme over at is red, in support of Go Red For Women (women's heart health). It's also "open your heart" week for Project 52.


My immediate thought, based on both themes, was a (broken) heart. After all, my actual heart is broken/in need of repair. I didn't really want to go into it on the blog but the only way this photo makes sense is with some disclosure. My heart has an electrical issue which will be 'corrected' over spring break. I actually knit the heart I am clutching for my 'heart electrician' as a thank you for finally diagnosing me. I am nervous over the idea of having to be hospitalized, which is breaking my heart further.
I feel like I spent the past few months standing alone in a cold, sterile atmosphere, waiting for an answer and trying to hold my heart together. I feel like a shadow of who I usually am, especially when I want so desperately to be shooting nonstop. This is me opening my heart and being honest about why I haven't been posting much as of late.
[For the record, this isn't heart disease and being more "heart healthy" would not have prevented it. But I still encourage everyone, regardless of gender, to look into the tips on Go Red For Women's site.]

heart [I heart faces]

This week's theme over at is hearts. That is perfect, since I spent Thursday and Friday working on a Valentine's Day card for my roommate, Rachael.


Consider this a teaser of what the final card looks like. This was taken while she was drawing the chalk art for the final card.

chasing bubbles [I heart faces]

This week's theme over at is innocent wonder.


Photo taken at a charity event in Abacoa on Saturday.

best face of 2010 [i heart faces]

The first theme of the year over at is the best face of 2010. After much thinking about which photo I should choose to represent the past year, I realized I kept coming back to this one.

I took it towards the end of December as we were waiting outside the Magic Kingdom, waiting to go in. I didn't really plan ahead; I saw the way Cassie was leaning on Doug and quickly adjusted my camera settings to take the shot before we went in. But it's the photo I keep coming back to because it's one of the first photos where even I was taken aback by how beautiful it looked. This is one of the first shots I've taken that I've been 100% excited about straight out of camera. This photo demonstrates everything I've worked for in 2010 and much of what I hope to accomplish in 2011.

pink [I heart faces]

This is a post, but it's also something personal.


This photo was taken as part of an event sponsored by our resident student association. We tie dyed pink t-shirts to wear the next week to a talk by a cancer survivor.

I dyed my shirt but I did not go to the talk because I couldn't do it emotionally. I've typed and deleted and retyped the rest of this paragraph again and again but I can't bring myself to hit the 'publish post' button. My words feel too crude and lackluster to describe how strange it is that my grandma had planned to be my college roommate and instead, she died my sophomore year of high school.

I wore my pink shirt the day of the talk, even though I didn't go. My brother, my boyfriend, and I all played in the 2010 Halo Reach Fight Like a Girl tournament to raise money for breast and cervical cancer awareness. (Doug and I even made our armor pink for our first match and then switched back to normal armor with pink star emblems in honor of my grandma for the rest of our rounds.)

I'm considering stenciling a Spartan from Halo on the front of my t-shirt turned halter top and writing "I fight like a girl" on it. She's be holding a red flag with a pink star on it. But I just can't bring myself to do it yet.


You can't see Miguel's face in my photo and that isn't by accident. If I were to show his face, the picture could be perceived as about him. But it isn't. It's about everyone who struggles to raise awareness about cancer; it's for the survivors who share their story and their strength; it's for those who didn't survive who are being remembered. And it's for those who hope that no one else will ever have to be diagnosed again.

fix-it Friday [i heart faces]

Over at , they have an awesome feature called "Fix It Fridays" where someone posts a straight out of camera shot and asks for the community to play with it in Photoshop.

This week's before is super cute but just feels a little dark.


My goal was to create an after that made me feel like the little boy was flying. Don't ask me why; my brain works in silly ways.

MCP under exposure fixer @ 96%
MCP urban lake @ default with light it up layer turned on
vintage SX-70 trick from a tutorial over at MCP actions (which I saved as an action on my computer to expedite my laziness)
slice like a ninja @ default (from Totally Rad actions)

chalk [I heart faces]

When I first discovered this week's theme over at is chalk, I wanted to do a cutesy little people-with-chalk-thought-bubbles shot. My mother quickly reminded me that I could do so much better and stand out from the crowd with a shot from the Lake Worth street painting festival. I used another shot from this event for the "hands on" theme and had a gallery published through FAU's University Press.

It still amazes me how such wonderful masterpieces can be created from nothing more than chalk and pastels.

I chose this shot because, while it isn't my favorite from the day and certainly isn't perfectly lit, it really demonstrates the emotional pull that art can have.

Seuss racing [I heart faces]

This week's theme over at is vroom, vroom. Obviously, a simple person-with-car shot would never be found in my photos and I wasn't going to just take one for no reason... but I did have this amusing shot of Doug from our epic family vacation.



I wish I could be more coherent about this but this week is a bad week for good word usage.

beach fun [I heart faces]

This week's theme over at is beach fun and I knew just what photo I wanted to enter.



This is one of my favorite photos of Doug because he was just there--with me--in one of the most calm and lovely moments of my college career.

random act of kindness [i heart faces]

This week is a non-competition week over at . Instead, they have asked for stories of how their members have given back through photography.

My mom works at the Ann Storck Center. She's a teacher in their preschool and absolutely loves it. For the past 2 years (since I got my digital SLR), I have photographed her students for Mothers' Day so that she has photos to put in the cubes her students make. For some families, these are the first photos that actually show their children's personalities.




Now, I need to figure out whether I can handle volunteering for the littlest heroes project while I'm taking a full course load and writing my thesis.

purple pinwheel [i heart faces]

As soon as it was announced that this week's theme over at is purple, I knew I had to do a self-portrait.



texture from Dying Beauty Stock

Sophie [i heart faces]

This week's theme over at is pets. While I know Auntie prefers to think of Sophie as a daughter, she's technically a puppy so I can enter.

Yesterday, I showed you the rest of the shots. This one is my absolute favorite.



I took this laying on the floor with her.
f/3.5, 1/30sec, ISO 1600.
It was kind of dark but she was relaxing so I bumped my ISO and hoped for the best.