The Sweetest Response

"Because I love you. Forever and always."

They Grow Up Too Fast

Last week, we celebrated my cousin Isaiah's 2nd birthday. At his party, I got this shot of the twins.

It seems like yesterday I was going to the hospital to hold them for the first time, weighing only 5 pounds each. Now look at them! Chubby as ever and growing up way to fast! :)

I know this is kind of bad of me to say, but I'm not positive which one is which. However, I've been told that Bekah is the chubbier out of the two. SO I think she is the one on the left. Which would make Abby the right. But don't take my word on that one. They are too alike for me to be able to tell.

The Best DJ Ever

It's always a hard thing to get everyone up and dancing.

For some reason, people just don't like to dance anymore.

So you have to be a really good DJ to get this many people up...

And he sure was.

Best DJ ever. :)

And I don't even know what his name was.

I'm back!

I know..I know..

It's been a really long time since I've blogged.

The fact is, the internet at my house is too slow for blogger, so it takes days to upload a few pictures.

But today, I am at school where the internet is fast.

And I want to show you one thing that I did this weekend.

This lady here took me and Rebecca home with her. Home to her is about 2.5 hours from me.

We had a wonderful weekend, but before we left on Sunday, we road the East Broad Top Railroad.

This shot here reminded me of the smokey mountains.

And this is Rebecca...I like the small reflection in the window.

And this is when I think to myself "Man..this would be great for a senior photoshoot."

It was a nice ride. And something fun to do before we left.

And I'm going to try to upload some of the portrait sessions, weddings and more than I've been working on real soon! Check out Lasting Memories Photography on Facebook!

iheartfaces photo challenge: beautiful eyes

When a friend of mine showed me this challenge, I had to do it.

I take so many pictures of people's eyes. But for some reason, none of those pictures popped into my head. It was this one.

This is one of the flower girls from one of the weddings I shot in June. She is one of the prettiest little people I have ever met. :)

Make sure to check out more beautiful eyes photos at : iheartfaces.com

Moving into the livingroom...

Last night, I came home from my internship to find Amy's bed in the living room.

I thought this was kind of odd...

Then I saw her room. It turns out she is painting it. So she moved into the living room.

So last night, I snuck out and got a few pictures of her in her new living space. :)

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 4

~*Day 4: A picture of your typical night*~

I became nervous when I saw this one. Because a typical night, is not really a typical night for me.

Some nights consist of school.

Some nights I am up editing photos.

Some nights I am in Maryland, breathing fresh mountain air.

Some nights I want to punch a hole through the wall.

Some nights I become so happy, I can't sleep.

There are a few consistent things that happen each night, so I'm going to try and show you those things.

First off, almost everything I do at night involves my computer(s).

I'm a Facebook junkie, so I'm always on there.

Sometimes I watch a movie on netflix. Right now, like I said in the previous post, I'm watching 24.

I usually edit my photos while watching netflix, or listening to music.

Photoshop CS5 is completely amazing. And I absolutely love it. That takes up a lot of my time at night.

Typically, at some point during the night, I get a facebook message saying "Do you want to skype?"

Of course, I say yes. :)

And here is a picture from one of my skype calls with a new friend of mine, Chris. 

 Or Chriscross, as I like to call him.

While we skype, I am either cleaning, or facebook chatting with some other people.

Depending on the day, I can have up to 7-8 chats going on while I am skyping. It's awesome.

Music is vital to living. So my iTunes list is always playing.

Sometimes, I will end up having some sort of deep conversation, usually about God, with someone.

It could be the result of being tired. But I thoroughly enjoy them all.

Then I say goodnight to the world, close my laptop, power off my mac monitors, shut out the light and attempt to fall asleep. And yes, sometimes that doesn't happen, and I just lay there staring at the clouds.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 3

--*A picture of the cast from your favorite show*--

I absolutely love 24.

I know I'm a bit behind on that since it's no longer on television, but I watch all the episodes on netflix.

So if you have netflix, and you haven't seen it, I highly recommend watching at least the first season.

It is named 24 because of the way the episodes are set up.

In each season there are 24 episodes each about an hour long, representing the 24 hours in a day.

They show how the events happen in real time, and all coordinate with each other.

Each season is a huge mystery to solve terroristic threats and revolves around a CTU agent, Jack Bauer.

I'm not going to say anymore.

Go watch it.

You won't regret it.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 2

I told you I would forget..and look at that, I did.

So on to day two, which really should be day 3.

--*A picture of you and the friend you have been closest with the longest*--

This one wasn't too hard.

But choosing a picture was. So I've decided to show you a few pictures from a couple of weeks ago when the friend I've been closest to the longest came to spend the day with me.

Ashley Marie. One of my best friends, and the girl I've been closest too, the longest time.

And as a shout out to her, she got her drivers license this week!!! Yay Ash!

We've had so many good times together.

We often recall some of our experiences we've had and laugh about them over and over again.

And like the rest of the population of 18 year old females out there, we both are crazy, love music, and laugh A LOT.

But who says that's a bad thing?

So here's to my amazing friend. Thank you for always being there for me. I love you!

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 1

Everyone on facebook has been doing it.

And you know, since I am a photographer, I should be doing it too.

It's the 30 day photo challenge - and here's how it works:

Each day for 30 days, I will (try to) post one picture for each instruction of the day.

And well, day one is - A picture of yourself with ten facts

So here I go.

Picture taken by RLK Photography

Ten facts about myself is a tough thing to come up with. I wanted to make it 10 things that most people don't know. So here's my attempt:

1. I just turned 18, and I've just finished my 4th semester of college.

2. I absolutely hate reading.

3. Something I love doing the most is editing my photographs.

4. I own two computers. My windows laptop, and my mac.

5. No, I don't have texting.

6. Pennsylvania sucks. I am moving asap to MD or WV.

7. Yes, I've had brain surgery twice.

8. I can talk your ear off if you let me.

9. I have my own kayak. (and car)

10. Pretty much everything I own, I've bought myself. And I am not in debt to anyone. That's especially true for the big things I have as well.

So that's me in a nutshell. Want to know more? Just ask! Like I said in #8, if you let me, I can talk your ear off. All that is required is your attention.

I will TRY my best to post #2 tomorrow.

Portrait Assignment: Mood {Amy}

So this week for my portrait photography class, my assignment was to shoot a "mood" portrait, other than "happiness." So here are some of the results I came up with.

I think this one is my favorite.

And just so you know, she can smile too. :)

A Visit From Frankie

We had a surprise visit yesterday from a friend..

and his new puppy!

Engagement :: Jessica & Ben :: Twin Lakes

First engagement shoot...ever! I hope you enjoy some of my favorites. :)

Where to start?

I have so much to tell! First off, for those of you who were wondering what my big news was....well allow me to tell you about this lovely lady.

This is Miss Tiffany Joy Ziegenfus, the owner of TJZ Creations which is a photography and graphic design company. A few weekends ago, Tiffany asked me to assist her on a wedding shoot. Of course I accepted very quickly and gleefully.

So the wedding day came, and I met her at her studio in Greensburg, and we headed to the brides house. It was an amazing day. I learned a lot about photographing a wedding, and realized that I wanted to do this forever. (okay, I did know that before the wedding, but this just confirmed it.) A few days later, Tiffany left me a message on facebook saying "Call me, I have some news." Oh boy. Was that good news? Or bad news? So I called her, and left a message on her cell which wasn't working very well at the time.

We played phone tag for a few days, and finally caught up with each other. She asked me if I would consider being TJZ Creations very first intern. AND OF COURSE I SCREAMED YES!!!!!!!!!! =)

Okay, maybe I didn't scream. But I was squealing on the inside. So she said if I wanted, I could start asap. I was so happy. I still am. So we worked out that wednesdays I would go to her studio and she would teach me everything she knows. And if she had a wedding or something to do on a saturday, I would assist in that. It has been a fantastic journey for me so far. We have shot a wedding together, an engagement, and a portrait shoot. AND she let me take her pictures. (hence the ones above) So all in all, I am learning a lot from her, and she is a fantastic teacher.



NEXT ITEM: As her intern, Tiffany bought me an external flash for on my Canon 50D. I was so excited to get it and try it out! So I used it this past weekend for my Aunt's baby shower. It is AMAZING. And I am so thankful to have it.



NEXT ITEM: School is going fantastic! I am learning so much in all my classes, and I am thoroughly enjoying my portrait photography class on wednesday nights. I am learning all about studio lighting and camera lenses. It is fantastic!



NEXT ITEM: I have been praying for a while that I would be able to get a mac sometime soon. I already have two weddings of my own booked for this year, and thus I needed a mac and photoshop. Well I had looked into it and I was going to get a macbook pro, and hopefully order it sometime later on this week. I have to say, I didn't really pray about this. It was just something I needed to purchase, so I was going to do it.



Well God was listening to me anyways. And He knew what I needed. On thursday at school, I was outside (since it was 65*) walking around with my friends Sarah and David, and I just so happened to pull my phone out of my pocket to see what time it was. When I pulled it out, it said "New Voicemail." It said missed call from Kara Abbey. Hmm...my sister is calling me! She coming here on friday for the weekend to stay. So maybe she wanted to ask me something? Well I dialed up my voicemail, and she starts to tell me how this guy who she worked with at RAC was selling his mac on craiglist, but no one had taken any interest in it. Apparently he asked her if she knew anyone who was looking for a mac, and she said "I know my sister is!" So he said for her to find out if I wanted his mac mini, and he would sell it to me for $550. I was going to be paying around $3000 for a macbook pro! Now granted, it was used, so I was a bit leary. But when she told me that the only reason he was getting rid of it was that he was getting a new computer, I was starting to consider. She then told me that it already has photoshop installed on it, and she knew it was CS5 (the most recent version), but she didn't know if it was the extended version. It also came with two 17" monitors, and a nice speaker system. She said if I wanted it, she would see if she could bring it down the next day (friday) when she was coming here. So I said YES. And let me tell you, as I am typing on it, it is the most amazing thing since...oh I don't know...windows 7? haha..IT IS AMAZING!!! It is exactly like the systems we have at school. AND IT HAD A SURPRISE ON IT! It had Photoshop CS5 EXTENDED EDITION AND Microsoft Word for Mac 2011!!!!!!!!!! Those two things alone cost $550! GOD IS SO GOOD!!!



So that's about it for now. Since I do have photoshop at home, I WILL be posting more frequently.