Happiness is...

For my final photo project in my photojournalism class, I decided to have my theme revolve around what makes people happy. I came up with the idea to have the people I photograph hold a sign or have a sign near them that fills in the blank for "Happiness is ____." I had some friends get so creative and their photos turned out so good! It was a lot of fun! My teacher and classmates really liked my creative idea.

The best part about this photo project was that behind each photo is a story. For a majority of my photos, each of my friends came up with their own ideas of what made them happy and we worked around that. I love that for most of my photos, my friends helped me come up with a saying to fill in the blank and it totally matched them! I'll put the photos on here and describe what I mean.

I started out with a self-portrait... I figured since I was the one wanting to know what made others happy, it fit the theme :)



My roommate loves staying active and healthy. I believe she is going to have a major dealing with it as well. And because she is active and healthy, we came up with "having self-confidence" on her sign.


My friend Jennifer was so great and offered to let me take photos of her two cute daughters. This is Lettie eating one of her favorite treats, frozen blueberries!


Danielle loves music! We got creative and taped the letters "music" to the keys on the piano!


One of my favorite photos... One of my best roommates of all time, Jess, and her boyfriend Wil! This just makes me happy every time I look at this photo!


Whenever I think of Tim, I think of baseball and the Cardinals. So his photo fits him perfectly! I wanted to re-take this photo, because it's a tad blurry and the C is covered up in Cardinals, but the stadium lights don't turn on anymore! So it was too dark. But I love the setup of this photo, and the stadium light in the background coming in as well.


Erin is the best! She came up with the idea to write what makes her happy in the frosting she used to decorate the cupcakes. She was so prepared and creative! I just had to shoot the photo! Thanks Erin!


Alyssa was the same as Erin when it came to being prepared and creative! Alyssa said the swings make her happy, and she came up with a deeper saying to go along with her photo. I think it is a good message for us all to remember, especially when we are stressed and busy!


Jess helped me out again. She loves her little brother, and I don't blame her because he is so cute and funny!


Vanessa is probably the most diligent people I know! She has her goals set and will work as hard as she has to in order to get there! She is in the nursing program, which is not easy to get into here at BYU-Idaho. She works hard to maintain good grades and is just amazing. Her sign fits her perfectly!


Another one of my favorites! Jennifer's daughter, Liza, seriously is adorable! Jen came up with the idea to dress her up as a princess, which is something Liza loves to do. I took pictures of Liza just sitting and smiling, but I liked this shot the most! She was talking about something... I don't remember what! But it made for a really cute photo!


My old roommate, Mary-Beth, is one of the most talented people ever! She cooks, she knits, she draws and paints... Basically, she does it all! My roommates nicknamed her "Mother Beth" last fall. Drawing makes her happy, so we went to the Spori Building where the art majors reside, and were trying to come up with where to take an artistic photo. We found a chalkboard and she decided to draw on it for her photo. I thought it was neat!


I had an idea to take a photo of Holly and Bentlee, with a sign saying "Being a mom", but Brad became my subject instead! I chose this photo just for Brad. He liked the tree being in there!


I wanted a church-related photo, because really the gospel is what brings true happiness in the end! But the people I wanted to shoot for the photo were unavailable, and I wanted to go to the Rexburg temple and have it be in the background of my photo, but this one of my roommate Danielle works!


I loved doing this photo project. It showed me that we need to do whatever it takes to just be happy, in the good times and bad. I know I talked about this a little bit in my last blog post, but now my last blog post makes more sense having these photos!

So just smile, and never forget how blessed you truly are :)

Photo assignment: the body

I took some photos today for a photojournalism group assignment. My group got to come up with a theme and have our photos revolve around whatever we decided. We chose to do our photos on "the body". I was a little nervous because what body parts was I suppose to take photos of? So... I kidnapped my roommate and had her pose for me in an alley way near my apartment. The photos actually turned out better than I expected they would. I didn't think I would be happy with them at all! But I wanted to put them on here since they are interesting and not your average photos!

These photos were all taken with my simple, snap and shoot digital camera. I am amazed at how well my camera shows the little details! They look like they were taken by a fancy camera!

Note: The last one of my roommate in black and white I have been told looks like the great depression... I'm sorry but I thought the position was unique!


The leg photos are my favorite! I couldn't decide which one was my favorite... I like the red background the best, but the leg position in the other photo.

Portraits with the Allphins

For my Photojournalism class, I had to take portrait photos. I knew right away who I wanted my subjects to be... Holly, Brad, and Bentlee of course! I was so excited when Holly was more than willing to take photos with me today!

One bad thing that happened today... Rexburg experienced a crazy blizzard! So we couldn't take photos outside which was a little depressing. But Holly came up with the idea to go take them in the BYU-I center, which turned out to be perfect because of all the light that came in through the big glass windows!

I have never done a photo shoot before... so I didn't know what it would be like. I had a couple photos in mind that I thought would be cute with Bentlee, but other than that I didn't know what to expect! The photos turned out so good! There is 10 that stuck out as my favorites and I edited them for my class and for Holly and Brad to keep.

Here are the cute photos!























I turned all of them into black and white, too. But I had the idea of Holly and Brad kissing Bentlee, and also with them both holding one of Bentlee's hands while he attempts to stand up. I love all of these photos though! I had such a fun time with Holly, Brad, and Bentlee! I think I will take up photography as a hobby someday :)

Beginner at photography

So I'm in a photojournalism class, and I have never considered myself a very good photographer. But I have been learning so much from this class. And it's so easy because all we do is take pictures, then share our pictures with the class once we take them. But I am starting to get better at my photography skills! I don't have a fancy camera; I just have a simple cannon point and shoot. But it does the job for me and I have been learning how to use it more professional-like. So here are a couple of photos I took today that are like the best photos I have ever taken. They just make me happy!





Aren't they good? I don't like to brag, but I am bragging about these photos! I love the dew on the sunflower. Since it was raining, my class and I went into the greenhouses to take photos. I guess the sunflowers just got showered so it was the perfect time to take a photo. And the raspberries I just saw them in a cooling freezer outside of the greenhouse. The colors drew me in and I opened the door and started snapping photos of them. My teacher thought I was so creative! You can click on them to view them larger... trust me you may want to so you get the full affect!

On a side note: These photos were taken inside near the BYU-Idaho greenhouses. I could have not taken photos like these outside today, because this is what it looked like:



Cold, slushy, nasty, wet snow! It's suppose to be light sweater, pretty fall colors, apple cider, straw maze, lovely fall time! Not winter yet! I hope this passes and doesn't come back for another month or more! I need to enjoy my favorite season the right way!

General Conference Weekend!

This past weekend was very eventful. I had a fun time with my family. My parents and sisters came to Rexburg so I could go with them instead of driving alone. My parents were dying to see Holly and Brad, and of course Bentlee since they haven't met him yet. We all went to Wingers for lunch. I had to arrive a little later sadly because my class got out later than Holly and Brad's classes. My parent's didn't know that Brad was dieting, and they felt so bad that we all had to eat in front of Brad who couldn't eat anything! But he was a trooper and seemed to not mind.

From Wingers, we went straight to Salt Lake. And can I say I loved being in a car for only three and a half hours! So much better than the 14 my family had to be in the car :) We went to the children's hospital to see Aaron, Cassandra, and Asher and also see baby Abbott in the NICU. It was the first time I got to see him. I was so surprised how small he was! 3 pounds 12 ounces, which is a whole pound more than when he was born a little over a month ago. He looked really good moving everywhere and opening his eyes! We were only allowed to go back one at a time with either Aaron or Cassandra. And we had to make sure we were germ-free. But I was glad I was finally able to meet Abbott for the first time.

The next day was General Conference. We got up and went to the children's hospital again to see Abbott. Then we were off to the Saturday afternoon session of conference! We were able to meet up with my awesome cousins, Leisha and Brianne, and sit with them. But conference was such an amazing, spiritual experience. Primary kids sang and gave me the chills! I felt a lot of chills while I was there, so I felt the spirit a lot! I kept telling my family before that I really hope Elder Bednar speaks because he's my favorite apostle, and guess who was the very first speaker? Bednar! I loved every second of conference and for once I was alert the whole time and vigorously taking notes. I'm use to being in my pajamas and relaxing during conference. But I will never forget that experience and will cherish it forever!

After conference, I had to take pictures for my photojournalism class, so we were able to walk around Temple Square. We ate at the Lion House that has the most delicious homemade food ever! But I got some pretty good pictures that I am proud of!

We left Sunday morning. I got back to my apartment a little after 11. My poor little sister was sick and throwing up in the car, so I am glad I got out of there when I did! I think my roommates missed me while I was gone... or at least Taylor did! She attacked me when I came in the door!

Here are some photos I promised I would take!

Conference group!


I love this photo.


Delicious.


Another favorite photo.


Salt Lake Temple


Cool view of the sun!


Siblings!


Me and Taylor! I love this girl!


Some roommate pics! There's only 5 of us this semester.