Month of Nature #10- “Lilacs”

In the town of Custer, South Dakota, there are many old buildings. Behind one of them there are a lot of lilac bushes- and they are beautiful! It had just rained, so the sky was grey and water droplets on the bushes. It was beautiful.

Day 338- “Icicles”

When I was home last weekend, I was stranded at my parent’s house because of the snow. I say “stranded” because I had been planning to go back to Greeley, but being at home was nice. 🙂 Also, my loveable car’s defrost is broken, so driving in the snow is always a bit sketchy for me.

Anyway, the next morning, my mom told me to go out to the goat shed. So I grabbed my camera and headed out there and got so many wonderful photos of them. The focus of this photo was my overall favorite though.

 

Day 321- “Icicle”

So… It’s October right? Yup. It snowed last night. There’s snow outside right now! I like this picture of an icicle on the bush in my yard. I love the way the light reflects off of the icicle. 🙂

 

Day 315- “Oreo Art”

I took this yesterday at Burger King. Adam and I were hanging out since we haven’t seen each other in a while, and we also wanted to work on our Spyro game (you can see more info about it on this post: https://myownphotoproject.wordpress.com/2012/10/10/day-306-cynder/) Anyway,at Burger King, I got an Oreo sundae, and started mixing the last of the fudge and ice cream together. So, I started dropping the fudgey ice cream goodness on a crumpled up napkin, and called it “modern art.”

On a side note, we’ve played six hours and fifteen minutes so far on our Spyro game…. and are 48% done with it. Wow. We have a long way to go.

Day 308- “The Band in His Eyes”

So, nice title. It pretty much works, because I’m pretty sure I’ve used “reflection in glasses” as a title at least twice.

Anyway, this is my friend Davis, and the reflection of the marching band off of his sunglasses. I really like reflections in photographs, if done correctly they are extremely cool and can convey different meanings to different people.

 

Day 305- “409”

So I’ve been collecting soda tabs for a few months. Because guess why? I’m making a lamp shade out of soda tabs, that’s why! And after counting them today I discovered that I have 409. Well…. I need around 1,000. At least. I’m still trying to decide how large I want my lamp to be.

I was meandering around the internet a while ago when I saw this cool website: http://makeprojects.com/Project/Pop-Top-Lamp-Shade/898/1#.UHOIYk3A9SR , which is where I got the idea.

So far, I have to thank many people: my friends and the entirety of the Pride of the Rockies marching band, who are donating their tabs to me. (I’ve honestly had people I barely know from band walk up to me, shove soda tabs in my pocket, and walk away. I love band kids.)

 

Day 304- “Scott’s Angel”

When I was in third grade, one of my classmates passed away, Scott. At his memorial service, they gave out these little angel pendants. My mother still has hers,  and the other day I found mine in my car. It made me smile.

I was never really friends with him, even though I did know him. My mom is friends with his parents though, and she took it really hard. I never understood why, because he was the first person I knew who had passed away.  However, when my friend Alicia passed away, I understood completely. I’ve started carrying it around with me, partly to remind myself of how precious life is, and also to remind myself how much my friends mean to me.

 

Day 296- “The Silver Crest”

I recently ordered a necklace with the Kappa Kappa Psi crest, and today it came in the mail! I also ordered a colored member pin, so as opposed to having the tiny, standard gold pin we’re given when we become active members, it’s a larger gold pin with blue and black on it. Anyway, the necklace! The parts of it that are silver on the necklace are gold on our actual crest (and the membership pin). But, I’m a huge fan of silver, and fell in love with it when I visited Kappa’s national website. I had actually originally gone to our website to make a copy of something for our prospective members, and this happened instead. Oh well. It’s very awesome.

Oh yeah, the picture itself. I love the contrast and the composition.

Day 292- “A Boy and His Dog”

Today, I realized something a bit depressing. I don’t get out much anymore and just take photos. Lately, it’s been because of my bad ankle. So today, I sucked it up, took some Advil, and set out from my house with my camera.

This photo is of a guy playing Frisbee with his dog. I watched them for a while, and out of the whole adventure today, it was probably my favorite part. I really, REALLY want a dog of my own, except my lease won’t allow it. Don’t get me wrong, I love Tordy (my turtle), Pippin (my gerbil) and Apollo (my fish), and of course I love my Corgis back home, but it would be nice to have a dog. Of course, realistically, I would need a more stable job and a bigger yard… And of course a lease that allows dogs!

Anyway, I like this photo. Here are some more photos from today!

Some broken glass

 

Beautifully changing leaves

 

For some reason, I’ve always wanted to see inside of this house. So… I feel like a lot of old houses in Greeley sort of… Look like they belong in the boondocks. And… That’s all I have to say about that.

 

I was looking through my photos when they were all on my computer, and in this photo, I noticed the three guys at the table had all turned to me and were smiling for the camera. This made my day, more than I can tell you. In my experience, most people see you with a camera and flip you off, make a dumb face, stick their hand in front of the lens, etc. Their simple smiles made me very happy.

 

A spider in her web on a bush

 

Sunlight in the trees.

 

Action shot of a squirrel.

 

The UNC Visitor Center

 

So I helped plant this bed of flowers on campus over the summer. In the middle of all of the gold and yellow flowers, there is a random red flower. None of us had it in us to pull it, so it has been there since June. Pretty, huh?

 

Well, it may be kind of a depressing note to end on, but here you go. As I was on the final leg of my journey back to my house, I encountered this tree which is scheduled to be cut down. It makes me sad. I love the old part of Greeley (despite the boondocks-style houses), mostly for the trees. They are tall, old and beautiful. It makes me wonder how we as humans feel we have the right to tell this tree that it doesn’t get to live anymore. But, life goes on.

Of course, from the opposite end, having cut up a dead tree with a chain saw at work over the summer, I can tell you this: it’s extremely fun, even if it doesn’t set quite right with me.

You know what else doesn’t quite set right with me? Mulch. We take chopped up trees and spread it around the base of other trees to help them grow. This, friends, is cannibalism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 276- “Ribbon on Camera Case”

During band camp, I was chatting with some friends when Melanie came running up to me. “I found something of yours!” She opened her hand and there sat this ribbon. Immediately, I frantically checked my camera bag and saw that my ribbon had fallen off. She handed it to me and I put it in my bag. “I knew it was yours, and I knew you would want it back.” I hugged her. “Thank you….”

You may be saying, “well it’s just a ribbon Rachel. Calm down.” It’s not just a ribbon though. It’s one of the memorial ribbons made last year for my friend who passed away. I put one of the ribbons on my camera bag in her memory. There’s a lot more to it than just that, but this isn’t the right post to really divulge in that story. Maybe another time.

Anyway, I like the photo, because it’s just a nice little photo. That’s all I have to say about that.