Saturday, September 14, 2013

Days 63-69


This last week was another VERY busy week. I seem to have a lot of those lately. I have so much going on that I can't seem to take a picture each day, so I take a few minutes to edit one picture a day. 

Because I post them here once a week and not once a day, I find myself wanting to cheat a bit. I usually edit a chunk of pictures at a time at the beginning of the week, and I think "If I post all of these as one week, they'll never know." But I'm really trying hard to not do that. The whole point of the 365 is to test me and my photography and to help me improve. I can't improve if I cheat. Taking the short and easy route will only hurt me - and my photography.

In turn, that would hurt my career, because I really want to be a professional photographer. If I'm not good, I won't get jobs and no jobs = no money = broke Courtney = flipping burgers for the rest of my life = not having enough money for my own place = living off my parents until they die = no boyfriend ever.

Okay maybe it's not that bad, but you get my point.

Days 63-69:


Day 63 (edited on 9/08/13)
Day 64 (edited on 9/09/13)
Day 65 (edited on 9/10/13)


Day 66 (edited on 9/11/13)

Day 67 (edited on 9/12/13)
Day 68 (edited on 9/13/13)
Day 69 (9/14/13)




Friday, September 13, 2013

My First Instameet



BEWARE: LOTS OF PICTURES
(like tons)

Many might be looking at the title of this post and think "what is an instameet?" I have already gotten that question quite a few times.

So, I shall explain.
Do you know what Instagram is?
Well, Instagram starts with "insta" and ends in "gram" (or "stagram"), if I need to point out the obvious. But really, many have gone overboard with (enter any word here)-gram. "Foodstagram", "onedirectionstagram", "edstagram", "swagstagram" . . . you name it, there is probably someone who's used it.

Next - photographers on Instagram.
People who take good quality pictures and likes photography and posts their photography on Instagram.
AKA an "Instagram Photographer".

Therefore, an "Instameet" is when a bunch of INSTAgram photographers MEET up to have photoshoots.

At least that's what it means on the photography side of Instagram.

I've been wanting to go to one ALL summer, but the only ones I've been able to be invited to (by a public open invitation) are out of state. Like the last one was on the other side of the US. I was really bummed.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Days 56-62



A busy week, I could not take a picture every day, but I edited at least one, so those count for the day I edited them. Some people may not do their 365 like that, but I consider it okay because of my very busy schedule that school just made worse.

Anyway, it is my 365, right? ;)

Day 56 (9/1/13)

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Days 49-55

Yay! It feels so good to be caught up on here.
I don't have any extra stress.
(Lord knows that I don't need any right now.)

School has just started for me. To be honest, I'm not really sad, but I'm not excited for school. So, I'm kind of just cool with it. I'm just hoping that I'll still have time for everything I want to do.

Anyway, back to the 365.

Days 49-55:

Day 49 (8/25/13)

Thursday, August 29, 2013

You Are Beautiful

These are two flowers from the same tree in Hawaii.

This is a serious post.
So this is not a nonchalant oh-look-at-my-pictures post.
This is serious.
So serious I had to use italics. (I never use italics)
Serious.

I'm going to talk about bullying.
Yes, there are pictures, but I will also do a lot of talking (well, typing) and explaining.

So I encourage you to read what i have to say . . . er, type.

Bullying is very real. It's a sad but true fact.

I wish I could get rid of bullying; but I can't.
I can only try to inspire and encourage those who are hurting.

I see more and more teenagers with depression, and self harm is more common than some think. Many people commit suicide while suffering from depression and low self-esteem.

I always hear "I'm fat" or "I'm ugly" or "who could ever love someone like me". It always hurts me to hear someone say a negative adjective after the words "I am". Mainly because they are not what they describe themselves as.

One of my close friends honestly thinks that she's fat and ugly, when I see a gorgeous and talented girl in front of me. It pains me that she can't see it.

It pains me that other's can't see that they are amazing, pretty/handsome, talented, and loved. Nobody's perfect, but why do we strive to be and think that we are useless if we make a mistake. I think some people know that they can't be perfect, but everyone else seems to be, so they feel bad about themselves. They only look at their flaws and compare them to other's successes.

How fair is that?

It's like saying that you have a sports car, a mansion, and 5 adorable dogs; but someone else has a small house on the beach, has won surfing competitions, and has 2 cats. You don't have a house on the beach, you can't surf, and you don't have any cats. But look, their house is small and yours is big. They don't have a sports car, and they don't have any adorable dogs. But how can you compare the two? How can you compare a rainbow to a unicorn? Both are beautiful, but they aren't the same.

2 people are beautiful, but aren't the same.

So why compare yourself to others?

You are beautiful too.
(ooh, bold AND italics)

And if you feel like you aren't loved or nobody cares,
I care.

People care, I promise. You just can't see it because your emotions are clouding your eyes. Please trust me, I've been there. I've seen depressed people on Instagram who honestly don't feel loved. When people they don't even know say it on their Instagram because they do care and they read it, they still don't believe it. I know I've said it to others that I don't know. I still honestly care, even though I may not know this person. But it breaks my heart when I see people who still feel unloved and unwanted even after tons of people say on their Instagram that they care.

They don't believe that people could care for them. I hope you aren't past that point. Because people DO care. You ARE loved.

Over the course of the past year, I have taken a few pictures that relate to bullying. Some are about actual bullying, some are about the emotional and physical reactions to bullying. And others address the reality that some people can't see because of their emotions.


This first picture has to do with the actual bullying. Of course this is just one way it can  happen. It is suppose to symbolize the words that people say to others that hurt. I've seen people believe the lies that people call them, and they want it to end - even if they kill themselves to make it end. This picture shows the awful words "Kill yourself" from an anonymous person. Too often on the internet people use the mask of "anonymous" on websites on tumblr or ask.fm or other places to say hurtful things to others.

This picture represents the loneliness and sadness that someone feels when bullied. The girl in the picture is wrestling with her thoughts and emotions, and just plain feels awful.

This picture and the next one express the feeling of depression or not being good enough.

The girl in these pictures obviously has given in to her emotions and has let them take over. She now has no control over what she feels, and her heart pains.

I took this picture with the idea of the feeling of loneliness. Around the time of this shoot, I honestly felt alone and like nobody cared. I could disappear and nobody would chase after me or look or do anything. This picture came from those feelings of loneliness. Now, I wasn't bullied at this time, but these emotions can be caused by bullying as well as other things (which was my case). Just a note though - people do care, and I figured that out. People cared the entire time I was telling myself that nobody did. A fact of life is that there is always at least one person who cares.

I am a Christian and a strong believer in God and Christ. You don't have to be or agree with me, but God always loves you. No matter what. There's no "God couldn't love me because I sin and I'm an awful person." God hates sin, yes, but He knows that we can't help it. We are only human and we all sin and we all have awful moments. I've been told that I'm super nice and sweet and I just think of times I've been really mean to people. God loved me through the entire thing even when I sinned. He just did not like the sin. (I really hope my point on this is getting across. I don't feel like I'm doing a good job of explaining.) But anyway, the point is that God will always love you even if you feel like no one on earth does. God has brought me comfort so many times that I can't count them all. I encourage you to go to Him if you feel sad and lonely or depressed, or any time really. Even when you're happy.


Wednesday, August 28, 2013

First Morning of School


My first day of school was yesterday.
. . . I'm not overly excited about school, but I think it's going to be a great year this year.

So, I started the school year right:
With an early morning photo shoot.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

One Big Chunk of 365 (Days 28-48)

I was one week behind on posting my 365 Project.
So I waited until the next weekend to post the past 2 weeks all at once.
But my weekend was jam-packed.
So guess what I haven't done in 3 WEEKS?
Post my 365 project pictures.

Oops.

So now to catch up completely and to not worry about it, below are the past three weeks of my 365.