ilstu

We decided to hang out around our alma mater in between visits with friends.

Even though we’ve only been gone for a couple years, things changed too much for my taste.

See some of our favorite ilstu things.

the quad

Watterson Towers: my dorm sophomore year. 25 floors high, baby. I lived at the tippy top of that ginormous thing with some lifelong friends

experiencing watterson towers wind tunnel all over again

the watterson wind tunnel means serious business...these trees are stuck this way

uptown normal

degarmo: the education building

Fusion Brew: one of the places I miss the most. If anyone knows a good, legit bubble tea place in Phoenix...let me in on the secret

most important place of all 🙂

The best is always saved for last.

This above Subway in Watterson towers is the exact place we met for the very first time.

That’s right, kids. This is where it all started.
A sophomore sandwich artist and an innocent college freshman.

If only we could have actually gotten in
(they have fobs to get into the dorm now…what the heck is that all about? who needs safety?)
I would probably have made us recreate how we met so we could capture that special moment for all of you.
Let’s just say Josh is thankful the campus was on spring break.

I55 Adventure

On Monday, we drove from the burbs to Blo-No.

Central Illinois is a fairly boring place.

I tend to fall asleep like a baby when we drive anywhere for longer than 20 minutes.
But not that day. I was determined to find THEE barn.
That’s right… “thee”
All four years I was at Illinois State University, I wanted a photo of this barn.
I have no reason.
I don’t know why.
But I felt like this barn and I were friends.
So it had to be done.

We pulled over on I55 and as I stepped out of the car, I was almost blown away.
Let’s just say I have forgotten what real wind is living in Phoenix.
A storm was coming in.
It was getting real…real fast.
But hey, there were some cool clouds.

Pretty stinkin awesome storm clouds if you ask me.

Phoenix is totally jealous of Illinois storms.

Dress Up

The second night we headed over to my parents house and hung out with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins.
(we’ll…most of them..some were too cool to make an appearance :))
I will say it was pretty awesome that we were in town but you know what was more awesome?
My aunt shaved her head for the St. Baldricks Organization

Yeah. I know.
Too much awesome to handle.
AND…
I think she pulls off the whole bald thing pretty well.

And then to top it off we pulled out my great grandmas old hats.

Who says grown ups can’t play dress up?

bahaha

We were not 100% positive on whether that was suppose to be a hat...or a lampshade.

My hubster is particularly fond of this little gem of a photo?

See?
She looks pretty dang good!

Thanks to the hubs for capturing some fun moments.

GUESS WHAT.
I may or may not be making up a contract for a third wedding this summer.
HOLLER!!

More deets to follow.
(thats short for “details” for all you less hip folks out there…you gotta get with it)

a greater time in our lives

These next few days you are invited to journey back with me to last week
…to a great timer in our lives…
known to most as “spring break”

We moseyed on over to Illinois to visit friends and family.
I’m pretty sure we hit at least two cities a day and ate everything in sight.

And let me just say that we are greatly aware of the gas prices.
Not cool, gas peeps, not cool.

The first night we spent with Josh’s aunt and her family.
As well as Josh’s brother and his girlfriend.
We ate too much deep dish pizza and drank some delicious wine.

Before we headed out the next morning, we got to grab a few shots of this fun, energetic (dare I say loud?) family.

 

The picture above is certainly not my finest moment.
But I’m banking on the fact that they will come visit AZ soon and we can try again.
🙂

P.S. Isn’t Jesse the dog’s mohawk awesome?
Wrigley is way too jealous.

It’s still a process people.

We just got back from Chicago last night.
It was a long day but let me just say this
From now on I will save editing for plane rides.

The flight went by SO fast.

I worked on some more photos from a wedding last month…
(since I am finally figuring out lightroom…more on that in a second)

This one may be bit blurry but it's just plain ole fun.

 

So back to learning lightroom.

I have a theory that when you are learning something new, you forget all the information you do already know.
i.e. my latest google search
“how to select multiple photos in lightroom 3”

Yep.
True story.

But like I said back at the way, way beginning…

It’s a process, people.

Indecisive Melissa

I have many weaknesses.

One of them happens to be indecisiveness. It really is unfortunate not only for me, but everyone involved with any decision I have to make.

Enter Melissa Ivy 

Sorry about that. I made a name and then changed it like 5 minutes later. It is pretty obnoxious, I know. There are a few reasons but these are the main two.

1. In a couple years, if this whole thing is still happening, I could possibly thing “Man,  Capture is CHA–EEEE-SY.  What what was I thinking?” The chances of that happening with my name are, hopefully, way way less.

2.  I just found this amazing resource and they have some legit reasons

So there ya go, I tossed it around in my head multiple times while driving through central Illinois this past week. And made the decision. About 5 hours before we head to airport…and attempted to change both my blog and Facebook page. And if you read my last blog, you know that was not an easy task for this little not-so-tech-savy lady.

Better now while I have 1 follower than later when I have a whole 10.

🙂

And since we are leaving central IL I thought I would leave you with a fun photo I took while driving through the state.

Accept my apology for being indecisive??

Look at that beautiful, stormy sky.

I have ALWAYS wanted a photo of this barn.
always, always.

And now I do!

I’m excited to share some more photos from our trip later this week.

My Little Pretty

I recently won a camera bag from ONA on this amazing blog, Color Issue.

The task was simple. 1. Follow Color Issue 2. Leave a comment with what color you would want and how you shared it (on Facebook, your blog, etc.)

I wanted plum and I shared it on my old blog.

I found out later in the week that I had won it out of 500 or so people.

Me! Little ole’ padawan photographer, me!

It arrived ALMOST in time for my first solo wedding last Saturday. I found it on my stoop after I got home from the wedding

….

and oh my goodness.
It is beautiful. and I totally picked the right color. She has yet to be named. We are still in the “get to know you phase” but I am open to suggestions from you. I will say that she is rather large and I am rather short in stature.

I told you it was rather large. It takes some force to swing it around this body of mine.Wrigley decided to get involved

I love my little pretty.

I was going to talk about how if I ever get to the point where I have enough followers to have a give away, I would definitely do an ONA bag.
HOWEVER…
I am fairly certain it is not in my future to be a professional blogger. This stuff is so stinkin confusing.

1. Blogger/Blogspot (is it the same thing) or wordpress?
2. How the heck do you import a template for your blog on either one of these or import multiple photos on wordpress?
3. Apparently you can add widgets to the side of a page, I can’t see mine. Supposedly they are on the about page? Tell me how to get to that. I’m assuming that I, at some point, filled in information that is on that page.
4. Are people even going to look at this ridiculous thing? (I’m thinking if I surpass my following of 18 people on blogspot and hit an even 20 on wordpress, I’ll keep it :))
5.  Can you even follow people on wordpress?

I’m a lost little puppy in the blogging world. It really is pathetic that as a 20 something year old, I can’t figure this out.
I seriously have 98.5% no clue what I’m doing. I’m a disaster.

But hey, I will say this. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I started editing and I have learned A LOT. And have enjoyed learning the “a lot” amount that I have.

I’m not quite to that “enjoying to learn” point yet with this thing.

But hey, I have an awesome bag now so that kind of evens everything out, right?

Capture

This is a test.

Testing. one. two.

I think it’s time that I stop using my family blog to post about my little journey with photography.

It’s just not fair to my hubster and pup. And for some reason, wordpress seemed like a step up in the blogging world.

So without further ado, I present to you

Capture Photography

Fancy, right??

Here is my little blurp on the why.

I think there is a lot of brokeness in this world. A lot. But at the same time, you get glimpses of beauty every day. And that beauty is what I want to be able to capture.

So a while back, I did a big girl like thing and reserved the trade name of Capture Photography.

Big deal, right?

(Apparently it’s a big deal to all the people who have been trying to call me to help “establish” my business. Little do they know I don’t answer my phone for strangers, especially the ones that want me to spend money)

People seem to enjoy photos that I take of them. That makes my heart happy and makes me feel as though I am accomplishing my little “capture goal,” if you will.

Don’t get me wrong. I by no means consider myself a professional photographer and still have an unimaginable amount to learn. I am an amateur and am looking forward to continuing to share my adventures and mishaps with all of you.

Let’s be real, it’s too embarrassingly entertaining not to.

I couldn’t end this thing without at least one photo. So here is a photo I posted in black and white but I also LOVE it in color.

This is my very first bride, Christy!

Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful.

I have to say this is a little bit scary. Making a whole blog about photography and putting it all out there in a more formal way (than just my family blog). But at some point I was probably going to do it. So, the timing of this is dedicated to my friend,Will, who passed away a year ago this weekend. He was an incredibly hard worker. He went after his passions with his entire heart and didn’t stop until he accomplished great things. Photography has quickly become one of my passions and something that brings me great joy.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” Colossians 3:23

I’m A Wedding Photographer: Take 2

I did my first ever solo wedding yesterday.

I looked up tips for new wedding photographers and there was all this scary stuff like 

“you have no idea what your doing”

“you’re not prepared”

“hire the couple a real wedding photographer”

“you will most likely ruin the wedding”

“don’t do it”

After many encouraging messages, I figured the morning of the wedding would probably be too late to call and cancel…

So I put on my big girl panties and walked out the door.

This was my mantra for the day

“Stay calm. Act cool…kind of like you know what your doing“

I’m learning MANY new things every time I do a shoot.

Here are the things I learned yesterday.

1. My height is a disadvantage

2. I need to buy a couple extra lens covers. Those suckers get lost too easily.

3. A light diffuser thing is life changing. I need to return this one to it’s rightful owner (Thanks Jedi Josh & Kelley!) and buy one of my own

4. Other vendors become your friends during the wedding and keep you company
5. It is a guarantee that I will put the camera down and join in on the cupid shuffle

6. Stay calm

7. Act cool…kind of like you know what your doing (I think they believed me)

This was like one of the most intricate weddings ever.

Christy handmade 98% of everything. Bouquets. Table decorations. Boutonnieres

I wish I could show you everything.

I’m not legit enough yet to say “Christy and Mike’s Sneak Peek”

but here are some of my favorites. 

Or a lot of my favorites.

Whatever. Don’t judge. There was a lot to take pictures of.

Every center piece was a different color of the rainbow and looked completely different

brown table

pink table

Brittany and I got a shout out!

These were used in the game to decide which order the tables got to get up and eat

All bouquets match the girls. Christy made each one by hand out of paper.

Christy’s bouquet

paper flowers made that hung from the tree where the ceremony took place

getting Mike ready for the first look

the first look about to happen

they were having just a little bit of fun 🙂

She was just a bit stunning.

Boom.

First solo wedding. 

So Excited.

I am so stinkin excited.

I entered to win a absolutely fabulous bag designed specifically for cameras.

(On this blog)

First of all, let’s just state the obvious.

I could NEVER afford this 3 digit number

(not that it’s not worth it, just not in my oh-so-glorious teacher budget)

but I had seen ONA before and thought they just looked like wonderful.

Especially the plum color.

(Random fact: I am consistently teased by close friends, and the hubs, about having a different favorite color every week)

I think plum is a beautiful color to wear.

But red (and yellow) will always remain first in my heart.

Long story short,

I WON IT!

This little padawan right here.

I’m so excited I think I’ll post a couple more photos that this little ole padawan has taken from this little ole big girl camera that will soon have a beautiful new home!

I sure do hope I am “earning the respect” of a new lens.

Did ya all know I still almost pee my pants when I hit the submit button for a post with pictures.

That’s fun fact #2 for the day.

Oh! We need a new photo up top. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED our wedding but it’s about time. Anybody like to play photographer like me and would like to snap a few of us in the next couple weeks, por favor??

I totally would, but, let’s be honest, we all saw how the self portrait turned out.