baby angles (not angels)

This week Ashley and Sarah's tutorial Tuesday is about angles. Shooting from different angles, that is. It's something I've been trying to practice more, because it's not something that comes naturally to me. I've found that shooting at angles takes more creativity and work than just taking a picture straight on. 


On Sunday I got the chance to hang out with a friend of mine and her two beautiful children. I'm glad I brought my camera with me so I could get more practice with moving subjects and different angles. 

Wk. 4 Link Up--Alphabet Scavenger Hunt: D

Thanks to those of you who have linked up with me the past three weeks! 

Finding letters requires some creativity, which I learned this week when I looked for D. 

Here's what I found:

The above image is from this cropped and turned sideways. What do you think?

Want to play along?

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must include a picture of that week's letter. The idea is to take abstract photos, but I'm not going to be super strict about it. The whole point is just to take a picture of something!

2. Then, post a link to my blog so everyone else can come here and link up too. The more the merrier!

Get the linky here (it will be open until Friday), and come back next week to link up with an E!

Scavenger Hunt--Week 14

1. Movement

I had a different plan for movement, but I was out walking and turned just in time to catch these geese landing back home for the night. 


2. Texture

What has more texture than brick? I say nothing. And I would be correct.


3. Face Your Fears

So here's the deal. Last weekend I told you about how Jordan and I went to the Oklahoma aquarium. We saw all sorts of aquatic creatures, and I did face my fears, so to speak, and get up close and personal with the jellyfish, which have freaked me out ever since I saw the movie The Sphere. (And when I say "get up close and personal," I mean that I took pictures of the jellyfish from behind thick glass.) However, I unfortunately feel obligated to note that I did not face my fear of snakes in any way. I chose instead to take a lengthy detour around the water snake habitat while hiding my face in my hands and whimpering like a little girl. Not my best moment. 


4. Beneath Your Feet

As previously stated, I was out walking, and I came across this cool tree, and on the ground all over were these... Okay, I don't even know what to call them. 
But they looked like this when on said tree:

5. Currently

Currently, I have been practicing my sun flare. This is an exciting moment in my manual mode life, people. Take note. 

The Oklahoma Aquarium (where I show you cool fish photos)

As I mentioned in this post, this past weekend, Jordan and I went on a trip to celebrate our one-year anniversary. We're flying to Chicago next month for a wedding, so we decided just to take a short drive north to Jenks, Oklahoma, and visit the Oklahoma aquarium. 

All the little kids were freaking out about Nemo. And why not? He's so cute! 
(Plus, umm, how good am I at taking pictures of fish? Very good, you say? Indeed.)

The Oklahoma aquarium has the largest collection of bull sharks in the country.

We got to touch some baby sharks and stingrays. To be honest, I was uncharacteristically afraid to stick my hand in the pool. But I was surrounded by five-year-olds who seemed to have no trouble with it, and I didn't want to be lame and show fear.

So I did (and made Jordan do it too), and for the record, stingrays are extremely slimy.

And the sharks were rubbery, not prickly like I had previously thought.

There was this one stingray who liked all the attention and kept rising up out of the water and slashing everyone. 

When we left, I made Jordan take a picture outside the sign. 

He's always (read: most of the time) such a trooper.

[This is a repeat picture from THIS post. Read it. I've heard it's pretty funny.]

Later we had ice cream and walked along the riverfront.

Then we went back to our hotel and stayed up late to watch the Thunder kick some LA butt. We also talked and decided that we are definitely getting better at traveling together. One thing I learned the hard way on our honeymoon was that I need to make sure he eats before we start driving or else he gets really cranky. 

All in all, it was a fun anniversary weekend. 
And so begins year two. 

What is it with boys and pictures? [Part 2]

{From our engagement picture session last year. Taken by our friend Vince Conn.}

When my brother came into town for a visit, I wrote this post about how boys obviously have a problem taking good pictures. (By "good" I just mean a nice, normal pose.) 
Well, this past weekend Jordan and I went on a little anniversary trip, and the issue resurfaced.


One of the most annoying things about being somewhere with only one other person is the lack of opportunity to take a picture that includes both of you. (This is, of course, only annoying if you're like me and carry your camera with you everywhere.) 
In order to take said picture, you're limited to 3 options:

1. Ask a stranger to take your picture.
2. Hold your arm out and take your own picture.
3. Use your camera timer. 

Each of these comes with its own list of concerns: 


Option #1: Ask a stranger to take your picture.
List of concerns: Am I the only one who is secretly afraid the stranger is going to take off with my camera? I'm not even kidding. It crosses my mind every single time, and now that I have a "fancy" camera, I'm even more concerned. The other problem is that 90% of strangers don't know how to take a decent picture. Why is this? I admit that I'm a picture snob most of the time, but seriously. 

Dear strangers, 

All I want is a centered photo that isn't chopping off our heads and doesn't have your finger in the corner from accidentally covering the lens. 

I don't feel like this is too much to ask. Oh, and yes, you can zoom in sometimes. I don't want a photo that's mostly sidewalk from half a mile away. 

Thank you.

Option #2: Hold your arm out and take your own picture.
List of concerns: The cheesy let's-take-our-own-picture thing has already gotten old. Furthermore, this option eliminates any chance of having enough background in the photo to even tell where you are, and every picture looks the same. It's like I have fifty photos of us where it looks like all we did was change shirts. Added to that is the fact that most of the time someone's face gets chopped off or an unsuspecting stranger gets included into the photo on accident (see "what is it with boys and pictures?" part one).


Option #3: Use your camera timer.
List of concerns: Let's be honest. This usually either fails completely or takes no less than five tries, during which time Jordan gets sick of posing and starts complaining. There's also the issue of finding a good spot to place the camera so a) everything is centered and b) your camera won't fall and break into a million tiny pieces.


And so, this trip I added my own creation--Option #4: have each person take a picture of the other person. 


Obviously this is not ideal, but sometimes it's the best you can do. Here's an example of this method in use from our trip to the Oklahoma aquarium this past weekend:

Another reason Option #4 works (at least for us) is the fact that Jordan gets horribly embarrassed by me all the time. Me asking a stranger to take our picture is in the top 5 on his list of "Things Amanda Does to Embarrass Jordan." This way, we don't have to involve strangers in our picture taking. 


But I digress. 


After the aquarium (which will be a post of itself because the pictures are cool), we ate dinner then got ice cream and sat outside on a bench to eat it. At this point, I pulled out my camera for my second attempt at newly created Option #4 (ie. take pictures of each other).


The first shot of me looked like this: 

Not great, I'll admit. 


This is the perfect example of why you need to be conscious of your chin height. Lower your chin. I tell people this all the time, and that's why they make fun of me for being too serious during picture taking.


But, again, I digress. 
This was shot number two:

This one is better. I clearly have the chin problem corrected. But in my opinion I've got too much of a I-am-posing-for-this-picture look, which I didn't like. The smile's obviously fake. Also, okay, not a deal breaker, but this angle is not catering to my good side.


Enter photo number three. The big winner.

If I may, this one's not bad at all. Chin down, cheesy posing smile averted. 
And...my good side!

NOTE: it took me three tries to get a "good" one. Three. 

And even my first two could have passed as a decent shot.

Then it was Jordan's turn, and again I had to ask, 
What is it with boys and pictures? 

I mean come on. This is what I am dealing with:

Sleeping?

Suspicious.

Even more suspicious???

Creepster stare.

Okay, this one just plain weirds me out. How is he doing that with his eyes?

I finally got this out of him: 

**Please don't forget to note the mutton chops and soul patch. 

And he thinks he's the only one who gets embarrassed?**

To sum up, I'm still debating about whether or not Option #4 is a viable alternative to this two-person-picture-taking dilemma. I've realized that it might just be faster to take my chances with strangers. 

Wk 3. Link up--Alphabet Scavenger Hunt: C

Were you able to find a C? 
I've said this every week so far, but finding this week's letter was hard! 
This time, I found two:

Both are from our trip to Tulsa this weekend. Jordan bit his ice cream cone into a C, and he also spotted this rock that looked like a C. So basically I learned that sometimes it helps to have someone to help you spot letters.


Want to play along?

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must include a picture of that week's letter. The idea is to take abstract photos, but I'm not going to be super strict about it. The whole point is just to take a picture of something!

2. Then, post a link to my blog so everyone else can come here and link up too. The more the merrier!
Get the linky here (it will be open until Friday), and come back next week to link up with a D!

Dear one-year-old wedding cake,

Dear all grocery stores within a 15-mile radius of my apartment,

Why are you doing this to me? 

I've checked every single one of you, and apparently you've all conspired against me and decided NOT to stock Breyer's mint chocolate chip ice cream. 

Chocolate? Yes. Vanilla? Yes. But no mint chocolate chip! WHY??? I'm freaking out. I would boycott you in protest, but I love you too much.

Dear one-year-old wedding cake, 

You weren't very good, but I suppose you were a rite of passage. 

I wish you had tasted more delicious and less like cardboard. 

Dear Thursday boot camp,

You kicked my butt yesterday. 

That backward guerrilla crawl up that steep hill was the worst thing to ever happen to me. I'd say even worse than a Jillian Michaels video. For serious.  

Oh yes, and by the way...

Dear arms,

You are weak.

And last but not least, 

Dear Jordan,

I'm excited to celebrate our one-year anniversary this weekend. Thank you again for my flowers. I can't stop smelling them. 

 p.s. Dear everyone at work, 

Yes, I have carried these flowers back and forth to work and home every. single. day. this week. I am getting my money's worth, and they smell delicious. Don't judge.

Polishing Your Prose, Part 5: Head Hopping

I'm editing one of my favorite books right now. 

It's written by an author I've worked with three times before, and now we're on book four. The series is Christian historical romance, which is one of my favorite genres.

But even though it's good, there are still things to work on. This is proof that everyone needs editing. One of the main things I am going to be helping her with in book four is not "head hopping" (or, using multiple points of view* incorrectly).

*The phrase point of view from here on out will be shortened to POV.

Before I continue, I need to be clear:

-This is not a post about the different types of POV. 
-This is not a post on how to choose a POV for your story.
-This post is about how to not horribly mess up if you have chosen third person omniscient (ie. multiple characters)

Employing multiple POVs in a story can add depth and conflict when done well. This technique is used by some of today’s best-selling authors, such as Francine Rivers (The Mark of the Lion series), George R. R. Martin (A Game of Thrones), and Stieg Larsson (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). There is an art to the technique, however, and many authors fail when it comes to the simplest essential of POV knowledge. 

Here it is in a nutshell: in every scene, you must stay with one point of view--one character. You might be switching throughout the book, but each scene should only be viewed from one character's eyes. 

If you show more than one character's POV in a given scene, you are guilty of head hopping, and your own head should be chopped off.

So what does head hopping look like? 

Every time you change POV, the reader is inserted inside another character's head. The reader is able to see the scene through that character's eyes and hear his or her thoughts.

Here's an example: Stan watched Marsha pour herself a glass of water and thought, Man, she's hot.

This line of narration is from Stan's POV. Stan is the one watching Marsha; we're seeing this through Stan's eyes and hearing his thoughts.

Now, what if the line read like this:
Stan watched Marsha pour herself a glass of water and thought, Man, she's hot.  
I wonder if he notices me, Marsha thought as she peeked at him out of the corner of her eye.

Now you've got both Stan's and Marsha's thoughts at once. This is not only confusing but also takes away from the suspense of the scene. You want readers to attach to your story and your characters, but head hopping doesn't allow this. When the reader isn’t attached, they have less character empathy and less involvement in the story. This leads to the reader not caring what happens to the characters, which leads to the reader putting the book down.

Obviously this is not something that you, as a writer, want.

So here's what you need to do: 
If you choose to use what's called omniscient third person and show multiple characters' POVs, you must limit yourself to one character per scene. (Or chapter, depending on how well your scenes are broken up.)

And if you choose limited third person, then you must stick with only your chosen character in every scene--that means your character should never know anything he or she hasn't personally seen or heard about.

Unsure whether or not you're head hopping?
Look at each individual scene through one character's eyes. Is there anything your character didn't see firsthand? Anything he or she didn't hear firsthand? If so, those parts need to be cut or rewritten.

So that's head hopping in a very small nutshell.
Basically, don't do it, and your manuscript will be better off for it.

[Check out the previous four posts on polishing your prose HERE.]

it's fun, this thing we're doing

our anniversary has arrived.

one year ago today, jordan and i got married.

(on another note, i'm not sure why i'm typing in lowercase. just go with it.)

i'm really not sure what to think about the fact that it's been an entire year since we stood up in front of all our friends and family at our wedding. 

i feel like it's such a huge thing that i don't know what i can do to adequately celebrate.
or, adequately express in words my feelings on the subject.

so instead of a lengthy post detailing our first year of marriage, i'm going to leave you with a few pictures of the flowers jordan had delivered to me at work today.

yes, he caught my not-so-subtle hints. he's a smart man.

dear jordan,
it's fun, this thing we're doing.
love, me
p.s. you are cute

Wk 2. Link Up--Alphabet Scavenger Hunt: B

It's the second week of the scavenger hunt, and we're hunting for a B. For the next twenty-six weeks we'll be taking pictures of letters. Thanks to those of you who linked up last week! I don't know about you, but I'm already seeing letters everywhere. 


B was even harder to find than A, but I finally got this: 

Do you see it? I found this at church earlier this week. It's from the top of a decorative...thing. I honestly don't really know what it was. But I found a B, so I'm not that concerned about it. 


Want to play along?

Here are the rules: 

1. Your post must include a picture of that week's letter. The idea is to take abstract photos, but I'm not going to be super strict about it. The whole point is just to take a picture of something! 

2. Then, post a link to my blog so everyone else can come here and link up too. The more the merrier! 
Get the linky here (it will be open until Friday), and come back next week to link up with a C!

Scavenger Hunt--Week 13

Pretty much every week I think there's no way I can find a good picture of these words.
And pretty much every week I tell myself to stop being lame and get out my camera.

I'm always glad I did. Here's what I found:


1. Close-Up

LOVING my new Epiphanie purchase. The Lola in red. Here's a close-up of the camera charm it comes with.

2. Sidewalk 

I'm not sure if I like this picture or not. The focus isn't really anywhere, but this is all I could think of. 

3. With Mirror

From the side mirror of my car. Note: my hair is wet from a shower, not horribly greasy like it might look! 

4. Time 

The clock on my living room wall.

5. Inspiring 

This one could work for time as well. I have this chart of my goal half marathon finishing time posted to my fridge. Looking at it inspires me to train harder so I can get closer and closer to my goal and hopefully beat it! 

* * * 

{If you want to play along with my alphabet scavenger hunt, 

come back tomorrow and link up with a B!}

Buyer's Review: Epiphanie Camera Bag

After much debate and a few months of saving, I finally purchased myself a camera bag. 

At first I tried winning one in a blog contest. I entered over ten before I remembered that my lucky winning year was 2010. 
(I won like five contests/drawings that year.)


So I saved up and opted for this baby first before I sprung for a new lens. 
(See how patient I'm being? Dave Ramsey would be proud. No credit cards for this girl!)

It's an Epiphanie red Lola, and I love it. 

I almost bought a Kelly Moore bag, and I don't have a good reason for choosing Epiphanie over Kelly Moore except for the fact that Epiphanie was slightly cheaper. 


Please ignore the fact that this bench has obvious problems. I'm not sure what's going on. 
It's Oklahoma, people.

My bag even came with this cute camera charm. 

This is definitely the most I've ever spent on a bag of any kind, which is the main reason I was nervous to make the purchase. 
But I did need a camera bag.
And so far I am loving it. 
It's big enough to carry my camera as well as all the things I would normally carry in my purse (sunglasses, phone, keys, and even a book). 
The color is exactly was I wanted. 
I was worried the red would be too...red. Like, a bright, glossy red. 
It's not.
Plus, it smells like leather. 
Jordan makes fun of me because I randomly keep smelling the bag.
I just tell him that my cheap fake leather purses never actually smell like leather, so this is a new thing for me. 


Now it's back to square one: 
I'm saving up again for a lens so I can fill up my new bag.
The color red makes me happy.

Happy Friday!