Hello, dears!

Yayyy, I’m so excited for this etcetera post! I made the last one in September, so I have a BUNCH of random photos to catch up on, with subjects ranging from flowers and fall leaves to self-portraits and donkeys. 🙂

A heap of random pretty photos coming your way in 3… 2… 1!

Let’s go!

Nature

We shall begin with one of my favorite types of photography. Somehow I always find myself drawn to the small details of nature like flowers and leaves; the colors and textures and intricacies of nature fascinate me.

Ahem. So, we planted a bunch of lavender in the front of our house this year, and it started blooming! Lavender is one of my favorite flowers/herbs because 1) it’s purple, my favorite color, 2) it smells amazing 3) I love the way the foliage looks minty and soft from far away.

Did you know magnolia trees grow these beautiful red berries? The flowers turn to seed pods which grow berries which eventually fall off and the cycle starts over. I never realized magnolia trees were so complex until we had one in our yard!

OOOH THE BOKEH. I’m pleased that this photo conveys something of the crisp, glitteringly cold morning I took it on.

There’s something so awe-inspiring about staring up at a tree from this angle, don’t you think? Especially in the fall.

I picked up this perfect fall leaf outside a Cracker Barrel. 🙂 Fall colors and rain go well together.

Ahhh, I love the warm glow of this one! It is now my desktop background. The colors look like late fall to me.

Now, rewind for a moment and let’s go back to September, before we got frost and when we still had flowers. 🙂 Morning glories tried their hardest to overtake our garden this year and were partially successful. But… I must admit, they are GORGEOUS in the early morning, especially this patch, which in real life looked like a carpet of purple from the right angle.

I like this picture quite a lot. The muted blacks and brilliant purples and greens… ahh, so pretty.

Light, or the way it interacts with subjects, is one of my favorite things to capture with my camera. How can a glowing morning glory not brighten your day??

Portraits & Pets

EEEYOREEEE! Megan’s donkey is still doing well! And her ears are as cute as ever. 🙂

So fuzzyyyy! I’m going to take more pictures of Eeyore soon, so stay tuned! 😉

Jinx does not look impressed, but that’s normal for him. XD I like casual slice-of-life photography like this where the background isn’t stylized or fixed up.

Now for some self-portraits! I took these first few months ago, but the photoshoot wasn’t overly successful so I didn’t do a whole post about it. Here are a few decent ones. 🙂

This is one of my favorite photography spots on our farm – the lighting is so pretty and you get such a sense of size and grandeur when the subject stands on the path under this big oak tree.

One of my favorite types of self-portraits are the ones where I’m inhabiting a landscape. You can’t see many details of my face or clothes, but the “tiny human” aspect adds interest to the landscape while the landscape gives purpose and atmosphere to the subject.

I really like this idea, but GAHHH it was so, so hard to get it to work! I had my camera set up on a tripod quite a ways away, so I had to race up the hill to this fallen tree which was higher off the ground than it looks. So… yeah, I didn’t get a lot of good ones, even though I look relaxed here. 😉

Lastly, a picture in the soybean field. I couldn’t shield the camera with my hand so everything was a bit hazier than I wished, but I still love the golden glow of the picture!

Farm Landscapes

Aha, the soybean field makes a good transition into the next category. Ordinarily, mature soybeans look rather ugly and dead, but I love the way they look at golden hour!

LOOK! A rainbow sunflare in the corner!

While we’re on the subject of sunflares, have another one. So prettyyy.

Fun fact: I took this picture with the “auto” setting on my DSLR instead of the manual mode! O.o I NEVER use Auto, but I found it works better for complicated lighting where half of the picture is dark and half is light, like the sky vs. the ground here. I took some shots in both modes just in case. 😉

This was on Manual Mode, I think. See how the sky is washed out? I’ll have to experiment with it again. But other than a few exceptions like this, I truly do recommend using manual because you have SO much more control and, well, you’re smarter than a camera, so you can override its opinions this way.

I forget why I had my camera in the car, but… OH YEAH. This was after a church event which I’ll refer to again in the “Etcetera” section. Anyway, I had to get a picture of the fall light! Now the leaves are almost gone… *sniff*

*choir sings* AHHH I LOVE THIS. The mix of a common, weathered barn, organically shaped walnut tree, and ethereal lighting makes for a magical photo, in my opinion. Like I said, I get excited about light. XD

This isn’t really a landscape, but it IS a farm picture! 😉 Meet our old Allis Chalmers tractor. I always liked it when I was little because “Allis” sounded like Allison. 😛

Oooohh I like this one. I kind of have a weakness for moon pictures – almost any photo with a moon in it is bound to be pretty to me. XD

SkyScapes

Now for more moon pictures! I cropped the above photo into this one since I really liked the composition of the tree with the moon.

Alright, so I spent WAY too long editing this one but I love how it turned out! XD I think I’m going to make this my phone wallpaper now since my current one is too busy. You guys are welcome to use my photos as wallpapers – just don’t, like, pass them off as your own or repost them without giving me credit, ‘kay? No plagiarizing allowed. *wags finger*

BUT AHHH. I LOVE THIS PHOTO.

So much for the moon. Now for a bunch of sunset pictures! Look at all those pink fluffs! Also, I edited these photos in a similar style to Clara’s amazing daily sunset photos on Instagram. *heart eyes* Definitely give her a follow @claraandcophoto and check out her stories for the latest sunset! 😀

A more pastel version… You can’t tell super well in the photos, but the special part of this sunset was all the fog below it! It was breathtaking in real life.

We’ll end this section with one of my favorites from that sunset. So. Beautiful.

Etcetera

Yayyy, time for my favorite category! I’ll start with this rainy windshield picture because ahh, I just love the aesthetic of these photos, don’t you? They convey the feeling of a rainy day so well.

Now for some Reformation Day pictures! I go to a PCA church, which means we believe the reformed Protestant doctrines are the best interpretation of Scripture. I’d be more than happy to talk theology in comments or emails later, but it would take too long to talk about in a paragraph, so… yeah. 😉 We celebrated the 502nd anniversary of Reformation Day by having kind of a mini VBS with our church, full of fun activities where kids could experience the life of Martin Luther.

Part of the booth for “nailing” the 95 theses to a door:

BAHAHA. Okay, so I was the “portrait painter,” a.k.a photographer, for the photo booth and the event in general and OH MY. I had SO much fun getting pictures of cute kids in adorable costumes – and some of the bigger kids (and our pastor!) dressed up too! XD XD I wish I could show you all the adorable/hilarious/fun pictures I got from that day, but since they involve lots of people I didn’t ask photo-posting permission of, I’m just going to leave you with my brother modeling a smashing dragon costume. :’D

Oh dear. :’D Ahem. Now for another photo I really like: an icy bucket from the housesitting weekend. I adore all the textures in this photo! Also I really like how I edited it, with a faded sort of filter that makes things look soft and serene.

I kept this photo more bright and contrast-y so you could see the ice patterns clearly. Aren’t they INCREDIBLE? :O And which editing style do you like better – this one or the last?

IT’S A FUZZY BLOB. This leaf gall was one of the weirdest things ever. The colors of the original picture were kind of bleh so I made it B&W, but the gall was light orange and super soft. I’m not sure if was a cocoon or larvae shell or what, but it was STRANGE.

Heh heh, just for fun: FOOD. I got to go on a women’s retreat hosted by my church in October, and it was AMAZING. I had such a good time learning and worshiping with my sisters in Christ; singing, dancing, playing games, and eating WAY too much food. They served delicious buffet-style meals at the retreat center, plus all the ladies brought snacks. And this isn’t even all of them – they overflowed the table onto the windowsills, an armchair, and the piano to the left of the picture. *shakes head* Good times. 🙂

Last picture for the day! How are colored pencils so photogenic? I mean, put them on a white background by a window and voila! You have a beautiful picture. Pictures of colorful art supplies make me happy. 🙂 (Also another art post is coming soon!)

*happy sigh* That was quite fun to make. I hope you enjoyed reading it as well, my friends!

What photo/category was your favorite? Do you prefer more natural photos or aesthetically edited ones? Are you a night sky or day sky person?

Thanks so much for reading, dears, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***

P. S. Photos taken with my Nikon D3400. Edited with picmonkey.com.