Winter Photography Pin-Spiration

        Winter is easily the toughest season for photography, especially if you live somewhere with winters like Minnesota. Everything is the same color (or lack thereof. Everything is white and brown). And don't even get me started on how it's too cold out to take pictures for more than ten minutes. (or five! or two!) So far we had been blessed with an unseasonably warm and pretty much snowless December, but as of yesterday I'll bet you the snow has settled in until mid-March. And I need to figure out how to do photography with it. 

           Of course, I usually like to work with color much more than this. But sometimes winter colors are my only option- so I turned to pinterest, just like I turn to pinterest for everything else, for some inspiration on how to get pretty pictures in the winter.

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Christmas Wishlist

        Wishlists. Always loads of fun. It's a little late for a Christmas wish list, it being Christmas Eve and all, but they're so much work to put together with all the hyperlinks and the game of Tetris that is creating the image that I didn't really have time until now anyway. So, here's what I've got my eye on this year:

Haribo gummies // All the kinds. Always.

Lush Space Girl Bath Bomb // I've never gotten anything from Lush before but people keep raving about their bath bombs and I've seen gorgeous pictures of this one on tumblr!

Slouch Socks // I will never have enough socks.

Sweet Tea iPhone Case // All my phone cases are cracking so I'm in the market for a new one, and this is gorgeous, to say the least.

Nikon D7000 // Okay, I'm already 90% sure I'm getting this one to replace my old D3000 and I am SO. EXCITED.

Nikon Remote // I realized the other day how much better my self-portraits are when they're in perfect focus, and that's where this remote will come in handy!

Cable Turtleneck // I'm so happy turtlenecks are back in style. They're so comfy. 

Star Front/Back Earrings // I just love earrings. Especially these earrings.

Monogram Crest Journal // I've been looking for a journal with blank pages (as opposed to lined). Now IF ONLY THEY MADE A LETTER Z VERSION, SEEING AS THEY MAKE MOST OTHER LETTERS.

Holga Lens & Filter Turret for Nikon // I've had my eye on this forever, mostly for the kaleidoscope filter.

The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman // I'll probably just check this one out from the library, but I'm definitely interested in reading this book. It's a plain little love story that takes place right around where I live. 

Afternoon

        It definitely doesn't look or feel like a typical Minnesota December. The snow is gone and has been replaced by light rain and the grass had barely browned. We've had barely two days of sun this month, which usually bothers me but today the neighborhood was so moody and beautiful. The weather made me feel alive. 

        I went out to a local coffee shop with my sister and our friend, who of course scorned and rolled their eyes at all the pictures I took of the food, but it was totally worth it; coffee shop photoshoots are my dream. We then walked around the neighborhood and I kept marveling at the moody lighting and taking as many pictures as I could. I'm very proud of the images that resulted from the day. (And yes, this was in the afternoon- it was this dark by 4:00 PM. Shoutout to 45 degrees north).

Photos Every Day

Last year, I tried doing a 365 project. If you're unfamiliar with that, it's a project where you take a photo every day for a year. Some people say they don't like the idea because inspiration shouldn't be forced, but often my photos aren't very thought out anyway and the 100 or so days I got through last time really did help me improve my photography. 

So, I'm at it again! Hopefully I'll be able to get through the year this time. I'm eleven days in now, and here are some of the best photos from the project so far. Enjoy!

Offbeat

      I've still got lots going on in my life right now, but I made a little time to take photos this afternoon. I messed with flashes and lamps and lights to get the lighting right, and honestly as I took the photos I thought they'd end up as trash. But I tried editing them anyway and got them to look a little grunge-y and I am SUPER happy with the results! 

        Hopefully I'll be back regularly soon. I have a couple of long weekends coming up where I might be able to make some posts!

October Photo Diary + Update!

Hello! It's been a while, I know, and I can't guarantee I'll be back on here regularly for another while... Life gets in the way. But it has been an interesting few weeks, so why not show you a few pictures and give a little update?

Mid-October, I met up with some other teenagers I met on Instagram to take photos downtown, and ended up with this, which is one of my new favorites of mine.

                   

Later on, my new Kanken backpack that I had been dying to order came in the mail! I use it for school now and it's perfect.

                       

The sky was so beautiful and hazy I had to take a few pictures... Not without my new backpack, of course.

                 

This isn't all that artistic, but I went to the first party I've ever been to as a high school student (even though I've been in high school for a year and two months. So that's why it's a big deal!) it was a halloween party for people involved in the school musical and I dressed up as Wednesday Addams.

                 

I finished off the chaos of quarter finals week with a mango passionfruit macaron, aka heaven.

And lately, I've also been:

Costuming: If you remember, I got laryngitis the day of my musical audition and didn't make it, but now I'm on the costumes crew! It's more work than fun but it's nice to be involved in the show. 

Jamming out: listening to a lot of Florence and the Machine.

Dreading: my quarter report card. I have a geography teacher I just can't argue with. 

Loving: Choir. I love to sing and it's wonderful to have a class I can look forward to every day. Most of the girls are in the grade below me, but I'm still making friends there and now I have a nice little support group of girls, who gave me the boost I needed to ask a boy to the school dance… and he said yes! (Cue internal freak-out!)

So there's my exciting news for you, I hope I can be back soon!

Don't Worry

      I know this isn't much of a post but I'm still trying to stay active on my blog despite not having the time to think of many ideas let alone execute them! I drew this little bit out when I was trying to de-stress in the middle of all my homework. I went over it again on my computer to smooth it out and add colors and I'm pretty happy with the result. Makes me wonder why I don't draw more.

Salted Butter Caramels

      For some odd reason unbeknownst to me, my mom prefers cheap, bad caramels over the real good ones. And after many an argument with her as to why I'm right, you bet I had soft, salty, buttery caramels on the brain. So when I saw this recipe, which looked pretty simple, I knew I had to make it. 

      I'm on a short break/holiday from school since the entire state gets a four-day weekend so I set out to make some delicious hunks of pretty much pure sugar and fat.  

      I'll hand you off to A Beautiful Mess for the recipe, since that's where I found it, but enjoy a few pictures of the process- but forgive my kitchen for being terribly un-photogenic. And I'm smart enough to know that when making something as time-sensitive as caramels, photography shouldn't be one's first priority. 

      I used half and half instead of heavy cream since we didn't have any around, and I think I cooked them just a tad too long, so they're a little tough. But they taste absolutely delicious!

All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go

                           

      Sorry about my blogging break! I'll try my best to keep up with this- I had lots of things planned out for September but once they ran out I never had time to make new plans... So bear with me as I continue this new blogging adventure!

       I got this dress on my trip a couple of weeks ago in Madison with my friends, and did a little photoshoot in it earlier this week. It's a bit short, but with tights I think it works pretty well, and I really think the collar is perfect. It has this cute little scallop detailing on the edge, and the sleeves do too. Hopefully I'll find a way to wear it to school before it gets too cold!

"There's a kiss that sits upon her lips; that waits for planes and battleships"

            

      School has been swallowing me whole. I haven't had much time to blog or do much fun stuff but today I did finally get around to taking some pictures, so I thought I'd share one with you. I'm pretty proud of it, since it turned out exactly like the idea I had, which doesn't happen often! 

      Hopefully I'll be back here soon❤️

Madison

      Instead of paying for a hotel, after the concert, we stayed overnight at my grandparents' house in Madison, about an hour outside of Milwaukee. Since my dad and brother were going to a football game the next afternoon, us girls spent the day in downtown Madison shopping and eating before we drove home.

We went for a walk out onto a point that juts out into a lake and of course I took pictures.

And we got pizza at a place with tons of different, strange kinds of pizza. (Mac and cheese pizza, burger pizza, some kind of indian food pizza, salad pizza... But I decided on tomato, spinach and feta).

And you can't go to the University of Wisconsin Madison student union without getting some ice cream...

      And then we did a bit of shopping on state street, where my friend Grace (above) found three shirts and a pair of shorts for a total of $25 at the Gap! I also got an adorable collared dress from Urban Outfitters, but I don't have a picture of it... yet.

State Street

The inside view of the dome of Wisconsin's capital building. I love the pastels.

    On the drive back home, we stopped and went on a tiny hike to a scenic overlook and got to see all the pretty colors of the changing leaves.

      And, to top off the weekend... After leaving a nice little thank you comment on her instagram photo about the Milwaukee concert, Lorde's mom liked three of my instagram photos! (it was on my account @filozofia. I actually have three instagram accounts!)

Oh My Lorde // Milwaukee

   

      So, I've been on a longer-than-usual blogging break but that's because I had the most amazing weekend in Wisconsin! I, my sister, and two of our friends left school early on Friday so that we could make the six hour drive down to Milwaukee in time for the Lorde concert there! We were disappointed she didn't have a show scheduled in Minnesota but since my family is familiar with the Milwaukee area it wasn't too hard to convince my parents to let us get tickets.
      And the concert was agh-mazz-inggg. It was the first concert I had been to since Hilary Duff (anyone remember her?) In 2007 and it was a dream. It was awesome to hear Lorde sing live and it's just so cool when somebody famous whose music you listen to on repeat is right there before your eyes isn't it?
      I didn't want to risk bringing my camera in case cameras weren't allowed but I tried to get some okay photos of the concert on my phone. I used my camera the rest of the weekend though!

      Before the concert, orange soda + ice cream floats. (taken w/ camera)

      friends, across from the venue

Before the show, from our seats!

The sunset behind us

And a crappy iPhone shot of the queen herself!

Another post will be up soon of our day in madison after the concert. I hope your weekend was just as wonderful!