Updates + Rainbow

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted on here... almost a month and a half.

I have had some free time recently, so I've been spending my time editing some pictures from April, May and June, so if I ever get extremely bored, I'll upload them here. I think I've edited around 10-20 pictures, so it will probably only happen if I get really, really, REALLY bored.

Anyway, today it was raining all day and around 7:00 tonight there were three rainbows outside. There was one really faint one that didn't show up in any of the pictures I took, and then there was a double rainbow. I took a few pictures of them, and a few of the sky since it looked pretty nice.

So this weekend, it's off to North Carolina for a competition. Personally, I think that the band show has come along really well, but there is a lot we could improve on- myself included. I'm bringing my camera (that is, if we can get any batteries before then), so it should be fun. :]

Looking for real-life pictures?

If you want to see pictures of things I'm doing nearly every day, check out my Photobucket account here.

This photo album will NOT have edited pictures or any pictures that will be shown on this blog or DeviantART. These are going to be pictures from things like this year's colorguard, football games, and just hanging out with friends.

I'm updating it now with pictures from last night's football game & colorguard performance.

(PS. Tell me if the link doesn't work.)

I've Been Tagged!

How it works:

1. Post the rules of the game at the beginning.
2. Each player answers questions about themselves
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and post their names, then goes to their blogs and leave them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read the players blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answers

Questions/Answers:

Where were you 5 years ago?
'Enjoying' the 6th grade.

What are 5 things on your to do list for the weekend?
1. Practice show routine for the first game next Friday.
2. Finish up book report, and watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show for that project, if I don't on Wednesday.
3. Shopping.
4. Building a house with Katelynn on the Wii.
5. Sleepover maybe?

What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
1. Doritos.
2. Vanilla wafers.
3. (Can snacks include drinks?) Sprite.
4. Donuts
5. Gummy butterflys. :D

What are 5 things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1. Pay off 4 years of college at SCAD.
2. Buy a bunch of clothes/shoes.
3. Haha, get an awesome car.
4. Get a bigger bed, and buy a place to put it.
5. Donate to charities that support the same causes I do.

What are five of your bad habits?
1. Procrastinating.
2. Injuring myself.
3. Babbling and being loud.
4. Talking a lot.
5. Tripping or falling or being a general klutz.

What are five places you've lived?
1. Newnan.
2. Cumming.
3. The end.
4. No where else.
5. Wow, that's really diverse.

What are 5 jobs you've had?
1. I once worked at the UPS Store.
2. That's it.
3. But after guard's over I need a job.
4. Unless I do winterguard.
5. If I don't, then probably Barnes and Noble or Target.

Five people I tag.
1. All the people I would tag either don't blog or have already been tagged.
2. ...
3. ...
4. ...
5. ...

No new photos today, but I have a new blog.

This may seem a little odd, but I decided a while back that at some point in my life I would write a novel. Whether or not it gets published is another story, but really, I want to write a novel.

So I started to.

I started this afternoon and I started another blog so you can keep up with my progress. There are a few things that I mentioned on the blog already, so check it out here.

:)

OME! OME! OME!

Last night, at 12:01AM, Breaking Dawn was released. As I'm sure many of you have heard, Kelli and I went to these book clubs at Barnes & Noble, in order to get to the very front of the line for the book. Since Kelli and I don't need 2 copies of the book, Kelli gave hers to Kristi, and we were at the front of the line, somewhere around number 15.

Once I had the book in my hands, it was a race home with Kristi, so we could finally crack open the spines of the books and start reading. (We also hit every green light on the way home.)
Now, at 8:04PM on the 2nd, I'm on page 593 out of 756. I want to finish, but then again, I don't want to finish. This is the LAST book in this series by Stephenie Meyer. Sure, we have the movies, and sure, we have Midnight Sun, but it's not really the same after that. It's over, it's done, the end.

If any of you don't know TwilightGuy (Kaleb Nation), he's a guy who decided to read Twilight to see what every girl was obsessing over. (His website can be found here.) Since then, he's read the first, on Chapter 7 on the second, and well on his way to the fourth. He does these seriously awesome pictures for his website, too, which inspired me to do my own.

Here's TwilightGuy's:

And here's mine:

I remember last December when I finished the third in the series and saying how August was so far away and it would take forever to get to Breaking Dawn. Since that thought, the front cover and three pages are going to fall out of Twilight. New Moon has hardly any damage- it's been read 4 times (2 by me, once by Kelli, and once by Shelley). I sort of feel bad for harassing Eclipse the way I did. It's split completely down the middle. The seam split, and the pages are falling out. But then again, I alone have read it 100,000 times, so it had a fulfilled life.

FINISHED!

Tonight I finished my shirt for the Breaking Dawn party. I think it turned out really well, and I'm excited to share it with Kristi. Kristi and I couldn't get together this week to make them, so we decided to make them separately, and then surprise the other. I'm excited to see what her's is like.

Now, the shirt says:

It's the thought that counts. I ought to know. / You are my life now. / Fall down again, Bella? / You compare one [tree] to an entire forest. / Do I dazzle you? / Twilight: no matter how perfect the day, it always has to end. / I could throw in a few extra homicides if it makes Jasper happy. / Time passes. Even when it seems impossible. / Bella's all about extreme sports these days. / Do you want me to bolt the doors so you can massacre the unsuspecting townsfolk? / I'm betting on Alice. / Death shouldn't be this uncomfortable. / Forbidden to remember, terrified to forget. / Fire & ice. / I prefer brunettes. / We're a bit sensitive to blood around here. / I can imagine how that must feel. Being normal? Ugh. / You're always curious. / Stupid, shiny Volvo owner. / Bells, we're up to bat.

Also, I know that I spelled quite a few words wrong, but I can't fix it now, even though I've tried. They aren't that obvious unless you sit there and stare at them for ten minutes straight, though.

Only one more day...! :]

Twilight Shirt

In case you don't know about Twilight, it's a book series by Stephenie Meyer about a 'forever seventeen' -year old vampire (Edward) who is drawn to a human girl (Bella)'s blood. Blah blah blah, they fall in love, the end. And that's just the first book.

After Twilight, it's New Moon, and after that it's Eclipse. I read those books last December by suggestion by my friend Cindy when we were Christmas shopping for friends at Target, literally three days before school was out. I got New Moon for Christmas, and realizing how addicting the books were, I bought Eclipse before I even finished with New Moon, just so I could read them faster.

Now, in 3 days (and counting), on August 2nd, the fourth and final book in this series will be coming out. The last book, Breaking Dawn, is a huge event for, not only me, but for 93% of the female teenage population in the US. Therefore, my friend Kristi and I are going to a release party at Barnes & Noble (so I'll have it 10 minutes after it's release). I made a shirt especially for the occasion.

I understand that it's probably not really easy to read (or understand if you haven't read the books), but it's quotes from the series. I'm not done with the shirt yet, (I still want to finish the front and the back, if I have time), but I just thought to give you a little taste of it before-hand.

It says:

It's the thought that counts. I ought to know. / You are my life now. / Fall down again, Bella? / You compare one [tree] to an entire forest. / Do I dazzle you? / Twilight: no matter how perfect the day, it always has to end.

I still have a ton of other quotes that I want to add, including:

Time passes. Even when it seems impossible. Even when each tick of the second hand aches like the pulse of blood behind a bruise. It passes unevenly, in strange lurches and dragging lulls, but pass it does. Even for me.

I just thought that I would share with you some of my shirt for the Breaking Dawn party, and I would also like to encourage you to read the Twilight series. They really are quite addicting.

PS: I am aware that I misspelled "Twilight," and I did fix it on the shirt. :]

For Aunt Peggy...

Mom had told me about 15-20 minutes ago that Aunt Peggy had wanted to know how I edit the pictures and what kind of camera I use, and other questions like that. So here's the answer to those questions:

How I Edit:
I don't really like to edit the pictures much, because I think it takes something away from the original scene/person/etc. Therefore, I don't use masques anymore like I use to, and I really only change the brightness (since I tend to mess up the white balance), the contrast and sometimes the hues of the colors. After that, I just add the watermark, and it's done.

The Editing Software I Use:
I use a program called Photofiltre, which is the French version of Photoshop. It works just as well as Photoshop, but I think it's less cluttered and easier to use. It's a free download, and you can get it here.

My Camera:
I use a Sony Cybershot DSC-S700. It has 7.2 megapixels. It's silver in color. (See picture.) Like I previously mentioned, I really want a Nikon D40 or D60.
Career:
Despite the fact that I have a lot of nature pictures, I really want to be a fashion photographer for a magazine, preferably one that I read now (GL, Seventeen, CosmoGirl or Teen Vogue). I also want to do freelance photography on the side, since I like to take pictures of nature.

By the way, I got my dress for my 16th party in the mail today, and once I look semi-decent (I just got home from band camp), and the dress is ironed, I'll do another self-portrait of me and it and add it.

Amicalola Falls

This past weekend, my family and I went up to Amicalola Falls in north Georgia. On the Friday (25th) after we arrived, we walked 600 steps to the falls and then 600 back up. Even though our legs and feet hurt after the 1,200 steps, the waterfall and the surrounding area was really pretty, and it provided the perfect opporunity for pictures.

On the 26th, we went to the 'Reflection Pond' so Eddie could fish. Since I'm trying to stray away from taking only pictures of flowers and the sky, etc, I decided that while Eddie was fishing I would take some pictures of him. There was also a couple of flowers around the sides of the pond that I took a few pictures of, too.

Self Portrait

Today I decided to give self portraits a try, since it's not something I do on a regular basis. On a scale of 1 to 10 on how hard it was, I'll give it a 7, mainly because I kept missing the self-timer and I didn't have a tripod, so I had to use a stack of books constantly.

Nevertheless, I thought I had a relatively good picture, until I loaded it on my computer and realized that I had the white balance messed up, and it made my face look blotchy and extremely shiny. I managed to fix it after about 15 minutes of editing (probably the most I've ever spent on a picture), and now it looks relatively good.

I didn't really do much to myself before I took the picture. The only thing I did was curl one side of my hair and add mascara; it's a very natural shot, in my opinion. Other than fixing the blotchy-ness of my face, I didn't really do much to the picture, other than change the contrast and the color a bit.

Six More...

My personal favorites are the third and fifth one. :)

Updates

First of all, I'm starting to get all of the pictures that I took on my camera while we were in Pennsylvania on my computer and edited. They are turning out great since I've learned how to use my "photoshop" better. (I don't use Photoshop; I use this program called Photofiltre. It's the French version of Photoshop in English, and it works just as well and it's free.) Right now I'm working on the third picture, but I decided to take a break and update the blog.

Next, I got a new DeviantART. The name is really very simple, and it's a lot easier to remember than kailaathatssmee. You can now find me here. I'll no longer be updating the old one with anything else, besides a message saying that I moved. I decided to move after I couldn't make the watermark on the pictures smaller without changing the name. ;]

I also have my HotMail account for MSN set up as the "official" photography e-mail. The Yahoo account that I have now is getting flooded with (mainly) spam, colorguard information, Delia's sales information, colleges in South Africa that would like me to go to school there, and just a ton of stuff. This way, it'll be easier for me to have a seperate e-mail for photography, rather than trying to control the mass quantities of things coming through my Yahoo account. The e-mail is: kaila_x3@hotmail.com.

I should have all the pictures on the new DeviantART by either late tonight or tomorrow.

New, Updated Pictures

Coming Soon...

Preferably Monday night, I'll have all the pictures from the Pennsylvania trip on my computer and ready to be edited. The editing process for these pictures will take a bit, since there are so many, and the lighting wasn't something I could control and therefore it was a little dark in some of the pictures.

Hopefully, by the end of next week, I should have all of the pictures edited and upload onto Flickr, DeviantART and the blog!

Lillies Are My Favorite

I really hate the watermark, but I don't have the software in Pennsylvania to edit the actual pictures and add my watermark myself. Therefore, it'll be four or five (maybe six) days until I have all the pictures that I've taken in the past two weeks edited and watermarked and everything.

Fireworks

Here are some pictures from the July 3rd fireworks in Pennsylvania. There were a lot of clouds and those conditions weren't too great for the fireworks. Hopefully, next year the conditions will be better and therefore the pictures will be better.

The watermark is an inconvience, I know, but once I get back home, I'll edit the pictures and add my own signature to them and the pictures will be clearer.

I also want to wish my mommy a happy birthday!

Crash

I would totally suggest reading the below post before you even THINK about reading this one.

So this picture of Eddie is what I would have submitted to the contest had I not been too late. The picture, at least to me... it speaks. I have no idea why, or anything, it just seems to portray an emotion. By just looking at it, I can almost feel the impact of the crash (had it not been staged), and that's why I love it.

I barely edited this picture, too. All I did was put a fog masque over it, which made it seems a little less bright and a little darker, which is what I had in mind for the picture.

Flickr & Contest Information

No new pictures today, although with only days left for the Nikon contest, I should probably get a move on. Anyway, I made a Flickr just now. Flickr is basically Yahoo's version of DeviantART, and I'll be uploading my pictures there as well. I'll put a link to my profile in the Links bar.

About the Nikon Camera contest, I have a lot of great ideas in mind, and I've been waiting for the right day to do it. So right after I hit "Publish Post," I'm going to go outside and get a move on, that way tomorrow I can edit them and submit them. I don't want to spoil the 'surprise' element by telling you some of my ideas, but they are sort of emotional kinds of things, and I'm trying to portray a ton of different emotions through the pictures.

On June 26, the contest ends, and I'll post the pictures that I've submitted (and the ones I haven't) on here for you to see before the judging begins.

Apparently, I read the contest information wrong, so when I went to go submit my picture today, it told me that submittions are over and that the voting would start on the 25th of June.

:)

Sunset in Orange & Free D60

The sunset tonight was orange and yellow and just all-around pretty. The sillouette of the trees across the street also add to this picture. (Wow, that sounded extremely corny.)

Anyway,

NikonUSA.com is having a contest for 60 people to win a NikonD60, which is only 20 numbers higher then the camera that I want- a NikonD40. Really, the only difference is mega-pixels, since the D40 has 6.1 and the D60 has 10.2. The camera that I have now has 7.2 mega-pixels, so I obviously want to step up, rather than step down.

[On the left, the NikonD40; on right, the NikonD60

Click on each thumbnail for more information on each camera]

So anyway, the D60 (or the D40) is the camera that I really want, and NikonUSA.com is giving 60 of these cameras away to the people that have the best "moving photograph"- whatever those words mean to the person. Then everyone will vote on their favorite picture, and the top 60 will get a free D60.

It's basically a free $700 camera.

So if I enter the contest, I really would like your help in voting for me so I really don't have to pay for the camera I really want.

[ NikonUSA Website ]

(:

This Is Poisonous

The above picture is of a flower/plant that is poisonous. I would highly suggest NOT consuming this plant/flower/thing if you were to come near it. In the words of our tour guide, "Do not sample the plants in the forest on a regular basis." word.

Here's another picture from Hightower Educational Forest that at 1:11am was just edited. It's amazing how editing skills(z) are improved when you're about to pass out. Still not able to reproduce parts of pictures without it looking... reproduced, but I'm still working on it, so it's okay.

Dahlonega Gold Mine

After the Hightower Educational Forest, we headed to a Dahlonega gold mine, called the Consolidated Gold Mine. We, at first, panned for gold, then proceeded to head almost 80 feet underground where it was dark and wet. Because of those conditions, even with the flash on, it was near to impossible to get a good picture of anything. I was midly surprised when this picture of a metal wagon-type thing actually turned out good with some editing.

Yellow Flower

This is probably one of my favorite pictures.

Hightower Educational Forest

I recently took a trip to Hightower Educational Forest with my brother's Boy Scout trip. While I was there, I managed to get a couple of really good shots that didn't require a great deal of editing.