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!