As You've Probably Heard...

    It's Valentine's Day! 

It's not too extravagant, but I loved making it for you all:) 
This is for the normal days made special by a long-ago deed of love and bravery. 
An act of defiance and a determination to follow God's will.
To Saint Valentine, on this day of love and sweetness.

"If I sing, but don't have love,
I waste my breath with every song,
I bring an empty voice, a hollow noise.
If I speak with a silver tongue,
Convince a crowd but don't have love,
I leave a bitter taste with every word I say.
So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love
Let my love look like You and what You're made of
How You lived, how You died
Love is sacrifice
So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love."
(For King and Country - Proof of Your Love)

The Day After Orko

Good afternoon to you all!

If you have been paying any attention to the news or weather you should know about "Nemo" and "Orko."
They are two huge winter storms (big enough to be named, obviously:)) and we here in Minnesota got to have Orko! We got at least two feet of snow (three ft in some drifts) and I have been having lots of fun with my bros and sis in it! Here are some photos from Monday night as it was still coming down.

You can't really tell how deep it is, but take my word for it: it's DEEP! Up to my knees, anyway, haha...

This is my favorite: snow had blown over the window and the lighting was awesome! You can also see the plants sticking through the snow and a bit of green in the corner from another bush.

Snow makes awesome bokeh!





When the flash is used it highlights the snowflakes in a pretty neat way:)

After we "dug out" a little, there were tons of these huge snow piles everywhere. 







Then the next morning we got up and had to do it all over again!

Alrighty then. I'll leave you with this huge pile of hard work and sweat! Seriously, I sweated after a while. Shoveling's harder than it looks! See ya later alligator!

Eli!

Portraits and A Door

 Told you I'd post soon:) These are from the good ol' days of 2012! Fall is the best time for portraits isn't it? The photos below are some of my favorites!

Little brother and sister were kind enough to let my order them around for a while. Ha, who am I kidding, I tell them what to do anyways:) No seriously, they were excellent posers for me!

The colors complement each other and add a lot to the composition, I had to use a fast shutter speed 'cause she was swinging pretty fast:)

This is at Itasca State Park. There are beautiful spots for pictures everywhere! J has his favorite Webkinz: Bucky:)

"Study Buddies"

I tried to line the trees up so it would go together seamlessly and look poetic:)
("Poetic" looks like "pathetic" out of the corner of my eye, haha)










I really like this last one, which I have done something rare to: I named it!

Wait! This post is named "Portraits and A Door." So, where's the door, huh? This is for FMTSO! Yay! Oh right, here it is!

             I really like this door, saw it while Geo-Caching with my grandparents last summer. It is old and cool and dilapidated (whoo I spelled it right!) and mossy!                  

That be - ith all for now ye kindred spirits!  

PS: I updated this and added a few more photos I forgot.

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan

How has it been y'all? January, I mean. At the beginning of 2013 my family and I went skiing in Michigan (had the best time:) and traveled through the Upper Peninsula on our way back.

These are some views of Lake Superior!

I think the snow gave these photos an interesting aspect in contrast to the palm trees and sand you would expect on a beach:)

This one, the composition was almost accidental but I really like how it turned out:P
I had to tilt it a little more in post-production so the shore lined up with the skyline better.

OK that's all for this quick post, guys! Expect more, SOON!

(Seriously, I promise:)
Keep those cameras flashing!
Eli