Missing Megan and Sunsets

This has been an interesting experience having Megan gone for the past few days. I've come to more fully realize how much time I really do spend with her and how much that time means to me. I only get to talk to her for 15-20 minutes every day right before she goes to sleep. I must say that I'm really looking forward to tomorrow when I get to go pick her up from the airport.
It has been a lonely couple of days without her. My great friends have done a good job at keeping me company but unfortunately it is not quite the same as having Meg. I can hardly wait to have her back.

On Friday I went to KFC with Hailey and Karena to get some fried chicken and then we watched "The Proposal." Things like this do help to pass the time and I am greatly appreciative of their effort. Then yesterday (Saturday) I went to a super fun birthday lunch for Dominique at the Cheesecake Factory. This was a first for me and I was not disappointed.

Later in the day I headed off to pick up some prints from Walgreens to put up on the ward photo board. On my way down I saw that there was an amazing sunset/landscape scene right in front of me. I realized that I'd left my camera at home so at the next light I flipped around and sped off towards home hoping that I would make it  in time. I got my camera and sped off to some high ground so I could capture this sunset. I took a few pictures and then headed off to get my order from Walgreens. On my way back up 400 South I had the thought..."I should go watch this sunset in the hopes of it being something great." So that's what I did. I drove up to Red Butte and parked. I ended up walking up behind the new Natural History museum to get even higher and I am quite happy with what I got.

Molten Chocolate Cake

What a week it's been. I was so happy to spend a bunch of time with Meg. Yesterday (Monday) Meg and I were sitting at the dining room table "doing homework" which meant that she was semi focused on homework while I was totally distracted with Facebook and the such. I was looking around on Pinterest (yes i know it's crazy that I have a Pinterest account...don't worry about it) and I came across a wonderful thing. Molten Chocolate Cakes!

I showed them to Meg and she looked at the recipe and declared that we would make these after he class if I would go to the store and pick up some semi-sweet chocolate. I readily agreed. After taking her to class I headed to Dan's to get the chocolate and some vanilla ice cream.

Before picking up Meg I stoped by FHE to take some pictures of the dodgeball game unfolding there.

I also stopped by Victoria's house to pick up some souffle dishes for the cakes and ended up talking to her mom for a while which was fun due to the fact that I haven't seen her in ages. It was then off to get Meg from class and begin the adventure of making these cakes.

They were quite easy to make and tasted so good!
We ended up with and extra cake so we decided to take it back down to Victoria's along with the other three clean souffle dishes. When we got there Victoria invited us in. We ended up sitting and talking with her and Dallin (her boyfriend) for a good little while. It was great. Anywho, it was great fun.


Later last night I actually did do some homework. I had Meg help me practice the waltz for my ballroom class.

We also spent a good chunk of time taking pictures of ourselves using my cameras timer which waits for 10 seconds and then will take up to 10 consecutive pictures. It was like having our own personal photo booth!

Photography

At the end of my Sophomore year at East High School I was signing up for classes and I needed some elective credits. As I looked over my options I remembered my sister taking a photography class. More specifically I remember going on a family vacation to California where we visited the Getty Museum. While there I can so vividly remember Anne (my sister) pull out her camera to take a picture for her photography class. I was fascinated by how this little thing worked. She must have noticed my curiosity because she let me take a peek through the viewfinder and play around with the focus ring. It was so amazing to see how much control I could have with focus and how much fun it was to have that control. I remember listening to the sound of the shutter each time she pushed the shutter-release. As this memory came flooding into my mind it only made sense to sign up for Photography. Little did I know that this would spark a love for capturing the world around me on film.

Throughout that year I learned how to control different creative aspects such as depth-of-field, motion, and grain. It was an amazing adventure to learn how to load my very own Canon AE-1 film camera and how to adjust the aperture and shutter speed to get the desired result. It was with this camera that I captured my very first negatives that I later turned into prints. The first time I stepped into the film developing darkroom I was so nervous about doing something crazy and messing up my roll of film. Having the lights go out to be left in complete and utter darkness didn't help to ease my fears. I was forced to rely entirely on my sense of touch to pry open the film canister, load that film onto a spool, cut it away form the canister, load the spool into a lightproof container and get the blasted lid screwed on straight, which was much harder than it sounds. Once this was done it was time for the chemicals. Oh the joys of film photography! Once this was done it was off to the printing darkroom to actually make my final prints. 

Four years later I am still in love with Photography. There is something so satisfying about going into the world and capturing what I see in a picture that can then be shared. I don't claim to be any good but I sure enjoy it. Every person sees the world through their own eyes and photography is one of the best ways, in my humble opinion, to share the way I see the world. I love it.

Just in case you may want to see a few of my pictures just  Click here.