a campus photo shoot

This past weekend - although I didn't get anything productive done - was a great weekend! I got to go out with friends, drink champagne, spend time in the sun, and go on a photo shoot with some of my favorite girls from my major.

We couldn't think of a cool location for our photo shoots - we are spoiled and the beach is overdone, plus it is too early in the year for the fields of flowers - so we stayed on our college campus*. Luckily, our school is partially agricultural which means that we have some pretty cool scenery. The main purpose was to get some professional looking photos, but we also took a few fun ones.

The following are just a few of my favorites - don't judge me on the editing, I just used the iPhoto basic editing tools.

Meet my beautiful models:

Erica, Krista, and Stephanie

Stephanie - my roommate and model from a year ago

Erica - friend from journalism and soon to be law school student

Krista - friend from journalism and one of the busiest, most accomplished women I know

And just some photos that I liked - Krista shot a lot of Erica, I shot a lot of Stephanie. We switched it up sometimes, but that's how it was split up for the most part...

Steph with my Diana camera (I'm getting those photos developed as we speak - we will see how they turn out, it was the first time I used it)

Messing around with manual focus

 

Cherry blossoms by the San Luis Obispo mission - so pretty

And a photo of me - taken by Stephanie

(I prefer to be behind the camera, not in front of it...)

*All photos in this post were taken on our college campus,

with the exception of the cherry blossom one

exhaustion

Do you ever get to a point in your day-to-day life where you are so tired of the same old routine, but you don't know how to change it? That's how I feel right now. It's like I'm in a rut and I have no idea how to pull myself out. Maybe it's that I am so bogged down with homework, work, and Love Out Loud Campaign stuff that I just don't have time for other things - including relaxation and my own thoughts. This week I have three midterms (yuck) and almost an entire book to read for each one... exhausting? Yes... extremely.

Anyway, last weekend should have been a nice break from the monotony of my day to day life - I headed down to San Diego with a few friends. We all brought our cameras (all Canons and proud of it) and hoped to get some good pictures at Balboa Park, the Birch Aquarium, and San Diego in general. Unfortunately, the change of scenery didn't get me too excited about taking pictures. I really wasn't in the mood at all, so I didn't mess with my settings too much or worry about lighting or composition.

In any case, here are some of the pictures that I took while in beautiful SD:

Out of focus, and kinda awkward because it is a picture of two of my best friends - but I like it because it was snapped without looking through the viewfinder and it has so much sky. Funky but fun and romantic. (Sorry C, I'll take it down if you want me to)

 Beautiful Balboa Park

One of my favorites - I love these purple flowers

I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy.

(I love Finding Nemo.. and beautiful fish... and jellies)

Beautiful sea horses (one of my favorite parts about this aquarium)

Sea Dragons!!

I'm sorry if I come off like I am complaining, that is definitely not my intention. Obviously I have a pretty good life and I am surrounded by beautiful scenery and wonderful people. It is actually kind of nice that I am busy and have things like the campaign that I am working on because it makes me feel like I am accomplishing something and making a difference. Complaining is, once again, not my intention. I think, occasionally, everybody feels like they are in a rut - eventually you find your way out though.

the castle on the hill

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity of going on a private Hearst Castle Christmas tour with the Cal Poly chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America. Our professor/club advisor is the public relations director for Hearst Castle. He does paid tours for the public, but for us he does it for free. (Thank you so so much Professor Eller!)

For those of you who don't know, William Randolph Hearst was an extremely successful newspaper publisher and politician. When he was a young boy he traveled around Europe with his mother, touring country sides, castles, and dreaming of all the wonderful things he would one day accomplish. Long story short (skipping all the journalism stuff that interests me, but probably won't interest most of the people who read it), once WR Hearst had made millions of dollars, he decided he wanted to build his own castle on a hill - just like the ones he had seen in Europe when he was a boy.

He worked with architect Julia Morgan to build a beautiful castle in San Simeon, California. While Hearst lived there he invited famous writers, actors, and politicians to come stay at the castle and experience all the wonders he had created there. Pools, tennis courts, a zoo, not to mention the wonderful view of the Pacific Ocean are only some of the attractions that made Hearst Castle the amazing place that it is.

I won't tell you too much more about the castle, because really nothing I say or do will do the place justice. You will just have to check it out for yourself - and believe me, it is worth the trip. Until then, however, I will leave you with some pictures to tide you over.

The Neptune Pool - rebuilt three times before Hearst was happy with it

The rooms in the house are each set up as they were seventy years ago. This is a woman's bathroom in one of the guest houses.

La Casa Grande - the main house where they ate dinner, watched movies (in his own private movie theater), played pool, etc. The architecture is based off of that which Hearst saw on his trip to Europe as a young boy. Most of it is based off of Spanish architecture. It kind of made me miss my Spanish home.

Romantic statue in Casa Grande

Table settings in La Casa Grande. When Hearst was a boy he and his family went camping at the exact location where the castle is now located. The china is his mother's "camping china" (funny huh?) and the mustard and ketchup are there because Hearst still loved the camping feel.

The dining room where Hearst would eat dinner with his guests. It is decorated for the holidays. Beautiful huh? (Sorry about the quality - no flashes indoors)

The Roman Pool - indoors and beautiful

Diving platform at the beautiful Roman Pool

The Castle On The Hill

P.S. By no means am I an architect, and although the type of style of architecture might be different, you can definitely see some similarities. Here is an architectural comparison of one of the pictures above to a photo I took in Spain:

Hearst Castle, California

El Escorial, Spain

Note: The pictures aren't my best and I was a little disappointed in them. I haven't quite learned how to take photos indoors - especially when you aren't allowed to use flash inside.

pura vida

Ever realize how vacations can be more exhausting than regular day-to-day life?

Of course, the exhaustion comes from eating large breakfasts, drinking way too many mojitos, and spending time on excursions... but still, it's exhausting. 

My family and I just got back from Costa Rica and it was a wonderful vacation. The group consisted of me, my  dad, step mom, family friend, and my three sisters. Everybody got along (for the most part) and there were no huge blowups like there usually are.

The food was good (especially breakfast), hanging out by the pool was wonderful, zip-lining was a blast, seeing all the animals was exciting, and the service was exquisite. We had a thing called "royal service" which meant that we had so many privileges that the regular guests did not have access to. The whole resort was all inclusive, and the drinks were super tasty. 

Here are my top 10 favorite pictures from the trip:

1. Toucan .. there were two of them

2. View of the ocean

3. The biggest grasshoppers I have ever seen

4. Monkeys!! (this one was yelling at us)

5. I really like pictures of twisty plants/vines (don't ask why)

6. They plant hot peppers to keep the bugs away from the organic coffee plants

7. Horses that we rode all through the forest

8. Bats that line up on the trees to look like snakes

9. Monkeys that relax by laying on a branch and hanging their feet off. Looks pretty comfortable.

10. Pretty purple flowers

And a few of the family:

Sisters (Liana, me, Kelley, Caitlin)

Zip-lining (I liked the frame that the tree provided to the photograph)

The whole family on our horses (Caitlin, Liana, Kelley, me, Devery, Cindy, Daddy)

The girls at lunch (Devery, Caitlin, Liana, me, Kelley)

P.S. The coffee was FANTASTIC. I bought myself three bags of it, even though I don't even know how to make it at home!

Birthday Girl

This weekend is Christine's 21st birthday weekend. Last night we had a big party for her at our house (which means I'm EXHAUSTED today), and yesterday was mostly spent getting ready for it. We did, however, have time to go to Poly Canyon in the morning so that Nikol and I could shoot some photos of Christine.

My camera was acting weird with the sunlight and shade and stuff, so the first batch of pictures I took were not very good and I was getting frustrated. As the shoot went on, it got better, but I am still not completely happy with this shoot. Christine was a wonderful model, but I didn't get as many good shots with her as I did with Stephanie. It was definitely my fault though, because Nikol got a lot of good pictures. I'm just a little disappointed is all.

Christine had wonderful dresses, though! She had good props and had fun with her surroundings.

we found a super cool old VW van just sitting there next to the architecture projects in Poly Canyon. It made a really cool prop! (the architecture projects, especially the houses like the Shell House that people actually lived in were really really weird!!)

I'm looking forward to more photo shoots with Nikol!
The ones we have lined up for the future are:
1. Nikol taking pictures of the three of us so we can put pictures in our living room next year
2. Nikol and I taking couple pictures of Christine and Garrett, Steph and Zack, and Nikol and Robert (even though Nikol claims that they won't be able to sit still long enough)

I'm so excited!!