Nicole Neff

Remember when I wrote about the book cover I was supposed to do for my Fundamentals of Imaging class? Well, I finally finished it tonight. It was truly a lot of fun, but I’m glad I’m done. (I rhymed!)

Yes, those are Tyler’s hands in those cuffs. He’s such a good sport!

Tonight, Sojourn celebrated our new building and coming together as a family with a Heavenly Hoedown! We had a great turnout, but the most important part is that we had a TON of fun! We started the evening off with some food…a tater wagon, chili, hot dogs, and some delicious desserts.

Next, we began our tournaments. Dan was the winner of the pool tourney.

 The last foosball game between Matt and Mike was a nail-biter…

But Mike came out victorious!

Kody interviews Matt, who blames his loss on Mike’s distracting shiny head…

And the winner of the rock, paper, scissors contest was Bailey!

And finally, Gabby was the winner of the “Huh” game. At the beginning of the party, everyone received a sticker. If you said “huh,” the person who caught you took your sticker. Gabby’s final count was 29!

We also did some line dancing as well as karaoke. We rocked the house!

Isn’t he just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?

You’ll be sorry you missed BJ and Matt’s rendition of “Man of Constant Sorrow.”

Thanks to everyone who made this night a success. It was definitely a fun night for all!

(All images shot with a Canon 40d/50 mm 1.4 lens, no Photoshopping)

Meet Meridian, everyone!

DANE on accoustic guitar and vocals:

BJ on electric guitar and vocals:

DANIEL on bass guitar and vocals:

LOGAN on sax and vocals:

Last but certainly not least, my man TYLER on drums:

I shot these images last night at The Internet Cafe on First Avenue in Evansville. Five bands were supposed to play, but two dropped out at the last minute. Although Meridian’s set was only about 35 minutes, they did an awesome job and really rocked the house. Their next show is May 17 at the Clay Pot in Boonville with Cassidy Hodges. Be there or be square!

(These were all shot with my Canon 40d. Because it was extremely dark in there, I had to shoot with a very wide open aperture to capture enough light. These images are straight out of the camera, with no Photoshopping done to them.)

We have an apple tree right next to the yard in our house. Most of the time, we’re annoyed by its presence because it drops unedible apples that later turn to mush in our yard. It attracts bees and bugs, both of which I don’t care for.

But last night when I got home, I noticed just how beautiful the tree was with all of its blossoms. It was giving off the sweetest, most alluring scent, too. I just wanted to sit under the tree all night and just take it all in. I might have if it wasn’t for mosquitos which are now making their presence known. Instead, I grabbed my camera, got under the petal-filled branches and captured just a fraction of the tree’s beauty:

Just finished up selecting and editing images for my mini portfolio tonight in basic photography. Now all I have to do is print, frame and turn them in. These are the final 10 images , which had to be done in black and white, for my “Aged” theme:

How is it that the weekends go by so darned quickly? I’m beyond frustrated that I have to go back to work tomorrow. Today was so beautiful that it made me just want to call in tomorrow and instead drive around with the windows down, breeze blowing in my hair and the music turned way up. But alas, it’s back to reality.

My weekend wasn’t altogether too productive. Too much going on for that, really. Saturday, I went on a 5.3-mile run. It was really great, even though it was in a light drizzle most of the time. That evening, we had a wedding to go to and after that we caught the Michael Peterson benefit for the Army at Roberts Stadium. One of our friends had box seats, so we were way above watching the show. Pretty cool to be up that high.

Today, I woke up at 6:30 and got ready for my run. I only intended on doing 11, but my miscalculations put me at more like 12.5. — in just under 2 hours. I think had I not gone on the run yesterday, I could have really been a lot faster. I’m feeling very good about the Mini. But needless to say, I was tired and sore afterward. 

Then we had church (the service was great and got my spiritual battery recharged!), ate out with friends, and took a much-needed nap. This evening I did round one of the senior pictures for my co-worker’s son. Originally, they only wanted to do head shots tonight, but when I got there, they also wanted to do some more fun ones. I think there are quite a few that really turned out well, and they seemed to like them, so that’s the important part. I can’t wait until I get them edited and can show you all!

Mother Nature, that is. Seriously, this rain is really inconvenient to my running schedule. I need to get an 11-mile run in this weekend, and I’d rather not get soaked in the rain. I know it may rain on the day of the half marathon so this could prepare me for that, but I also don’t need to chance getting sick this close to the race. According to weather.com, tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful, sunny day, so maybe I’ll get up early before church and put in 11 miles.

And I didn’t run yesterday, either. I forgot to set the alarm on my phone, so after the earthquake woke us up, I eventually went back to sleep and didn’t get up until 6 a.m. I was so angry. I should have just gotten up after the earthquake and gotten ready. It took me a while to fall back asleep after it since it completely freaked me out, so I probably would have been better off going out for a run.

I’ll probably get out today to do at least 4.5 miles just because I’m really wanting to get the extra mileage. I’ve run 15 miles so far this week, so that’s really not too bad. Add on the 4.5 today, and 11 tomorrow, and I’ll have 30.5 miles.

But for now, I’m going to take a nap, so this is where my running shoes will stay:

After work tonight, I shot some more pictures for my mini portfolio. My first stop was an old iron and wooden bridge. I got some okay shots, but because the bridge was one color — dull brown — there wasn’t much contrast to the pictures.

My next stop was at the house of a friend from church. Just down the road their house is the family’s old dairy farm, which is no longer in use. There were old barns, silos, tractors and random other things that really made for a lot of great photos. I’m really excited about these two:

It seems that people really like this photo, too, since several people have commented about it on my facebook and myspace.

I drive by this car every day on my way to work, and I’ve been dying to take a picture of it. I finally got that chance last night. I took about 40 photos of it from every angle imaginable, and I think this one is the best. I love the color, depth of field and angle.

Note: This image is straight out of the camera…no editing whatsoever, other than my logo.

Last night as I was running, I couldn’t help but enjoy the fabulous weather and scenery. The flowers are blooming, trees are starting to get their leaves and the sky was a fantastic blue. About midway through the run, I came across this old water tower and realized that the sun would be setting behind it…a perfect photo opportunity. So I ran back home as fast as I could, grabbed my camera and hopped in my car.

The sun was still up as I was leaving, but by the time I arrived back at the water tower, it was all but hidden. I was disappointed until I realized that the sunset was a brilliant purple and orange, better than I could have imagined. I parked my car, put on my hazard lights, grabbed my Canon 40D and started clicking away. I was more than pleased with what I got, but I’ll let you be the judge.

I’m so glad spring has finally arrived!

EDIT: I realized that I had put sunrise, but this is obviously a sunset. And it’s a water tower, not a silo. I was tired when I wrote this. Sorry guys!