College Journey Part Four: The Decision

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When I returned from my impromptu road trip back from Michigan with my former college roommate, I returned to a lot of unanswered questions. The largest of them being: what am I going to do now? 

I was accepted to Seattle University, and I had toured the campus, which I really enjoyed. It was stunning, not too far from home, and offered a degree in photography. I scheduled a meeting with the department, and went to the university to get a department tour. Everyone I met was kind, however something was off. While I was excited, I was also nervous to figure everything out. 

Once I realized that this wasn’t going to be an easy choice, I decided I wanted to take some time to think about it, and to give myself that time, I was going to take time off of school in order to determine my next steps. 

I waited for my parents to return home from work, and then we decided to sit down and have a conversation. They seemed open to it, and I was glad to be relieved of the pressure of making a decision. 

The next afternoon, my dad called me and told me that he didn’t want me to take time off of school, and I had essentially two days to make things happen. I started to panic. How was I supposed to make that choice in a matter of hours? I could feel the clock ticking, so I went to work. I continued registering for Seattle University, even though I was conflicted as to whether or not I wanted to go there. 

That evening, my mother returned home from work and I discussed with her what I was dreading. I didn’t know what to do, and I was so anxious and panicked by this decision. We spoke about what was important to me, and what I wanted out of my university experience other than a degree. 

As we discussed my options, I spoke the words that I never thought would come out of my mouth: 

“What if I went to Walla Walla?”

Now, you may remember that I have had a complicated past with my feelings toward Walla Walla University. I was originally against going there because they didn’t offer a photography major and everyone from my high school attends there.

However, when I visited my friends that were attending there earlier in the summer, I really enjoyed being around them. I loved the way that they all were close to each other, I enjoyed the church services, and I thrived being around familiar people, even though it was a relatively new place. My eyes were opened as to what college life could be like, and I was glad my friends had found a university they enjoyed more than I was enjoying my time at Andrews. 

Those memories played through my mind as I heard the question echo through the room.

“Did you really just say that?” my mom asked, her voice filled with surprise.

“Well, yeah. It wouldn’t be so bad. If I didn’t like it, I could transfer to Seattle University after two quarters,” I explained.

My mom was happy to help me research my decision. I made a chart with columns for the things that mattered to me, such as social life, cost, and distance. 

In the end, I looked at the chart and saw that it ultimately pointed me in the direction of Walla Walla University.

Five Shows to Watch Again and Again

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I am one of those people that watches shows over and over again rather than starting new shows. While I do enjoy new shows, I simply enjoy being able to put on a show that doesn’t require my full attention so that I am able to multitask and work on a new task.

With that being said, I have a few shows I tend to turn to over and over again, and I want to share those with you in the hopes that you enjoy them as well.

5. “Jane the Virgin”

“Jane the Virgin” is a hilarious telenovela centered around Jane, a young adult woman, and her attempts to keep her virginity amongst the challenges of her crazy family life. Of course, she has a lot going on that you don’t expect. The show includes the crazy, dramatic twists and turns and a very exuberant narrator to top it all off.

This show is available on Netflix, as well as the most recent five episodes being available on the CW website. I’m sure once the fifth season is completed, the whole series will be available on Netflix.

4. “Gilmore Girls”

“Gilmore Girls” is a heartwarming, fast-paced sitcom centered around single mother Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter Rory. The two are essentially inseparable best friends who exchange quick-witted comments at lightning speed.

The bond formed over these 10 seasons gets stronger daily, and is reprised in the Netflix Original “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life”. All ten original series are available to stream on Netflix, as well as the spin-off.

3. “Glee”

Misfit teens team up with the popular quarterback to sing show tunes in the wonderful Fox series “Glee.” The show explores taboo topics such as sexuality, gender roles, and high school stereotypes all while throwing in some extremely well-done musical numbers ranging from pop songs to musical theatre hits.

The six seasons are comprised of 45-minute episodes that are available to stream on Netflix.

2. “Hart of Dixie”

Zoe Hart, cardiothoracic surgeon from New York City, suddenly finds herself in the small town of Bluebell, Alabama, working as a family doctor. While she explores the drama of love, heartbreak and small-town traditions, she learns that maybe a small town life is all she needed.

Netflix offers all four seasons to stream, and let me tell you, in the end, no one ends up where you thought they would in the start.

1. “Friends”

As I have said in previous posts, “Friends” is my favorite TV show of all time. I am currently in my seventh time through, and I can’t wait to watch it over and over again. The series centers around six people in their 20’s living in New York City. As someone about to enter their 20’s, I think this show offers valuable insight. While somethings aren’t applicable nowadays since the show is from the 90’s, I do think the show offers some valuable life lessons.

The 10 seasons are available on Netflix, thankfully, even though they said they were going to take it off at the end of January 2019. After public outcry, it will remain on the service for a long time. I, for one, am thankful, since that means they “will be there for you”, and I for sure will be there for them too.

Boston

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Last spring, while I was a freshman at Andrews University, I was in an Advanced Photography class. We had a final project we needed to do for class, and it had to be between 20-30 images.

I spent my spring break visiting a close friend in Boston, Massachusetts. He was attending school there, and another friend of ours was going to school close by. It was wonderful exploring this place they had both come to hold so dear.

While I was there, I became interested in the architecture and the architectural elements throughout the city and surrounding areas. I would stop every three minutes just to shoot more photos of the gorgeous buildings and little things I would notice along the way.

As I explored, I noticed that this city would be the perfect subject for my final project. I started to notice some repeating forms and the stunning contrast of the old stone and the new glass skyscrapers.

Fast forward a few months, and I had completed my final project. I decided to edit the images in both color and black in white just to see what looked best, and ultimately decided to finalize the black and white images. They were stronger compositionally in black and white since the colors were faded originally due to it being late winter at the time.

I edited them originally in Adobe Lightroom Classic CC, and then imported them into Silver Efex Pro 2, which allowed me to add some more details to the images. After that, I added them into Adobe Photoshop, where I did some touch ups, like removing some distracting poles or branches, and then added a border.

The final step was creating an artist’s statement. For those of you that may not be familiar, an artist’s statement is a piece that accompanies the title of the piece/series and explains it. Sometimes it provides some background information, other times it is simply a poetic statement of types, or leaves the reader to add their own interpretation.

Since I captured these images and the project was completed, a lot has changed in my heart and in my life. It has been over a year, after all. I will only slightly adjust the statement in order for it to be more clear, but I hope you will enjoy the artist’s statement as well as the images nonetheless.

“I Wish I Could See the World Through Your Eyes”

Those words echo through my mind to this day.

When I was asked why I wanted to become a photographer, I would say I wanted to show people how I view the world and all of the little things I would notice in day-to-day life.

With the jobs I have been presented with in my field, I have been so focused on capturing events that I no longer saw photography as an art form and I lost sight of my original purpose in what I wanted to do as a photographer.

While shooting in Boston over spring break, I was amazed by the artistic side of me coming back to life. I would walk down the street and have to stop every few seconds just to capture something new that caught my eye.

As I stood there, I had someone I cared very deeply for standing patiently beside me. As I started to shoot, I heard him say, “I wish I could see the world through your eyes.”

Since then, that has been my goal every day.

If you would like to view more of my work, please follow me on Instagram and Twitter, @kirstenimages.

College Journey Part Three: A Summer Epiphany

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Once I had been home for a few weeks, I decided to go to Walla Walla and visit all of my high school friends, plus it was one of my closest friend’s birthday weekend, so we were going to celebrate. I had visited a few times during high school, but had never really enjoyed my time there, but most of that was circumstantial due to things happening in my personal life. I was determined to have a good time this weekend, plus I hadn’t seen my friends since Christmas break, so I was so excited to see everyone.

While I was there, I found an entirely different type of college experience. All of my high school friends had made a bunch of new friends. They were always in each other’s rooms, spending time together, going to parks, sharing clothes, and having fun together. I was not expecting that at all. My college experience was nothing like this, but I was happy to see them satisfied with their chosen school. Plus, it was refreshing to see that college wasn’t terrible for everyone.

Over the summer, I decided I wanted to do a semester abroad in England. In order to do this, I had to drop my honors program and do regular generals. The bad thing about this was that my only other friend was in the honors program, so I wouldn’t have any friends in my classes anymore. It was a tough choice to make, but I knew I would have an amazing time abroad during spring semester my sophomore year. Plus, one of my friends from high school was planning on going to the school in England as well, so I would be able to room with her and explore Europe by her side.

While I wasn’t excited for being back in Michigan for fall semester, I was super jazzed about going abroad for the spring, so it made up for it. I knew that it would be fine in the end, plus, I just wanted to travel. I would do anything to get out of Michigan.

I had a busy summer. I was working, helping out at home, and also trying to make time to spend with my high school friends, who, by then, had finally returned home for the summer. Finally, in my busy schedule, I had found time to fly down to Los Angeles and visit my aunt for the first time since my junior year of high school when we looked at colleges together.

At this point, I was supposed to return to Michigan in two weeks for school. That was when she asked me why I was going back at all if I didn’t want to go at all. My aunt had kept in contact with me though out my freshman year and she knew how hard it was on me, so when I told her I had a new plan and was going abroad, she was glad. She made a good point though, if I wasn’t happy, then why was I going back at all? Ironically, earlier that day I had a received an email from a school that I started applying to on a whim during fall semester when I was sure I was going to transfer, before I settled on just remaining where I was. 

I mentioned the email to her, explaining how they said there were two days left before the application deadline. She encouraged me to apply, and to get out of the school that I wasn’t happy at. Just one problem­–– I hadn’t even toured this school before, and I wasn’t sure I would like it. This school, Seattle University, was within an hour of my house, and located near the heart of Seattle. 

She helped me finish my application the next day, and kept me on task while I made calls to the head of admissions and the photography department. It was nearing the weekend, and I needed to know if I was even accepted as soon as possible, especially since I needed to find out if I was going to be going back to Andrews to stay for the semester, or just to pick up my car and drive straight home. Luckily, the people at the school were super accommodating, and told me quickly that I was accepted, and I arranged a tour with the school and then the department afterwards. 

Then came the hard part, telling my parents. They were very understanding and supportive, however I stressed my mom out since she was out of the country visiting family, and she was going to be gone and unable to help me for a while. 

Once I knew I was accepted, I was sure I wanted to leave Andrews. While I didn’t know if I would be attending Seattle University in the fall or taking time off from school, I did know for sure I would not be attending Andrews. Luckily, I had a flight and bus ticket booked in order to get me back to where my car was already since I was planning on returning for school, but instead, I decided to pick up my car and all my stuff, and then drive back to Washington. 

Luckily, my old roommate was able to join me on this expedition, and we drove from Indiana to Washington in three days. It was a wonderful adventure, and I am so thankful for everything that happened. 

I was relieved to be home, but I didn’t know what I was going to do next. Where would I end up? Was Seattle University the answer? I had a lot of thinking to do.

Five Facts About Me

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Since this blog is intended to highlight my perspective on the world and the things I like and dislike, I think it is essential for my followers to know more about me. By revealing more about who I am as a person I hope that each of you will understand my thoughts and posts more completely.

I want to share five facts about me with you all that will hopefully allow you to have some insight into who I am. I hope you enjoy reading these humorous pieces of information, and that it allows you to enjoy the other pieces on this blog with a new perspective.

1. I have lived in four states.

I spent the first three years of my life in Texas. I don’t remember much of it, but I do know it was nice to be within driving distance of some of my relatives. After that, I spent almost years in Alaska. I enjoyed my time there. I loved playing outside all year round. Contrary to the stereotypes I have encountered, I did not live in an igloo, and it did not snow all the time. Before the start of my eighth grade year, I moved to Washington state, and I have been living here ever since, except for during my brief stint in Michigan while attending Andrews University.

2. I am part Australian.

My mother is from Australia, and her mother is Australian, and her father is from New Zealand. My mother’s family primarily resides in Australia, so I have had many opportunities to visit them. Last time I was able to go, I even brought my friend Alanna along for the journey.

3. I have watched “Friends” six times through (and counting).

“Friends” is my favorite show of all time. Whenever I can’t decide what I want to watch, I always end up watching Friends. I think I am currently on my seventh time through, however, to be completely honest, I think I have lost count.

4. I was the lead in the school musical my senior year.

My senior year we did a production of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” and I played Milly, the female lead. I had an amazing male lead, Jensen, who was rather new to the musical acting scene, however he was wonderful and portrayed the actor well, despite being nearly the complete opposite of the character in real life.

5. I have always had a big dog.

My family is a big dog family. When I was born, my parents already had a Great Dane named George. When he passed away, it was a few years before we got our next dog, an American mastiff named Tater. He was there for my first day of Kindergarten and my high school graduation, and he even saw my safe return home from my first year away at college. Unfortunately he passed away last summer at 13 years old. We then “rescued” our current dog, Patrick, who is another Great Dane. He just turned one this past March, and now we are getting another American mastiff at the end of this month. This will be the first time we have ever had two dogs at once, and my parents and I are all eager to see how it all works out.

Instagram Aesthetics: Organizational Patterns

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I frequently tell people that Instagram is my favorite social media platform. As a photographer, I find it is an easy way to increase exposure and allow people to see a nice representation of my work.

I have had an Instagram account since 2013, and since then, I have carefully curated my content and tried to create a consistent look.

I pride myself on the organization of my Instagram posts. While I may not have many Instagram followers, I do enjoy posting on the platform and sharing photos with my friends, family, and clients.

Friends of mine have trusted me with their account passwords and allowed me to archive posts in order to format their accounts in a more aesthetically-pleasing way. Unfortunately, I am unable to sign in to everybody’s Instagram accounts and format them.

I thought I would share with you one of my biggest tips on how to make your Instagram more consistent, clean, and organized. Hopefully these tips will help you stand out from the sea of influencers and really have a clean-cut look to your account.

Establishing an Organizational Pattern

One way to make your account look more organized is by creating a more organized look for your profile. On both my personal and business accounts, I have decided to post in rows. I personally like the way that this looks, and I think it divides up each row well.

While I like the look of rows, some people, like my friend and fellow photographer Mariah Johnson, @mj_media on Instagram, prefers to use columns.

Columns example via Mariah Johnson (@mj_media)

Other organizational patterns include cubes, boxes, diagonal lines, or a checkerboard pattern. Since I have the most experience with posting in rows of three, I am going to focus on how you can accomplish that look on your Instagram account.

While rows are so satisfying to look at, they may be hard to accomplish if you aren’t willing to archive former posts or delete and start over with a blank account, but there are a few ways to get around it.

Before you do this, you would have to do is make sure your posts are divisible by three. Essentially, if you scroll all the way to the bottom of your account, you should not have one or two posts at the bottom, but you should have a full row of three. If you have one or two posts, you either have to remove one or two posts, (simply archive, don’t delete), or you can post either one or two photos to complete that row.

Once you have accomplished this, you can do one of two things. The first thing you could do is post a divider row. This can be very irritating to your followers, so be warned, just in case you lose a few.

A divider row will consist of three photos. Most people either do blank posts of just one color, or some posts with words on them. To make them more interesting to your followers, I would post three photos that relate to each other and aren’t too far out of what you would usually post. For example, three photos of beaches you have visited, three similar landscapes, or something of that nature. On my personal instagram account, I have a row that could serve as a divider row of three different telescope type things on top of major land marks.

Divider row example from my personal Instagram

After your divider row, you can post your first row. I recommend not posting all three photos from that row on the same day. Not only it irritating to your followers, but it also decreases the amount of likes you may receive on one photo. Of course, if you have thousands of followers, people probably won’t mind you posting several times a day, but for smaller accounts like my own, I advise spreading your three photos over the course of a few days.

The other way to go about this is to simply start posting in rows, and skip the divider row. After two or three complete rows, it will become clear on your profile that you are using a new organizational pattern, so the divider row is more of a clear division that some people prefer, but isn’t a necessity.

In a later post, I will share some more tips for posting on Instagram, including apps I use for editing and organization, post planning, and other tips.

Do you use Instagram? Feel free to follow me, @kirstenimages, and check out the content I post.

College Journey Part Two: College Life

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Andrews University has a special program where you can go four weeks before the start of the year, technically three weeks before orientation week, and take one class and get that whole semester-long class out of the way in three weeks. Due to my achievements in high school, I received a scholarship for this program, and was able to go for a discounted rate.

While this was wonderful, I was also devastated to be leaving so soon. My friends were all going to be attending Walla Walla University in the fall, and they were going to be on quarter system, so they didn’t start until September. I had to leave halfway through July to drive out to Michigan and start my jumpstart classes and actual college before all my friends were even thinking about their dorm room décor. 

Saying goodbye was the hardest part. I had been told for the past year by my parents that these people I had been friends with for the past four years would no longer be my friends by the end of my freshman year of college, and that I would be making new friends, and saying goodbye to them, knowing I may never see them again, was absolutely heartbreaking. 

I’ll skip over the sad details of all the goodbyes I said, and skip to the packing. As some of you may know, I drive a Volkswagen Beatle, which isn’t necessarily a huge vehicle. I had to fit all my stuff for school, as well as my mother and her bag, and myself, all in this tiny car and drive it across the majority of the United States. Surprisingly, this wasn’t as difficult as it sounds. To be fair, we did wait to buy quite a lot of stuff until I was in Michigan, but the car wasn’t super full, even with basically all my stuff in it.

The morning I left was hard on me. We woke up early to get on the road, and as the sun was coming up, I was hugging my dad and saying goodbye to my dog, who I was unsure would still be there when I came back, due to his old age.

Once my mom and I were on the road, my tears had dried a little bit and I started to try and focus on the road ahead. We had a fun road trip, and stopped to visit a few loved ones on the way over to Michigan. 

We arrived in Michigan on a Friday evening, and my mom was flying out on Sunday afternoon, so we had some time to get me settled before everything ready for me to start my summer session class on Monday. 

Those few days flew by, and I said a tearful goodbye to my mom before going up to the room and having my new roommate and her family come help move all of our furniture around so we could unpack and get settled. 

I really lucked out on the roommate front, and I was able to bond with her fairly quickly. Since she was a graphic design major, and I was a photography major, we had a lot in common, and we spent a lot of time together. After summer session ended, and we started our classes in the fall semester, we fortunately had a lot of the same classes together, so we became pretty close fairly quickly. 

As the year progressed, I had a hard time making more friends. I had two solid friends by the end of the year, one of them being my roommate, but she wasn’t going to be returning to Andrews the next fall. I was super sad about this, but I knew I would get to see her since she was going to come visit me over the summer.

While I wasn’t completely satisfied with my college experience at the end of my freshman year, I ultimately decided I was going to stay, even though I had explore the idea of transferring to another school for my sophomore year. I ended up leaving my car and all my stuff in a storage unit in Michigan so it would be ready for me to return to in the fall.

Finally, after what felt like years of being away from home, I was returning home for the summer.

Limited Descriptions

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For the time being, I have decided that my posts on Monday’s are going to about sharing elements of myself and my life with you.

This week, I decided to have some people that are close to me describe me in three words. Not only is this a good way for you guys to learn a little bit about me, but also I get to introduce you to some of my favorite people, and learning about them will also let you in to another aspect of my life.

One of the first people I contacted was my mother. My mom and I are pretty close, so I figured she would have a lot of insight into who I am, and would be able to describe me in three words pretty easily.

Mom: “You are indescribable. (3 words. You’re welcome.)”

Next to respond was my childhood best friend Maddie. Maddie is a year younger than me, and we have been friends since I was in fourth grade and she was in third grade. We used to spend every afternoon together, playing and making fun videos of us doing skits we would make up.

Maddie: “Bright, caring and loving.”

Sienna was one of my first friends when I moved from Alaska to the Seattle area. I’ve known her for over six years now, and even when I was attending a different school several states away, she and I were still in frequent communication and would hang out over school breaks. When I asked her this question, she responded almost immediately.

Sienna: “Loyal, efficient and friendly.”

One of my first friends in college in Michigan, Kyra, was also among the first to respond. Kyra and I have had a few classes together, and we had a lot of fun. She was one of two friends I had at Andrews, and we have kept in pretty consistent contact since I transferred.

Kyra: “Compassionate, funny and smart.”

Paxton Shock was among the people I texted as well. Pax and I have been friends for years, and they are someone I have always felt I could talk to about anything and everything. We became close my sophomore year of high school, and our worlds have drifted apart, but we still talk every day in some capacity. When I asked them to describe me in three words, they immediately asked me if I meant my personality or aesthetics. I told them to go ahead and do both.

Paxton: “Personality- witty, exuberant and demure. Aesthetic- Lithe, beautiful and Starbucks.”

I asked my friend Mariah this question too. Mariah and I have known each other for about six years, however she and I didn’t become super close until our sophomore year of high school. We are now in the same department with similar majors, so we have quite a few classes together and see each other frequently.

Mariah: “Hardworking, creative and leader.”

McKenna is a person who has been a great friend to me for years. She has been there for me in my hardest times, and I know we will be friends for years to come. We became super close near the end of my junior year of high school, and since then, though distance and busy schedules have made it difficult, we have remained fairly close.

McKenna: “Driven, authentic and accurate.”

Finally, I asked Christopher to describe me. Christopher and I have been friends since our freshman year of high school. At the end of 2018, we started that we wanted to begin dating, and as of now we have been together for over four months.

Christopher: “Creative, focused and thoughtful.”

It was interesting hearing what the people that I love think about me. They definitely described me with words I wouldn’t have even thought of. If I had to describe myself in three words, I guess I would have to say:

Compassionate, hardworking and loving.

My Camera: Nikon D5300

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I’ve been interested in photography for years. I bought my first DSLR before my sophomore year of high school, and I still have it today.

I purchased a Nikon D5300. It has a lot of wonderful features, but one thing I really like about it is the WiFi capability.

After downloading Nikon’s WMU app, I simply go into the settings on my camera and enable the WiFi, then use my phone to connect. After I am connected, I am able to use the app to download photos from my camera straight to my phone in a matter of seconds.

This feature is so helpful, especially in the fast paced world we live in today. When you do a photoshoot, people want to have access to the photos so they can instantly post them on social media. Thanks to this feature, I can get the photos to them in a matter of minutes, which is something my clients tend to appreciate.

I’ve had this camera for almost five years and it still functions just as well as the day I purchased it. The ability to change the lenses quickly makes it so much easier to get that perfect shot in any type of setting.

I will be posting about my photography frequently on this blog. I hope you enjoy the posts and be sure to follow my photography account on Instagram: @kirstenimages.