Baby Pictures...?

Hello there dear readers! I apologize for not posting since the start of this month. To put it bluntly, I got grounded. For doing what you ask? That's right, failing a science test. (which compared to the other two i also failed this one I got the highest score) I was grounded for a month and so explains my absence.

Since I last posted  I had a birthday, and learned (again) the joy of having a thick book to read. I also may have started applying for jobs but that is not the point.

For those of you who don't know, my mother is very close to birthing my seventh sibling, making the infant my second sister. Just last night my mom started hounding me about the one thing I plan to do-ake pictures. My mom, who knows my passion is NATURE photography, is hoping -expecting- for professionally taken images.

While I doubt my ability to take "adorable baby pictures of her looking like this…" my mother has pointed out the fact that literally haunts me -how are you going to learn if you don't try -l.e practice-?

The only problem about this is while I don't  mind taking the pictures, I mind people -family- watching me work my -horrible- magic with the camera. Of course, once I start taking images, I suddenly don't have a problem with people. I get lost in what I'm doing and poof, the world around me disappears. Which I guess is the only way I am able to even come close to describing how I feel when behind the camera. Just focus on the subject, and the world dissolves.

Of course, I have taken  pictures of human subjects. For example, about 2 years ago or so, I spent a day, in lateish fall spending up to 2 hours taking pictures of my siblings. The good ones turned out to be of my sister, and younger brothers. The middle ones didn't clash very well with the style I was after. More recently, back in July, I was one of the photographers for my aunts wedding, which is probably the most comfortable I have ever felt while getting pictures, with people having the ability to stare at me openly. I mainly traveled rather quickly, barefoot, through the church, on a whim and only sat down twice, if I remember correctly. AND I go to work with my dad and get a lot of rather boring pictures of his guys doing well, Army things.

LONG STORY SHORT - I will have to somehow, take baby pictures of my unborn sibling with my mother giving me ideas and tips on the side. I can already see how that's going to turn out.
On a happier tone, here are some images I took the other day, of my favorite subject of course, nature. :)
-Olive

Friends

I have two best friends. One is a girl, and one is a boy. I met both online, and have yet to meet them in real life. One lives on the other side of the United States, while the other lives only a few states above me. I’ve been to both states; in fact I lived in one of them for a few years, and the other I stayed in overnight. (It was a highlight) (Look I just rhymed). And one thing I’ve noticed about my relationships with both of these people (and others) is that, distance doesn’t matter.

My girl best friend is Costello. To be honest, without giving away too much detail, Cossy is younger than me, but amazingly smart and much more mature then I am. (a friend of mine, whom met Cossy for reasons, thought she was older than me.) Before I created this blog, I didn’t know Cossy that well. We were more like acquaintances, going through chat rooms as distant friends. We shared a similar crush at one point, and Cossy is of course, one of the only people to know about. In fact only two people know, and that other person told on me. -_- Eventually, I got the idea for this blog, and created it and Cossy jumped in. Since then our relationship has gone from “hi I talk to you rarely” to “hi can we switch to text?” We have gone through a lot together. A year is a long time.

I have a similar relationship with my other best friend, tsuro. Of course there are some differences. For example: tsuro is about 3 months older than me, still amazingly smart and much more mature than I am. Tsuro and I also have a bit more in common than Cossy and I do. For one, tsuro has 3 siblings while Cossy has 1 (I have *cough* 5). Cossy has 1 dog while tsuro has 2 (I also have 2) and while I believe Cossy has 3 or 4 cats, tsuro has 6. (I have none.) Tsuro and I have also gone through a lot. Like I said before, a year is a long time.

Tsuro and Cossy are more of distant friends nowadays. They used to be closer, but I can’t remember what happened, and now, I simply mention the other to whoever I am talking to at the time. But they do have one thing in common.

They both saved my life.

If you could have anything in the world, what would you choose?

I, I already have everything I want in this world. Well sort of. Still have yet to get the guy.  But mainly, I have the best friends in this world, and I have close friends as well. I have people I can go to, mainly that leaves about 3 but whatever. I have people. I have close friends, who know me really well.

And before you start taking the shy kid for granted. Maybe you should actually talk to them. Because guess what. I’m the shy kid. And once you get to know me, well…that’s another story.  

Update.

Oh wow. I forgot about this blog. So sorry you guys!

So here is a small update:

1. started school. I'm a junior now. 0_0
2. it sounds a lot scarier then it is.
3. i have a total of 16 subjects. just sayin.
4. I'm homeschooled in case you didn't know.
5. my sister and I brainstormed and got a new story idea.
6. we're both writing 2 different versions of it though.
7. the idea itself is slightly complicated.
8. i'm still depressed.
9. my parents think i'm doing better. shhh.
10. i got a new medicine that is pretty much a sleeping pill.

and that's about it.

I shall try to post daily!

-Olive

Color

Day three -

Here are some more that I took while trying to get the above one!

Light~

Day two is light~ I'm not posting day one, because I don't want images on myself on here. So yup. But I took two that I really liked for today. Here they are!

Enjoy!
Olive~

100 Themes

Hellos -

So Summer is coming...well it kind of is Summer, but anyways - I'm going to be doing a lot of Photography in the month of July but I want all or at least a good share of my Summer to be spent behind the camera! Or reading or something along those lines, and so I was looking at this blog, and the blogger had posted something about 100 themes but for writing. I took that list, and like 3 other lists and made my own list. I am going to start June 1st and end (how I manged to do this I have no idea) on my birthday, which is in September! I'll try to post each one here everyday, but if I forget, please leave a comment and I'll post them!

I'm going to try to get some in black and white, but I have put down in the list color names, so a few will be in color. You can see my list for yourself here, and if you'd like to do this also. I need a link to your blog cause I want to see what you come up with! :)

-Olive

hmm.

So it's been slightly a busy week. If you can call it busy. I doubled up my school work, as I only have 6 weeks left. And yes I know most people are already on Summer break, but I usually don't get Summer offs. This year is like my first Summer off and I'm pretty excited! I already have a bunch of stuff I'd like to do! Anyways - I doubled up my work, and altogether if I had done it all at once I would have been done in about 2 hours or so. To sum it up, I wasn't that busy this week.

NaNoWriMo - for those of you who don't know - gives out that Createspace thingyyy if you win, and so I finished mine! It's 56 pages of poetry. Sorta bad poetry, but poetry all the same~ And so I'm looking forward to getting my free copies!

There isn't much else to talk about today.

Kind of out of it tonight.

Hope you all have a great night~

-olive

b&w Images!

Afternoon!

So today, I don't really have anything else to do, so I'm going to show off some black and white images! Since b&w is sorta where I got the blog title from, why not share some? So last Sunday we went to the national park and being in the woods obviously produces wood-like-images.

I usually keep most of my images in color, but I've been obsessing with the whole b&w look. As a friend and I proceeded to say in a comment conversation on Facebook:
me: They like...I have no idea how to explain it. It gives it like /more/ then it does with color.

 

her:  Exactly! I'm not sure how to put it in words either. There's just a certain depth to it that's so beautiful.

Which I realize makes pretty much no since, buuuut. It does explain how b&w images feel to well us. Black and white images have something about them that color images can't give. At least I think so.

Thoughts?

Rambling

I decided to write something small today. As 1) it's Saturday 2) I woke up an hour ago 3) which makes it 2:48 PM where I live 4) which is a very hot place. Also I have to write something small because I'm not exactly supposed to be on the computer at this time of day. *cough* I'm a very normal teenager alright! Kind of. Okay not really normal at all. Conceding the fact that I write about dragons and humans at war. Actually that was when I was 12. I've aged some since then. Okay like 3 years. Shhh.

Well that was kind of stupid. As was my last post. (I totally did not already write up a response to that post pftt what are you talking about?) And my humor sounds so much better in real life. Just sayin'. So I was going to stay up all night last night, but couldn't stay awake any longer at about 4am. My sister was also staying up with me, and went to bed when my dad went to work. She has a lot of energy okay? Plus us teenagers like sleep. At least I think. I know I like sleep.

One thing I really would like to do right now though is go to a concert. @_@ I've been to 2 already this...wait...last year I went to 2! This year I have the joy of having gone to none. AND the one band I want to go and see my dad won't take us too! (Us being my sister and I) Why you ask? Because "they are liars and aren't Christian." ....Dad....some people view the lyrics differently...? Either way can't talk my dad into seeing them live again (might I add the first time was AMAZING). Which sucks. Greatly. Because I love them so.

Anyways, I'm rambling. I don't even know what I'm writing this for anymore. Hmm. Oh! So apparently I've sent 10,853 text messages.

...

I'm so lucky I didn't die last night. I am so lucky we have unlimited text messaging. My dad said *cough* it's like 300+ a day which means 30 messages an hour, as I'm only awake say 12. ....I'm not sure how this happened.

Okay I'm pretty darn sure how it happened, buuuuuut yeah.

Oh, and so this magazine I sent pictures too still hasn't responded and its making me mad. I sent one back at the start of May, and I forward it to them again a couple of days ago. They usually respond by saying they go the email and will let me know if they chose any of my images. They haven't even done that yet. I'm not exactly worried about it, but I would love to have another picture in the magazine. I guess I'll have to deal. Which I don't want to do. I should probably just research some magazines that are looking for nature images.

Anyways, I better get going. My grandparents are coming over later tonight (like every other Saturday) and we're celebrating my dad's birthday, as it was yesterday~
Hope everyone has a good weekend!

-Olive

Character Development

Character development, one of the key ingredients needed in a story of any sort. Or maybe it’s not the development itself but the characters. Characters are a key element. They hold the story together; they are the glue to a piece of plot.

Characters are not only in stories or novels.

They are also in reports, and poems. Songs included. How?

Reports have to be about somebody. That somebody has just become a character in your rough draft. A poem can be wrapped around a figure, and so that becomes a character. Same with a song. Your dad is a character in your life, and each word or thing he does will affect you in some way.  Just like your main characters dad’s actions will affect your MC’s life.

Characters are simple. Then again, they’re not.

Characters have to have names, and personalities. These characters are the key to a successful piece of writing and you have to get them right. This takes time though, so no freaking out. Characters. They are flawed creatures. All in all, they are human, in our minds, in our brilliant minds these characters are a piece of us and so to us, they are more than just a person to read about. They are human, they have flaws like us, they have favorite foods and colors, and they have things they do and do not like. They are paper versions of humans.

I think one thing authors really have to work at in their books, is character development. If your character can walk through anything, and have no fears then that isn’t a character. Well it is, but your reader isn’t going to feel bad for that character later when it loses its final battle, which is apparently this characters only existing fear. Characters should have human emotions. (Unless of course you’re writing something sci-fi and decided that that Vulcan should not show emotion when it comes to anything as that is not logical at all.)*

My characters, for me, are pieces of people. I know, I know you’re not supposed to base characters off of real people, but how else are people supposed to be inspired to create a character as unique and brilliant as that? I think each author (and I could be completely wrong) takes something they like about someone and (unknowingly?) make it a part of a character. I think some do it on purpose and from reading a friends work, where she based *cough* a couple characters off of 1) herself 2) myself and 3) other mutual friends, it takes work to cover up the fact that that character could indeed be based on Edward Cullen.** I’ m quite certain that writers can pull this stunt off. And I believe that is something all writers are going to have to work at. Because when someone at work or school makes you mad and you go home, you sit down at your desk, couch, whatever, and start writing. Okay that’s a lie and we all know it.

 First you’re going to sit there and mope. Then you’re going to surf the web and waste countless hours because, why not? Then after eating five tubs of ice cream, and when the cookie jar is empty (this means Saturday will be spent cooking instead of writing.) you will set up whatever program you use, and start (finally) writing. And say, your villain comes in, or you don’t have a villain so some random stranger is going to start yelling or whatever at your MC because that’s simply you letting your frustration out because someone yelled at you. And when you read that over, you might not see it at first, but give it a couple of days, and you’ll be able to tell that that piece of writing happened because of what you were feeling that day.

Tip!*** You should erase all emotions that you are feeling, maybe go over what you last wrote, get into your characters brilliant mind, and think like said character! Get your creativeness going, and write based on what your character is feeling. Not you.

*If you just understood that, I love you.

** I don’t read those books or watch those movies or anything to do with sparkly vampires. It was the first thing that came into my head.

*** Don’t listen to my tips, I don’t do them myself. These are just ideas popping in to my head at the same speed my fingers type this up, which after somewhat non-thought-process took me about 10-15 minutes to write.

Hi there!

I'm not so good at these introducing myself kind of things. So um...hi. I'm known as Olive~ Which is actually a real name. In fact I read a book that had this town in it named Olive. It was very interesting to read about. And since the last time I was on blogger a lot of the stuff changed. It's actually kind of neat. I like it. So um some simple facts you should probably know about me, cause I'll probably post about some of those things.

I like to read, write, do photography, watch TV and I like food, depending.
Oh and I like music. A lot.
So the T.V shows I will probably talk about the most are 1) Doctor Who 2)Sherlock and 3) some random show we're starting to watch. yup.

Hmm...what else to share...

What I write - mainly fantasy, because I can't seem to stay away from elves, dragons, dwarfs, and/or super-un-natural powers. I also write some poetry, which I may or may not share here. And I write short stories but I haven't done that in a while.

Photography - pretty much whatever looks cool.

what i read - pretty much anything. yup.

music - (copyed and pasted from my YWP page)
Owl City, Taylor Swift, The Band Perry, Three Days Grace, Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne, Mumford and Sons, Bruno Mars, Iris by Goo Goo Dolls, Skillet~ Panic! At the Disco, The Wanted, Fun., Chasing Cars - Snow Protal, Kelly Clarkson, TobyMac, Paradise, The Scientist and Princess of China by Coldplay, Gotye, A Fine Frenzy, A Thousand Years and Jar of Hearts and Arms by Christina Perri, Superchic[k], Facedown and Your Guardian Angel by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Gym Class Heros, Plain White T's, Dog Days Are Over by Florence + the Machine, Adele, Love liek Woe by The Ready Set, Katy Perry, One Direction, Break Even by The Script, Sail and Not your Fault by Awolnation, Train, One Republic, Tenth Avenue North, Demi Lovato, The Call by Regina Spektor, Stronger - Mandisa, John Mayer, Scars by Papa Roach, and Collide by Howie Day oh and The Fray~

So yup, thats pretty much it. I'm gunna post about character development tomorrow because I'm weird. Now I must go to bed. Night~

-Olive