The first two assignments were easy. And when I get the chance, I’ll blog about them. Assignment 3 however was kicking my butt. The assignment was all about place. So visually defining a location. I’m not from Columbia or even Missouri for that matter so all my ideas were not going to work since I only had New Hampshire on my mind. After a week of contemplation, my teacher suggested a record store or record stores. So I went on a Saturday and tried to shoot. I got maybe 26 shots done but I needed 3 rolls of 36. It was a bust. So I came to class with nothing to develop and we came up with another location, Gans Creek Nature Area.

On Monday, when I developed my film and made contact sheets, I realized that visually, I preferred the shots from the record store. And I had enough to fulfill the criteria. Such is life. So without further ado: My shots from 9th Street Records. It’s a great place and if you are in Columbia, you should check it out!

Nicole and I met on January 22nd, 2012 and about two weeks later we were pretty much best friends. It’s funny how God works sometimes. Literally, a week before I met Nicole, I was praying for her. I was at Mobilise USA with some friends from home and I started sobbing because I knew once the weekend was over, I would be alone at school again. I had my work friends and don’t get me wrong, they were and are amazing. But I craved someone to pray with. Someone to encourage me to pursue God more wholeheartedly. Well, sometimes when you ask God for something, He gives it to you really fast. Because a week later I met this beautiful, kind, and amazing girl. And as creepy as it may sound, I knew we were going to be best friends. I knew she was God’s answer to my friend prayer.

I’m sure glad she was because I love her. She’s literally the most beautiful person. (Inside and out). She pursues God with her whole heart. She is willing to give up something the world would tell her to hold onto, because she felt God tell her too. She held onto Him through difficult times, all the time trusting that He would bring her through it. And He did. Because our God is a good God.

In fact, if I had to describe Nicole in one word, I would probably pick trust. She lives her life in complete trust in God. She willing walked into a relationship that she knew God wanted, even though she knew it would also be extremely hard, because she had complete and utter faith and trust in God. She’s also a great listener and I know that anything I tell her, she will keep to herself. She’s both sides of the trust characteristic. She trusts God and she’s someone to trust.

I could probably write a book about how amazing Nicole is. Seriously. She puts up with me and deserves an award for that. I’m going to miss her a lot when she graduates in December. In fact, I’m really sure now how I’m going to survive. I’ll probably pull a page from her book and trust God though. .

On Saturday, after we watched our Tiger’s defeat the UCF Knight’s, Nicole helped me work on some homework by being an amazing model. These next few were just for fun, since Photo 1 only accepts film photos.

She let me dress her as a hipster. That’s true love.

Two nights, I met Anna at her house, which is conveniently in the same complex as mine, and we walked up the road and took advantage of God’s great sunset. It was fun even if we almost died a few times and got honked at (her, not me).

Because she’s awesome, she answered my Facebook + twitter-wide call for a model. To get better at photography, I need to practice. To practice, I need people. Kelsie, is one of those people. And honestly, you’ll be seeing her a lot. Because she’s phenomenal.

I was nervous because I’d only been over her house a few times and I didn’t really know her family that well. We started the evening at Ella Bella’s, a dance studio/cafe/music venue, and saw some local bands play, then my mom drove us down the road to case de Bella. We laughed for nine hours straight that evening. Nine hours. I’d recommend that Ab workout. It’s perfection.

Since then we’ve become fantastic friends. We’ve gone to concerts together, different states (woot woot Nashville!), and we’ve also had lots of sleep-lacking sleepovers. My personal favorite was this year.

Over winter break, I got snowed in over at Bella’s and we spend the next few days playing Wii Party and singing Glee Karaoke!

Bella just graduated. She’ll be getting her GED shortly and after working her butt off for a year she’s going to study art education. So in celebration of her transition from high school kid to almost adult, we took some “Senior” pictures. We drove over to her grandparents farm/house and traipsed around in the fields.

-Becs

P.S. That face up there will one day be winning the Amazing Race. #fact.

At first it was really hard for her to “smize” as Tyra would say or smile with just her eyes but at the end she totally rocked it. When you see her face on the big screen, remember it all started here.

Because Layne is awesome, she writes for Blast magazine. You can read her stuff here: http://blastmagazine.com/author/layne/

-Becs