dragonfly

A Photo Challenge: B&W

Rocky Mount, North Carolina

Quite a few weeks back now both my boyfriend Jared and I took a road trip to Rocky Mount, NC to visit his family for a few days. While visiting his parents Jared showed me around the tiny town of Nashville, NC where he grew up...next door to his Church in the parsonage.

Below are the photos from mine and Jared's trip:

Along the roads in Nashville, NC there were lots of these metal-silo-things and they just gleamed brilliantly casting the July sun off of it's somewhat reflective surface. I know it's just metal, right? Well, to me it was beautiful metal, with a long history to show and an old tale to surely share.

I love the old barns, nestled up against cotton and tobacco fields down south in the sandhills. I was a sandhills girl, born and raised! Now, I live nestled into the WNC mountain foothills. Being back in the sandy soiled, pine tree ridden territory that's so very close to my own stomping grounds again brought back so many of my own childhood memories. It was nice to hear Jared's childhood memories as well. What's really neat though is that he and I both grew up only about 40min-1hr away from one another without even knowing it. To think we were that close...

This is only one of the lovely stained glass windows in Jared's old Church. This dove in the stained glass window was my favorite out of all of the lovely leaded window panes. Jared and I walked through the Church...because in the sandhills they are very trusting and don't lock their Church doors so we were free to enter as we pleased...and he talked about how he used to pretend he was an animal of some sort as he made his way to the front of the Church on all fours whenever the kiddos were called up before the Church congregation. Being that his father was the Preacher I bet the Church was pretty shocked to see little-bitty Jared crawling on all fours. Silly boy! Haha! Oh, and he also escaped from the Church nursery once. ;)

After we finished looking around in the Church we headed over next door to the parsonage. We knocked on the door of the house and asked the new occupants if they'd mind Jared showing me around. They didn't. I was kind of surprised to see that the Preacher and his family had a deer stand in their back yard...alongside the skulls you see above and below.

Jared spent a few of his younger years learning to grow out of walking on all fours in Nashville, and he also learned to ride his bike...on gravestones in the front yard. Yes, I'm completely serious about the gravestones and all! I would never have believed it myself until Jared took me for a quick walk through the front yard, and then I realized that I was standing on top of a little girl's grave. A graveyard in the middle of a parsonage's front yard is the most absurd, and creepy thing I've ever heard of or seen. Jared told me that he had no clue that he had learned to ride his bike on graves until much later in life though. Can you imagine??

Another inspiring silo/water tower/something with it's displayed pride. This girl loves architecture like crazy!

Alright, so after Jared showed me around the little town of Nashville (where he spent many of his younger years) he took me out for a quick bite to eat at the local Taco Bell (one of my fave places to eat!) and then we headed to the duck pond back in Rocky Mount.

I love how none of the ducks look completely like one another. Each one has a unique feather pattern. Even if some of them all look like they're the same ruddy brown color, they're not.

I confess. I wanted to go swimming with the ducks to beat the heat. Alas, I did not. I let those cute ducks have all of the fun without me!

Look at those orange eyes. Aren't they awesome?

Yes, he is the handsome young man I have had the pleasure of knowing for over two years now. I love him.

Jared and I had a wonderful day out and about, reliving memories and sharing our childhood memories together.

Mountain Garden's Hold Plenty O' Pretties

All of these photos were taken a couple of weeks ago when I visited the Western NC Mountains (Asheville). The local flora and fauna are just breathtaking. There's nothing like a mountain garden to bring excitement and wonder to any photographer's art and lens.

She Speaks Conference 2011

Well, I apologize for not being on here much lately. I've been focusing more on my writing lately than on my photography,  but I am pretty sure that I am getting ready to find that sweet spot in life that is simply called, balance. This past weekend I attended She Speaks, which is a conference run by Proverbs 31 Ministries for writer's, speaker's and women who are in ministry. It was the best weekend of my life, and my only regret is that I did not bring Lila Canon (my fancy pantsy dslr) with me. Next year I will tote my Canon with me to be sure (if I'm able to go again that is!) So here are the highlights in photos from this past weekend from my not-so-good-and-pretty-much-just-plain-pitiful-camera:

 Signed books from authors that are inspiring.

 ...and what I will surely get to eat in Heaven every single day when I get there!

 Ann Voskamp was such an eloquent speaker and she is such a very lovely lady. It was an honor to have met her at the conference and to get my copy of her book signed by her. You can find Ann's blog at: A Holy Experience

 After a few minutes of searching I finally found my name in the quiet and spirit filled prayer room. Yes, I had to keep on reminding myself at the conference that "God IS with me. You can do this!"

 I finally met a blogger friend in person! Rachelle is the sweetest person you'd ever meet and I look forward to getting to know her better! I'm so glad to have met you at She Speaks, Rachelle!

My roommate, Joanna is a speaker/writer. I know that the Lord was stirring her heart slowly, as He was mine too, at the conference. Maybe we'll get Joanna a blog set up soon!? ;)

God spoke so much to my heart this past weekend while I was at She Speaks. I didn't just learn about writing. I learned about giving Him my gift of writing, letting go, letting Him chisel me, having confidence in myself and in my gift, being thankful for every star and every word that flows from my fingertips to your heart and how not to envy someone else's gift that God gave especially to them.

a warm welcome & thanks

I just wanted to say thank you so much for stopping by neo victorian photography!  I'd love to have you follow me here on my photography blog! So, please introduce yourself. And feel free to share some of your best kept photography insights and secrets with me along the way. I'd love the chance to get to know you better! I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to capturing the world through the lens of my camera to share with all of you!

Also, I'd like to thank the very lovely designer, Hannah B. of Beauty Design Studios, who created my new lovely website and blog for me. The design is awesome and I love it to the moon and back again!

Art Direction.

It is sometimes hard to work with an artist, as an artist myself, on an artful shot/shoot that is directed by both the artists. In this case though I think that both "Fisher" and I did quite well on our art direction together. This particular shot is going to be used for a future book cover one day...maybe...we'll see. Any thoughts?