Portra 400 – Withjulespham

Fall in the Great Smokies

After a wonderful night at Song Sparrow Hill, we woke up refreshed, ate breakfast, then hesitantly followed Boy and Mangus down the hill back to our car.

We didn’t want to leave! I regretted not booking a second night especially what was to follow later on that evening.

Our next stop was Max Patch Mountain in Pisgah National Forest.

The rocky and narrow winding roads were nerve-wrecking. I felt so bad for Khang’s car tires.

Oh but the views were gorgeous like the one below!

The fall colors peeked through more and more as we got higher in elevation. And so did my excitement!

Parking was ridiculous but the trail was short and pretty straight forward. And so was the steep incline hiking up! It brought back memories from Patagonia.

We were treated with 360º panoramic views!!
The colors were ahhhhmazing!!

And then we took a nap right there.

Fun fact: I can nap anywhere, anytime. Ask my family and friends.

Afterwards we walked around to enjoy the colors some more.

We also played with Hans’ self-timer and got a winning picture of us both for our Christmas card this year!

Here is another attempt at freelensing.

During my research, I read about the sunsets at Max Patch and really wanted to watch it.

But we still had about 4 hours till sun down. I was growing hungry too so we decided to hike back down to the car to eat.

The plan would be to hike back up Max Patch with all our camping gear and set up shop for the night.

Well… unfortunately, when we returned to the car, Khang realized his battery was DEAD.

It was partly my fault. When I’m excited, I tend to rush things and I rushed Khang…well you know how that works…

Fortunately for us, we had jumper cables and the owners of the car parked in front of us came back from their hike and helped jumpstart our car! Lucky stars I tell ya’!

So we drove back down the winding roads to AutoZone to have the battery checked just in case.

Car battery looked fine so…back up the mountain we drove. Khang was basically pro at this point.

And then we carried about 30 pounds of equipment/food/water/clothes back up Max Patch in time to watch the sunset.

Whew! I remember feeling so happy and relieved that we made it to our last stop for the day.

Or so we thought.

So Khang set up the tent while I took photos.

I swear my husband could be a model.

Y’all, he is NOT posing. This was him setting up while glancing at a family trying to fly a kite.

Finally, we sat in our tent eating our favorite: Salami, boursin cheese, and crackers for dinner.

And enjoyed the sunset in the old but Great Smoky Mountains.

I’ll never grow tired of Mother Nature’s beauty!

Wish I could say that was the end to an exhausting but exciting day.

It wasn’t.

Long story short, the sun took all the warmth with it and we weren’t quite prepared for the 40º temperatures. We thought we could brave the cold but it was miserable.

So at around 8, we decided to pack all our stuff, hike back down, and drove home.

We were in our warm bed by midnight.

Hey, we tried. Really really tried.

Another story for our future children. Hah!

Thanks for reading and following

along with me,

Jules.

Gena+Oliver

So here’s the thing, I’ve been trying to get more serious with photography.

Experimenting with different kinds of sessions: Portraits, couples, family, still-life, personal, etc.

And what I feel most comfortable photographing are the intimate connections and spaces between humans, animals, and things.

The connections created through love.

So I approached Gena.

Not because it looked totally fun to photograph a freakin’ horse, but because I’ve always admire Gena herself.

And her apparent love for horses.

To quote her, “It’s more than a sport, a hobby, or a pet – horses touch your soul and there’s something special about being in sync with another being & working together as a team. Nothing like it.”

She’s special.

So is her horse, Oliver.

And together, they are a remarkable duo.

What I love most in these pictures are Gena’s facial expressions-the looks of love, joy, laughter, peace-and her soft touches with Oliver.

Pay close attention to her hands in these photos.

There’s so much trust between them that some people struggle to find all their lives.

The correct term to describe Oliver’s coat is “flea-bitten grey”.

Look at how darling his ears are!

Gena, you’re beautiful.

No lie, I’ve been staring at your photos and picturing them in my head multiple times everyday since getting these scans back last week.

Can’t stop, won’t stop!

This one.

It was the last shot. I asked her to take off the floral crown because I wanted to capture the glow of her fiery hair.

Le sigh.

They both live on a farm with other horse owners and horses.

Her apartment is attached to a barn.

Y’all, she basically lives in a barn.

These photos were taken in an open field next to her.

It’s absolutely lovely there and I’ve been secretly planning on how to convince Khang to live on a farm too!

I wish I took more photos of the entire compound.

She even has a little garden of tomatoes, strawberries, green beans, and carrots, which she pulled out from the soil and gave to Oliver as a snack after our photoshoot.

That is the dream.

They were a dream to work with!

Gena and Oliver, thank you both so much for welcoming me into your home.

I hope you’ll look back on these photos as fond memories.

Thanks for reading and following along

with me,

Jules.

My lovely Yang

There’s so much I could and would like to say about my best friend, Michelle, who I endearingly call “Yang”, but I’d never be able to finish.

Not only because there’s so much to tell, but also due to the fact that after basically 25+ years of knowing her she still continues to surprise me with her unwavering love.

Y’all, she is the best person I know.

Great, now there are tears in my eyes as I’m typing this.

Those who know her well or even just a little will undeniably agree with me.

One of the many things I love most about her is the love and care she shows to complete strangers.

There’s so much good in her.

And she doesn’t keep it to herself. Not at all.

If you’re fortunate enough to have encountered her…I would not need to tell you how lucky you are because you would just know right away what a beautiful and kind soul she possesses.

And when you’ve known someone since babyhood, things get nostalgic.

Our friendship has seen its ups and downs.

I remember a time when I had very unpleasant feelings towards her around our middle school years.

I confided our problems to someone close to me and that person gave me the advice to just end the friendship.

But after thinking about it, I decided our friendship was worth fighting for.

And it makes me feel so incredibly thank you that we both fought for our friendship because it has honestly gotten better and better with age.

So here we were on what felt like a typical day.

[She’s always supporting me and my crazy random ideas]

She’s my absolute favorite person to photograph. Wayyyy before I had this new fancy camera.

We drove around for almost an hour trying to find a good place to start taking photos.

It was just two best friends catching up on life.

Her shoot is how I’d like to “model” my future shoots to come.

Just two friends chatting it up and me capturing the natural beauty in front of me.

So simple and effortless.

Minus the ant-pile I stepped in. It was totally worth it though. Ha.

For those who have always seen Michelle as a “cute girl”, prepare yourselves.

Actually don’t.

You’d be wasting your time.

There’s no way to prepare yourself for this.

She’s a freakin’ unicorn.

Shot with Portra 800

Those to die for cheekbones.Shot with Fuji400, which is becoming my favorite stock so far. Shot with Portra 160Shot with Ektar 100

I changed these last shots to black and white because the stock and exposure I used made her skin splotchy and there was a little blur. All my fault. Not hers!

I also think the BW makes the photos more powerful and do justice to her expressions.

I love you so much, Yang.

Thank you for being … you.

You’ll never understand just how grateful I am to have you in my life.

I’m still surprised myself how you make me feel.

Last weekend, Ngoc told me a sweet story about you during your CCD days and it made me choke up with emotion.

You’re the best.

Never forget.

Thanks for reading and following along,

with me

Jules.

Oh and by the way, none of these photos were edited by me.

Processed and scanned with FIND lab.