Elora's colorful 11 pictures

 I just KNOW you've been waiting for Elora's birthday pictures. Since apparently that's what this blog is all about: birthday pictures. We went to the art ally in Rapid City,  where we took Josh's pictures last year because those turned out so fun...and Elora has had the "fall trees" theme going on in her pictures for the last few years in a row.

The graffiti in the alley change all the time (and is rarely profane in nature), and even though there weren't as many murals as we've seen in the past (I'll talk about that another time) there were still lots of great places for pictures!

Elora loves red, so we planned on her wearing this outfit: the guitar shirt works great with the graffiti, the plaid shirt is always a good way to look cool (according to her mom at least, who may be stuck in the early 90's) and I made the patches on Elora's pants a few weeks ago when they were starting to wear out. I kinda wish they were mine, actually.

A.  I love these two, which show the whole alley. I love Elora's stance, her face, etc. I only wish it showed more cool artwork, instead of a corridor of garbage cans. Oh well, I guess that's what you find in alleys, right?



We were lucky to find several spots that had perfect colors to go with Elora's outfit. This is one of the first spots. There were tons of places with this red line going through the middle of the wall; I imagine the same person did all of them, and it worked perfectly for all of our pictures.

B. In this group, I like the layout of the top right one and the bottom right one best.
























C. This spot was perfect. I wish I'd taken some nicer, more creative photos here, because the colors and abstract wall were great. Note the red line again. It was Elora's idea to stand up on top of the wall. I also like the ones with the ground showing because there are a few fall leaves scattered about. I think the top left is maybe the best. (We took some serious pictures, just like with Joshua.)

D.  This was a fun spot, it's just a few feet over from the location of the photos in "C". I didn't even notice that Elora had a question mark right above her head, and I'm not sure if I like it or not. Oh well, she looks cute in them anyway!

 

We found a lot of staircases to sit on. This first one is one of my favorite places in the alley, but the staircase is blocked off by a little fence thing. So we took pictures on top of it! I love that there is a tree in the alley, so you can tell it's fall. Elora likes the top left one that shows the tree more, and I like the top right one because of the interesting angle. The bottom right is at a different spot.

E.

 

F. Another staircase. I like all of these. The top right is the best close up, but I also like the angle of the top left.

G. The top two spots here were cute, but I'm not sure the colors look good with Elora's clothes. The bottom spot was great, but I think she could have maybe posed different, like maybe standing behind the railing? Oh well.  Red line here again...

H. Another good sitting spot. I like the artwork here, but Elora thought it was a little weird. I like these pictures too, though it almost seems like we're trying to highlight Elora's shoes, as they are closest to the camera.

I. This spot was at one end of the alley, so the light was shining in, which could be good or bad. It was actually a cloudy day up until this point, which worked well so we didn't have harsh light like with some of Joshua's pictures. I liked all the colorful boxes here, and I experimented with the colors being bright, or faded. I like the faded one, but I know from experience that sometimes when I print these, the photo place tries to "correct" the picture, and it doesn't look quite how I'd like. Anyway. I like the layout and face of the top left one the best, but the blowing hair in the bottom left is fun too.

J. Finally, I thought this was funny. I loved this place because of the bright colors, the black fence, and the red line, but I didn't even notice until I was viewing these on my computer that the wall says "2016"  right behind Elora! Haha. I wonder if someone else was taking senior pictures or something and put that there? Either way, that's perfect for commemorating a birthday!

Which one do you like best?