"Think of the blog post!" || Greenbluff with Maggie & Rachel

All day, these were the words that were coming out of my mouth. I'm fairly positive that by the end of the day, Maggie & Rachel never wanted to hear the words "blog post" ever again. 

So, here I am, fulfilling my promises of blog posts, with photos from our Greenbluff adventures this weekend!

I woke up to gloomy skies and rain that day, and was worried that it would put a damper (Ha! Punny!) on our Greenbluff plans. Luckily, the skies cleared up by 3, and we were able to go partake in some fall festivities. 

To no surprise, Harvest House (probably the biggest / most visited location at Greenbluff) was packed, and they didn't have any place where you could actually pick your own pumpkins. We decided to venture on, and find a smaller place that could get us what we needed. We stumbled upon a different location (which I didn't grab the name of, oops!) where you could take a cart out into the patch and actually take your own pumpkin off the vine! We spent plenty of time searching for the perfect one, and after about 20 minutes, we all found ones we were satisfied with. Before leaving that place, we wandered around the property, took some photos in the orchards, and stumbled across a beautiful view of the mountain covered in fog, framed by some beautiful, fall colored foliage. 

We then ventured around the bluff, stopping in at some smaller places to check out what they had to offer. Maggie and I realized how badly we wanted some pumpkin donuts, so we headed back to Harvest House around 5, hoping they would be less busy. And, they were! We got a half a dozen pumpkin donuts and ate them all in one sitting. So. Good. 

We all made our way back home, where we set up to carve the pumpkins. We'd all carved pumpkins before, but never by ourselves. I remember growing up, my dad would let me draw the design on my pumpkin, and then he would gut out and carve the whole thing for me. So this was definitely a newer experience for me! We even went as far to use templates and try and make intricate designs. 

Let me tell you guys... we did not know what we were in for. Gutting a pumpkin is possibly one of the most disgusting feeling things I've ever experienced. There's no feeling that comes close to the cold slime of pumpkin guts gliding between your fingers; even just writing those words gives me all too clear memories of it! After way too long of a time spent on cleaning out the insides, we started the actual carving process. This did not go as planned. We did not account for the fact flat paper does not sit nicely on a round pumpkin. Halfway through carving mine, I realized that I'd put it on there upside down. (Luckily, It was a bat, so it was already upside down to begin with, and you can't even tell!) And then almost an hour into the carving, with the paper disintegrating and the tiny little cuts not popping out like they were supposed to, we realized that pathetically, our arms started getting sore. "Oh man, my arms are so sore." "Oh, why's that, did you do a hard workout last night?" "No, I just carved a pumpkin." Yeah. That was our situation. These are the lives we live. 

After 2 hours, we finally finished up our carvings, and they ended up being worth it. They actually came our so nicely! As awful as the process was, it was nice to have the experience, and to say I'd done the whole thing, by myself, completely from start to finish. And most importantly, I got to spend a super fun day with some of my best friends!

Below is a slideshow of the photos from our day. Additionally, I was so excited to try out my new presets from Mastin Labs! Kirk Mastin is an avid film shooter, and he created 3 preset packs that emulate real film (Fuji, Portra, and Illford, for those who are wondering). I'd been waiting on new images to try these babies out on, and the perfect, even, overcast light we were given with the best excuse. They did not disappoint, and have not let me down on any of the image I've tried them on. They've lent me a lot of new editing styles to try out, and I think this is just the beginning of a new chapter in my evolution as a photographer! I may be doing a blog post soon on comparisons with my old edits, versus these presets. They're that good. 

Anyways, enjoy some fun fall images!