Let’s see… it’s that day of the year when I should think over the past year and take inventory. Time to make a plan for the new year. I’m pretty pleased with how much I learned about taking better pictures. I’m delighted that in all the experiments, I managed to take a few that really are treasures to me. I’ve come a long way. What you’ve seen here is a lot more documentation of experiments. An online journal of my test shots. I’m glad I didn’t hold myself to only publishing the best of the best. If I had, this blog would be even more bare! LOL.
Now that we’re starting a new year, I’m looking forward to getting back to my studies. I plan to watch more of my videos, read more of my books and take more pictures. I plan to do another 365 blog. It will be more private this year. The reason for it being private is that I found I had a lot of people coming to see it last year that would offer me encouragement and comments. This lead to me wanting to return the favor and visit their blog to see what they are up to and leave them comments and encouragement. This got very time consuming and frankly overwhelmed me. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate comments and encouragement but I don’t have the time to devote to the 365 blog like I’d like to focus here. My point here is to grow and learn… That is the focus of this blog. The other one is just a photo journal of my daily life. Sometimes they overlap, sometimes there are pictures I just want to have for my private enjoyment but I want them in a journal that is easy for me to review – like a blog.
Another thing I’ve discovered recently is that there have been times that I’ve resisted bringing out the camera because there was just too much clutter in the background and I didn’t want it in my photograph but it was more than I could remove quickly for the photo. This brings me to my next goal… to PURGE, PURGE, PURGE all this crap in my house. I’ve been a packrat my entire life and only in adulthood have I learned to release things from my life. They frequently require more of a price than I’m willing to pay for owning them. My husband gave me a wonderful book by Peter Walsh for Christmas (that I asked for) called It’s all too much. This is a battle I’ve been waging for some time. Between Flylady (flylady.net), shows like Clean Sweep (on TLC) and books like this one, I’ve come a long way toward a more peaceful home with less junk in it. This is the year I’m going to get to a platau in my life where I can do my daily battle with the influx of clutter without it requiring a massive and overwhelming undertaking when I can’t take the condition of my home anymore. (Can you tell that I get overwhelmed a lot when I find myself unequiped to handle something?!)
One final thing I have to admit. My children have been introduced to Webkinz this past year – back in August. I hate to admit it, but I find it to be a guilty pleasure for me too. I find myself playing it much more than I should. Now there is nothing really wrong with Webkinz, but it has the possibility to distract me from my real goals. SO, I find myself in a position where I must limit my consumption of that guilty pleasure.
So… I guess those are my three goals – as of 11AM on New Year’s Eve.
1) More photographic learning, experimenting, growth, risk. Two methods to document this – my I Wish blog and my 365 blog.
2) Purge, purge, purge my house. Ruthless elimination of clutter and all objects that do not bring usefulness or beauty to my home.
3) Limit my Webkinz addiction.
Can I just take a moment to tell you how happy I am that Christmas is done? I know. That sounds terrible to type out. But it’s still true. Now, I love Christmas with the best of them. I love the real reason for Christmas. Still, it’s freakin’ exhausting to be the one who has to "create the magic" for three little kids. Making sure that all the elements are in place for each of our family traditions. Making sure everyone has the same general amount under the tree without resorting to buy junk just for the sake of making it even. Trying to come up with something good for the man-who-needs-nothing-that-is-under-$400. It’s so serious that I have a binder where I keep it all straight. Everything from who sent us a Christmas card which year to planning every detail of the birthday parties. It’s a full on sprint from November 1 until December 25. I start with two kids birthdays in November complete with parties, Thanksgiving, Advent boxes, an elf who visits on December 1 with an ornament for each member of the family, crafting for the kids, visits to Santa, enormous family gatherings, the Elf visits again on the 24th with new pjs for everyone in the family and then finish it all up with Christmas morning. Exhausting. My poor husband has a birthday at the beginning of January but I just don’t have the energy to do it up for him! Poor guy. I guess all of this explains why I got into my new pjs on Christmas Eve and I’m still in them 3 days later. Sad, but true. And let me tell you, it feels GREAT!
It’s been a lovely Christmas for me though. Even with the flu hitting our house in a mean way. Two kids got it Christmas day!! Even with that, it was still wonderful. And I’m still glad it’s done.
Now I hope to sift through my pictures and start posting some stuff again. Maybe not full on excitement but at least something. I’m looking forward to having some time to pick up my books in January and see if I can’t learn a few more things.
I got Me Ra Koh’s second DVD back in November and finally sat down to watch it the other night. I thought it was great. It was a fresh spin on a couple basic elements that were escaping me. I plan to watch it again and share with you some of my favorite highlights.
I will close by sharing a picture of my Christmas gift and the receipt for the new leather chair we gave my husband for Christmas. Schweet! I’m a lucky girl!
Happy New Year!
Are you a child of the eighties too? Then you surely remember the Bon Jovi song…. sing it with me now… "Shot through the heart and you’re too blame. You give love a bad name, bad name." Got the tune in your head?
Okay, I recently put this song on my Ipod because I, too, am a child of the eighties. I love a good eighties classic so I’ve been collecting them lately. My children have picked this song out as a favorite and I will frequently hear these lyrics around my house…
"Shaba da hart. You’re in love. With Bandaid, Bandaid."
Makes me chuckle everytime.
Recently a friend of mine was telling me about digital scrapbooking with her company, Topline Creations. I have been ignoring all the digital scrapbook material out there because I have SO much paper, stickers and general paper supplies. Finally, my friend convinced me to try it. I got the software, loaded it up and I love the fact that when I’m in a hurry, I can drop pictures in and go. I also love that when I’m feeling creative but am not able to go into my scrapbook room, I can still create a page at my computer. Here is my first attempt at a creation from scratch.
I used portions of a free kit I got at ShabbyPrincess.com called Shabby Mommy and 2 elements from the Lifetimez software. Here is a snapshot of my daughter’s fifth birthday party.
I think this has real possibilities for my future. It’s so easy but to me it’s also very pricey. To recreate this page with paper probably would have cost me about $1.50 or less to have the pictures professionally developed, all the paper and embellishments. Since I don’t go for particularly expensive designer scrapbook supplies, I believe that estimate to be on the higher side of what it would likely cost me. However, to do it digitally, it will cost me $3 to get that page printed in a 12×12 format if I go to Costco. I don’t know of a cheaper place that will print quality 12×12 prints. That $3 doesn’t include the cost of the software or any future kits I would buy to use with the software. I’m not sure that I’m willing to fork over that much money to have anything but a special page printed but it’s a nice option to have at my disposal. Perhaps as more people go digital the price will come down, but for now I’m just too cheap to do this all the time. I’d rather buy camera equipment!
I’m still on the fence about the whole digi scrapbook revolution but I see that it has real possibilities. Christmas cards, invitations, mini projects, etc. If I were to go completely digital and have all my pages printed in books by a company like TLC or Snapfish or Winkflash, I could see that it would probably equal the price I spend on a traditional scrapbook when it’s all said and done. However, I’m so far into the paper side of things I can’t justify abandoning it all together. I do love the end result of the digital scrapbooking so we’ll see where this road leads me.
You may remember that I applied for a scholarship with Davina. Her selection is supposed to be announced "at the end of October." We are in the last week of October now and I find myself checking daily to see if there is any news. It’s exciting to have something to wait for and look forward to. Naturally, I’m hoping that she selected me but even if it’s not my scholarship, I’m looking forward to finding a new blog to be inspired by. Another photographer starting out who I can follow and learn with.
Cross your fingers and say a prayer for me!
I did it. I finally did it. I stopped waiting for the "perfect" name to come to me. I stopped waiting until I had all the details figured out. I actually did it. I ordered business cards. Professional business cards. They may not be perfectly branded. They may not be the ultimate in perfect but they are professionally printed and they include my digits and they have a picture I took. Would you like to see?!
I’m so excited! I can hardly wait to have them in my hot little hands!
It’s been rough in the pit. Not really – in the grand scheme of things I know how very blessed I am. Why is it that we sometimes allow good to get in the way of great? I’ve been very busy with "good" things but they have all been taking bits away from my goal here. I know that no one out there is visiting this blog currently… that’s okay. It’s for me. A record of my journey. That’s why I started it. I was surprised that anyone ever came in the first place!
Recently, I did a big thing. For me, it was a very big thing. I put my dream out there in the form of applying for a scholarship. One of the blogs I follow by Davina announced a scholarship for aspiring photographers. I decided to apply. I know it’s a long shot but I thought I’d try. Who knows… I have just as much of a shot at it as the next guy, right? Here is the thing. If I won the scholarship, I’d have an extra layer of motivation… I’d be obligated to answer to the person who spent their hard earned cash on my future! Why do I find it so easy to put my dreams on the back burner for the busy work of motherhood? Seriously, dishes can wait. I know everyone wishes they had more time in the day. I’m just feeling it in a big way lately.
At the very least, the mere application motivated me to pick the camera back up and start trudging along toward my goal.
We recently got new rain boots at my house. I want to capture this fun detail of childhood and daily life. How to do it creatively? I see other people take pictures of the most mundane things and I find pure beauty in those photographs. Like Wendy… she can take a picture of the console of her car, or the dessert she just baked, or her office and I think it’s fantastic. I want to be able to photograph like that. She actually teaches a distance learning course. If I were to win that scholarship, that is the course I’d sign up for.
That is my self imposed homework… to find a way to capture the boots in a photograph that I would find worthy of printing.
You are NOT going to believe what has happened to me. This just goes to show that you need to keep plugging away at your dream even when you think no one is noticing. Last week, Me Ra Koh of Me Ra Koh Photography gave me (ME!) props on her blog. Okay, this is HUGE. Me Ra is a well recognized photographer – to the tune of photographing a wedding for VH1’s Fabulous Weddings series. She featured this photograph on her site and said that she is inspired by how I’m "going for it!" Can you believe that?! I’m a total groupie. It happened last week and frankly, I’m still over the moon about it! According to her blog, my DVD that I ordered back in March should be arriving this week. Very exciting in my world!
The next piece of news is that I won some interview questions in Anne Ruthmann’s favorite shoes contest. I asked her my three questions and she wrote me back this wonderful email with lots of encouragement. She is as nice of a person as she is a phenomenal professional photographer. One exciting thing for me – she shared with me some of the pictures from her first paid gig and it was only TWO short years ago! She has gone from being a technically sound photographer to being a superior artist in only two years! That is so inspiring to me.
If you haven’t checked out the links on the side of my blog to these two photographers, I really encourage you to give them a visit. They are a source of major inspiration to me.
Thanks to you all – I tied for first place in the favorite shoes contest! Thank you!
Since she had only purchased one prize for one real winner, I asked if I could have a different prize. I asked her to grant me three interview questions about being a professional photographer. So… now I’m thinking deeply about my three questions. Faithful friends, what questions do you think I should ask? I want them to be good ones that will help me grow or think or dream or something worthwhile. Do you have a suggestion?
Here is an image from the wedding I went to last night. The bride and groom left under a canopy of sparklers for their honeymoon. Let’s use this to spark our creative juices…
(Was that too corny?! So sorry.)
I’ve been visiting some other blogs and I’ve seen this particular "tag" a couple times now. I thought it might be fun to do myself so here it goes.
5 Reasons Why I Blog…
- To be a better photographer.
- To be held accountable. If I’m paying for a good service like TypePad, I’d better darn well be using it.
- To get feedback from people who aren’t obligated to compliment me for fear of hurting my feelings. (A soft touch is appreciated though…
- To find others who inspire me and teach me. It’s amazing how much free information there is out in the blogosphere on any subject you wish to learn.
- To connect with other people. Perhaps even help someone else out who might pick up a tip or two from me. Maybe even have a buddy on the journey to where I want to go.
If you’ve read this far, consider yourself tagged. If you decide to do it, leave me a link in the comments and I’ll visit to read your list.
