Day 31

     Last day of the first month!
     All is cold and quiet on the campus...

Day 30

     Oh, dream man. Why must you be made of plastic and based off a TV show?!

Day 29

     Everything is so much more beautiful in the morning when no one's seen it yet. I woke up early this morning, to go on a field trip, and found a freezing world with frost crystals clinging to it. Everything was coated in delicate little fingers of ice! Sparkly grains of snow continued to fall, but were only noticeable when you stopped to look in the light. Fog hung over the mountains, shielding some of the buildings from view and hovering over the street.
     I tried a lot of different things today as I was shooting, trying to get my images to be sharper. I often find that I feel a picture is sharp but I load it and it may not be at all. Through experimentation, I found that a lower ISO, (obviously) faster shutter speeds and a delicate attention to lighting helped me out.
     By the time I got back, it had warmed up, the frost was gone and people were everywhere. So I locked myself up to work on my pictures.

Day 28

     A good friday. Filled with classes I love. It's a good life.
     And if I could, I would always, always stay outside! It is such a beautiful crisp night! So I just walked and walked and caught this guy jaywalking. It did not turn out at all what I had hoped, but I rather enjoy it more, in all its motion-y glory.

Day 27

     This morning was a frosty one. And I love it. I love the way that the leaves and grass crunches when you step on it (and also kill it, good thing everything is already dead here) and I was actually up early enough to see it. None of my pictures today turned out singularly good, so I decided to put a couple together, try to spark up the mood. Maybe.

Day 26

      Self portrait time.  I have definitely covered all of the subjects found in my dorm room. And building. It is definitely going to take a lot of preparation and creativity to keep this up until April! But I guess that is what makes it so much fun!

Day 25

     A beautifully gorgeous morning! The clouds hung suspended over the mountains, and the cool fresh air was exhilarating!
     And then, in the middle of nowhere, it started snowing. A lot. And was cloudy all day. The mountains disappeared and the walks were slushy. Not much good for photography, except maybe portraits or architecture.
     Voila.

Day 24

     Today was a good day.

• I am finally caught up in all my classes, and got my first bit of free time in months!
• I learned that I get to go on lots of cool field trips this semester, to all kinds of National Parks!
• Several people stopped me and told me that they loved my photographs.
• Someone (that I didn't know) told me I was beautiful!
• And I saw beauty everywhere I went.

     Life is a blessing! A gorgeous clear night! Let the bells ring out!

Day 23

     I just love sock monkeys. If you know me, you should know that.

Day 22

     Looking for an apartment for next year of school. So many cute houses around here! I want to live in the one with the old blue door! But that won't get to happen.

Day 21

     It was a pretty cold day. No one was out tonight, except for a couple of warmly-dressed students playing ultimate Frisbee. Almost all the building lights were on, cause everyone was indoors, and it was finally quiet. I found a tree, beautifully lit by streetlamp. But the plain picture was thoroughly displeasing. I had some fun with Photoshop. I didn't have any intentions or ideas for the picture going into it. I just added elements together, and had a lot of fun just throwing things together. I finally get the appeal of Modern art!

Day 20

     Look closely and you'll see why it's funny.

Day 19

     Another day like yesterday. Just plain sad. Days like this are rough, and I don't really want to talk to anyone. I don't want to do photography or schoolwork. I want to just wander aimlessly until I figure out where my smile was hiding. But despite what I want, there's always other things you have to do. So yes, I had to do schoolwork and be locked up indoors, and it made me just feel worse. But there's always someone that brings a little light back into your day. I love you Sydney.

Day 18

     All alone. Lonely. Alone. Alone. Alone.

Day 17

     When I woke up, there was a plethora of birds outside calling outside of my window. It made me feel like I was at home. Haven't seen birds in a while here! When I went out, I found that they were Cedar Waxwings! Wow! As I sat beneath the berry-laden trees, they would gulp the berries down and zoom past my head. It is amazing what can happen to you when you just sit still. Here's one of the pretty little guys, no color enhancement added.

Day 16

     Today I wanted to go for more of a collage approach. And when I saw one of my favorite childhood pictures, it made me want to cry. So, using that and other pictures I took (yes, I took some today as well, just decided I liked this product better) I put something together in just under an hour. I could spend years on something like this. I love you mommy.

Day 15

     Highlight of the day: new boots for Stephanie.
     It is amazing, photography. Sometimes, playing around trying to get one effect, you somehow get something even better, and have no idea how you got it. Usually, if you think about it for a while, you can figure out the technical aspect, and just like that, you have infinite new concept ideas. There will never be a limit to great ideas. And most of them are discovered by accident.

It was a great day.

Day 14

     Today I tried something new to the fact that I went to a part of town that I had never been before. And amazing what cool things I found! It was so much more interesting than the squares of sidewalks that I have been looking at all this time! Things can be much more appreciated, and even more beautiful when you see them for the first time. And that only happens when you are willing to try to see something new.

Day 13

It was such a lovely day!

Picnic anyone?

Day 12

     A refreshing day of health beginning to return...at long last. But that means I have to go to school tomorrow...

Day 11

     Another day stuck in bed.

     Which means, by now, I have pretty much exhausted everything that I can take pictures of in my room. But the plant, just like me, wanted to get out of the dark into the sunshine.

Day 10

     I don't know what's wrong with me. I am sick again, condemned to my bed for most of the day. Going to class was a poor decision, but also meant that I got to go outside to this.
     Every time I look at mountains with clouds hanging over them, I realized today that I always think of Ansel Adams. Of course you know who he is. He is the guy you think of anytime the subject of landscape photography is mentioned. But even he did some darkroom editing to create his famous mountain images. So I decided to give it a shot. Playing around with the dodge and burn tools, I found that there is a lot more freedom in an image. I'd used them before, but not so meticulously. These tools should be a photographer's best friend.

Day 9

     Today I hated photography for the first time. Hated. I am now different than all those hundreds of photographers you'll meet that say "I love what I do every day! I have the best job in the world!" blah, blah, blah.
     It's hard. And that's why I hate it. Cause I am a weenie. Photos or cameras do not always do what I want them to do, and it is incredibly frustrating. Today was one of those days where all of my endeavors were such. And I hate it. Thoroughly frustrated, I locked up my camera. I just laid on my floor for a while. And I figured out it is for the same reason that I hate photography sometimes that I love it all the time. There is so much you can do with it, so much you can experiment with it, even if it does not always do what you hoped. I still love photography. But maybe I will a little more in the morning.
     Here's my lame attempt at something I imagined turning out much cooler.

And if you have no idea what this is, think pine trees.

Day 8

     There are so many beautiful moments in this life, that go by, unable to preserve or share with another person. I always forget how beautiful they are. But I always try to save them, to share them with someone who will later see the picture, and feel something, the same thing I did, or something individual to them. Yet I can never quite get it. And I will always forget my previous failure to try again, sometimes frustratingly so. Tonight as I sat beneath a weeping pine, protected from the view of the passerby on the nearby sidewalk, I really wished I could catch the snow and the bells and the fresh breeze. But some moments are better spent with just yourself. And here, that can be a rare occurrence.
     As I knew I failed with my first attempts, I set to wandering aimlessly about the campus, just looking for me rather than for a picture. It was extraordinary to just be alone in a quiet, snowy world, as the few people braving the cold rushed by.
     As I wandered, I found that a basketball net, backlit by a bright street lamp reminded me explicitly of my brother's life-long dream to be in the NBA. When I took this picture, the sky was a dark royal blue, lit on fire by the street lamps. I've done some color editing (meaning, obviously, color subtraction) along with a couple other versions. This is the one I chose from here, but some others will by on my Picasa album! I love you Clark.

Day 7

     I will not even try to connect this one to something happening in my life. And I shouldn't even be commenting. I just want you to look at it. For at least 30 seconds. And just think.

     You have probably never quite looked at a dryer before. Not really. It's a simple part of our lives. Does not seem very deserving of a photograph. But next time you see one, hopefully you will remember this experience and see something different about that boring old dryer. Not so boring anymore.

     Now go try looking at something else plain in a new way.

Day 6

     Got to actually get out of bed and outside today. A great relief. And of course it was very cold!
     But no matter, my adorable Demarie is coming down the walk!

Day 5

     Today I was flattened by the flu. Completely unexpected and inconvenient. So I missed another day of classes, and was stuck in bed all day. I only snapped a couple shots today (from my bed) because I figured out pretty quickly that I only had about a minute to be able to stand up. So that is the reason for my lack of creativity.
     When you're stuck in bed, there's not much to look at. Except for the door and wish that you could walk out of it.

Day 4

     Today was a traveling day. Back to college. So I didn't get much daylight to work with. I took some okay pictures of the plane and gate, but I still was unhappy.
     So I experimented with the dark. I started waving glow sticks and flashlights around and I by mistake produced this shot. Not what I was looking for, but I guess sometimes mistakes can be good things. I got a few funny comments walking out of the room with the supplies (including a potted plant to play with), but it was quite entertaining for me to try and plan out taking pictures with light elements. Working with lights in the dark is probably the most experimental and limitless strategies I have discovered, and are immensely pleasing to pioneer. Enjoy!

Day 3

     It's been a busy and beautiful day! My last before I head back to school, sadly enough. It was warm enough for the snow to keep melting but cold enough for icicles to form and breath to appear. The air was clean and fresh, and believe it or not, I heard birds singing! Sure enough, a crowd of eastern bluebirds swirled in the trees around me. Such a beautiful afternoon. I saw and felt many wonderful things, and I wish that I could capture them all into a photograph to share.

Day 2

     Another tough day. This time because there were too many options. It is pretty hard to pick just one shot. I didn't think there could be so many right choices. But, having so many choices makes me feel like a better photographer already. Hopefully my pick is adequate.

     It was a day of our typical weather, cold, but with enough sunshine to melt the snow away. And so there was my inspiration. The beating of the drops on the deck were frequent and large enough to attract my attention, so I experimented with the splash effects for a while. Here is what I came up with.

     I decided though, that I also want to share the other images that I make. I have included a link (in the box on the right side, as well as here) to the Picasa album related to this blog.

Happy Melting!

Day 1

     Today I really struggled. It's the first of a series, so I have to make a good impression, right? So the pressure was on.

     Of course, I wanted something "new" for New Year's Day, so I spent a while brainstorming on what kind of things I could artistically represent that were new. I am new and different than last year, but I have enough self-portraits to fill a museum, due to my lack of models. The year (obviously) is new, but that idea didn't even occur to me until now (duh, Ali). The snow outside was new and untouched, so I headed outside, to find me feeling much better.

     Snow is hard to represent photographically. Snow ruins pictures, it throws off the color and contrast of an image, and I had almost forgotten that it is nearly impossible to get a good picture of snow. But I remembered it pretty quickly. The world outside on the first day was incredibly beautiful, but only to my eyes. All my camera saw was stark whiteness. So I was reduced to finding something to do with the snow to try and demonstrate new. I was so focused on making a creative, touching image of the snow, that I was stuck within a photographer's block. I was trying so hard that I killed creativity.

     And then I turned around to see my gloves that I had left in the snow. And there was my image. Nothing new, just something clean and wintry and simple. And just that easily, I found a mood that pretty accurately represents my attitude today. And I learned with that, that creativity isn't created, it is discovered. All creativity is is how we see the world around us.

Happy New Years. And happy Winter. 

Welcome.

The year has begun. The sights are set. And there is a whole lot of learning to be had.
This is a story of my 365 project. For a year, I will take a picture a day, going outside of my comfort zone and experimenting with the vast world of photography.
Today is the day!
Wish me luck!

As this blog and the photography contained within it is a form of art, I must ask you to please not take the photos or writing from the site without appropriate citations. Thank you!