Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Another Catch Up

I have been struggling to keep up with the reverb prompts now that I am on vacation with my family. I keep meaning to sit down and blog but I would rather spend my time with my parents or sister. I haven't really been on the computer at all. Christmas was wonderful and yesterday was my birthday which was also amazing. I will have to fill you all in after we get back from our trip on Saturday.

I am so glad I participated in reverb this year but I have to admit that I am looking forward to blogging about other topics again!

December 26 – Soul Food: What did you eat this year that you will never forget? What went into your mouth & touched your soul?

I had some amazing food around all the holidays this year. For the 4th of July, we went to Oklahoma to spend a week with Josh's family. Josh's mom never stops cooking and her meals are always so good! She completely outdid herself over Thanksgiving as well.

For Christmas my mom has been a cooking fool! She made some of the best sweet potato casserole I have ever had. I have been eating it every day since Christmas and I'm still not tired of it. She also made me my favorite meal for my birthday yesterday which was chicken picatta. AH. MAZ. ING.

December 27 – Ordinary Joy: Our most profound joy is often experienced during ordinary moments. What was one of your most joyful ordinary moments this year?

Whenever I am behind my camera I am at complete peace. Even if I have no clue what I am doing, just holding that camera in my hands makes me happy. I could be taking a picture at a wedding or of a simple flower in my yard. Either way, I am joyful.

December 28 – Achieve: What’s the thing you most want to achieve next year? How do you imagine you’ll feel when you get it? Free? Happy? Complete? Blissful? Write that feeling down. Then, brainstorm 10 things you can do, or 10 new thoughts you can think, in order to experience that feeling today.

I would love to be a professional photographer someday. I don't think I will be able to achieve that next year, but I can take giant steps in that direction. There are a ton of things I could do to achieve this goal.

1. I need to learn more about editing. There are a few editing programs that I need to get a hold of and start practicing.

2. I need to learn more about my camera. It is stunning how many cool things my Canon can do and I don't even know everything!

3. Practice! I have to practice more. I want to start setting weekly goals on how many times I get out there and shoot. I am not going to improve without this step.

4. I want to learn more about the technical parts of photography. This is the part that intimidates me because whenever I try to learn, I get incredibly confused and frustrated. I want to keep trying, even it if takes me a long time. I think it's important to understand the technicalities behind the camera.

5. Equipment. There are a million things outside of the camera that can improve your photography skills. I don't know much about any of them.

6. Inspiration! There are so many blogs and books that can offer inspiration for those days where you just feel blah. I want to get my hands on these!

7. This year, I interviewed for a great internship opportunity. It would have been something that would have greatly improved my knowledge and skills and I was so disappointed that I didn't get it. I need to start looking around for other opportunities!

8. Start saving money. I have a long list of things I want to purchase to help with photography. Most of these are pretty expensive (um, I might have picked the most expensive hobby ever!) so I need to start saving money exclusively for photography equipment.

9. No more doubts. I am so hard on myself and I doubt my abilities all the time. I am definitely not an expert photographer but that is ok! I have lots of time to improve. I need to stop focusing only on the end goal, and just enjoy the ride!

10. Have fun! I adore photography and I never, ever want it to turn into a chore. I want to improve and I know that will take discipline but I don't want it to become something I dislike. I want to keep it fun!

December 29 – Defining Moment: Describe a defining moment or series of events that has affected your life this year.

I think if you read back on my past reverb posts you will see a long list of moments and events that affected me this year. Lexy getting sick, my grandmother dying, all the traveling, facing my anxiety problem, etc. have all affected me greatly. I think I will just leave it at that.

Sorry if these have gotten boring lately. I am all about reflecting on the past year but I think I have reached the limit on things to reflect about! There are only 2 more prompts left and then it will go back to my regular blogging.