Pre-occupation

So I've been a bit preoccupied lately. Life has once again swept me up and away in a whirlwind of craziness, with things such as deaths in the family, overtime at work, christmas shopping, etc. It has made it rather difficult to blog, I've felt like I didn't have anything interesting to post here, I didn't really have a chance to take any photos before Christmas and I knew that after Christmas, I would have something very nice to post about.

That nice things is my Christmas present, my brand spankin new Nikon D3000 DSLR with an 18-55 mm lens, and also the 50 mm f/1.8 and a few lens filters. The first was a gift from my family and friends the 50 and the filters were gifts to myself. I felt that with how bad the last 2 months have been and how little time I've been able to take for myself, that I should get myself a gift for Christmas this year. It may sound selfish, and maybe it is, but I am lovin' all of my Christmas gifts and I don't feel bad about it.

So obviously I am going to post a picture of the glorious gift I got this year:

I'll post some of the photos I've taken with it tomorrow or the next day. I've taken ALOT of them so maybe I'll make a slide show. Well Happy New Years eve to everyone!

Mandy + Joe TTD full preview

The full Mandy + Joe Trash the Dress preview is here! Enjoy the slide show. :-)

Have a great night.

Distractions

ight now I am sitting in the Shock Trauma waiting room at University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore while my uncle is in surgery. We were allowed to go up and see him before he went in and I have to say, it was more difficult than I imagined it would be. When I was in Nursing school I had a rotation in the O.R., and in the ICU I've seen people Intubated and all that and its never been difficult for me to see or even bothersome, I'm very good at looking at things with a clincial eye, so I thought that this would be no different. But, to my surprise it was impossible to look at him that way. I guess its harder to see a someone you care about with all those tubes. The surgeon said he should be in surgery for anwhere between 2-4 hours, so now we play the waiting game. It could be anywhere from a few minutes to 3 more hours.

 I'm really glad that I brought my laptop with me otherwise I think I'd be going crazy, it gives me something else to focus on. I've been sitting here working on the Trash the dress photos for Mandy + Joe and its helped me take my mind of things a bit. This past month has been quite the journey. There have been so many people in my family that have been in and out of the hospital and there's been a lot of stress at work. I know that its made me a stronger person, that I will be able to endure more in the future. Its taught me how to push thru and compartmentalize things so that I can continue with my life at a somewhat normal pace.

Here's a little mini preview of the TTD session with Mandy + Joe. I'll post a full slideshow preview a little later today.

From Mandy + Joe trash the dress

From Mandy + Joe trash the dress

Day 031 The End of the Photo Month Challenge

Today is December 14th, the last day of the photo month challenge. I don't think it could have come at a better time. Previously I thought everything in my life was difficult, well man was I wrong, because its nothing compared to whats been piled on top of that, but I'll get thru, not on my own strength, but I never did expect mine to get me anywhere. So enjoy the last photo of the day in the Photo Month Challenge.

Day 030

Its day 30 of the Photo Month Challenge and I only have one more day to go. It feels like I've been doing this for longer than 30 days and it feels wierd to think that I won't have to do this on Tuesday. A little bittersweet. I'm proud of myself for actually getting my photo of the day done before dinner though.

If you've followed my blog for awhile you probably know that I really like TTV photography, and that I dabble a bit with it using a duaflex II. I L-O-V-E this camera. I am half tempted to go purchase film for it and go around using it as a normal camera. I love the way this camera looks, how it feels, the mechanics of it, its just such an amaizng thing. In the future I kind of want to collect other vintage cameras as well and display them on a cool bookcase and then just pick them up and use them when I want. This probably seems kind of lame, but that doesn't really bother me. :-) For a few days I've been contemplating doing a portrait of my duaflex but haven't liked any of the test shots I've taken of it. Today I decided to commit and take photos of it until I got one I liked.

runner up:

Day 029

I'm too tired to think about something interesting to write. The same rationale applies to the time today as did yesterday. Have a good night:

Photo of the day:

Day 028

You might be thinking that I missed day 28, but you'd be wrong. :-) See, I haven't gone to sleep yet and thus this still counts as Friday 12/11 for me so even though its 3 and half hours late, its still on day 28. There, my conscience is clear. I would have posted my photo of the day earlier, but I spent the evening out with some wonderful friends, and we went to Nando's in Chinatown and then to see Invictus. It was a lot of fun, especially because my friend Lindsay is from South Africa and will actually be going back home in a few weeks. It was a totally worthwhile evening, that greatly improved my stressful day.

My photo of the day today, feels unoriginal for me but I was in need of something so here it is:

Day 027 the end is near

Its day 27 in this journey called the Photo Month Challenge, only a few more posts left. I have mixed feelings about the end of this, part of me is relieved that its almost over and the pressure will soon be off, but another part of me will miss the daily frantic searching for something to photograph for the blog. Hopefully, I will take something from this and use it to be a better photographer and a more creative person, and hopefully a better, more consistent blogger. :-) I was a terrible blogger before this challenge, I struggled to post monthly.

Today I decided to try something a little different for my photo of the day. I haven't done any TTV for my photos of the day and I realived thats kind of stupid of me. I love TTV, and have alot of fun looking through the viewfinder of my duaflex II. So, today its TTV all the way! With a little Christmas mixed in, since I'm pretty jazzed its the holiday season. Have a great night!

Mandy + Joe Christmas slideshow

Today I was finally able to get Mandy + Joe's Christmas photos to them. So, now that the photos are in their possesion, I'll post a slideshow of them here for everyone. Enjoy!

Hopefully in the next two weeks I'll be finishing up with the trash the dress and I'll be able to post a preview.

Day 026 Wordless Wednesday

Day 025

Its day 25 of the Photo Month Challenge. Today's photo is from my mom award ceremony at work, its nothing fancy because it was very dimly lit in the auditorium. Here ya go:

Day 024

This morning I decided that I would start my day by taking my photo of the day. I actually am not the biggest fan of this one, but I tried really hard to get a good one and this is what I have. Here ya go:

Day 023

So I spent the entire afternoon today shopping with my Mom and Aunt. It was so much fun! I have like 3/4 of my Christmas shopping complete now, which is pretty impressive for me, I usually procrastinate until the 20th to even start. I had planned on spending the day outside photographing everything but, when it caim down to it this was more important, so my photo of the day is of the view from my back door this morning.

Have a great night!

Day 022 Winter Wonderland

I love snow, but was disappointed that it ruined the plans I'd had for the day. I decided to make the most of my ruined day and enjoy the snow. Here's my photo of the day:

Mandy + Joe Christmas Preview

So here is a small preview of the Christmas photos I took for Mandy + Joe in old town Alexandria a few weeks back. I'll post my photo of the day a little later tonight. Enjoy!

Day 021 is Frantic Friday

Its Frantic Friday! Completely unintentionally, but after having a massively rough day I forgot about my photo of the day until late. What that means, frantically attempting to get a photo of the day. So, with less than 10 minutes to spare I will present you with a photo of the day. Its not really my favorite photograph but its a photograph all the same. Enjoy! And look forward to a preview of the Mandy + Joe Christmas photos tomorrow morning. Get excited! :-)

Day 020

So honestly, yesturday's photo was pretty mediocre, but with the amount of energy I had, I'm happy I got a photo of the day at all. It fit in with the series I've been working on but I will probably re-do that theme after christmas when I have more time and a sweeter camera.

So far, I've had a lot of fun with this photo of the day thing. Its really stretched me. For another 10 days, I don't have the option of being lazy and uncreative, not unless I want to fail at this challenge. Yeah, my photos haven't all been good, or all that creative or inspired, but I have to think creatively to produce them. I have to come up with an idea, or see something I want to capture, I have to set it up or find it, I have to take a bunch of photos of it from different angles with different settings, and then I have to to edit them. Each photo of the day has about 20 "unsuccessful" photos behind it that all took at least 30 minutes of editing, whether or not I keep any of the editing choices is irrelevant. I've gone through that process pretty much every day for the last 20 days. It takes creative thought in the very least. I've had to continually remind myself of this, because most days I feel uterly uncreative. Expressing myself through art has always been a really relaxing and de-stressing process even though I'm rarely happy with the end product. Its just that the process is rejuvenating to me. For awhile I've felt discouraged and discontent with the art I create and had let that stop me from taking part in it, but this project has forced me back into and I am so glad for it. Its made me re-appreciate all the small things I enjoy, all the details that make my life full and rich. Its so easy to forget those things.

Well, enough with that little rant, and on to Today's photo. Today's photo of the day also fits in with the last few days, in that it has supplies from another kind of art.

Day 019 Wordless Wednesday

Day 018

I had A LOT of trouble deciding which image to use for my photo of the day today. I have 2 images that are both good but for such different reasons. They are two kind of unique perspectives on the same thing. So after about an hour of staring at these photos, the photo of the day was ultimately decided by means of a random number game.

Photo of the day:

Runner up: