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Archive for the ‘Project 365’ Category

P(rocessing)365 – I have to say this version of P365 works for me. I know the typical version is to take and post a photo a day – some places even monitor whether or not the metadata shows that you took the photo on the day you said you did. I suppose that’s good motivation for some, but for me that’s just too much pressure. And any project like this needs to fit with the rest of my photography workflow which includes creating images (and sometimes stumbling onto them) for stock, for scrapbooking, and for documenting changes in the nature that surrounds me.

This more gentle method also allows me to create posts ahead of schedule. That, in turn, gives me the flexibility for  busy days. I have about a week’s worth of posts ready to go.

So, if you like the Photo Friday: The Story Behind the Click, take a peek over on the P365 blog. Posts are set to go up at 6:00 AM mountain time each day.

Amazing how quickly the days fly by – we’re already through the first third of January! All of the various albums out there recording December got me thinking that really, shouldn’t we honor each and every day? To this end, I keep trying out various ideas that will help me record life all 365 days in the year.

I don’t have time to scrap each and every day and I don’t want a separate album for every month of my life, so the solution has to be simple. Last year on our trip to Yellowstone, I kept a small (3 1/2″ x 5 1/2″) journal with me at all times. Vacations can be incredibly busy and it’s easy to have the days sort of blend all together. Having a specific place to jot down just a sentence here and there throughout the day helped tremendously. I also did this on my 3-day trip in August.

This is my foundation, the core of how I record the days – and so far this year – one third of the way through January – I’ve kept up with it each day.  Some days only have a few sentences and others fill the page.

Then, I created a template for one photo and text.  I’m not so concerned about trying to take a photo each day, but to fill the photo space with some photo – one I take later or one I’ve taken in the past.  My goal is to just record the day – a few sentences to tell the story and a photo to illustrate a part of it.  Simplify.   Each month I may develop a different template to slide into sheet protectors, or I may not.  So far, what I’m doing for January seems to work.

Today I worked to catch up and find a couple of examples to share and worked to finish this one.  I already had this post written up to here.

Just everyday nonsense that I’ll enjoy looking back on – and then I started on the next set – added in the temperatures, changed the dates/day and then added the left photo about Trust.  Then looked at my notes for the next day and stopped in my tracks.  The accident actually happened on the 5th, but I heard about it on the 6th, so that’s where it fits in my story.

It’s reality.  Awful, hard, cold reality.  That’s my nephew’s car that’s just a ball of a mess.  No, he wasn’t in it, but his girlfriend and friend were.  I don’t know when the funerals were or are, but all involved come to mind at various times throughout the day.  Each day since I heard.  Such sadness.  And memories of a tragedy I was close to in high school come to mind.  Hard.  Life ending and life changing.  And I find myself deeply Grateful for every single moment.  Every breath.  And I send up a prayer.  Life is hard and full of so many highs and lows.  And we get the choice to choose to Trust or to not trust through it all.

I scrap to tell the story.  And with that I don’t want to just gloss over the hard stuff – it’s where you really get to see who people are.  How they face the rough stuff.  I’ve added to my ‘stories to tell list’ the hard times from high school – I won’t post it anywhere, but it needs to be told.

You’re the only one that can tell your story.  Tell it well.

Credits:

• Christine Gunderson’s Mr. Munchkin Add On Pack
• Font: Elmore

“If God gives you something you can do, why in God’s name wouldn’t you do it?” ~Stephen King (from his book, On Writing)

This week many different things I’ve worked on collided and I had one of those “AHA!!!!!!!!!…oh, well, duh.” moments.  You know when things finally click (AHA!)  and then you realize you should have seen it all along because it all makes sense (oh, well…duh!).

The past few months a restlessness in me has grown – not finding the satisfaction I want in my scrapping, working harder than ever on other projects more work related, exploring Nature Journaling, sorting through my photos, working to get better at using my Wacom Tablet, lots of things.

I read mostly non-fiction books and always seek out good memoirs.  I just finished Stephen King’s book, On Writing.  The quote above jumped out at me so strongly that I jotted it down (along with a few others).  Most memoirs have a running theme – something that lies at the heart of the person.  Food, writing, travel…something.  It dawned on me, after looking for months, that for me it’s my connection to Nature and watching for the details and subtle or not so subtle changes.  Early memories, the Gift of the Cabin we had while growing up, all of it makes sense.

With my photography – taking a photo a day has really pointed out what I focus on – and that’s Nature photography.   I kept thinking, “Everyone does that – it’s not something special – THAT’s not where to try to make money – that market is flooded.”  Well, all of that might be true.  But it’s such a part of me that I need to honor and celebrate it no matter where it leads.  That doesn’t mean I still don’t want to achieve the newborn shots and kid and family portraits I have in my mind – far from it!  I love capturing the details of kids/newborns/families in the same way – documenting the moment and the changes between shoots.  Humans are a part of nature, too!

Over the past two or three months, I’ve taken a closer look at Nature Journals or Field Journals – wishing I could have taken the class with the Yellowstone Association this year.  Yes, the lack of funds for that type of thing stopped me, but I think even if I had the extra funds for this I wouldn’t have taken it simply because it’s been years since I tried to draw things (did when I was teaching) and my confidence level on that was pretty low.  So, what better to do than buy a book or two on the subject and dig in.

I bought Illustrating Nature by Irene Brady and Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth.  And dug out the book that got me started with drawing as a teacher, Drawing with Children by Mona Brooks and ordered her follow-up book (reading it now and excited!), Drawing for Older Children and Teens.  And I’ve started practicing again at my drawing.

I don’t know where all of this will lead, but I know I need to take this path one step at a time.  I’m energized about scrapping – energized about working on my photos – energized with all the projects I’m working on.  It’s like I suddenly gave myself full permission to just be myself.  Amazing how just a small shift in how I look at things give me an enormous feeling of freedom!  Here are a few layouts done in the past day or so:

Nature Journal 9-7-09

Sketch Practice - Penstemmon Going to Seed

And, I can look back on the year and see SO many pages to create more in line with the idea of a Field Journal – explaining WHY I take these photos – what captures me.  Here’s one from my August trip to Yellowstone:

One of my favorite spots in Yellowstone

Surreal View of Fog and Green Grass in the Great Divide Basin in Wyoming

I’m not quite sure how to put this out here, but the Story of July has taken a twist for us.  On the 2nd, just a day after my last post, my husband had an accident with the wood splitter.  Yep, not good.  The good news is that it was an odd piece of wood and he only lost one finger – half of his middle right finger.  (I still wince at that, too)

We’ve both used wood splitters fo 20-25 years now (and that fact alone makes me feel too old!) with no problem.  But that’s why they call them accidents.  And on July 3, I read this post about Forgiving an Accident on The Happiness Project – a blog I follow.   Funny how things come your way when you need them.

Even right after it happened, though, both of us decided not to cry over spilled milk – it happened and there’s no turning back of time.  Yet a part of me wants to kick and scream at the unfairness of it all.  But it was an accident – and there’s no other choice for us other than forgiving and moving on.  So – on we go.  Entering the world of amputees (granted, this is a smaller amputation than many).  Going down a road we certainly didn’t expect.

On a happier note, I’ve cleaned out quite a bit of the 1 T drive so I could shift things around – though I’m still working with 3 computers and 3 external hard drives – and just about ready to backup all the photos again.  Weeding out the ones that just don’t deserve the hard drive space.  I’ve even found a smidgen of time to start catching up on my Project 365 – a photo a day.  While I keep up with it, processing and posting has fallen behind.    Take a peek – and think about subscribing to the feed here and over there.  Lots of Yellowstone photos to come.

I love to write.  REALLY love to write.  Since working through The Artist’s Way a few times, my morning journal now sets the tone for the day as well as giving me a place to dump all the thoughts that rattle through my mind.  However, in there, I get going on a topic or two and fill a few pages, but I miss all the moments in the day.

It occurred to me toward the end of June that I needed an abbreviated journal as well – especially for our vacation to Yellowstone which I knew would consume 18 of the 30 days in June.  Just a sentence or two here and there through the day.  Little nothings by themselves, but bound together, holds the Story.  So, I picked up a small, roughly 3.5×5 album filled with grid paper from the store, and started jotting notes.

I had no idea when starting this that it would serve me as a powerful tool – for scrapbooking, for my photography business, for ideas of what to journal about, for recording basic info that I don’t want to forget, or would lose on a scrap of paper.

Now that I’ve bid June Good Night until next year, I open my Moment to Moment Journal to  greet July.  Time to “go fourth” – fourth of July, make major headway on summer projects.  Time to soak in as much of Today as possible each and every day.  Ready to jot down a sentence to remind me of all the Today Moments – sentences that hold within them the fullness of the Story of July.

Those empty pages of July – so full of possibilities – but only 31 days that will fly by – what moments do you want to create this July?