This year, next year, its all the same

So this year, the 365 project got to be too much for me. I forgot to take a picture one day.. and then another. And then suddenly I stopped caring.
Next year. I am going to try again... but not be so hard on myself. Instead I want to do one quality image a week... instead of a bunch of crappy ones because my life gets pretty crazy during the week. I have school five days a week (oh my goodness I forgot how much that sucked!!) and then work. And then whatever I can manage of a social life. Add to that my amazing ability to get sick. It seems that I get sick about once a month. I could be exaggerating, but it is quite difficult to muster up the energy to take a good photo when all you want to do is sleep.
And of course, those days when I just get so into my own head. And the days where I work from home. And then there is dating which is a whole thing unto its self. Men these days seem to expect you to text them all day. And they get mad at you if you don't respond. And then if you actually want to text them because you are bored... they get annoyed with you because they are trying to do something important. Just thinking about it makes me want to throttle the lot of them.
Back to the point. Photography. I hope to be able to take at least one quality image a week for the entire year of 2011. It should be an interesting year. I will be done with college by about the middle of the year. So it will either become and easier task or an even harder task. I look forward to the challenge, and if I am able to make it through in one piece, I will attempt to do an actual 365 in 2012.

New Years Resolution

Every year I make a list of resolutions with the very best of intentions. And every year it doesn't seem to stick. Half of the time it doesn't even last a week. But this time I really want to achieve my goal. My New Years Resolution for 2010 is to take (at least) one photo a day.
The best goal starts right now, today, not when January 1st actually rolls around. Today I went out and I took a photo of a weed because it inspired me and tomorrow I want to take a photo too. A way to document the beginning. In order for this plan to work I have to hold myself accountable and create a plan of action. I will take a camera with me everywhere and I will use it to document my life. If I see something funny I will take a picture of it. I won't wait until the end of the day to take a picture. I know that it will seem like a daunting task. So I will reward myself when I have taken a photo a day for 30 days. That way there will be little goals that I am working towards. And at the end of the year, if I took 1 photo every single day, I will reward myself by buying one kick ass lens for my camera.
My first reward will be a photo backpack kinda like this one:



I love the fact that you can carry a tripod with you in your bag. It actually isn't too expensive, but I won't buy it for myself until I have taken a photo a day for 30 days.

Caught the bug

I am a young college student. Last quarter I took a photography class basically because I needed the units. It sounded like a fun class. What I didn't know was that I would become hooked. It was a Beginning Photo class so we used manual SLR cameras. I am talking about the 35mm cameras and black and white film. I rented a camera from school so I got an awesome Nikon FM2 that I absolutely fell in love with. At the end of the quarter I didn't want to give it back.

Around Thanksgiving my Dad got out his old Minolta SRT101 from the 1970s (before I was even born). It was broken and dusty and hadn't been used since 1990. It had the seriously hideous carrying case with green velvet interiors and a solid leather exterior. It was love at first site. I spent the whole night cleaning all of the lenses and the next day we took it to a repair shop in downtown Claremont (in Southern California) called Claremont Photo and Video and sent it in for repairs. It cost more money to repair it then it would cost to buy one off ebay, but I was already in love with that baby.

Then on December 23, they called. My camera (technically my dad's could be picked up). So on Christmas eve I went to pick up the camera with my mom and spent a leisurely day in Downtown Claremont (one of my favorite cities to spend the day in). I took a bunch of pictures on Christmas Day and then the next day we went to visit my Grandma in Carlsbad, CA. So I went to the beach and took some photos and I think some will come out really amazing. (I only wish I had used the skylight filter).
And yesterday, after much thought I bought a DSLR. It is the Nikon D3000. It is shipping here as we speek and I cannot contain myself. I have literally driven my mom insane talking about that camera. I know that it is an entry level DSLR, but it is all I can afford right now (and I just don't think I can wait any longer). Buying a less expensive camera means that I can buy more lenses and more expensive lenses.

But I have officially caught the bug (and I haven't even mentioned that we are going to build a darkroom in the garage. I am soooo excited. Soon I can really play with my film).