365 Project: Week 4

Click on templates to view larger
Remember to check out these photos on my Flickr page to get the un-cropped versions and to read individual captions!

Yay for 1 whole month down! I've been having a lot of fun finding 'photo-worthy' moments every day. It helps me to find something extra-ordinary in my sometimes rather ordinary daily life. I've been struggling with the lack of color outside (and therefore lack of inspiration) so I'm going to try to be more creative and get more practice taking indoor shots this next week.

This week, date night consisted of 'Winter After Hours' in Eau Claire ice skating a beautiful winter evening. It was nice to be active outside and we haven't been skating together since we first started dating, so it was fun brushing up on our skills and enjoying the sense of community that the event created. (and not even any injuries to report!)

365 Project: Week 3

Ooops for not uploading LAST week's photos until now... I have been diligent in keeping up with taking one photo (at least) every single day, but the uploading and placing into template process got pushed to the back burner this week. On the bright side, I'll be uploading THIS week's photos in just a couple of days! Update mania!

365 Project - Week 3!

Click on my Flickr photostream on the right of the page to see full-size images and descriptions!

This week, as you'll notice, I took quite a few landscape shots. I've never been a big fan of winter, but this year, I've been noticing it's beauty more than ever.
Maybe it's because I'm forced out into the elements to play with Bella daily or because we've had quite a bit more snow than in recent years, but I thought I should document these moments while I can stand being outside in it- I don't know how long this so-called enjoyment of the winter outdoors will last!

We also got out and about on Saturday skiing at Wild Mountain! It was so much fun, and I didn't fall down once (which is good, since I haven't skiied in 2 years). It was about 13 degrees, which started biting at our faces after a few hours, giving us an opportunity to sample the amazing 'hard apple cider' drinks at the bar in the chalet! We finished the day off by stopping by my brother's house to hang out for a few hours and then came home to watch the Packers dominate the Falcons in the playoff game! Perfect Saturday!!

365 Project: Week 2!

I made it through my first full week! I realized that there's no way I'm going to be able to get my camera out every day and take photos, so a few of these were taken on my phone (I just got a new Samsung Fascinate, though, and it has a really good camera on it!).

It's been fun finding different things about my day to capture- I know I'll look back on this in the future and will be glad I'm doing this project. I'm creating a snapshot of my life as it is now and without these little glimpses, I'm sure many of these moments would have been easily forgotten.

I've created some templates that I'll be posting here on my blog to condense the photos from the week, but I'm also uploading the full images (some of them get cropped in the templates) on my Flickr page. (a link is posted on the right of this page) I also added descriptions of each photo on Flickr to help explain the context behind them.

When I first decided I was interested in learning photography (middle school, I think?), my mom (bless her foresight!) bought me this book --->   (click here to see it on Amazon)

It's a beautiful book with amazing images and the photography tips can't be beat - every time I pick it up off the shelf, I learn something new. A lot of it is still film-based, but all the photography specifics (that I always tend to forget) still apply. The 365 project has gotten me to pick it up yet again and help me remember the difference between an F-stop and an ISO.

My goal is to take many different photos using many different settings with my camera and become more efficient with it. I hope to also find my 'photography voice' by evolving my own style. Stay tuned to watch the process unfold!

DESIGN WORK!

For having a degree in Graphic Design, I really don't get a chance to do much actual designing, but my cousin-in-law (I think this is the 'correct' term - she's more of a craft/art idea sharing friend) asked me to create her a logo to promote herself and her awesome crafts. I've been looking for excuses to familiarize myself more with a digital drawing tablet, and this seemed to be a perfect opportunity (although halfway through I decided that I was much more efficient doing it the old fashioned way using a pencil, paper and a scanner) I'm hoping that with more practice, though, the tablet will get easier!

For making her this logo, she offered an 'art trade', so she's making me an AMAZING 'teacher tote' that I'm really looking forward to!  She's really got an eye for making very unique quilts and bags and is just pretty much amazing at sewing in general! (someday I hope to learn her tricks!)  On her blog, she has lots of great process photos of her quilts and bags (and really funny stories about her kids and -of course- kitties!) You can check it out HERE.

365 Project: Week 1

Day 1: We finished enough pieces to fill a kiln! Budha finally gets finished!

I've decided to upload my 365 project photos by the week, instead of trying to keep up by the day. Sundays seem to be the best so even though I only have 2 photos, it's Sunday and I wanted to share the beginning! I go back to school tomorrow, which means back to the reality of NOT being able to do whatever I want all day, so best to keep it as simple as possible :)

Our big achievement for this week was filling up our kiln and firing it, for the first time in months! I thought that was a very fitting event for the first photo of the project!
For those of you that don't know, my husband, Justin and I have an amazing ceramic studio in our garage that gets utilized much less than I'd like. We have 2 kilns, boxes and buckets of clay, a few plaster molds (Budha being our most prized one) and glazes galore. We inherited this utopia from Justin's grandmother who passed away a couple of years ago. While cleaning out her house,  a ceramic studio was unearthed in her basement - how perfect?! So, we rented a U-Haul, packed it to the roof with ceramic delight, and set up shop here! (I was on CLOUD NINE to find this gold mine... I just wish I had more time to use it!)

The rest of the weekend was spent lounging around the house, soaking up the best that married life has to offer!

Day 2: The Married Life - ''Computing' together on the couch

Bring it on, 2011!

Hello, Cyber World!
In the last week, I have:

 A - Opened up shop on Etsy to sell some of my photographs and handmade cards

 B - Created a Flickr account so I can join 'The 365 Project' (see below for details)

 C - Created this blog to document the process

Whew! What a week! Apparently now that I've decided to make an online name for myself, I'm firing on all engines! Now, just because I've set all these accounts up doesn't necessarily mean they're well-oiled machines yet or anything, but they're off to a pretty good start.

Although I normally don't take part in making New Year's Resolutions, I've decided that in 2011 I'm going to make ONE resolution and JOURNAL IT to encourage myself to follow through. I've decided to join 'The 365 Project' phenomenon. 

The 365 Project is a photography project where you document a year of your life by taking a daily photo. The idea of the project is to not only help me find a little bit of something beautiful in every day, but will (fingers crossed!) help make me a better photographer in the process. I was *inspired* by Jessica of Vol.25 (an amazing artist with a contagious creative spirit) who will also be following the project and who has created some really great album templates that I'm excited to utilize! 

I will be uploading my photos weekly to my Flickr account that will be linked to this blog and sharing the process with you all year long! Stay tuned and feel free to join along with me! Check out The 365 Project here for more information on how to get started!