Hey everyone! Hope you all had a spectacular Christmas and New Year. I can't believe 2014 is already here!! :O Crazy!
I spent a lovely Christmas in Alabama with family and I didn't take any pictures. That's very unlike me, especially during the holidays. But the cool thing is that for once I didn't feel any pressure to get a bunch of shots. Not that I don't do that sometimes or think it's not necessary, but before it was one of those nagging things at the back of my head saying "you have to get this picture" or "you need something to put on your blog, and it has to be really good". Even though I could've gotten some great shots I felt perfectly happy to just sit back and enjoy spending time with my family and taking a little break from the pressured shooting that I sometimes find myself doing. I've always heard more experienced photographers say "You have to know when to put the camera down and enjoy the moment." I don't think I've really done that until this holiday season, and when I have I've always regretted it or felt like I was being a bad artist by not taking advantage of a great moment.
So, a few things I've learned this year about my photography is that I don't have to always be behind the camera in a moment, it's even more important to be of the moment. If I do take my camera and only get a few shots of a great moment, then that's great too, even if I'm not completely satisfied with them. And most of all, I need to just have fun shooting.
I'm not really a new year's resolution person, but as we have entered into a new year, I was thinking about ways I can add a new element to my photography and make it more of a consistent and personal part of my life (without it being pressured!). I was looking at the Click it Up a Notch blog and I came across Project 365, which is simply a challenge to take one photo everyday for a year. I had done stuff like that before but the difference was that the challenges I did had themes for each day, which was fun, but Project 365 was more appealing to me in that it didn't have any.
Courtney, the owner of Click it Up a Notch, encouraged others to start their own Project and post it on their sites as well as follow other photographers work and give some feedback. So I decided to give it a try. I'm not expecting to be able to take a picture every day of the year, but I'm going to do my best to be consistent and to enjoy the moments God gives me, whether I'm behind the camera or not. :)
If you're interested in starting your own Project 365, check out this link for inspiring tips. It really helped me. :)
Also, I would love your feedback on this, and I would be super appreciative if you would share my blog with your friends. :)
Here's to a good start to a new year and happy shooting!
You can find Project 365 on the top bar of my blog (under the header photo) and you can check back daily for the latest photo. If there are any problems please let me know.
Thanks for visiting!
Auf Wiedersehen
