365 update

365 days: day 26

I've been a bit of a blog slacker but I wanted to do a quick 365 update - for those of you who aren't obsessively checking my flickr for all the new exciting shots (yes, this means you mom with your dial-up :)

Today is Day 26, believe it or not. So far, so good...it's getting a little easier to see pictures of myself but its amazing how much time the whole process can take everyday. But its definitely worth it to keep my 'photography brain' engaged...

Here are a couple of my faves from the last week or two.

Day 23: This shot was for the Flickr Group Roulette assignment "My Little Secret"

Day 21: Sportin' Sarah's fabulous wig from the "I love that, please send!" group

Day 20: Sarah's other groovy wig from the "I love that, please send!" group. Also for Flickr Group Roulette's Environmentally Friendly assignment

vegas baby!

I went to Las Vegas with Tracy, Britt and Angie for Britt's big 4oth birthday. The weekend was lovely and pretty mellow overall - consisting mainly of pool, drink, eat, play slot machines, pool, drink, eat, play slot machines. We stayed at the mirage, which was pretty fabulous - not to mention it was perfect weather. 85 and SUNNY - my poor body is in shock back in Portland, where it is currently 43 degrees. whine whine.

1st day at the pool

me and the birthday girl

slushy drink goodness

And I even managed to keep up with my 365 shots!

yes, these were taken on two different days!

The trek home was interesting due to some odd re-routing through Denver (without tracy who stayed on our original flight) so my final 365 shot of the trip was 'cranky airport layover' heather.

sunshine and blue skies

Portland finally saw some fabulously sunny warm weather this weekend - unfortunately it only stuck around for about 1 1/2 days. *sigh* But Saturday was loverly - spent a great day hanging out with Cora followed by a swanky soiree for Bradley Angle house (domestic violence shelter). Kim is on the board of Bradley Angle now so a bunch of us went to their yearly fundraising auction. I won by bid on a haircut so watch out for new hair...coming soon!

Friday night was a joint b-day party for Maralea and Sarah - we played some rousing games of apples to apples and I drove everyone nuts with my photo-ing. I'm still playing and practicing with my new 50mm lens.

the birthday girls

cora channels her italian grandmother (i love this shot)

birthday flowers

Now on to the 365 update! Today is day 11 and its been going fairly well. I think I have underestimated the time for this project - it's so easy to get completely consumed by plotting for the pics, spending time on flickr posting and commenting, etc. I'm having fun though. The pics below are Thursday through Sunday. I might have mentioned in an earlier blog how there are many many 'groups' set up on flickr on pretty much any and every topic. I belong to a couple fun ones - including "Smokin' in the Girl's Room" - which is a fab group of photographers. An offshoot of Smokin in the Girl's Room is "I love that, please send" - which is why I'm sportin' a fabulous purple muppet hat in some of the shots below. All the members in the group send out fun items for others to take pics with. Another group is called "It's Friday, so put your feet up and take a break (aka FUTAB)" - which I have already found to be a great shot for Fridays when I'm tired and don't have any fun ideas. Last but not least is Flickr Group Roulette, which 'crashes' other groups for a day. It was created to help 365'ers who needed ideas for their self portraits. It's a hilarious group - very fun and creative. Saturday's topic was "Copy a Cat" - which was suppposed to be copying a fave photo from another flickr photographer but I did a pic with Kaylee (um, didn't they mean copy a CAT?). Today's topic was "Things I can't do"; I chose singing. I would LOVE to be able to sing but its just not gonna happen.

cirque du sewing

I spent a lovely weekend hanging out with Maggie. We hit the farmer's market on Saturday morning (first day of the new season!), wandered all over downtown, then went to see Cirque du Soleil - Corteo. It was Maggie's first Cirque du Soleil and it was AMAZING. Amazing what people can do with their bodies - every time I see a Cirque I want to run off and take trapeze classes. It also had a lot of great visual images - played on the more classic surreal circus theme compared to some of the other Cirque performances I've seen.
Sunday we had a fun little sewing day - mom was a wonderful assistant!
And it's day four for my 365 project - I went with a sewing pic for today!
**please excuse any formatting issues - I got a new computer (macbook - woo hoo!!) and i'm still trying to figure it all out....

365 days

So today I took the big plunge and started the 365 project. And Nan is joining me! It will be awesome to have a 365 buddy. So for those of you who haven't heard me obsessing about flickr and self-portraits, here's a summary of the 365 project:

Take one self-portrait every day for 365 days.

So that's it - sounds pretty simple right? I've followed quite a few other 365'rs and it's really an amazing project on a lot of levels. At this point, I'm trying to not put too many expectations on the project and myself - but of course, that is easier said that done for me!

BUT...here are a few reasons why I'm doing it.

1) It will help me to be a better photographer - by the sheer volume of pictures and the fact that I will be carrying my camera with me everywhere! I'm excited to learn more about my new best pal (Nikon D40) and stretch my creative boundaries.

2) There's also an aspect of 'journaling' that appeals to me. I feel like the older I get, the faster time flies by and a year will pass without me really being aware of it. So I'm hoping this will help me be a little more mindful and aware - not to mention having a full year of pictures to remind me of things (good, bad and indifferent) that have happened. I specifically started the project today - April 3rd - because in exactly 6 months I'll be 35.

3) Then there's the whole self-awareness, self-perception thing - how often do we really LOOK at ourselves? Of course, I don't want this to turn in to total navel-gazing narcissim but I'm interested to see how my sense of self changes over the year.

4) And running through all of the reasons above is the need to overcome fear - fear of failure, fear of 'putting myself out there' publicly (artistically, physically, emotionally), fear and loathing of being in front of the camera instead of behind it.

5) Last but not least - i know it will be a lot of fun. I already have some great, really inspiring and encouraging 'flickr friends' - and it is a great way for me and Nan to connect across the miles.