Sunny Days Ahead

Day 8 June 13th, 2014 The sun is trying so hard to make its way out of those clouds, but it’s only succeeded in little bursts so far. I realize that I’ve tended to dwell frequently on the weather during …

Playing Catch-Up

Day 7
June 12th, 2014

More rain! I am just biding my time until the sunshine rolls on in, at this point. Let’s hope that Mr. Weatherman is right– he says this weekend should be bright and beautiful. In the meantime, I experimented with some portrait-ception, creating three self portraits in one, just to see if I could. I feel that I’ve really been testing my abilities and challenging myself in this 365, and I’m so glad. I look forward to looking back at my early photos after a year has passed and being able to say “Wow, look how much I’ve improved!”

Dodging the raindrops, my brother, boyfriend, and I explored (for the umpteenth time) the old, abandoned farm down the hill from our cabin. Every time we step in those buildings, there’s always something new to discover. Although I didn’t have my tripod on me, I’ll certainly be heading back with tripod in hand within the next few days to capture some better pictures. Here’s some photos of the barn to tide you over, peppered with a couple pictures of the pups to end on a cute and cuddly note.

 

Wonderland

Day 5

June 10th, 2014

Do you remember the coffee pot house from yesterday’s post? If not, here’s a refresher:

Now that we’re all caught up, today’s photo was inspired by yesterday’s coffee-pot-house-sighting. 🙂 Since I couldn’t keep the house as a souvenir, I felt the best way to make tribute to it was to reinterpret it a bit and incorporate it into my 365.

I must say, I really enjoyed making this photo. Being a perfectionist at heart, I probably could have continued playing around and editing it for all eternity, but I had to pick a stopping point somewhere so that I could post it on time. In fact, this was the one and only photo that I created today (not counting the fact that this photo has several parts).

I decided to use today to recuperate from yesterday’s car ride, and spent the majority of it reading Animal Farm (I know, as an English major it’s a sin that I haven’t read this book yet), relaxing, and checking out new blogs. I’ve really enjoyed connecting with some of you on this site; from my limited experience, WordPress seems to be chock full of friendly, creative individuals.

Now then, off to bed for me! I’ve gotten into the bad habit of posting late at night, and it’s disrupting my inner morning person. Tsk tsk.

Made It!

Day 4
June 9th, 2014

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This evening, I found myself happily on stable ground and free from the confines of my little clown car for the first time in what feels like eons. Hurray, freedom!

My grandparents’ cabin remains just like I remembered it: a time capsule from my childhood, with pictures of little me donning the mantle of the fireplace to prove it. After the preliminary settling in and unloading the car, it was off to stretch my legs on a bit of a jog. My Floridian legs aren’t quite used to hills, but the cool weather, crickets chirping, small country road, and misty, dusky environment were so idyllic, I quickly forgot about leg cramps. (I’ll let you know if they kick in tomorrow.)

The evening was so appealing that it seemed the perfect opportunity to play around with a bit of night photography. Thus, my photo of the day and the majority of my extras have their origins in this evening’s shoot (not counting my last photo, which is a lovely caffeine and kitchen-implement themed home that I spotted on our trip earlier today.)

To give credit where it is due, I owe thanks to my not-so-willing brother, Chase, who is featured in a few of these photos, as well as my wonderful boyfriend, Dylan, for helping me with this shoot. Both aided in a bit of light painting and hand modeling, and for that I am grateful.

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Road Trippin’

Day 3
June 8th, 2014

Five hundred miles down, five hundred more to go!

Tonight, I have taken temporary residence in a snazzy Red Roof Inn in Virginia. The Internet goes at a crawl here, but hey, I have time to kill before I get back on the road tomorrow, anyway.

A few highlights of my road trip so far include dodging rain showers (and slip-and-sliding my way through them in my car now and then), as well as a short evening Dairy Queen run with my family (a guilty-pleasure road trip tradition of ours). I have been enjoying the reprieve from the Florida heat and the change in scenery, but I must admit, taking a halfway decent 365 photo on a road trip can be challenging when behind the wheel. No worries, though– none of these pictures were the result of any illegal photographing-while-driving. 😉

Featured in my photo of the day is the power facility a short walk away from my hotel room. I was drawn to the silhouette it created against the sunset, and thought it to be the strongest of my photos from today’s adventure. However, I had quite the random assortment of photos to choose from for today’s picture, as I was taking photos all the way along the road trip. Here are some other pictures that are all equally second-best-in-show:

And last but not least, here’s a quick bonus picture of Moose (left) and Zoey (right) being perfectly cooperative travel companions for the day.

It Begins

Hello, hello!

Today marks the maiden voyage of my shiny new blog. Welcome to it!
For now, this space is intended as an accompaniment to my burgeoning 365 project, in which I will be taking a photo a day for a year. In it, I will be providing my daily photo, as well as outtakes, bloopers, and additional shots that may not have made the cut, but that I still found worth sharing. On top of that, in this space I will be providing my thoughts about the project, as well as any entertaining experiences I may have along the way. Just think of this as a behind-the-scenes look at my 365!

Day 1
June 6th, 2014

So far, so good! I spent about five hours working on this photo yesterday. I dread the coming days when I will be more crunched for time and won’t be able to dedicate that much time to each picture, but I know that that’s all part of the 365 game. To give you all some perspective as to why I’m choosing to do this project in the first place, here’s a quick bit of background:

I have been a massive fan of Flickr since I was first introduced to it by a close friend of mine way back in 2009. On that website, I learned about the idea of the 365 (as well as the 52 weeks project) while following the work of Flickr-ers such as Karrah Kobus, Whitney Justesen, Ottilie Simpson, Shane Black, Joel Robison . . . oh, the list goes on and on. (For the record, I highly suggest checking out any and all of these photographers’ work: it is wonderful.) However, I was always too busy or lacked the confidence to start one of my own. After all, taking a (good) photo a day is quite a commitment, along with having the courage to post each one, for better or worse.

On April 25th of this year, however, I graduated from college and lost any excuse I may have had to not do a 365. After all, my ultimate dream is to become a professional photographer– how could I possibly achieve that goal without practice, and lots of it? And thus, my 365 was born!

Day 2
June 7th, 2014

Tomorrow, I will be leaving on a 941-mile trip (but who’s counting?) to my grandparents’ cabin in Frenchville, Pennsylvania. As such, I thought it was only fitting to incorporate my (glaringly and intimidatingly empty) suitcase into my photo du jour. Hopefully the suitcase-packing elves will get to work soon.

So far, my ideas for this project have been coming very easily. I can only hope that this will continue, but just in case, I’ve been stockpiling sketches of my concepts for rainy, uninspired days. Here are a few additional photos that I took today, just for a bit of fun: