Thursday, January 29, 2009

idle: January



So as I've have been thinking about my word for this year, I decided to give myself a grade for my performance. For this months' attempts at idle time, I give myself one star.

I thought that maybe I shouldn't I give myself any stars at all. I mean, I've felt pretty busy and crazy this month. But, I did do some good ground work for making idle time a regular part of my week.

Dave and I outlined a weekly schedule. We've been following it (with the occasional necessary exception) for about 2 weeks now and I like it. I like knowing what's coming and what to expect. I think Dave likes it for the most part too, although he is more into spontaneity than I am, so we'll see if this really ends up working for him. The 'idle time' that I've scheduled in is 3 nights a week. I'm suppose to go for a walk and let my mind wander. But, what's happened is, that I'm so excited to be out of house by myself, that I end up speed walking and my mind is a mess of excited energy. I plow through ideas like a bulldozer. Not quite what I thought my idle time would look like. But, it's a place to start. So, Robyn, you are awarded one star.

Keep at it. Keep tinkering. You can figure this out! You have all year, after all.



And, I made this scrapbook page yesterday. I really like it! I took a chance with drawing that subtle white line around the edges, but I like the effect. Phew.

Here's what I wrote:
I didn’t used to take pictures. I didn’t like to. I didn’t like my results. I didn’t really know how to use the camera. And I felt embarrassed about taking photos. Especially in public.

Even after Andrew was born, I still avoided it. I remember setting him up on the bed for a photo shoot and not getting any good shots. They were either blurry, or the color was off, or the baby in the photos just didn’t look like Andrew.

And then, I started reading blogs. And then I wanted to start my own blog. The blogs I read had beautiful photography. Magazine quality. The photos seemed quiet and peaceful. They drew me in. And I knew I wanted my blog to look like that.

And so I began to take more photos. I experimented with settings and read about light and ISO. I learned how to set my white balance. I played around with the composition of what I was shooting and the angle I used. Having a blog to photograph for and daily motivation to take pictures got me really excited about photography.

Just before Isaac was born, my grandmother, unexpectedly and uncharacteristically, sent me a very large check. She surprised all of her children with this generous gift. We were to use it however we wanted. And so I bought this camera. A real, live DSLR camera. Very fancy. And I love it. I use it every day and my photos are getting better and better. I am planning on taking an online photography class this Spring to learn even more.

Now I can't imagine photography not being a big part of my li
fe. It's so expressive and beautiful and, I do have pretty incredible little subjects.

4 comments:

Tara Whalen said...

That turned out wonderfully! You definitely should submit that one!!!

Goes On Runs said...

you take beautiful pics and i love this page!!!!

Melissa Belmonte said...

You really do take beautiful pictures. Did you get the great camera first and then work on improving your photography, or the other way around?

Mama V said...

Do you find that the newer/fancier camera does a lot of the work for you? Or do you still have to manually switch buttons and turn the focus lens and apply all of your new tricks? I find the (cheaper) point-and-shoot cameras to be so much harder to control in terms of ISO settings, etc. when trying to be spontaneous but am weighing whether or not I should get a nicer camera someday to do some of the work for me. :)