Dream #3 - Photography

Hi! So its taken me a long time to sit down today and write about my personal goal/dream. I’m not sure why I’ve avoided talking about it? Perhaps because it means a lot to me and I get frustrated by all of the things that are in my way? I get really excited when I talk about Photography, it gets me out of my daily funk and I find myself looking forward to something.

My love of photography began when I was planning Charlie’s and my wedding two and half years ago. (Has it really been that LONG? Geez…) I looked through so many magazines, trying to find out what style I actually liked, what things would be necessary in my wedding photographs, that I became more entranced by the story an image tells more than the pose or lighting… Some of you know that Charlie and I only had 7 months to plan our wedding and at 3 ½ months to go – we had no photographer! I brought in a stack of magazines to work one day and sat pulling out every ad that I saw for a photographer, went to their websites (if it sucked – I threw them out) and then I found Me Ra. J I LOVE her pictures, and follow her blog to this day (www.merakohblog.com and her website is www.merakoh.com). To make a long story short, she and her husband Brian flew down from Seattle and shot our wedding. Our pictures are probably one my favorite parts of our entire day – they were able to capture moments that I would have forgotten or missed completely. How priceless is that? This ability to capture a memory for someone else (and yourself) to be able to preserve for eternity is something I sought out after this experience.

That Christmas Charlie bought me my camera, we got a kit on ebay, a lovely Rebel xTi, it goes with me almost everywhere I go.

I played with it for the first 6 months and then we went to Europe – the difference between our point and shoot and this baby was amazing, and I had SO much fun shooting our summer abroad.

and of course I have my own personal puppy model

Sadly, it would be par for the course that the one hobby or creative outlet that I really enjoy would be… well not inexpensive. Haha So I play with my camera and have been working more on getting familiar with the different settings and saving up to expand my arsenal of equipment J

In May two of our best friends got married, Jessica asked me to take pictures of the getting ready process – so I felt like it was time to buy a new lens (my awesome 28mm 1.8). This day was a turning point for me. I LOVED shooting their special day, seeing the results and learning more about the processes.

So after this I decided to save up and actually go to one of Me Ra’s workshops. Charlie and I talked a lot about it, and we decided that it would be worth it for me to at least explore this love for photography at the next level – I put some of my graduation money towards flying to Washington DC this last month. What a life changing experience. I had no idea I would come back alive like I did. I know it sounds dramatic when I say that the last four years of my life has drained the life out of me – but that’s how I have felt. Getting my degree, pouring my life, blood, sweat and tears, night of NO sleep, studying until my eyes were going to fall out and missing out on seeing my husband, friends and family really took a toll on me. Then to graduate and have NO idea what I wanted to do, what I enjoy, what I’m good at? Where do I belong? This has been quite crushing and when I sat down after the first night at the workshop, uploaded my pictures and saw what I was able to capture… I can’t describe it. Something came alive in me that I had no idea had been out of commission.

You can check out some of my favorite pictures from the workshop in an earlier blog – or check out my shutterfly account: http://thestoryoflife.shutterfly.com/

I have some potential portrait sessions coming up – I’ll keep you guys posted on what is going on with this Dream of mine. I’m really excited about this path that my life may take.

At the end of our workshop with Me Ra, she had us do a writing exercise of writing a letter to ourselves. I really didn’t want to do it, lol - I was pretty emotional about the whole weekend, the experiences I had had and the prospect of returning home to the unknown. It took me a while to find things to say to myself, but I eventually got it out, put my letter in an envelope, addressed it to myself and gave it to Brian. I got it in the mail yesterday. I sat down and read it, cried a little bit, because I needed the reminder of that passion and excitement that I felt after the weekend. Writing all of this out on my blog – even if nobody reads it – is just another way of reminding me of where I need to be.

(Thank you Me Ra)

Come back tomorrow – I’ll talk about Travel J