A Challenge

This week has been one of the most beautiful I can remember ever having during the middle of February.  The temperatures have been in the mid to high  40's and even hit 50!  Plus of course there's been all the excitement up at the Capitol which has brought a whole different type of beauty to my week.  With all of the excitement and gorgeous weather I must admit I have been neglecting my camera.  So I decided to remedy that neglect today.

Part of my reasoning for making this resolution and starting this blog was to challenge myself to take different pictures than I normally do.  So in keeping with that idea my challenge this week was to find things to take photos of in my apartment.  In the past most of my pictures are all things found outdoors-a lot of flowers and landscapes (and animals...I really like going to the zoo to take pictures!).  My subject matter this week turned out to be an antique bench I currently use as a coffee table and a glass jar that was originally a candle holder that now functions as a change jar.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the bench picture-it definitely is a type of photography I'm not used to taking.  Hopefully it will get better with more practice.  I do like the jar pictures a bit more.  Let me know what you think!

Why?

Before I go too far I just want to warn you that I have never really considered myself much of a writer- so please keep that in mind as you read and be kind :)

So now that that is out of the way-why am I writing this?  This is the beginning of a new year's resolution.  My co-worker and I have decided to challenge ourselves creatively this year.  We both love photography and as a way to encourage our creativity and hone our skills, we have decided to hold each other to posting at least one set of new photos each week for the next year.  Now I will admit this was not our first idea.  Originally it started with posting a new photo each day...we then realized that with our hectic lives this would never work.  So making our goal a bit more realistic, we came up with our current plan.

My current photographic philosophy is that the way you find things in nature is the most pure and beautiful they will ever be-so why mess with it?  I don't, as of yet, edit or alter my photos.  I can see this changing in the future but for now I like to go on an adventure, find something beautiful or cool, and take pictures.  It's pretty simplistic but it works for me.  I'm hoping that over the next year my abilities will continue to grow and I will learn to see things in a more creative and abstract manner.  I have some other goals for my photographic endeavors, which I will share later on.  But for now, I just want to make sure that I don't let life get in the way of doing something that I love and is all my own.

Now that you know a little why I'm doing this and how my current photographic philosphy works, lets look at a couple pictures!  The first two pictures were recently taken on my day off.  I knew I had to take some photos but really didn't want to leave the house.  So, I found something in my house I thought might work well for some photos and started shooting.  Some didn't turn out too bad and I actually kind of like the simplistic nature of just having a teacup as the subject.  I hope you like them...

This last photo I will admit is not from this last week.  It is one I took on a recent trip back to my hometown.  I love this photo even though it is a pretty basic one.  It's just a picture of a reflection in an ornament my parents have hanging in a tree outside of their house.  I love that it captures me and my parent's home.  Easily one of my new favorite photos.