Greatest Hits

As promised, I am uploading my fave photos from my 365 challenge.  They're not all good, but I like 'em for different reasons.  Hope you do too!

11/18/2011--Day one, on the way to Megan's bridal shower

12/2/2011--I will use this for a Christmas card one day

12/15/2011--The first time I mastered the concept of creating a dark background

2/4/2012--Parking garage stairs

2/11/2012--Emily, with the help of a lamp and a red scarf (but not Photoshop!)

2/15/2012--Valentine's day spirit

2/18/2012--Bridge arches

2/21/2012--Experiments with manual focus

2/23/2012--A scene from NYC.  I like to imagine these girls are models.

3/12/2012--Scene from Meg's wedding.  Wish the lady would've moved out of the shot.

3/15/2012--Getting comfortable with human models

3/28/2012--Trip to Nashville.

4/19/2012--Grand Central

4/26/2012--Might be my favorite shot of the whole year.

5/11/2012--Yankee Stadium train station

5/15/2012--Shot on the way to church

5/30/2012--I just like the vibrant colors in this one.

So, that takes us through the first six months of favorites!  I have a lot of favorite photos from the year, but they're not all photographically good.  Snaps from Nashville and Vegas, for instance, that have great memories, but the composition/lighting/facial expressions are off.  The ones above definitely aren't perfect, but I like them for what they taught me or how they came out.

Stay tuned for the next last six months!  Thanks!

Finished

You probably don't remember (because I've been horrible about updating) but for the past while, I've been working on a project I dubbed "P.O.D" or Photo-of-the-Day.  My goal was to take one photo every day for a full year.

Well, this past Friday, November 18 was the last day of my challenge.  I spent 365 days attempting to teach myself photography.  I carried my (quite heavy) camera with me everywhere and constant viewed the world as though through a camera lens, looking for that day's photo.

On the one hand, it sucked.  Some days just weren't interesting.  Today for example, I spent most of the day doing chores.  But I had to carve out some time to take something.  It was quite stressful!

On the other hand, it was awesome.  I set a goal and, for the most part, I kept it.  Granted, there were a few days I forgot (and somehow, there are about 10 days worth of photos that I managed to delete before uploading to my camera.  This is extremely sad for me, and I kick myself that I will never know what I took on those days).  But somewhere between 339 and 349 (assuming I didn't forget any of those lost 10 days) days this year, I took a photo.  I guess if I forgot everyone of those lost days, I would have missed 26 days.  Which I still feel isn't horrible.  But I'm going to assume that I only missed 16 to 20.  Which I don't think is so bad.

Some of the photos I took were trash.  I left my batteries at home until after midnight, I worked a double shift at Unos and didn't have the energy to craft an artistic shot when I got home at 11pm.  But some of the photos I got were great.  I truly feel that I know so much more about photography now than I did a year ago.  I know about f-stops and apertures.  I know the settings I need to capture illusive colors and lighting.  I can take a great cloud shot.  And I remember to bring my camera. 

One of the reasons I started the project was because I felt I never took photos to remember my experiences.  To some extent, I still feel that way.  In the past few weeks I went "out" with friends 3 or 4 times--and have photos of none of them.  But I have photos of my first apartment in New York, my second apartment, trips to Vegas, NC and Nashville, and a couple nights out in Frederick.

What I learned about that is I will never be what I call a "camera whore."  I don't take a million photos of my Saturday nights, when they are exactly the same each week.  I will never upload 200 photos to Facebook an hour after they are taken.  I also will probably not remember distinctly a lot of good times.  But you know what?  Having photographic evidence isn't what friends and parties and weddings and birthdays are about.  They're about having fun with the people you love, and enjoying life as it comes, rather than being worried about documenting it to remember later.  You can't look at life only through a lens.  There needs to be a balance.  And this year has helped me to learn that.

I'm not going to upload every one of the 339 photos from the past year, as I originally meant to.  As I said, some of them are absolute crap.  Like my series of winter snowscapes that are blue tinted, because I hadn't yet learned that the "fluorescent" setting does that.  I will, however, give you a "greatest hits" and upload the ones that I'm especially proud of, or I just think are hilarious.  Because, taking photos that you don't share is silly!

It feels good to have finished this project.  I can't believe it's been a year.  I can't believe what has happened in the past year.  New jobs, cities, apartments, friends, roommates--this project took me through a lot of firsts.  There were boring days, as I said.  But the project took me through a lot of exciting times, and gave me a different perspective on a lot of new events.  And I am very proud of myself for, not only challenging myself, but seeing it through, even during this summer when I was so over it.  I "powered through," to quote myself.  And it feels really good.

Also what feels really good?  My shoulder, now that I don't have to lug my camera absolutely everywhere.

Special thanks to all who are featured in my year's worth of photos.  I think that includes almost everyone who reads this.  Thanks for being in my life and in my photos.

It's Friday, Friday, Gonna Get Down on Friday

Yay!  You're probably already aware, but it's Friday today!  You're probably not aware, but this has been a super long week for me (working three nights stinks).  So no one is happier than me that it is the end of the week!

I have had a lot of bouts of anger recently (read my food list below if you have trouble remembering), so I have been in the mood to have a lot of fun.  I have a lot of really cool friends, so I thought I'd plan a little outing to explore the nightlife in my new 'hood.  Unfortunately, all of my really cool friends are busy, so I'm stuck with the second string.  Haha, just kidding guys!

But really, a select group of us (ok, read: me, Andrew and Andrew's roommate) are going to a bar called Union Hall, which reportedly has a fireplace, library and indoor Bocce courts.  Plus, they have an underground music venue.  Sign me up!

Ordinarily, I would opt for a cozy movie night on Friday and going out on Saturday.  But as we recently discussed at Em&M's,  doing things on Friday night makes the weekend seem so much longer.  So I'm going to test that theory tonight.

Before that, I am making dinner for us three.  Homemade pizza it is, because as I mentioned, I worked three nights this week and don't have the stamina to stand in my kitchen for an hour cooking.  Ok, honestly?  I never have the stamina for that.  But I'm gettin' a little fancy at least--going for BBQ chicken and bacon pizzas!  No standard roni tonight!

Then tomorrow, I'm going couch shopping, attempting my dad's awesome crab soup and watching Harry Potter 7, Part 2!

By the way, were you all aware that part 2 had come out?  Andrew told me it was OnDemand last week and I was all "Say whaaa?"  And he told me that, apparently, it came out back in June, and he saw it (without me!) and we had a conversation about it, I guess.  I remembered none of this.  So I was like, "wow, that's a bummer."  But then I examined it deeper and realized I must actually live under a rock, or at least in a state of complete oblivion and total self-absorption.  And that did not make me feel good.

But I'll be feeling good tonight as I sip whiskey by a fireplace!  Holla!

Rage List

I think it's a well-known fact that I often get very angry at people and need an outlet (I call this stage being "rageous" or "rageousness."  Side note--why can you be "outrageous" but not "inrageous"? ).  This blog is often my outlet because, as I've said before, furiously typing is way more satisfying than exercise.  But since my sister pretty much has the rant blog market cornered, I'm going to not step on her toes and tone the rage down a bit.  Also, this is an effort to be a more stable human being and not spend 45% of my week fighting the urge to stab a random stranger in the neck with a clicky pen.

Thus, in my current stage of post-rageousness (in which the rage still exists but I am way to exhausted to do anything about it, but still kind of want to do something about it) I have decided to do what I do second-best and make a list.  But not a list of rants.  Instead, I am going to make a list about something that makes me happy in an effort to go to bed in a calm, rational, and possibly even content state of being.  And so, here is my Food List, because I think all of you know by now, food makes me very happy, which is why I often have some on my person, in my purse or tucked away in the pouch of my hoodie.  So here are some foods which are really making me happy this week:

1. Caramel corn--I talked about this in my last list.  My mom's caramel corn is the best I've ever had.  It is extremely difficult for me to stop eating and made me inordinately happy when she surprised me with it last weekend.  Thanks mom!
2. Crab soup--Maryland crab soup, but especially cream of crab.  I'd never eaten cream of crab soup before my sister's wedding rehearsal dinner.  Something about taking the cream from another thing kind of freaked me out.  And when you put it that way, it doesn't even seem irrational.  But at the dinner, I tried cream of crab and it was the best freaking thing.  I ate a huge bowl of if later that week at Philips, even though it was like 100 degrees outside.  And the other day I went to City Lobster with my bosses and ever since then, I've had a major jones for crab soup.  Going to attempt to make it this weekend.
3. Chinese food--my roommates and I found a Chinese take-out place around the corner.  Its a bit more expensive than my old Bronx take-out, but you can tell they use real chicken, and the good parts of the chicken too.  And even though it was a little over-fried, there was no niggling fear in my mind that this might actually be cat meat or pigeon.  So that's always good.
4. Mexican food--NOT!  I don't like Mexican food but my whole apartment smells like it (thanks roomie) which is making me decidedly unhappy, so I really shouldn't include it on this list, but I'm going to have horrible dreams of getting stuck in a south of the border jail or something, because I am going to sleep smelling guac and tacos.  Ack.
5. Caramel lattes--pretty much always make me happy.  I might have to get one tomorrow, because I have been craving one for a week, but have abstained due to my lack of fundage, convincing myself that the free Lipton tea in the pantry at work was an adequate substitute.  News flash people: IT'S NOT.  But I feel like I perhaps deserve one after my day today, and I always buy from DD now, not Starbucks, so I'm practically saving money, and helping to support a former employer.  Good times.
6. Pizza bread--this one just came to me.  It's been awhile since I made pizza bread, which is weird, because since I moved to NYC, I'd been making it about once a week because it is awesome and easy and good to pack in my lunch and every time I make it, Andrew is very complimentary and tells me how awesome it is and how good I am at making it, and even though I know how easy it is, that is still nice to hear.  So I'll probably make that this weekend, because I don't really know how to cook real food and will probably have to bail on the crab soup after I ruin the first batch and will need to have a Plan B in place.

So that's my list of happy foods!  Now I am very hungry but it is 11:30, so I will just have to go to bed and start over in the morning.  If anyone has any ideas for really easy dinners (preferably with five or fewer ingredients, bonus points if it only requires one pot!) please let me know!  Merci, mes amis!

100th Post!

This is my 100th post on the blog!!  Woop woop!  I wish I had realized how close I was getting so I could post a bunch and then have my 100th post on the one year mark.  But now we have two celebratory posts!  I'm not going to do a retrospective for this one because it was a lot of work, and I pretty much covered every single post in the last retrospective.  So I'm just going to say "100!  Holla!  Celebrate!" and then pretend that these two blog milestones is the reason I've been eating so much Halloween candy this week.

UPDATE:  Turns out, this is not my 100th post!  Whomp whomp.  While I have written 100 posts, I guess I have only posted 94.  Epic fail!  Now I have to think of a different reason for all my H-ween candy indulgence.  Something besides "lack of self control" which I suspect is the real cause...

Listography

For someone who loves making lists as much as I do, I have written surprisingly few in this blog. So I'm going to start writing more lists.  This week is going slowly and I'm tired and I had to move out of my first ever apartment.  But here is a list of the things that put me in a good mood despite all of that:

1. Sweater tights--I've never been a tights kind of girl, but sweater tights+boots+a cowl neck sweater=the coziest I have ever been not in pjs
2. My fantastic hair week--my short hair cut has finally grown out to the perfect length, and somehow, I've been really good at styling it the past few days
3.  Shopping with my sister
4.  Fools and Horses--specifically the new cds burned for me by Mike's brother, and in particular the song "Selfish."  I don't know if that's what it's really called, but that's what I call it and I really like jamming to it when I walk to the subway in the morning
5. My mom surprising me with homemade caramel corn
6. Friends that will take the train to help you move a heavy love seat down five floors on a moment's notice
7. My family--every time I visit Maryland it gets harder to come back to NY because I just love being around my family.  I love NY and it's where I need to be right now, but I'm kind of starting to count the years til I can move home.  That's something I never would've thought I'd say, if you asked me 4 years ago.

**Addition**
8.  I would also like to add the little boy on the corner of Isham and Vermilyea in the big boots and fuzzy ear flap hat who did the running-man dance right in front of me.  Remembering that still makes me smile, even 4 days later.