Goals - Closing 2011

As a refresher, here were the goals for 2011.

And now, the final review:


Creativity - B+
I can't say enough how amazing the experience with my 365 project was. A leap of blind faith turned into so much more, in ways I wasn't even quite comfortable thinking about. I missed a few days, and by "a few", in some cases I mean "a lot".

The rest of the creativity stuff...didn't do so well. I did cook a few new things, learn a few new techniques, but not like a year's dedication would have meant. I didn't do much writing, and house redecorating didn't happen either.  The 365 project completely carries this goal, which was something I definitely wanted.

Financial - A
Check. I would give it an A+, but the implied investment side of the goal didn't turn out.

Fitness - A
Half Ironman - CHECK.
PRs - actually, looking back, surprisingly, CHECK. 3 PRs for the year. There was some unstated sub context about RUNNING PRs, and I did PR at Bloomsday and take 4 mins off my time, but this fast running thing really didn't pan out this year much, with the focus on the 70.3 and then bailing on the Seattle Half Mara.

Home Related - F
Yeah, this did not happen. New garbage disposal by necessity. Nothing else. I cleaned out my little cubby in the coffee table a couple times, and did reorganize my camera stuff a number of times. This does not count for much.

Miscellany - ?
How can you grade something you didn't write down? Some cool things for the year: I did more classics reading, including Virginia Woolf, Goethe, Jonathan Swift, Ayn Rand and Oscar Wilde. Maybe that had something to do with taking it off my list of goals, but I think it had more to do with accessibility and cheapness (FREE!) on my Kindle.

Overall:
Not bad - and I'm actually really happy with how well I did on most of this stuff.

Infinite Canvas

Happy Birthday, Mom.

I hope things are bigger and better where you are.

Archiving - 2011 Books

A good year of reading.

In terms of overall standouts, Small Furry Prayer and Within the Frame are the tops, followed closely by American Gods.

Clearly it was a year of photography, and true as well with the reading. Within the Frame, and David duChemin's philosophy in general speak to the kind of photographer I yearn to be, and in terms of sitting down with a beautiful book full of amazing pictures, beautiful thoughts, and great advice to think about (I have never so savored instructions on exactly how to get lost in a new city), it brought everything together, including the language and the photographs to

Troika

It's taken me 5 months to really sit down and write this. Why? I guess a lot of reasons. When I finished the race, I wasn't sure what to make of it, and then it took me a while to come to terms with that and make something of not being sure what to make of it, if that makes any sense at all.

7 months of training.

365 2011 Reflection

I am staring at my blinking cursor because I have so much to say, and don't know where to start.

Still don't.

Let's try this...

January 1, 2011

January 1, 2011: I'm in the dark. I have the lights off and am trying to take pictures of the Christmas lights so they look "cool and fuzzy". Later, I will find out this is called "bokeh". I have messed with my fancy camera somewhat, but don't know what else to do. It's not doing what I want. The lights aren't fuzzy enough. What is wrong with me that I can't do what everyone else can do? I'm frustrated.

Archiving - Races 2011

Date - Race - Distance - Comment

1/8/11 - Bridle Trails Trail Run - 5 mile - First Bandit Event!

3/6/11 - Lord Hill Trail Run - 5 mile

4/10/11 - Soaring Eagle Trail Run - 5 mile

5/1/11 - Bloomsday - 12K - PR!!

7/9/11 - Clear Lake Triathlon - Sprint Tri - PR!

8/7/11 - Troika Triathlon - Half Ironman - COMPLETE!

8/27/11 - Priest Lake Triathlon - Olympic Tri - PR!

Archiving - Photo Goals 2011

It’s better to fail spectacularly while reaching for the stars than it is to succeed at something we never really wanted in the first place. - David duChamin

I'm starting this page to keep track of what I want to tackle with my photography. I plan to keep adding notes to it as I go, and will probably have to think of some way to track progress on each one of the things I want to be sure to learn.

Last updated 11/21/11

Technicals

• Control aperture: select depth of field on purpose, blur background for effect
• Execute good exposure manually; control exposure for creative effect
• Learn to use and manipulate ISO settings: what it does, why to use, when to use vs. other settings like exposure +/-
• How to take pictures indoors without orange incandescent light tinge
• How to use Aperture Priority setting
• How to use the flash without it washing out everything, being too harsh
• Learn to maximize existing light that is generally not ideal

Composition

• Ability to create interesting and compellingly composed photographs
• Ability to do cool bokeh

Technology

• Define a workflow in Aperture, including organization, rating system, and keyword logic
• Ability to edit photos in Aperture: create effects, filters, black & white, sepia, colorized

Application

• Determine what to replace my broken lens with
• Night star shots
• Night traffic shots
• Get over feeling awkward whipping out my huge camera to take pictures, maybe tackle tripod phobia

Progress Updates:

1/5/11 - already panicking nightly about what to capture for my photo.

1/10/11 - getting bored with indoor light in the evening. Everything is orange. The flash is too harsh, the light too cold and blue.

1/12/11 - not sure about continuing with Flickr. Started posting and logging 365 project with Picasa to make sure I could always access the full file photos for free, and know which ones I used for the project.

1/16/11 - decided I needed a mentor. Started looking. Found some good options.

1/18/11 - submitted my first 365 to the Shutter Sisters photostream. Joining the conversation on Flickr.

2/11 - bought filter for on-camera flash. This rocks and softens things.

2/21/11 - broke out the flashes from Mom's old set up taking photos of her art. LOVE this!

3/6/11 - finally bought new lens: Nikon 50mm 1:1.4 AF - LOVE this!

4/24/11 - beginning to get over big camera phobia. Less weirded out by whipping that bad boy out. People actually are now referring to me and my "cameras". Definitely more comfortable with aperture priority, shutter priority, and learning more about how to control the exposure in the dSLR. Starting to consider running it in full manual mode (although I'm much more comfortable in full manual with the film camera), and am understanding more about what the information the dSLR presents in the viewfinder means and how to use it.

________

11/21/11 - wow. wow, wow, wow. So much to say. I came to post ideas.