I'm going to get a little personal with you guys for a little bit. Typically I try to keep it all business on here but I've decided to change that and go a little out of my comfort zone.
For those of you that know me, knows that I can be a touch cynical about things and that I tend to think most things are just a tad silly or corny. I will be the first to admit that this is corny in every sense of the word. Most any day of the year I would look right past this challenge and think that it's either girly, that I wouldn't have the patience to keep up with it, or that I have better things to do. Well for some reason when I came across it this time, it hit me, I need to step out of what I'm comfortable with and do something different. I need to pick up the camera everyday and get out of my normal thinking habits when I have my camera in hand.
I'm actually excited to shoot things that I normally wouldn't. I hate taking self portraits of myself, but I feel like I should get on the other side of the lens for a little bit to remind myself what it feels like to have that thing pointed at me. It's quite uncomfortable for someone who isn't used to it, and I have to become aware that that's how most of my clients feel when I'm snapping away at them. I can't assume that they are just as comfortable being in front of the camera as I am behind the camera. So for this first week I must put myself in harms way and get my picture taken, for 7 days straight. Ouch.
I thought I would start off simple and then break out a little bit. The only rule is that it must be taken of me, by me...I'm assuming. So here is the first of the 140 pictures I hope to be taking for this challenge....
Day 1: Self Portrait
Day 2: Self Portrait.
Today has come! Duke plays the Tarheels and excitement fills the air all day long! So for today's shot I had to represent my team.
Day 3: Self Portrait
While trying to figure out what I wanted to take for today, my head kept throbbing with every heart beat and I honestly just didn't want to do anything but lay down and hope the medicine kicks in soon. So here is my experience...and my 3rd self portrait.
Also, I would like to explain that I'm aware of the layer of dog hairs on the couch...you tend to lose motivation to keep it clean when the dog takes 2 seconds just to get it back to the way he likes it and I wasn't about to edit those hairs out...
Day 4: Self Portrait
I'm having a slumber party over at my parents house and they always provide me with plenty of snacks to make myself a little fatter with. Well it would be rude to turn down the snacks and I can never say no to some butter popcorn. Little known fact...I can largely blame butter popcorn for turning me from the overly skinny kid to the...more filled out version of the skinny kid. I can probably blame a lot of other things as well, but no need to get logical here.
I'll be honest, I kinda forgot to do the self portrait till about 11:45 tonight and I know its technically the next day right now as I post this but in my head it's only the next day once you wake up from sleeping at least 4 hours during the night. So I'm still good.
My inspiration came from the fact that I was holding popcorn and remembered that I need to take a picture of myself, pretty deep, huh?
Oh yeah...this is the 3rd shot of trying to catch popcorn in my mouth and take a picture of it at the same time. Can we say that I'm amazing with the remote? Yes we can.
Day 5: Self Portrait
Sorta similar to my last post. Movement being the theme.
Day 6: Self portrait
I decided to throw my camera and tripod over my shoulders while I took Rigby for a walk. This little trail is kinda top secret and we are the only people in the whole world that know about it. It's also his favorite area to do number 2.
With that being said...here's a cute picture of him with me in it.
Day 7: Self Portrait
Me watching me, watching me, watching you.
Pretty much my best skillz ever so I wanted to save it for the last day of the self portrait week.
Day 8: What makes me smile
This week is gonna be so easy it's gonna be hard. I have to narrow it down to one thing down that makes me smile, for only 7 days. I'm going to end up having to leave about many many things so it's going to be hard choosing just one thing a day so I want to make it clear that this isn't a top ten or anything like that. It's simply pictures of things that make me smile.
Well for the first day, since I'm up visiting Katie and Rigby for Valentines Day I figured I would get a picture of them. By the time I picked up the camera Katie had already washed her face and decided to turn down a picture, so just imagine her beside of Rigby. This is his serious face.
Day 9: What makes me smile
Way back in the day, little over 2 years ago actually, Katie put together these nifty and sweet little gifts for me. I have always had them right in that place, next to my monitor on my desk, so I can see them everyday when I work. Since I'm at my computer during 98% of the day, I get to see them quite a bit...and that makes me smile.
Day 10: What makes me smile
Well isn't this week getting to be a bit dog heavy? Oh well.
I was planning on getting outside for some shots today but it ended up being nasty and rainy today, so tomorrow maybe?
You can't help but love this big guy, looks like he could take on a lion but he wouldn't harm a fly. You don't see many pictures of him on my blog because he is possibly one of the hardest dogs in the world to shoot. You will often see him sitting very handsomely on his on, but the second you pull out a camera he goes crazy and wants to play, so this shot was after he got tired of playing and stayed still for a second.
Meet Gunner...
Day 11: What makes me smile
Enough of all that lovey dovey stuff. I love Bojangles and it makes me smile. This one does in particular because it's brand new and less than half a mile from my house. When I saw that they were doing construction for the new Bojangles right outside my neighborhood, it was like all my Christmas' put together into one big day. Of course I have limited my visits for health and money reasons, but mostly money reasons.
Day 12: What makes me smile
I have many interests that make me happy, obviously photography is one of those things, but music has been a big part of my life since as long as I can remember. It's kind of hard to take a picture of actual music, har har, so I figured I would take a picture of some things I like to make music with. Ignore my computer, I got lazy and didn't feel like moving everything around.
Day 13: What makes me smile
I'm glad I came up with this idea because this definitely makes me smile. For many years now, I've always stuck important things and pictures in my mirror. I don't really have a reason for it being the mirror or anything, it just is. But it holds some very important things, things like my tickets from the panthers and state games, me and Katie when we were in our early days of our relationship and little notes from her, tickets to movies, my old dog Bear, me holding Theo and Rudy when they were puppies and most importantly a picture of me and my sister Debra who passed away when I was 5. You can ignore the library card, not that important, and you can also ignore all my hats.
Day 14: What makes me smile
This might seem a little odd to post, but the glasses make me smile. I don't think I realized just how much I needed them and how much easier they make things for me until I actually got them. No more squinting and now I can actually see things as they were meant to be seen!
Day 15: Bold colors
With this category I might not really have much to say about each picture, sometimes bold colors are just bold colors..sometimes they aren't. With my first day doing this category, I happened to be dog sitting my parents dog and one pretty nifty thing about where they live is that you can see the sunset right from their porch. I was sitting there looking around and thinking about what I could do for the first day when it was shining in my face the whole time. I simply went outside and shot, nothing crazy, it was all right there all along.
Day 16: Bold Colors
Since I am at my parents dogsitting for the week, I decided to make sure I used my hometown and home that I grew up in. I know my downtown like the back of my hand, but when I was driving around I noticed that it's really changed a lot, at least to me it has. I had a good idea of exactly where I wanted to go for my shots, but those walls were covered up or changed to something else, so I got to stretch my ideas and find new places, which didn't take long at all.
For the first place I shot, I was driving by and couldn't help but notice the new republican elephant looking tough...so I had to pull over and get a shot.
Day 17: Bold Colors
One of the other places I was referring to that changed was this wall, I like it. I like that they did something with it but didn't try to make it fancy and modern. The last thing that this town is, is fancy and modern...
Day 18: Bold Colors
This was one of the first places that came to mind when I heard I needed to shoot bold colors. I have used this place a few times for my shoots and love the color and texture in this old box car building...
Day 19: Bold Colors
Sorry for all the reds...it's not intentional.
This little chair has been my buddy since I was small enough to fit in it. Not really sure the history of this, not sure where it came from or anything like that. I guess I need to ask about that.
Day 20: Bold Colors
I'm not really sure the history of this old house, or store, or whatever it is. But when I've passed it, it has always caught my eye. I almost want to say it's a fixer uper...almost...
Day 21: Bold Colors
Again...sorry for all the reds, I know there are other bold colors in the world, but red just keeps coming at me.
This is an old Ronald McDonald cup, not sure of the year or what the story is behind it, but it's bold and you gotta love the feet.
Day 22: Dinner
This category will be easy in the sense that I don't have to do much thinking about what I will be shooting that particular day. The thing I'm nervous about is that you guys will see how unhealthy I really am. I mean you can probably take a good guess by looking at me, but now you'll really see.
I think for this week I'm going to have to change my diet to impress you guys.
For the first day, it's about is simple as it gets...pizza!
Day 23: Dinner
I've actually been slack on this because I've been away at dinner time and haven't been able to keep up. But since you guys are so lucky, I will take pictures of whatever meals I can to catch up and make sure you get 7 pictures of food. Exciting right? I know...I hate when people take picture of their dinner...but I gotta stick with the challenge...good and bad.
Here is a delicious meatloaf dinner that honestly tasted much better than it looked, I promise.
Hopefully I'll get to make a nicer looking dinner before the week is over...
Day 24: Dinner
I told you this wouldn't be my proudest weeks of posting, but I'm sticking with it. I had little cash a no desire to cook so I made a stop by Cookout.
Day 25: Dinner
This wasn't exactly dinner, but I had to catch up on my posts so this is my breakfast. Good old fashioned oatmeal...
Day 26: Dinner
Finally something healthy...baked chicken, broccoli, and fettucini
Day 27: Dinner
I had a craving for grilled cheese so I went to the store just for the ingredients. It's odd I had that craving since I haven't one since I was in elementary school, but I did an amazing job at making it and it was wonderful.
Day 28: Dinner
My last post of dinners...thank goodness. Some tangy chicken and rice is how I'm going to finish this week off and I can't wait to start my new week tomorrow!
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