Photography Project: Birthday 365

I'm using my recent birthday to inaugurate a Project 365. In this age of Instagram, it's fairly essential that I develop a more consistent style to my photography. One of the ways I want to explore is to take more photos just for fun. I'm going to document this here rather than on my photography blog, because I want to keep that one in the general shape of a professional blog. This blog is for all my messy experimentation and trying.

So, here are the days of catching up for the last week:

(iPhone) August 23 Lancaster, CA: My birthday was spent at my friend Beth Davis' house. It was the day before her daughter's wedding, so I took a few quiet moments in the morning to sit in the cool morning air of the desert. While there, I experimented with some new film-like filters on my phone. This is her son's bike, just sitting in the front yard. It was a delightfully ordinary day.

(Canon 5DM4) August 24, Los Angeles, California. This was on the front lawn of the LA temple. I was not the photographer for the wedding, but did have all my gear with me. It was fun to snap a few shots here and there. We enlarged this one for the reception and Emily, the bride, really liked it. That was nice to hear. I do think this photo is my "style." It's natural, the focus is selective, and it's composed off center. Those are definitely things I tend to do.

(iPhone, Portrait Mode) August 26th 2018 I love walks in the desert at Sunset. This is me playing around with my phone, pushing Portrait Mode to create depth of field without a face in the photo. It fights me on the focus sometimes, but I love how this one turned out. 

(Canon 6D, 24-105mm) August 27, Ventura, CA. We went for a beach day and had a few hours of lovely sunshine, then a storm blew across the horizon, it clouded over and the temperature dropped 10 degrees. We ditched the beach and went for Tacos. It was a really lovely day.

(Canon EOS something--my film camera) 28 I'm counting this even though it was taken a couple of weeks ago. I was on a plane all day on this day. I got the scans back this week and I played around with them. It was fun to fiddle with film again.

(Canon 5dM4) August 29. I was taking photos for possible featuring in a hub I'm a member of, and came up with this one. I didn't get featured, but it was fun to capture and document Eric always being willing to clean up after I cook.

(iPhone) August 30. This was taken on a walk around the neighborhood. I looked up and was blown away by the clarity of the sky, the beauty of the green, and the harmony of the entire scene. I do love that this is my neighborhood. 

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A New Creative Habit

This blog is languishing, so I've decided I'm going to use it to record my experience with an organization called Precision Nutrition.  I consider it all to be part of the same process. Creativity in art, in health, in eating, I believe it all comes from the same place in my heart and mind, and requires similar motivations and energies.

I'm about done with the two week introductory period of a year-long adventure to change my habits regarding health and fitness.

It's been interesting. For the last two weeks, all we were asked to do was

• Do a 5-minute action every day. Mine was to check in on the website and read the lesson every day. 
• Read or listen to a short lesson about the process of cognitive behavior recalibration and submit a very short assignment.
• Do a very basic strength-training workout, complete with foam rolling routine and extensive stretching. 

It feels doable and positive. There are people of all walks of life and all levels of fitness. There are people my age and older as well as people very young. It's all women in my group. 

I felt like I'd been put in the right group when I saw our coach and she looked like she could be my sister; and the name of our team is Ohana; and how Ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind...

Very cool. 

I'm excited and ready and have committed 100 bucks a month to this idea, so I'm going to give it my best for such a major investment. I'm doing this instead of taking other classes this year. I'm going to use it as a chance to let go of more than just 40-50 pounds. I'm going to combine what I learn in PN with finishing up my Body Restoration class with Brave Girls. I'm also going to use some of the principles from Julia Cameron and the Artist's Way and her behavior modification book about weight loss. 

All these together are resonating for me. Combining health science, art, writing and forced accountability sounds like a system that might work for me. 

More to come. Tomorrow I have to submit measurements and before photos. That doesn't sound too fun, but it's only data, as my coach says. 

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