I have been slacking.

I really enjoyed blogging on a daily basis in Ireland. Not as much is happening here in Washington. Or perhaps, I have been pretty darn busy and I haven't spared a thought for my blog. It is true that I've been busy! Working working working. Either way, Owen said he needed to read my blog and I remembered that I hadn't posted anything in a while so I thought I'd make an update :)

And sadly, I have been slacking on my photography. I have submitted far too many cellphone photos in lieu of real pictures. I have a list of photo ideas and yet I feel uninspired. No, not uninspired. I have been lazy. Unmotivated? Either way, I just haven't been putting forth the effort. 

After about two and a half weeks I finally adjusted back to Pacific Standard Time. Even though that has happened, I am still sleeping poorly. If I wanted to make a project of it I could photograph how tired I look every morning, but I think that might get a little depressing :P

Last week I helped my mom make dinner! It was meatloaf and it involved me touching raw ground beef in a very serious way. I am very proud of myself. Tonight I was going to help her make a roast, but my Grandma made it first so my mom wouldn't have to cook on her birthday (happy birthday mom!). I think we're going to decide a different meaty dish for me to cook for more practice.

I have yet to attempt driving stick shift. It is high on my list though! My volunteer never got back to me regarding availability, so I may need to get more aggressive. I really want to learn. That would be a major accomplishment.

Tonight I realized that most likely I won't get around to painting my 40K army while I'm here. Thus far there has been so much else going on and I think I'd prefer to make a few blankets instead. I do love sewing! I have some sewing to do for my Halloween costume. I am really looking forward to taking pictures of my friends in their costumes. I may set up my large umbrella and try having a fun shoot, so long as my friends are in compliance! :D

-MJ

A birthday and a dog.

But not a dog birthday. I don't think I know anyone that hosts birthday parties for their dogs. That's OK though.

Today was Elijah's 3rd birthday! He had a party with lots of friends. This is the first time I've used my camera in just over two weeks. It felt good to be taking photos again. I've had a hard time getting motivated to take photos during my transition back to the States. I should be fine going forth and completing my 365 now.

There were many children in the house today, I wasn't entirely sure what to do. I wanted action shots of course, but there were so many limbs and toys and balloons flying around that it was difficult to get FACES in the shots. I came away with a few that I'm happy with though. Some very nice ones of Elijah enjoying his super awesome train cake.

I made a big effort to really use my SB-800. I was fiddling with the controls almost the whole time. I found that the TTL wasn't really working as well as I would have liked it to. I know that there's a bit of an issue with relationship to the aperture on my lens, so a lot of the photos are a bit darker than I wanted them to be. Not a huge deal, I can lighten them in post, but it would be nice to not have to worry about it at all. There's still so much to learn!

In general it seems that upping the ISO to 200 makes enough of a difference to lighten photos that are taken while I'm zoomed. Of course if I forget to put that back to 100 and I take a photo of someone as close range the photo is completely blown out. It was an exercise in quick transitions, so all in all it went well.

After the party I went to visit Jacki :] and finally meet her puppy, Hiro! I brought my camera with me, still in shutter bug mood, and planned on taking many photos. I'm happy to say that I succeeded in taking many photos. I would have taken even more if my flash batteries hadn't 100% died on me.

No problems though, because I got some super cute photos of this fantastic doggie! Another exercise in acting quickly with a squirrelly subject!

All in all, a great return to my 365 project.

-MJ

Still not feeling it.

I still haven't taken any photos. My camera is packed in my suitcase still. I've thought about my 365 every night for the past four nights as I climb into bed, but I'm just not feeling it yet.

When I set out to do this project I had very high aims of not missing a single day and seeing it through to completion. I'm standing firm at photo number 276. Less than 100 left. Originally, my full circle would have ended about a week before Christmas. As it is now I'll be into the new year before I'm finished.

Not really sure what happened in Ireland to make me stop taking photos there; I was mostly just pretty distracted I guess. Since arriving back in Washington I've been busy non-stop with packing and unpacking and moving and organizing. My 365 is important to me, but not living out of boxes is a more pressing matter.

At the rate I've been going I should be completely unpacked and settled by the end of the week. I know I'll definitely have photos from this coming Saturday, it's Elijah's 3rd birthday! At least I know that the latest I'll be starting again is then. That's nice.

On Friday I ordered test prints from a printing service that I've been reading about. They should arrive in the mail today and I'm really excited. I'm closer and closer to having my etsy shop up and running! I have it 'open' but I have nothing for sale. I've been going through my photos and deciding which ones I want to offer for sale and I also have a large list of ideas of photos to take to help with my shop.

Exciting!

I just remembered that I need to backup my hard drive to my other external. If I lost all of my Ireland photos I honestly think I would die.

I may take a break from moving and packing today to put up Halloween decorations. I would like to be festive as hell for the next three months.

-MJ