Much too long.

More than a month between posts? Much too long.

Simultaneously, there has been a lot and very little happening in my photo life. I've been going strong with my 365 project (today makes photo number 343). Not too much longer now! Even though I see the number and I know I've been doing this almost a year, I can still hardly believe that it has been a year since I started it. Lately I'm feeling very guilty about it though, because I've submitted so many cellphone photos. They are still photos, so they do count, but they're not exactly my best work.

On the whole this project has taught me a lot about my creative process, my willingness to commit to a project, my ability to persevere when things get difficult and what kinds of photos I really want to share with the world. When I look through the photos, I'm definitely not proud of them all. And it's not just the cellphone entries. A fair amount of my dslr photos are very lackluster. Most of them I wouldn't have normally chosen to share with anyone. Even though I've almost come to despise this endeavor, I am extremely glad that I decided to do it.

I've come across a few ideas that I'd really like to flesh out, and that aspect alone has been absolutely worth it. I now have a whole year's worth of ideas to extrapolate on at later times if I so choose. That's pretty great.

In even better news, my laptop has been recently upgraded! Still the same casing and processor, but there's a new (and much larger!) hard drive and now I have 4 gigs of RAM. I am so very happy. The day after I arrived in Ireland my hard drive told me it was too full to continue to add photos to my Aperture catalogue. This made me very sad. Now, five months later, I can finally add the rest of my pictures! This is a serious setback in the overall process of having a completely searchable database, but at least I have the space now. I can thank my mom for this, it's her big Christmas gift to me :)

As you may recall, between now and my last entry, I have also had some (mis)adventures with my SB800. It decided to take a huge dump on me and stop working. It was awful. So, I sent it off to Nikon. $130 and about two weeks of waiting later and it was returned to me. They didn't tell me what was wrong with it, it was just noted that "major parts" were replaced. *shrug* It's working now and that's what matters. Although, last night I thought it was broken again. Imagine my horror and sadness. I did not react very well to the fear (crying was involved) that I'd have to send it to Nikon again.

Really, it would appear that I just happened to buy a total shit pack of batteries. I put five in and the flash popped once.... then no more. "Hm". So, I put in five new ones. Flash popped once and then... no more. Commence crying. I gave one last shot, put in five more new batteries and... it worked? I was baffled and relieved. I have a pack of 36 Energizers from Home Depot and a lot of them haven't worked very well. As long as my flash is working though, that's what matters.

I have taken my new found appreciation for my SB800 and turned it toward my shiny silver umbrella quite a bit. Tonight's photo saw my TTL cable in action while I held the SB800 into the umbrella. The light is so nice and I have hardly begun.

-MJ

Ireland Day's 28/29 - Busy busy

OK! I did not mean to skip two whole days. Holy cow. I've been going non-stop though! Wednesday was Dave's birthday, so after work I went home and ate then jetted back into town with Catherine to meet up with everyone. The Irish really know how to throw a birthday party! I didn't want to miss it. I had a lot of fun at Owen's two weeks ago as well! Seeing as I had (still have) a head cold it probably wasn't the best idea, but I am choosing to live it up. Either way, everyone was up late and I got home around 2 and just crashed. Suffice it to say, yesterday I did not feel good at all. Combining a head cold with a hangover is something I'd rather not ever repeat. I think some of the guys were much worse off though. I've never heard of this game, but they call it Edward Buckfast Hands. I guess we have it at home, but I wasn't aware. Either way, the person in question has a bottle of Buckfast (we've established how I feel about that stuff) taped to each hand and they can't remove the bottles until they're both empty. No thank you!

I was the taper, not the drinker! I had whiskey for my throat xD I was sipping it straight for a while then decided to add a little coke. I didn't want too much because the carbonation just irritates a raw throat! So I sat around enjoying the use of my hands while Catherine, Maisa, Roger, Dave, Eoin and Geraldine punished themselves for some unknown sin. I have it on good authority that all the guys (they were drinking Buckfast, the girls opted for something less horrific) were in bad shape the next day :P

Not that I'm one to talk, I felt awful. I had a hard time sleeping consistently because of my throat and the light coming in through the shades was so bright! I loafed in bed until 1 pm, struggling to gain the energy to get in the shower. I felt better after that but I was still in some serious need of medicine. I left my stuff at Geraldine's place, so I had to walk to the store and buy more! I can't believe I managed it. The cold medicine here is extremely potent. It must be the stuff they give to famous people. Half an hour after taking it it's as though I'm a different person. Just unbelievable. It's not so bad that they don't have Nyquil/Dayquil here, because this stuff is better!

By the time I was medicated and sitting upright, Louise was in town! She is the fabulous woman that lives in Ireland and works with International Internships to place students here. She's our contact of support and lifeline! She is also very awesome. She was swinging by to catch up with the three of us and to take video testimonials regarding how our internships are going. I feel knowing I'm helping potential students to choose this company. There weren't nearly enough testimonials on their website when I started this process. That all ended up taking longer than I thought, but that's OK! It was nice to talk with her and give my two cents about the company :D

After THAT, I had plans to watch movies and eat foood with friends and that went late. See? Non-stop! I woke up this morning and realized two things: One, that I hadn't blogged in two days and TWO, that I didn't take a photo yesterday D: D: D: Shame shame shame. Oh well, I will forge ahead and try not to let that happen again!

I'm on work for the next five days while Brad is out on vacation. Holding down the fort with pride over here! There are some shoots happening this weekend too. Send me your positive energy so I don't forget anything important! :D

p.s. Catherine leaves for home tomorrow morning! She is super awesome and I am going to miss her! Hopefully the three of us can hang out a bit tonight? I have to do laundry, but that won't take me too long. Hanging the wet clothes is the most time-consuming part!

-MJ

New beginnings? Do-Overs? Let's pretend that didn't happen?

Two days ago, life interrupted in the most common of ways, and the result was that I forgot to post my 111th photo.

Inconsolably distraught is the only way to describe me as I realized this with a gasp at 1:30 in the morning. Commence sobbing.

When starting my 365 project, I imagined that if there were any slip-ups then I would start over. Back to photo number one. Well, that unfortunate day approached, and as I sat in bed choking and crying I decided that I wasn't interested in starting over and I certainly wasn't quitting.

So, I picked up the next day with photo number 111. I didn't think I would get as far as the 100s before slipping up and I am incredibly proud of myself. This project is important to me and I'm going to see it through. I envision more issues in the future anyway. Nothing will stop me!

Today as I approached a large staircase at school, I began to ponder if it would make a good photo. I continued to walk toward the stairs, and then stopped. I heard Ryan's voice in my head, "take a photo of anything that even remotely interests you". So I backed up and took out my mom's camera, squatted down and took a few photos. I should have taken more because I ended up cropping my favorite one to make an even better shot.

Earlier today I was looking through The Best Camera Is The One That's With You by Chase Jarvis. That man is a wealth of inspiration! His quotes and photos are so uplifting. There are photos everywhere. Everywhere! I'm excited to post more in the coming days. I'm liking my random photos more and more every day.

-MJ