Edit (7/29 9:59 p.m.):
This isn’t quite working at the moment. I’m not getting any results. If you’ve already taken the survey, I’d love if you could resubmit your answers when I find a system that works. If you haven’t please take a few minutes to fill out your responses. Thanks so much for your time.
-Shlee
Wow. It’s really been a year since I graduated college. And in this year, what have I accomplished?
That’s pretty important and its kick-started this time frame. I can’t say I’ve ever done it before who knows if and when I’ll do it again?
Except for borrowing money to pay off my smaller loan in full, I’ve paid for all other expenses on my own – and am chipping away at the loan chunk, as well.
Although my first “big-girl job” doesn’t require a college degree, it’s still a real-deal, full-time job with benefits.
My mom’s co-worker needed a cheap photographer – being new to the field, I couldn’t charge much. April was satisfied. I’m available for freelance – I’ve just got to practice my stealth ninja skills.
Funny that I accomplished the task of making an actual book before I could complete writing one – and I’ve been writing for years.
And now the gallery will be available for viewing at my new apartment for a small cover of $3.
Last May, there was a memorial service who my grandfather who passed away in January. As a result, I wrote a poem, which I titled On Portraits of People (acronym from Opop, which we called him). My brother and I collaborated and performed during the memorial service.
With my ThankYou points from my credit card, I purchased a little plastic camera called Diana F+ which I have grown to cherish. This camera took 120 film (medium format, square film) which I had never worked with before. In the year since this discovery, I have become even more fond of this type of film than 35mm. I now see photos in square format.
I feel bad that the majority of my recent updates have not been about me or my work. That’s because I haven’t been doing a whole lot.
It’s getting so close to a year since I graduated. That’s frightening.
There are things that I probably shouldn’t be mentioning on here, but let’s just say that I’m on a quest. And it’s a difficult one.
Luckily, I’m not alone and I’m being supported. And I’ve also got a place to live after my current lease ends.
I’ve spent the last couple weekends visiting friends and family and being domestic – when I go to bed tonight it will be the end of my fantastic series of weekends off.
I think that having weekends off is a fairly realistic goal for the future.
In the meantime, I’ve been trying to do a little bit more writing. I’ve started a couple short stories. It really shows that I need to get back on track.
The Polaroid experiment thus far has been a bust, but I’m waiting on a new battery for the camera. Once I’ve got that, hopefully we’ll be on track and then there may be updates galore! I’m hoping that’s what the issue is, otherwise, I may as well be colored confused.
So, Saturday, I went down to Virginia – packing the basics and a bit more, thinking I wouldn’t need much for a day and a half.
As I learned soon after I got there, I found that I had a little cousin who did not like to get his picture taken and everyone was haphazardly trying to get photographs of him while he wasn’t paying attention. While eating lunch on the deck, I saw him and his grandfather playing with a little rocket launcher and smiling away. What did I do? I pulled out my camera and started snapping those candids. Little did I know how appreciated those photos would be.
Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my zoom lens, so the closest I got was still pretty far away – however, the resolution’s pretty high, so I think the cropped images will still be fine.
Shooting outside of a studio felt great. It’s been so long since I’ve had the opportunity to do so. Playing with the manual settings and capturing scenery and changing lights came back to me as if I’d never stopped. I didn’t realize I much I missed it until I had the chance to play again and it’s definitely a game I’d want to get back into.
The fun did have to be stunted because I didn’t back my battery charger either. Instead of letting the girls be able to play with my camera as they liked, I had to hide my battery in the case that any Kodak moments did happen, I’d actually have the energy to take the photographs.
My step dad chided me, “a photographer is always prepared.” After this weekend I definitely will be. I’ll be looking into a smaller camera bag for sure. I’m also considering buying another digital camera. That way, I could use my D40 for parties and smaller events, while for the bigger events, possible jobs and any sort of experiments I’d use the new camera.
And, as much as I like having my two lenses, sometimes when I’m trying to document events, two different lenses don’t give me the flexibility I need to take photos quickly. For now, I’m fine, but eventually, I might want to get a lens with wider range.
First, however, I’m looking into a light meter and hopefully when I’m in New York next weekend, I’ll get to be in possession of one. Then, my dreams of long exposure film photography will be accessible.
Now, after some conversations with my family over the weekend, I’m going to be trying to get back to my own career. It’s, unfortunately, been neglected. What that means is hopefully more updates, more photos and projects and a lot more validation!
We’re getting on a year since I graduated and of course I’ll have some sort of looking back on the year-type post when we get there.
But, we’ve definitely passed the six month mark on working at the portrait studio. Full-time work is a lot more than I expected – and I’ve got a whole bunch more of it ahead. This week I’ve got a family reunion to go to, but despite months in advance notice, I’m still trying to work around the schedule to try and somehow make it to Virginia for the picnic.
As I’ve been told way too many times before, there are so many things that are going to come into play that I can’t control and that I won’t like, but of course, I’ll have to deal with them.
Getting older isn’t necessarily getting more fun.