Victorious!

  Unfortunately, I didn't get to the meeting, but I will be in touch with the Photo Group this week.  I can at least express my interest.  Their next meeting is Feb. 24th, so I'll just plan on getting to that one.  Their "challenge" for the month is "leading lines", so I'll have to keep an eye out for them.

  So, having missed the meeting, what am I so excited about?  I got the yawn shot!  It's not quite tack-sharp, since the lighting wasn't ideal and I decided to forgo the flash so the shutter was something like 1/20th...but I got it.

  Tired week ended up featuring more cats than people shots, but one of them is a self-portrait, so that counts for something, right?  See it and the rest from last week on my Flickr page.

  This week's theme is "sleep".  I'll try harder to include the fam this week.  At least it'll be easy to get the kids to cooperate with the theme!

  I am also going to post some highlights from my magazine clippings for January.  I keep a notebook of stuff I find particularly helpful or inspiring in the photo magazines I subscribe to.  I'd rather not scan and post the actual clippings, (not sure of the legality of doing so), but I can share the best of it in my own words, I'm sure.  Stay tuned!

-JMo

Well I feel sheepish

OK, so I was just proven hugely wrong about the existence of a Kenosha photo club.  Turns out Google wasn't so reliable for that one.

Needless to say I'll be investigating this.  Of course, their regular meeting is tonight, but I am on duty with the kiddo's while Bridgette goes out.  Last-minute sitter time!

-JMo

So far, 'sokay

This has turned out to be a crazy week, yet I'm still getting some shots in for this week's theme.  Still working on those cats; getting a macro of a yawn is much more difficult than I thought!  Bedtimes for the kids hasn't been working out either; seems I'm too involved in getting them to bed.

My wife, Bridgette, has turned me on to a couple of resources I hope to use soon for putting out my community-building ideas, so those of you linked here from KRAN, I hope you will welcome this newbie's thoughts on how we can come together around our photography.  If you haven't noticed it yet, you want to check out the Kenosha Arts Commission Proposal at ExposeKenosha.com.  I have a feeling it will end up playing heavily into those thoughts in the future.

I'm going to keep trying for those cat and kid shots over the weekend, so I'll be posting this week's photos either Sunday or Monday.  I will also be sharing what I have found helpful from the magazines I subscribe to next week, and will hopefully begin discussions in earnest about the ideas I just mentioned.  Stay tuned!

-JMo

As for those "Later"s....

"Later" #1, Resources: 
  I'm sure every photographer goes through "dry periods" creatively, or, like I'm trying to come out of, times of neglecting their cameras altogether.  In any case, everyone needs to consider where they are in their pursuit from time to time, and my recent evaluation found myself wanting in creativity and regularity.  Thus, the search for the aforementioned resources.

  The first is from a site I came across about a year ago, and have found to be immensely helpful and inspiring, to which I have added as an RSS feed to the right: Digital Photography School.  Just in time for my consideration of how to re-invigorate my photography, one of their contributors posted a weekly theme calendar that you can add to your Google calendar, download as an Excel sheet, or simply view on the web page.
  At the same time, I was considering a more specific and measurable means of goal-setting, and settled on a daily calendar for myself as well, which is the second resource: Macro Mondays, Tele Tuesdays, Wide Angle Wednesdays, and Travel Thursdays.  I initially included Family Fridays, but figured I'd just take more photos of my family throughout the week and have a make-up day built in.

Later #2, Accountability:
  I'm too pragmatic to expect myself to stick to this rigorous a schedule every week, so even though I may fulfill it's requirements in a given week on the "wrong days", I'm still going to post them according to days, and ignore the ones I didn't get to.  I have two reasons for this; alliteration is fun, and it will help me to stay in the groove.  I plan on sharing here what I got done during the week, my plans for the next, and how things are going as I have time to post.  I will be putting everything in my Flickr photostream by daily category, linked at right.

So, last week's theme was macro, which obviously fit well into my plan for Monday.  I had the perhaps silly but somehow intimate idea of photographing my watch and 7th anniversary ring the only times I remove them, when I shower and do dishes.  Turns out I only got around to shower time.  Stay tuned for dishes.

For Tele Tuesday, I took some little snowmen decorations outside to shoot them in their natural habitat.  In keeping with Macro week, I used my 80-200 2.8 D's wannabe macro capability to get some 1:3-ish shots of the little guys.  This one was a lot of fun!

"M is for Macro, that's good enough for me..."

Travel Thursday found me at Ophir Park in Zion, Illinois.  I have driven by this place every day for the last eight years, and always loved and wanted to shoot the two most prominent trees in the place, small as it is.  I procrastinated long enough to see the larger one struck down by lightning, but I like shooting stumps so I guess it worked out.  The detail shot of the snow-packed bark is neither of those two trees, but the bark's pattern was so huge, I could almost fit my entire hand into the cracks.

Again, to see all my stuff from last week, check out my Flickr page at right.

This week's theme is "Tired", so some stuff comes pretty easily to mind, and it will be fun to shoot my kids for this one.  I think I'll use the cats for Macro Monday and fill the frame with their sleepy feline faces and yawns, the rest I'll have to come up with later.  I work third shift, and am too tired to think now, as it were.  Hmmmm.....

Zzzzzzz,
-JMo

This is why I don't do New Years resolutions

  You see, if this was one, I would never have got this far.  In fact, the idea for this blog and what I hope it will become would be long forgotten.

  So, what is it then?  Well, in one sense I'm doing this selfishly.  You see, my parents got us a digital frame for Christmas, and in going through all my photos to choose for display, I realized that I had become far too lax in my photography.  The photos I had taken in the last few months seemed far inferior to those of a year ago, and I know why.  I simply wasn't taking pictures.  Given how much I had already spent on my equipment, not to mention how much I really do love photography, this just won't do.  So I decided to get re-inspired and looked up or came up with a couple resources to help, which I'll share later.  Essentially, though, this blog is my means of accountability.  My plan is simple in this regard: share my plan week-by-week, and upload the photos I have taken according to it.  Again, later, although the first week's photos are already linked in my Flickr stream at right, and make up the background for this page.  But I don't think it's enough for me to just ask you to share my "photographic journey", as fun and inspiring as I hope it will be.

  Which brings me to the other, bigger reason for all this.  The one I hope will keep you coming back and getting involved with me and others of our common interest here in Kenosha, or really anywhere between Milwaukee and Chicago.  You see, it seems to me that there are an awful lot of photographers in our area.  I can think of several off the top of my head that I know, ranging from professional wedding or forensic photogs, to those who, like me, own some decent gear for hobby reasons, and do some stuff for pay a few times a year.  These are who I'm looking for to share with me a vision for the photographic community of Kenosha/whereveryouare.

  You see, it also seems to me that there isn't much in place for it's development, or even for it's existence as a community.  The last time I looked up a local photo club....(like, just now)....there isn't one.  Well, the last discussion they had on Flickr was 31 months ago, so I guess I'm assuming, but you get my point.  Even so, what I'm getting at is not just a photo club, but a place for professional/amateur photographers to practice and hone their skills and vision.  Places like workshops, seminars, mentored overnight bus trips, "Slideluck Potshows" and the like.  How's that sound to you?

  But all that is likely some time off, and requires a lot of conversation and planning that I know I'm only partially prepared to take on for now.  Not to mention interest of others.  So if this all sounds good to you, let me know and spread the word.  If not, then I guess the most I'll ask of you is to join me on my photographic journey.  I hope it is enjoyable and inspiring, and hope I can say the same of yours.  Of course, we'd have to know each other first....

-JMo