Closing out the first half of the year...

I started this little project back in January in Richmond, solely for the purpose of making myself take pictures every day, and to see if I would get better at taking photographs along the way. Having looked back over these last few months, I see some places where I have gotten better and know the reasons why:

1. I take my time before clicking. Not always, but I am getting better about it since I nearly always keep the camera in manual mode. Only about one in a 100 photographs do I find myself saying "FUCK!" because I failed to check the shutter speed where it had been last night...

2. I frame better and I don't take as many pictures that I just won't keep, but I find that I take more pictures trying to capture the light or get the shutter speed right to move on.

3. I am better with a flash than I was. I used to hate it and now I am increasingly comfortable with it, but still tinkering with fill flash, bouncing the light and finding that balance between the two ways that it can help or hurt a picture. It is an area that I intend to do more work.

4. I am better at capturing a shot that I think will be interesting, to me or to others. That ability is something that I have heard called a million things but still feels like 90% luck and 10% skill. But when I capture something I like, I am happy.

But I also have to thank my Banner Elk schoolmate for the challenge to write with my blog. It has been the best part of this exercise. I get out of my head, and my heart, and my soul the things that are laying heavy and momentarily lighten the burden. I am occasionally shocked to find that someone emails me when I have not been posting, or to get an email out of nowhere telling me how something I wrote touched them. I have sat before this computer and cried as I wrote something, or had the tears pour out of me because of an email from a reader.

I have been called brave, which I don't get, and hopeless, which I do. But my journey is my journey. And I am blessed to have a place to share it without fear, without worry, without judgment.

I close this evening with words given to me from my favorite regular horoscope, which is nearly always as snarky as I can be, but was pretty profound today:

How well are you capitalizing on this year's unique opportunities, Aries? Since we're halfway through 2010, let's take an inventory. I'm hoping you're well underway in the heroic task of conquering your past. It has been and will continue to be prime time for you to wean yourself from unresolvable energy-drains. So exorcise irksome ghosts, please! Pay off ancient debts! Free yourself from memories that don't serve you! You're finally ready to graduate from lessons you've had to learn and re-learn and re-re-learn. The coming months will bring you even more opportunities to finish up old business that has demanded too much of your time and energy.

A good agenda for the next six months. I hope it means something good in my future, but if I knew the outcome... wouldn't make the journey that interesting, would it?