MonkeyPants

Halfway There.

I am officially halfway through my taking a photo-a-day for one whole year.

I’m really, really proud of myself. If I can do a half year, I can do a whole year. Which is cool to me, because a lot of times I lose interest and kind of peter out of things. But I’m still going strong, and have had little (and big) rewards along the way. These help, a lot.

I have actually gotten better at taking pictures, for one thing. For some reason, I didn’t think that would happen. Before I started Photo-a-day, E was the guy who held the camera for all functions. And we hardly took it anywhere. I didn’t know all the little buttons and settings, and I usually just handed it to him, thinking that he would magically know what to do, because he is more technical than I am. These days, if he’s taking a photo, he hands the camera to me, and says, “Do the settings and stuff. You know more about it.”

I know more about it because I have taken a heck of a lot of pictures. I learned sometime in January to never, ever leave home without my camera, because I might miss something cool. And so the camera comes with me as naturally as the wallet does. It’s just always in my purse. I’m not an artist, but I am prepared.

I’m also lucky that my friends are looking out for me. “There’s a Photo Op,” they’ll say. “Hang on, the angle’s better down here.” Driving in the car today I was snapping out the window and John would ask, “Got it?” I like that my friends accept and encourage this hobby, which verges on insanity at times.

Even with my not-perfect photos, I have learned that there’s no shame in working on them in Picnik, Flickr’s editing tools. I crop, I auto-correct, I over-process to get a shot that’s closer to the one I saw in my mind.

As with everything, I am always, always learning. I love it.