From Here On In: happiness

Showing posts with label happiness. Show all posts

Monday, March 11, 2013

365 Project: February

I'll admit it - the winter blues hit me in February and I found myself in a rut. I fell off track a bit with this project, so below are 18 (instead of 28) things that made me happy. March is already looking brighter and I plan to continue to have my camera in hand everyday. I'm looking forward to the rest of this month which brings St. Patrick's Day, the start of spring, my 25th birthday, Spring break, Easter, and the return of Game of Thrones (no shame). 10 extra 365 project photos to come this month!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day was perfect - dinner at an Afghan restaurant called The Helmand followed by a self-guided love tour at The Walter's Art Museum. We finished our night with homemade dessert - a blueberry spice pie with coconut ice cream. The best part? - I spent it with the perfect guy. Happy belated Valentine's Day!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

On Photography and Fish

On Friday night, after a long day of work, I picked up my camera and instantly felt a rush of happiness. My new interest has been such a source of joy for me.

For Christmas, my mom gave me a Canon EOS Rebel T3. I couldn't be more grateful. I knew about this gift long before Christmas morning and pleaded with my mom not to buy it - its way too expensive, I repeatedly told her. She always countered my argument with things like, it's time you did something for you and you'll never splurge and buy it for yourself - so its the best kind of gift. She wasn't taking no for an answer.

My dad very nonchalantly chimed in, "so how long have you been interested in photography? You know your pop pop loved taking photos." He then preceded to dig in a drawer and pull out a beautiful SLR camera from the 50's that my grandfather had owned. I melted. My dad explained that my grandfather had bought the camera for himself and had even set up a make-shift dark room in his home to develop his own photos. When hard times hit, he sold nearly anything of value that he owned to make a few extra dollars for his family, except for his camera. He must have really loved his camera to hold on to it through those hard times. My interest in photography took on a new wealth of meaning.

I wish I could sit down with my pop pop and talk photography over a cup of coffee. I'm sure he'd be amazed by the technology we take for granted (we can see pictures before they're developed - what?!) and I'm sure he'd be able to teach me so much.

When I opened the box under the tree, I instantly fell in love. I took pictures of everything I could find in my house on Christmas morning, toggling between the various modes and zooming in and out. You can see some of those photos here.

Two weekends ago, I attended a workshop by Okello Dunkley called, "Take your camera off program mode!" This amazing 3-hour-long workshop quickly introduced me to aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and choosing your own focus. He challenged us to take our cameras off of auto modes and shoot in manual.

On Friday, Scott and I headed to the Baltimore Aquarium and I grasped my camera nervously. I found the thought of switching to an auto mode creeping in my head. I made a firm decision to quiet that pestering notion and sweat my way through manual mode for the night, and I'm so glad I did. I kept grinning at Scott and telling him how much I loved the challenge of taking a great photo as I continually changed settings.

Below are a few favorites from that night. They're not perfect, but I love them. I'm so excited to keep learning.

All photos taken by me, except for the last one, which was taken by a sweet stranger!

PS I've been reflecting a whole lot on learning; I'm excited to to post about it soon!

Friday, February 1, 2013

365 Project: January

Back on New Year's Day, I resolved to begin a 365 project focused on the theme of happiness. I am loving this project so much! Here are 31 things that made me happy in January...

1/365: him.