Focus on the Positive...but Develop from the Negatives

Well, now that everyone in the family has received their annual photo calendar, I can post this, as I didn't want to ruin the surprise (hey, there is always the chance I won't give them! Haha). When I was spiral binding and hole punching the last two calendars Monday night, it hit me how cool it was that I was not only creating calendars with (mostly) photos I took the past year, but now also printing and assembling them, doing the whole process myself, for the second year in a row.  I have designed photo calendars through online sites for almost ten years, as well as created scrapbook-style ones. I have also organized non-personalized store-bought ones, where the photos are inserted in a frame or just glued on. However, long before that, during the fifth grade, our class handmade calendars for a Christmas project. Each year after, I continued to make one for myself, drawing a seasonal picture each month. I think most scenic photographers have fantasized about traveling ...

I just wanted to share a wonderful gift I have already received this Christmas season, the wonderful comments several participants and their families have told me in regards to the photos I shot at an alumni football game at the high school I attended. I recently received a few private messages that meant so much to me: "Just wanted to tell you the pics were awesome...you ladies that take the pics have a different perspect ive....but you freeze those moments in time for us. Thank you so very much." "I don't know you but I just wanted to say thank you for the amazing pictures of the game!! You really captured some amazing moments!! Priceless!!!" Wow, taking the time to send me such positive feedback is also priceless! It is an accomplished feeling as a photographer to feel that you took some good shots, but it is AMAZING when you continually receive such appreciation for your effort a month after the shoot! Thank you to EVERYONE who inspired m...

Yesterday, when I got to work, my boss said the first project for me was networking the new PC he got for rendering with the current video editing PC (they were going to have a separate connection by cable for faster speed). This comes after last week when the Photoshop computer crashed, and I took it apart to get the operating system hard drive out, opened up the backup computer, hooked up the drive as the secondary drive, and was able to retrieve all the data! Then after swapping all the drives back and reloading the computer that crashed, I had to re-network it with all the other PCs. So, yesterday I laughed, "Good thing the Network IT Specialist came in today!"   This poor computer is not even the one who crashed, but the one who provided life support to the other's hard drives! I used to always go back & forth trying to decide if I was artsy like graphics and pictures or if I was technical, more into coding. I wrote several blogs about i...