Resolutions

I don't usually take New Year's Resolutions seriously.  There's the staples... spend more time outside, lose some weight, read more, blah blah blah.  Those aren't bad goals, I just don't stay motivated.  My resolutions last about six hours, and then I'm eating another piece of chocolate.

This year, however, I decided on one that I really, really want to do.  I know it's going to be hard, but accomplishing things is very important for me.  I think that's what's starting to help me with my lazy slowness in life: starting and finishing projects.  One thing at a time.

The idea isn't to end up with 365 masterpieces.  That is just not realistic thinking.  The point is to practice.  You know the saying.  Also, according to Matthew 25, I'm supposed to develop my talents.  I could be a much better photographer than I am.  I intend to reach that potential.

If you want to follow along with me on this project, click here to look at the blog I created specifically for this.  It's called "I AM."  Each day, I'll post a picture with a title that completes the sentence.  For example, "I AM a Dentonite."

So, what are you going to do this year?  Resolutions, or no?

What've I done?

I had the opportunity to look at some really old pictures of mine recently, and was shocked at the difference between then and now.  Mostly I'm sad.

(2007)

I've sense learned some technical things about my camera, cameras in general.  I've learned that rule-of-thirds shots are more aesthetically pleasing than stuff right smack-dab in the middle.

(2010, film)

I look at these pictures and think, "Why did I ever think I needed photoshop?"  Photoshop is a wonderful thing.  It provides an opportunity to do things with photos that you can't with the camera, but sometimes pictures are just beautiful anyway.

(2006)

My question now is, "Do I want to do those things?"

(2010)

I think its all deviantArt's fault.  There are so many beautiful pictures there that are very hyper-saturated, and I wanted to duplicate that.  I wanted my blues to be so blue that your eyes water.  I wanted my yellows to be yellow-brick-road.

(2009)

I think I want to go back.  Back to the originals.  Back to just taking good pictures, and only editing them when I need to.  I want to get back those pictures that I took and immediately loved.

I'm not saying that I hate what I do now.  I just want to be better.  I want to take my style back, instead of trying to make my pictures look like all the thousands of others I've seen.

I'm going back to the beginning.

(2006)

(2006, film)

(2007)

AVALANCHE!

My first semester at BYU, I took a Natural Hazards class.  It was very interesting, and we learned a LOT about avalanches (so much so that by the end of the third week we were talking about them, I was really wishing we'd go back to mud slides).  Anyway, I learned what avalanche damage looks like.  When I went snowshoeing a few weeks ago, I pretty much spent my memory card on all of the avalanche damage I could see!  It was such a big deal to me, and I couldn't believe it was that noticeable.  Wow.  I was just blown away.  Here are a few of those pcitures:

I know I'm a dork, but you've got to admit THIS IS SO COOL!!!

*ahem*  Well anyway... showshoeing was fun... :)

Picture of the Week - Utah Sunset

Yeah, I'm a few days late.  Enjoy anyway! :)

Picture of the week, February Week 2.

I Hate February.

I really do.  I don't think there's any other month I loathe quite as much as I dislike February.  Why?  Well, it's cold.  It is so miserably cold, often without snow.  (If it's going to be cold, it might as well snow.  That provides a little bit of insulation, at least.)  Also, I'm not particularly a fan of Valentine's Day.  It's cute, and I like all of the lovey-dovey chick flicks that come on TV (though I don't have cable), I've never had a boyfriend on Valentine's Day.  Well, okay.  I did once, but we did nothing, and I broke up with him two days later.  And, last year, I was waiting on a missionary.  Well, puh.

So, this February, I'm going to do something about it!  I'm going to make myself like this month.  I have twenty-six and a half days left to make it happen.  So it will happen.

1.  I'm going to write every day.  I'm currently reading an excerpt by someone named Lance Larson about Creative Writing.  He says to write every day.  So I'm going to.  It might not be more than fifteen minutes, and I might not write something of worth every day, but I'm going to write anyway.

2.  I'm going to have a photo of the week every week.  I actually want to do this all year, but it starts with February.  (I'm always late, haha.  My parents like to state that my birth was the only thing in the world I was early to.)  What I mean by photo of the week is, I'm going to get myself more involved in fun photography.  My photography.  (My photo of the week for this week is "Caleb" which I posted yesterday.  I'm just so in love with that picture.)

3.  No soda pop until my birthday.  Yeah, that includes March too...  Well, I don't really like March either.  So it works.  How is that going to make my February better?  Well, I'm hoping it'll help me lose weight.  Haha.

4.  I'm going to finish City of Glass by Cassandra Clare.  I keep putting that one off.

5.  I'm going to read my scriptures every day.  No excuses.

6.  Every week I will read something from the Ensign.

I really don't want to be the sulky, self-pitying person that I automatically revert to when I'm not really doing anything, or even when I'm doing something sometimes.  I want to be happy, approachable, and the best friend I can possibly be.  Positivity, woo!

Thanks for reading!
Krista

PS- Happy Birthday, Papa.  I love you.  I'll see you on the other side.

Photography... it's been awhile.

This week, I sort of realized that I really haven't been doing photography for the fun of it for a long, long time.  Then, caught up in redecorating our apartment with LIFE photos, I decided to finally get the B&W roll I had taken with my Minolta developed.  Today I got the prints, and I am absolutely in love with them!  Granted, a lot of them aren't very interesting, but I was playing with the focus, lighting, exposure, bla bla bla.  Here's a look at some of my favorites.

Granted, the scanned copies aren't as good as the originals (haha, excuses, excuses!), but I'm so happy with them. :)  There's just something about taking pictures with a manual focus lens, on black and white film, and then getting the prints back.  It's more satisfying than digital.

And now, my favorite picture from the entire roll....

Caleb!

Taking pictures with my 1971 Minolta is also something that was on my live list!  I've been taking pictures on this roll of film--carefully savoring each frame--since April.  Wow!  That film was in my camera for almost a year!

Thanks for looking.  :)

Always,
Krista

Make a T-shirt

BYU held something called "Fall Fest," where they had concerts, tie-dying, and games.  I've never tie-dyed a shirt before, so I decided to give it a try.  I was really excited about it, but by the time my part of the 1,000-strong line got to the dying stations, there wasn't any dye left for us.  So, my shirt's pretty white.  I don't like a whole lot, but I'm hoping it'll grow on me, haha.

An item from my live list.

Procrastination

I had to make a video about procrastination for my Effective Study and Learning class at BYU.  I decided to make it stop motion! :)  I've quite proud of the result, even though it's nowhere near perfect.

Also, an item from my live list. :)

Provo Lightning

I GOT IT!

My Mom The Photographer

I've never really considered my mom a photographer.  She takes pictures once in a blue moon, and is more worried about actually taking the picture than getting a really, really good one.  You know, that's fine.  Most people are like that with pictures.

But when I saw this picture, I immediately had to reconsider.

Wow, Mom.  You're fantastic. :)

Minnie the Minolta

I finally broke out the q tips and paper towels.  Have you ever seen a cleaner vintage film camera?  :)  I'm so excited to take pictures with this baby.  I've got a roll of black and white 35mm film ready to go!

I've dubbed her Minnie.  I imagine Felix is quite enamored with her, but she's quite a bit older than he is (Minnie is a 1971, whereas Felix is a 2007).  Who knows?  Perhaps his digital ease will win her over eventually.