time off

Oh hey, July!  Where did you come from?  I have one favor to ask of you.  Please, pretty pretty please, do not go as fast as June went.  Much appreciated.  Thanks!

Anyway, I know I haven't been posting my recap of our California adventures like I said I would.  I haven't been in the mood.  Plain and simple.  Please do not take offense to that.  I haven't been in the mood for much these days except for reading, chillin' poolside, and drinking a gin & soda.  Preferably all three at the same time if I can help it.  

With that being said, I would like to take the month of July off from blogging.  Don't worry, I'll still be stalking all of you in the mean time.  I just need to take some time off to collect my thought, perhaps figure out where I want this here blog to go and focus more on my photography and re-open my Etsy shop.  I have a lot to look forward to this month and hopefully re-cap those moments along with my Cali adventure posts when I return in August.  I just didn't want to disappear on y'all.  I mean I would really hate to end up one of those missing persons signs or news segments when all I needed was some time off.  Because we obviously know y'all all would so very worried hehe. I hope you do decide to stick around and not give up on me quite yet.  I really have been surprised by how much I have enjoyed blogging on the regular for the last 6 months so I have every intention of returning.  Hopefully with a lot more to say and photos for your viewing pleasure.  

But before you go, check out June's #capturingmymoments Instagram photos.  These are some pretty talented folks, y'all. 

@ctomana * @principessaxox * @jennycorn11 * @diesel_girl_18 * @bustinjustin1986 * @andiepants15 * @bzlaforte * @_kellyscott * @kateholquist * @mrsfence. 

Be sure to check those folks out and follow if you'd like.  Who doesn't like more friends?  And as you may notice, in my tired/gin & soda induced haze I didn't add my correct IG handle in the collage above.  There is no man, just @acornphotography.  So if you want to follow along with this project and participate as well please be sure to follow me, I'll follow back as long as you aren't spam, so I can see your photos.  Spread the word too!  The more the merrier, right?  

Thanks to everyone who participates in this little project of mine!  I really do look forward to checking out what you are up through your eyes.  It's one of my favorite things about photography, being able to capture a second of time and being able to share it with others:)

But if you miss me that much feel free to follow along on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or here, and Flickr for my 365 photos:) 

Until August

The 365 Project

One of my goals for the year is to actually complete a 365 Photography Project.  In case you are unfamiliar with this, the project consists of you taking a photo a day for an entire year.  I did not come up with this idea (even though I wish I had) but have loved the idea of it ever since I first heard about it.  

I attempted one last year but only made it from November to March.  Which I guess is pretty good but most of the photos were taken with my iPhone.  Which is also fine but since I have my phone with me a majority of the time it wasn't as much of a challenge to get photos.  This time I hope to use my DSLR a majority, if not for all, of the project.  I hope this project will challenge me creatively, force me to go outside of my comfort zone and encourage me to really learn how to use Photoshop and Lightroom properly.

It has only been 10 days into the project but I am so far having a lot of fun and get a little excited about getting out there to photograph.

Here is what I have captured so far:

12/21/12: Day 1 of 365

"Winter Berries"

12/22/12: Day 2 of 365

"Christmas decor silhouette" 

12/23/12: Day 3 of 365

"Jack" 

12/24/12: Day 4 of 365

"STL fire" 

12/25/12: Day 5 of 365

"YAHTZEE" 

12/26/12: Day 6 of 365

"Wine Collection"

12/27/12: Day 7 of 365

"Christmas Tree Heart Bokeh"

12/28/12: Day 8 of 365

"Retirement Flowers"

12/29/12: Day 9 of 365

"Wintery playground" 

12/30/12: Day 10 of 365

"7up" 

My goal is to share with you my progress once a week in a post.  They are also on Flickr in my The 365 Project set if you are interested in checking them out on a daily (hopefully) basis.  

What about you?  Have you ever started or completed a 365 Photo Challenge before?  If so, what did you find the hardest part to be?  How did it help your photography?  

Cheers. 

Weekly Photo Challenge

As you know, I love taking photos.  Of anything and EVERYTHING.  Towards the end of 2011 I was starting to get a little discouraged as I wasn't getting too many phone calls for photo shoots and wasn't feeling too motivated to just go out and shoot.  On my twitter feed I stumbled upon a few articles on how to improve your photography and get out of that "photography rut."  

One was to partake in a weekly and/or 365 photo challenge.  I am already doing my own 365 photo challenge (which I will talk about in a later post) so I decided to find myself a weekly photo challenge.  To be honest I am not quite sure where I heard of LensProToGo's weekly photo challenge but it was the first one I read about that sends you an email each month with a photo category for each week of that month.

And with only two weeks in 2012 so far, I have participated in all of them. ;)  

The first challenge was a "A Self Portrait Without You In It."  When I first read this, I was like "whaaaaaaaaaat?!"  How is it supposed to be a self portrait if I'm not in it?  Since I was confused I look at the LensProToGo's 52 Week Photo Project group on Flickr (where participants upload their entries each week) to see what others had photographed.  AHA!  They are asking me to photograph something that represents who I am.  Got it!  

The next challenge was finding something that represents who I am.  I was sitting in my office after a busy Wednesday morning/afternoon and happened to look up and see a magnet that I have had on my filing cabinets since I've been there.  On the magnet are different cartoon-ish faces with different feelings (i.e. angry, frustrated, tired, sad, happy, etc) written under each face.  Another magnet comes with it that looks like a frame that says "Today I feel."  You then take the frame magnet and put it over what ever face/feeling you are feeling that day.  Do you know what I'm talking about?  No?  

Does this help? Anyway, my motto for about a year now has been to find the positive in any situation and always remain hopeful. Since I have made a conscious effort do this I feel my new outlook on life has brought me more opportunities and every day looks a little brighter.  I know it sounds cheesy but it has so far been true for me.  Isn't the face kinda cute?

Week 2's photo challenge was a photo of "Your Front Door."  I thought to myself; "Well, this'll be easy."  However, I was wrong.  Our front door is rather boring.  Not much to it.  It's just a front door.  How could I get creative with a boring front door?  I had an idea in mind that I was so sure would work. Wrong.  Starting to get discouraged as the week was coming to an end (your photo has to be submitted to LensProToGo 52 Week Photo Project's Flickr group by Sunday night).  

As luck would have it, it snowed most of the day Friday (although not enough for work to call us off - boo!).  A lot of snow blew on our front porch covering our doormat.  As I walked up our front steps I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to shoot the front door.  

See, told you my front door is kinda boring.  And as you can see we still haven't taken our Christmas decoration (only thing we put up this year) yet.  I first wanted to photograph my footprints on the doormat but noticed they just kinda looked like round blobs (was wearing Ugg knockoffs) and was not about to put my bare feet on a cold snow covered doormat even for photography's sake.  I then noticed some of the "Welcome" had been brushed away so I brushed snow off the rest of the "Welcome."  To me that has a lot of meaning. Although, our front door may be boring, our home is always open to friends and family and what is inside once you open the door is what really matters.  

What would your photo look like for each theme?  What would you take a picture of for a self-portrait without you in it?  How would you shoot your front door?  

I look forward to this week's challenge: "Your Favorite Thing" (secretly hoping we can pick more than just one) and sharing it with y'all.  

What about you?  Have you decided to partake in any photography projects for 2012?

Hope everyone had a great weekend and not to stressful Monday (if you had to work)!