My friend Jacky chose "finish" as her one little word for 2013. I found that inspiring because I have some unfinished things that I want to do in 2013. I'd like to finish up the decluttering of the kids's rooms and garage, inspired by my 2012 word "home" (as well as fix the fences in the back yard). I also have some specific things to finish up from my 2011 word "health."
Jacky's post also inspired me to make a list of the unfinished online classes and work books I have. I'm documenting them below in the hopes of finishing them up this year. Creating the inventory also made me realize that, although I had plenty of drawing and photography classes, I wanted to add a mixed media art journaling class to the mix. So, I searched around the internet and stumbled upon Kelly Kilmer's class "Marvel: Your Precious Life." It intrigued me because her art journal pages are very different from my typical style. I also like the idea of a "dry" class - no paints; just paper and pens. I have so many collage images and specialty papers that this seemed like a great way to bust into my stash. I'm enjoying it so far. I'm sure you'll see pages from the class on my blog this month, and I promise to do a class review when I'm done. The page up top is from the prompt: "What is your dream for today?" And my answer was "Today I want to make art."
Here's the inventory of other classes in my hopper:
Alisa Burke's Sketchbook Delight, Part 2. Bought it on sale; haven't started it yet.
Katrina Kennedy's Exposure photography class. Bought it. Printed out the pages. Carried them around all summer. Haven't started it yet.
Iphone photography e-book. Just purchased this for myself. Want to work through it.
Chris Orwig's People Pictures (30 portrait exercises). Purchased it and really want to work through it.
Art Journals on the Go. Received this video in a blog give-away and want to watch it.
Photoshop Elements - I have one or two classes purchased to teach me PSE. It was so long again I'm not even sure where they are. Sigh. I hope to find them and work through them.
Paper for the Ipad. This isn't technically a class. But I bought the app and have a stylus on order. I'm planning to work on digital sketching this year. I have to give a hat tip to Sammi aka Journal Girl who inspired me with her 365 days of digital journaling posts.
That's a lot!!! No need to purchase any more classes until I finish these I think.
What about you? Are there classes you're working on finishing? Or thinking about joining?
I have a very nice, very expensive 80 mm lens for my camera. The only problem is that it will not auto-focus on my new camera. So, I've resolved to work on my manual focusing skills. But it's hard!
Wouldn't this picture be great -
if it was as in focus as this one?
And I prefer this composition:
but the focus of this photograph:
I did much better with objects that didn't move, like the shells up top or these pieces of beach architecture. Remember you can click on any of these images to enlarge them and see them more clearly.
So, let's talk about manual focusing on a camera. I'm sure I used to do it all the time when I shot with a film SLR camera, didn't I? Why is it so hard? Do you ever focus manually? Do you have any tips to share?
*****************************************************************************
"Let's Talk" is a semi-regular series designed to inspire frank discussion and sharing of information on issues relating to photography, art and blogging.
ETA: The give-away is now closed. The winner will be announced on my blog soon.
The smart-beyond-her-years Abi recently posted this about what to expect from her blog in 2013. It really got me thinking about what I have been doing with my blog in the past and what I want to do with it in the future. I'm interested in your feed back, so read to the end and comment for a chance to win a nice little give-away.
The big conclusions I came up with are that there are three things on which I really want to focus (these are the three things that bring me the most enjoyment and fulfillment): art journaling (including collage, painting and sketching); photography; and writing. The first two come as no surprise, but the third . . . hmmmm . . . it was a bit of a revelation how much I have been drawn recently to those memes which push me to write. I'm also a little sad that scrapbooking and card making have run their course a bit for me right now. I expect to get back to them some day, but for now, they really aren't paramount.
I also realized that a lot of my blog is structured around certain recurring memes. I don't do all of these every single time, but I do them enough that they've become part of my blog plan. Here's how they break down:
Weekly Memes
Hello Monday/Peek Inside My Life (usually accompanied by a photograph or art journal page). These may not interest everybody, but I have several lurkers who have told me they read these to keep up with what's going on in my life. So, they'll stay for now.
Wordless Wednesday. I'm pretty sporadic with this meme, and it always feels a little lazy. It also draws the fewest visitors and comments. But it's easy and a nice way to feature some of my photography.
Paint Party Friday I love this weekly reminder to take out my paints and paint brushes. Definitely a keeper.
Monthly Memes
Storytelling Sunday and A Simple Moment. I love how both of these encourage me to dig deep and spend some time writing.
Photo Heart Connection. This also encourages me to write. Describing the connection is as important as the photo for this meme.
Sketchbook Challenge. Like Paint Party Friday, this keeps me on track with my drawing. I enjoy the fact that there's a monthly prompt to give me ideas.
Monthly Make and Ten on the Tenth. I've enjoyed the first as it ensures that I do something outside my typical photography-art journal-sketchbook box, so I'll probably keep up with it. The second is kind of hit and miss, but I expect I'll participate occasionally.
Semi-regular Post Topics
Class Reviews. I always get great feedback on these so will definitely continue with them.
Class Projects. A lot of my blog fodder comes from the classes in which I enroll. I made a list of my current/future classes, and I'll be posting that later this week.
Let's Talk. I love this feature where I ask people to comment in some detail about topics of interest to me. I don't do it very often, but always enjoy it when I do. I've got a Let's Talk post ready for tomorrow (geared a bit to camera geeks, I'm afraid).
Music and Book Reviews. I do these pretty sporadically. Not sure how often they'll show up in 2013.
Annual Challenge
I love hosting the Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt and will definitely do it again in 2013.
So, now it's your turn . . . I'd love some feedback from you on what you like about my blog and whether there's anything that doesn't really appeal to you. To encourage you a bit, I'll put together a little prize package of assorted scrapbooking, photography and art journaling bits and bobs to go out to one commenter chosen at random. I'll do the draw Sunday night.
The first Sunday of every month, Sian, of From High in the Sky, hosts a gathering of storytellers called "Storytelling Sunday." For 2013, she has suggested that we pick something precious to us and share its story. So, on this wintry Sunday, I am sharing a story of summertime . . . a story of cake walks and goldfish and one very special rooster. To read other stories, click on this link.
******************************************************************************
Barefoot and carefree.
That's how I remember the summers of my youth. Tan legs, cut off jeans, and calloused feet so black by the end of the day that no amount of scrubbing could get them clean.
I traveled everywhere on those feet . . . to the park at the end of my street, to the 7-11 to buy candy, to a hiding place during our endless games of hide-and-seek, and to the cool shade of a friend's garage to play ping-pong.
And, once a summer, I walked up to my elementary school for the summer carnival. It wasn't the biggest fair of the summer. That honor belonged to the "Corn Festival," which ran for three full days and had actual, honest-to-God carnival rides like a Ferris Wheel and spider buckets. No, the school carnival was a much smaller affair - with booths made by parents and prizes that tended to the small and plastic.
No matter, I enjoyed filling a brown paper bag full with pink monkeys and yellow giraffes, along with the occasional super ball and paper straw full of colored sugar. If I were lucky (and I usually was), I would also carry home at least one plastic bag filled with water and a gold fish. A reward for my skill at throwing a ping pong ball into a glass bowl.
Every year, my hands were also filled with a home made cake, won at my favorite booth - the cake walk. The cake walk was always located at the far end of the school, in front of the first grade class rooms because that was the only place on campus with a piece of cement large enough for the organizers to draw a circular path with 24-36 numbered squares. Every year I would trek over to the cake walk area, give the parent in charge my ticket, and walk around the circle until the parent's helper lifted the needle from the record and stopped the music. The parent in charge would then pull a number from a bowl and read it out loud. Inevitably, inexplicably, I would look down at my dirty, bare feet and there, carefully written in chalk was the number which had just been called. I would smile, choose a cake from those displayed on a table in the shade, and pad on home.
One year, when I opened my brown paper bag, I found a ceramic rooster. I have no recollection of winning it, but am certain I won it at a school carnival. I have kept it with me for almost fifty years. It sat on the trophy shelf in my room during high school and traveled with me to college and grad school. I moved it from apartment to condo and finally to our house. Now, it sits on the window ledge in my kitchen. A reminder of happy, carefree, summertime days.
The Fall Fearless and Fly challenge blog, sponsored by Artists in Blogland, just posted their newest theme: future imperfect. The color prompt is yellow, and there's also a quote prompt from Friedrich Nietsche. The prompt asks you to ponder your present/future and ask whether it can still be "perfect" even if it's different from what you imagined. The prompt really spoke to me because my present and future are definitely nothing I imagined. And they are definitely not perfect!
But, I plan to make the best of both my present and my future. One tool I will use to do so is my "one little word" (paramount), as well as my intention for the year (“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” )
As I was thinking about the prompt, the visual of a parachute came to me. I like the idea of knowledge and blessings floating into my life on parachutes. My journaling reads: "future imperfect . . . present in flux, but I am listening to my heart to learn what is paramount."
I am thinking about turning this page (or the one from yesterday) into a button for my sidebar, an idea I got from Patty of Magpie's Nest (here) .
Come back tomorrow for Storytelling Sunday, and, in the meantime, let me know what blessings you would like to parachute into your life this year.
Every year, for the last few years, I have chosen "one little word" on which to focus. The idea was popularized by Ali Edwards, and I have always found it to be a valuable exercise. For 2013, I know that I need to keep asking myself "what is truly important?" I need to not waste time and energy worrying and stressing over things that don't really matter in the long run. This is very hard for me; it runs counter to my Type-A, all my ducks-in-a-row personality. But, as my family faced so much stress in 2012, I have come to realize that I have to make compromises and let certain things go. And that needs to be okay with me. To keep this realization in the forefront, I have chosen the word "paramount" as my one little word for 2013.
Paramount means "more important than all other things." And it feels just right for me in 2013. I had originally thought I was going to choose "prioritize." But that word didn't really speak to my heart. So, I used an online thesaurus to find synonyms for prioritize and then "importance". I also googled quotes for prioritize, important and importance. Eventually, I came upon the word "paramount," and I fell in love with the sound of it. It's a pretty word. And it captures what I need to focus on this year.
During my search, I also came across a quote which I have adopted as my intention for 2013. It is a quote from the Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
I created this art journal page with several definitions of "paramount," as well as my quote/ intention for the year and my illustration of my word. I'm posting it to Paint Party Friday. To visit other PPF participants, click on this link.
Have you chosen a word for 2013? Will you do something visually to to represent it?
Kat Sloma of Kat's Eye Studio has an approach to photography she calls the "photo-heart connection." She urges participants to review their photographs each month and choose the photograph which "gives you the strongest connection to your heart and soul. Write about that connection to the image in a blog post or in a photo description on Flickr, then link into the monthly link up." I really like this idea and have decided to participate this year. One of the things that appeals to me is that it's not about choosing your best photograph, but the one which really speaks to you and who you are.
Here's the photograph I have chosen for December, 2012 (you can click on it to enlarge it):
I almost chose the photograph of Aria from yesterday (which is a technically better photograph and which does touch my heart)
or this photograph, which has such joy and good will.
But I chose the one of my boy, sitting on the turf, after having been fouled. I love the intensity with which he plays soccer and I love all the emotion on his face. I think it is a very evocative photograph (even if it is not technically perfect). For me, this photograph is a window into his competitive soul. The photograph also connects me to him at this particular time in his life. I know that this is his last season of High School soccer, which makes every game bittersweet. I am so glad I was there and was able to capture this moment and all it represents. It reminds me of this quote from Susan Sontag: "To photograph is to confer importance."
To see other choices from December, 2012, check out this link.
In addition, I have chosen the photograph from all of 2012 which gives me the strongest connection to my heart and soul:
The photo is titled "Ghosts in the Field," and you can read its story in this post. When I started looking through all my photos from 2012, I thought it would be difficult to choose just one photograph but this one easily jumped out at me. My heart and soul are with farm workers and this photograph expresses how I feel they are treated, and the possibility of using photography to change the world.
Anyone else out there participating in the Photo Heart Connection? Any new takers? What photo would you choose for December or for 2012?
![LEAP [into lightroom]](http://learn.kimklassen.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Kim-Klassen_20151223_6459.jpg)
Posts
