Being Bold in the New Year!

Be Bold! How can you go wrong when you dive into that scary place where you get butterflies and know that it could go so incredibly wrong, but it feels so incredibly right?

Clear Away The Clutter…

Well you can and It’s scary to do something new, take on some level of risk, put yourself out there, maybe put a hedge in there for a little comfort, but in the end, its still a risk, a bold step, a thrilling but scary one. Recently in my Level 14 Critique in The Arcanum, I submitted this black and white minimalistic winter scene shot above. I had no idea how it would go over. It was a tad frightening because I thought it could go either way, really bad or good. I didn’t know. I did like it though and it was something I would normally not have done, but it was something risky to put out there in the world, at least for me. 🙂 I know this is not as risky as quitting your job to follow your dreams, so its all relative. 😉

The photo went over well!!, I think haha. I had some things to clean up, dust spots and detritus and such. 🙂 But it seems my bold move paid off and my mentor, A.D. Wheeler, really liked it! Even gave me a 3! (the scale is from 0-3 points).

Something else that was relatively nerve-wracking but really fun at the same time was being picked to represent my cohort on The Creation Wars! I told them it must have been a mistake (I swear they all had too much spiked egg nog or creation war wine) hehe 🙂 You can actually watch it at this link below if you want! It was posted publicly so I think I am okay sharing it. It’s a show where every Monday night, different Masters in the Arcanum bring one Apprentice’s photo each week to compete for the win. There is also some wine and shenanigans involved! 🙂

https://plus.google.com/events/c8ebbjugiu724v7q8i9bql4qacs

Since my poor camera is currently in the shop being repaired, I don’t have much new material to share at the moment, but I will share something non-photo related since I am going to go Internet-Lite over the Holidays!

My biggest New Year’s resolution:

It’s to be BOLD in the new year. To take more risks, say yes more, to be fearless, and to live an out of the ordinary year. Who wants to be normal anyways, its just another term for “average” 🙂

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays All!

And a big mushy grateful thank you to everyone who has been a part of my life this year and made it a great one, especially my Arcanum family (and my real family (and friends!) of course too! haha). All of you are amazing! Love you guys!

Mush out. 🙂

A Snowy Thanksgiving

“Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.”

-Robert Frost

Our first big snowstorm in the Northeast ended early Thanksgiving morning, leaving a blanket of pure untouched white snow behind. I’ve never really shot in the snow before because I always thought it wasn’t worth it, or that it was just ugly and boring, and took the landscape for granted. But this morning changed my mind about shooting in the winter entirely. It’s absolutely beautiful and right now I wish that the snow would never melt…until March that is.  🙂

New Hampshire was once again my muse and my mother was my transportation and co-shooter/partner in crime. The first farm shot is from my neighborhood just as we were leaving to go shoot Lake Massabesic, in Auburn, NH (which is where most of these shots are from!). One thing I can say is if your driving ALWAYS pull over and take the shot! It’s always worth it and you have no regrets. 🙂

This shot below was actually from the bottom of our street. We did have to knock a few branches to get out, sorry trees!

This is from a little inlet of the lake. Massabesic is actually a reservoir, so that rules out swimming in the summer, but in the winter there are a couple of ice fishers that head out as soon as the ice is ready. It’s a pretty peaceful place.

 

A bit of woods on the lake…

 

Clearing away the clutter in these next two…

A new thing I tried this morning (above) was making more art in the “fine” spectrum, by simply moving my camera a little bit during a longer exposure. I had seen another Arcanum apprentice use this in her critique for her art and thought it was interesting. What do you think?

Speaking of the Arcanum, I’m preparing for my Level 14 critique in the Arcanum (http://thearcanum.com), which means that after this, I only have one more critique before I hit the end of Sphere 1! From where I’ve started to where I’ve come in such a short period of time amazes me. I look back and no joke, I really sucked! This might be a tad weird, but I can hear Rick Sammon’s voice in my head about the levels of competence in photography (and maybe in a more general sense as well): (1) unconscious incompetence, (2) conscious incompetence, (3) conscious competence, and (4) unconscious competence. I came from the unconscious incompetence to somewhere between conscious incompetence and conscious competence (more so on the side of conscious incompetence!).

Look for more snowy scenes next time! (I also just dropped my camera this morning, well my tripod tipped with it on it (because I’m a clutz), but it looks like I might be out one expensive camera! You may just see film shots from me for the rest of the winter haha gotta laugh, otherwise I will cry over the potential death of my beloved Fuji X-E1. Hopefully it’s fixable!)