Final

My final project is up on YouTube! I've loved every minute of this journey!! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY_opCyzDB8

Torrey Pines

November 17th, 2015

I was so thrilled to of had my camera on me today, while hiking with my sister who came home from college. The beauty of Torrey Pines never fails me. Here is one of my scenery shots!!!

Never Looking Back

November 10th, 2015

As I've developed more and more skills for taking photos, the most important thing I embrace is to never look back on the pictures. I've learned you just take pictures and never play them back when you are shooting photos, because that split second you are looking at the photos you took, you are missing the pictures you could of taken. I feel in a way that ties into life. We should be more aware of the moment we are in rather than focusing on the past or future. The more ready we are for the moment, it sets us up to enjoy it. The more photo opportunities I've had the more I've understood this tactic and it's proven that some of my best shots have come from always having my camera up and ready. 

Life Lists

November 6th, 2015

"A good life list should include goals in multiple categories, not just travel or adventure"(Guillebeau).

This statement was said in Guillebeau's book and I really connected to it. A quest seemed to me like something extravagant and so incredibly life changing. Because of the way I felt a quest was supposed to be, frustration filled me. I'm in high school, I can't drive and it's upsetting I don't have time to achieve what I want. Now that I've read that saying to remember in his book, I can interpret that the little things do matter and checking off small things on my lists mean more than I thought. The little things can make an impact and make you feel accomplished. I need to start focusing on small things and bigger things will come in the future.

Action

November 10th

Sunday was the day I took my first action shots. I got some really natural pictures. The pictures were all in the moment and some turned out fabulous. I did notice that shooting some angles, there were too many shadows in the photos. Because of the shadows those pictures didn't turn out as well. Also with shooting action shots I've realized that a lot of them turned out blurry. I did some research on why a lot of them were blurry and to prevent that I read that on my camera there is a setting for "action shooting." That means you can click a bunch of times and it tries to stay in better focus and takes like 10 pictures of the same movement. Despite that I still got some great pictures. Now I will just know for next time.

Waking Up

November 3rd, 2015

My mom in the drivers seat and I in the passenger coming home from Del Mar. My eyes keep drifting from open to closed and I was exhausted. But as my eyelids were shuttering I looked up and briefly saw a reflection in the side mirror. I actually turned around, despite being so sleepy. As I looked behind me there was a miraculous sunset filled with purple, orange and pink sky. It was so beautiful and I startled to get the camera and took some pictures. I had my camera on me, which I read all photographers should do. As I was taking the pictures, I realized I have developed value in the little things I used to look over. I see beauty and I stop and admire it rather than never getting out of the rush of life. 

New Lens

October 29th 2015

Today my dad came home and surprised my mom and I with a new camera lens to shoot with. It's super big and has such great zoom. I went out around the yard to use this new extravagant lens and there was a problem one little problem with this lens. The problem was I had to step so far back, so take the picture I wanted. I couldn't be up close and in the scene, which is what I always had done. I had to go many feet back to take a clear picture. So I questioned whether the quality and greatness of a camera lens was better or the experience and being in touch with your pictures was better. I decided to myself I want the experience and everything it comes with. Bigger and better may not also be the best in every situation.

Realization

October 17, 2015

Today was the day appreciation came to me. I squinted through lens trying to focus on a flower at my high school. Poway High the place I walk through everyday and would of thought that I've seen it all. It was a boring campus same old same old, but that one flower zoomed in was breath taking. It was something so close, that I saw in such great detail. Something so unnoticeable focused into something so beautiful and I had never experienced that before. It was a really neat realization and I'm glad I took the time to recognize something so little.

Sunset Picture

October 6th, 2015

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Effort

September 30th

Guillebeau’s Chapter 10 Lesson: EFFORT CAN BE ITS OWN REWARD. At the beginning of this project I thought of taking the easy way out. Just take a couple pictures, make them look cool and all will be good. Then the day came where I put around 4 hours into shooting my friends and I’ve never seen such pretty pictures. After that day I felt such a sense of accomplishment and pride.This lesson tied perfectly into the Chapter 10 lesson of my book. I've learned the more effort I put into my project, the more joy I can get out of it. Those 4 hours of photography gave me more than just completing some project. I felt true joy from doing something related to school.

Commitment to Quests

September 23 2015

“People choose to put themselves at risk to find happiness. Chris McCandless ended up unintentionally killing himself because his quest was to try to live off Alaska. McCandless felt happiness comes from new experiences.” I loved how Guillebeau added this quest in his book. At first I read this section and pondered at how stupid putting yourself in that situation was. The more I thought about it, all I felt was jealousy. He got to explore, find something he wanted to commit to and all I can think I commit to, is being on a sports team and going to practices. That is the life of about every teen around me. I can’t even begin to think when the last new thing I tried, until Mr. Bowers encouraged my classmates and I too. Even though my quest of photography I’m pursuing isn’t as much of a commitment, I hope to feel some of these achievements as Chris McCandless, even though his quest was high risk.

Connections

September 19 2015

In my English class, Honors Humanities, our conversations with Mr. Bowers and the book I'm reading The Happiness of Pursuit are tying in extremely well. "Follow your Quest" is a repeated phrase Guillebeau uses frequently, that goes with Mr. Bowers’ "learn what you want to do". It’s nice to lately for me to be receiving two similar the messages. I'm actually being told to do what I want. In my opinion that isn't the common message you receive as a 15 year old girl, but it is allowing me to actually put time into something I care about which is neat. The more I hear them, the more in depth I feel I should pursue them in. I've been encouraged to follow my passions because so many people can get stuck in life and not actually living life.

Passion

September 15 2015

“...taking and editing photos, her true passion” (Guillebeau). My life is a constant; everyday is repetitive. Except the first day I put times towards taking photos. The first day made me feel passionate, excited and happy about something again. I never really thought a lot about how uplifting photography would be. I do have those found memories of taking pictures in 6th grade. I would have quote on quote “photo shoots” with my best friend in our backyards. And of course the purpose of our "photo shoots" was to find the perfect Instagram picture. The other time when I took photos for pleasure was when my sister and I had our stuffed animal photo shoots and posed the stuffed animals all over the house. I spent days creating those silly photography memories, but the joy it gave me wasn’t something I fully wrapped my head around. Hopefully the more pictures I take, the more I feel this way in the future.

Happiness

September 12, 2015

Guillebeau quotes, "When a person is really happy they don't have to tell people about it. It just shows." Happiness is a big focus of mine to capture in my photos. Just recently I went to a pumpkin patch with my friends and we took pictures. That day was remarkably fabulous and looking back on those pictures it was as if you could see the happiness sparkling in their eyes. I am taking the pictures from behind the camera, but still I hope to achieve happiness from there. I got to choose what I am learning and it is something I look forward to doing and so far I have received happiness from it. That is one of my main objectives, not defining happiness, but showing happiness in photos and in myself.

Success and Failures

September 6, 2015

In Chris Guillebeau's book The Happiness of Pursuit he describes a fact, with successful outcomes people tend to think whatever you achieved was brave, courageous, smart because it was completed. The other part to that is with failed outcomes people default to how that attempt was dumb, naive and anything else negative. I actually believe failed attempts may be more common than successful ones. No one wants to realize what you learned from the failure or what you gained. From experience I was practicing getting the lighting right in the day time, where the sun is strong, and in all my pictures I couldn't achieve the sun not overruling my shot or making everything around it dark. By myself failing I was able to get some pretty cool pictures and rather than being upset, I simply learned.

Photography Adventure

September 2, 2015

Photography is something I've always yearned to put times toward but I never made the time. Two contradicting statements, but now I finally have the opportunity to. For my Dream Big project I'm putting 20 hours into learning photography and producing photos. Pictures I feel describe more than what you see at a first glance. People's smiles are more meaningful than showing off teeth and the moments seized by a photo shows a special moment.

When I was younger we took the traditional family pictures that I used to dread, but just last year our family photos were retaken and I was so fascinated with the photographer's expertise. So I thought, when this project came into play I felt like learning photography fit what I wanted to learn about. By researching the right times to shoot, angles, people poses, and finding picture perfect spots with and without “models”, I plan to show my progress by the improvement of my photos. What appeals more to me, would be taking pictures of people because I anticipate I will enjoy the social part as well as photography. I am so excited to begin this project.This blog will keep everyone updated with my photography adventure.