No Promises

Yes, that's right. I am trying this AGAIN. I have attempted to blog in the past, and due to time restraints, lack of motivation or Internet, I've just given up. And for a period, I experienced a lot of self-doubt. Thinking that I wasn't good enough to do photography or good enough to do graphic design. HOWEVER, I am a highly motivated self-learner. I've taught myself most of what I know through practice or research and some classes and more importantly, through my job!

Mostly, I had to let myself believe that I do have talent in these areas and that not being the best at everything is OKAY (as long as I always strive to be better). I don't know where this thought process came from, but I've always thought, if I can't be the best, then I'm not going to do it. I still don't like to do things that I'm not particularly good at, but that's okay! I don't have to be the best when I do.

This is starting not to sound good, like maybe I'm not really adept at this stuff.  Ugh.  Okay... the point being... I am good at what I do because I'm a perfectionist and I'm continually trying to further my knowledge of the programs I use.  There.  Does that sound better?

So, this is my new start. I'm not making any promises, like I'll blog once a week or 5 times a week, but I WILL try to blog more often and when I have new ideas, photos, designs, etc. to share.  This is something I feel that I need to do to get my name out there.  So many people think that because they have a Canon Rebel and a free version of some chintzy photo-editing program that they can do photography and it's really starting to irk me.  And NO, I didn't go to school for this, but I WILL and I research things and buy books and put forth the effort to know what I'm doing, so I think that's the difference.

ALSO, (and sorry Jamie (if you even read this), I'm not trying to copy you, I'm inspired by you!) I will try to do the weekly assignments from www.operationnice.com.  I really think this is a great idea to make the world a better, happier, NICER place.  I wanted to start with last weeks assignment, however that one involved doing something nice for yourself.  I didn't that was a fair assignment to start with (even though, I did go to a knitting group on Saturday night that I've been wanting to attend, so that's sort of doing the assignment).

"Today's Assignment: Kind Words for Women
We need to break the stereotype that women are catty witches (with a capital B) that just want to tear other women down. Those Lifetime movies are false! :) So how about we stop someone this week and tell her that we think she's beautiful! I'm sure she will be thrilled to hear it. Let's make it a little bit more commonplace, so maybe one day prefaces won't be necessary."

I think this is a fabulous assignment for me to start with because I'm not the touchy-feely-give compliments-kind of person.  I'm not going to count online compliments for this assignment, because I think those are easy for anyone.  It's much harder to walk up to someone and tell them you're thinking it in-person than in writing.  I do want to share that I put the free compliment poster from their website up at work.

And finally, I will leave you with this photo I pulled over to take one morning on the way to work this spring.