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Hello Faithful Blog Followers,
It’s been nearly a month since my last post and in that month I’ve been doing a lot of resting, planning, organizing and whole lot of burrowing under quilts in an effort to stay warm. 2011 is looking to be a busy year for Wenzel Photography and the last few weeks have been a much needed break and refresher before we dive into all that this new year holds for us. Next week we get to have our first photo session of the year and it’s going to be a doozy, so stay tuned for that blog post. I can’t wait!
I was in a slightly reflective mood during January (I know, who isn’t?). Looking back, I can definitely say with certainty that 2010 was a great year. It was a hard year, and a busy year, but a great one still. Sadly though, the whole year was so busy that it all seems like a blur as I look back on it now. I can remember some big events from the year, but mostly I remember working. A lot. And that’s fine because the season of life that we are in right now requires a lot of hard work, but I know there were a whole lot of wonderful non-working moments that were mixed in throughout the year and I wish those moments were clearer in my memory. I’ve never been able to keep up with a written journal, so short of looking at last years day planner, I would be hard pressed to tell you what happened in 2010 other than work.
Something that I have heard several other photographers say, is that as a photographer, you don’t usually have a lot of photos of your own life. It’s true. We may have the fancy camera and the ability to take a nice photo, but we are so busy documenting other peoples lives and special moments that we neglect to document our own. Some days I don’t even want to look at a camera because I’ve had mine in my hands for eight solid hours the day before at a wedding. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love being a photographer and getting the chance to catch those beautiful moments for other people, but I do wish that I could have the beautiful moments of my own life captured too.
Some of you may have seen or heard of the 365 Day Photo Challenge, either on Facebook, or maybe on someones blog. A few of my friends have taken this challenge and initially I was so inspired that I immediately wanted to join in. After thinking about it a little more I decided not to do it because my perfectionist side cringed at the thought of having to take a photo every single day. What if there was nothing of interest for me to photograph? What if I wasn’t able to use my “nice” camera one day and had to use my (gasp!) pitiful camera phone? Oh horrors, just think of all those extra photos that I would have to edit!! Then… it hit me. That’s exactly why I should take the challenge! I need to get over my perfectionist self when it comes to photography and learn to see beauty in the little every day things. I need to slow down, take in what’s happening in life around me and document my day, or at least a moment of my day. It may not be an interesting photo to anyone else but me, but I’ll take it anyway.
So, starting today, February 1st, I’m going to document the next year in snapshot photos. Because, of course, there is so much more to my life than work, and next year I want to have photos that will help me remember. I will be sharing my photos on this here little blog, but I’ll be posting them in chunks at a time instead of every single day so keep an eye out for those posts. And please, keep me accountable, y’all. During the next year, if several weeks go by and you don’t see a post with 365 in the title, feel free to tap me on the cyberspace shoulder and say “Get with it, you slacker!”.
Thanks for hanging with us in 2010, everyone. We are really looking forward to everything that 2011 has in store for us in both Wenzel Photography and our personal lives too!
Happy February!