Personal Goals: By the Letter

I now have a pretty camera (its 9 years old, but its new to me!), and it is... frightening. There are so many buttons and bells and whistles that I could start my own brass orchestra with the bloody thing, and that makes it quite disconcerting to use stepping up from a point-and-shoot camera.

So for the first couple of days it sat on my desk. I stared at it. It stared back. I think it won the contest. And I realized that such treatment of a nice camera simply won't do. I've read a bunch of things on the interwebz and recently pestered various members of the IL family with questions about using 'The Beast' {affectionately, TB}, and I've reached a decision.

Goals must be set with this camera or I'll never get it! I'm like this with things- if I just go with the flow, I never end up learning anything- it just isn't my style. If I really want to do a project or learn a skill, I have to set weekly/monthly {some kind of timeline} goals to reach on a regular basis. I can make a list that way, and I L.O.V.E. crossing things off of lists {please tell me I'm not the only one!}, so its much more likely that I'll actually follow the plan.

With that in mind, I have created a new plan for myself: Photography by the Letter. Each week I will wander around and use my imagination and my lens to capture a new letter (in order!) in a creative yet easily recognizable manner. This was inspired by The Art of Whimsy, and it seemed like a fantastic way to get myself out and taking pictures! Today I spent about 40 minutes wandering down our street, and while I'm not entirely satisfied with my 'A' yet, I still have all week to find 'the one'. Bear with me, you might have to use your imagination on some of these! What do you think of attempt #1?

Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.- Blaise Pascal

*photo by me