Posting is now scheduled to resume
Anyone noticed my lack of posts lately? I think one person noticed (thanks Mattie, you're my #1 fan). However, I'm not discouraged by my lack of audience and am set to resume posting. This is going to be an uber long post to compensate for all the unposted days so stop reading now if you're not up for a novel.
So for the last 6 weeks or maybe longer I've been in a "manic phase" in which no amount of stuff to do is too much. Stressful workday, training rides, studying, president of 2 bike clubs, and other assorted obligations just made me more manic. My days were filled with work, followed by training, followed by core/strength workouts done while studying, followed by making dinner while studying, followed by more studying and then CVC and FORCs obligations. It was such a giddy time!
However, my manic phases never last forever which really is too bad (and I once tried to give up sleeping during a manic phase in an attempt to do even more in a day). Well, it all ended on Sunday--not a huge suprise given that the week before was insanely busy with an exceptionally busy work week, 2 job appliations due, preparing to photograph my first wedding and other assorted tasks.
Anyway, on Sunday I woke up and moved from the bed to the couch and even that seemed like it took too much effort. Dave very kindly made me blueberry pancakes and never made me get off the couch. Eventually though riding beckoned as I had a 2.5 hour ride on the training schedule. It's nothing short of amazing that I actually got my butt out the door to do the ride.
However, Dave and I headed out. Truthfully we were quite a pair. Dave was tired from his first week back at ski school and I was tired mentally and physically. But we rode and we rode and we rode and we were blown around by heinous cross winds for about 3 hours. Truthfully we rode in near silence as I was having a mental dialogue about the futility of all things in the whole world (with a focus on the futility of my job, my racing, my photography) and Dave was too tired to try and do anything about it. We were truly a joyful pair.
After what seemed like a lifetime we finally arrived home. I was so glad to be done with that ride. Then through some miracle of miracles I summoned up the energy to get back on my bike and ride to the Union to see the Banff Film Festival. This was my best decision ever as I truly love the film festival and it was what inspired me to buy my video camera three years ago. Well, once again it worked its magic and when I returned home I felt much better about life and I actually could look at the photos I took and realize that they didn't all suck.
So now I'm back to normal . . . not manic anymore, but not crazy tired either . . . so life is good. And yesterday after the crappiest ass work day I got home and my first photo critique had come in the mail from my class. I couldn't decide whether I should open it or not as my work day had been bad from start to finish and I didn't need any negative feedback but curiosity got the better of me.
Well, my personal instructor Nick had some good advice/critiques to offer to improve my work but overall the photos received good comments. He really liked my sense of motion/skiing photo and actually had nothing bad to say about it. And even though he had some good advice for improving my hyperfocal shot (a shot of the bay of lake monona/madison skyline/fish windsock) he thought it was creative and different from what people normally would shoot for that assignment. He also thought I did a good job with the lighting. My selective focus/muskrat photo wasn't as big a hit as he did think it needed better lighting and possibly a different angle. However, e did appreciate that I wasn't afraid to leave in the soft focus rock which some people would have cropped out and it did meet the requirements of selective focus. However, all in all a very good first assignment.
So that's what's up with me these days. I'm finishing up my reading for Unit 2 of my class and will probably start working on my assignments this weekend. I'll try to get back to regular postings now though!
So for the last 6 weeks or maybe longer I've been in a "manic phase" in which no amount of stuff to do is too much. Stressful workday, training rides, studying, president of 2 bike clubs, and other assorted obligations just made me more manic. My days were filled with work, followed by training, followed by core/strength workouts done while studying, followed by making dinner while studying, followed by more studying and then CVC and FORCs obligations. It was such a giddy time!
However, my manic phases never last forever which really is too bad (and I once tried to give up sleeping during a manic phase in an attempt to do even more in a day). Well, it all ended on Sunday--not a huge suprise given that the week before was insanely busy with an exceptionally busy work week, 2 job appliations due, preparing to photograph my first wedding and other assorted tasks.
Anyway, on Sunday I woke up and moved from the bed to the couch and even that seemed like it took too much effort. Dave very kindly made me blueberry pancakes and never made me get off the couch. Eventually though riding beckoned as I had a 2.5 hour ride on the training schedule. It's nothing short of amazing that I actually got my butt out the door to do the ride.
However, Dave and I headed out. Truthfully we were quite a pair. Dave was tired from his first week back at ski school and I was tired mentally and physically. But we rode and we rode and we rode and we were blown around by heinous cross winds for about 3 hours. Truthfully we rode in near silence as I was having a mental dialogue about the futility of all things in the whole world (with a focus on the futility of my job, my racing, my photography) and Dave was too tired to try and do anything about it. We were truly a joyful pair.
After what seemed like a lifetime we finally arrived home. I was so glad to be done with that ride. Then through some miracle of miracles I summoned up the energy to get back on my bike and ride to the Union to see the Banff Film Festival. This was my best decision ever as I truly love the film festival and it was what inspired me to buy my video camera three years ago. Well, once again it worked its magic and when I returned home I felt much better about life and I actually could look at the photos I took and realize that they didn't all suck.
So now I'm back to normal . . . not manic anymore, but not crazy tired either . . . so life is good. And yesterday after the crappiest ass work day I got home and my first photo critique had come in the mail from my class. I couldn't decide whether I should open it or not as my work day had been bad from start to finish and I didn't need any negative feedback but curiosity got the better of me.
Well, my personal instructor Nick had some good advice/critiques to offer to improve my work but overall the photos received good comments. He really liked my sense of motion/skiing photo and actually had nothing bad to say about it. And even though he had some good advice for improving my hyperfocal shot (a shot of the bay of lake monona/madison skyline/fish windsock) he thought it was creative and different from what people normally would shoot for that assignment. He also thought I did a good job with the lighting. My selective focus/muskrat photo wasn't as big a hit as he did think it needed better lighting and possibly a different angle. However, e did appreciate that I wasn't afraid to leave in the soft focus rock which some people would have cropped out and it did meet the requirements of selective focus. However, all in all a very good first assignment.
So that's what's up with me these days. I'm finishing up my reading for Unit 2 of my class and will probably start working on my assignments this weekend. I'll try to get back to regular postings now though!
posted by MadCross at 7:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home