New year, new goals

A new year is here, and I've gone another several weeks without posting here.  Not that anybody reads this, but, I apologize!  It's now 2012, and since this is my photography / family / food blog, I have a very relevant subject to talk about today.

At the end of every year I start to think about doing a photography project for the next year.  Most common is 365 days of X and / or 52 weeks of X.  A few years back I decided I wanted to work on my food photography so I did a 365 project.  It was everything I'd eaten for dinner for a whole year.  It was a fun project, though cumbersome at times.  I had a smaller point-and-shoot digital camera then, so it was easier to snap a real quick picture, but I had less creative flexibility with that camera than I do with my DSLR.  So, I think that year taught me a lot about food photography -- angles, lighting, positioning, even plating.  But this year, I've decided that a 365 project is a little bit of a bear to take on, what with everything else I've got going on.  So I'm going to do a 52 project.  52 weeks of Maraea.  Fitting, right?  I mean, who doesn't want to see my kid's face every day?  At the end of the year I'm going to put all 52 photos into a book in order so we can see how she's changed over the year.  That should be kind of cool.

Going hand-in-hand with that project is my New Year's resolution to improve my photography.  I was reading a photography blog over the weekend and picked up a lot of good information and tricks that I'm really excited to put to use.  I haven't been on a photo shoot in ages and really need to get out there with my camera.  I'm also resolving to fall back in love with my film camera this year.  I just ordered a bunch of film and equipment from Adorama Camera that I am hoping will bring my old 35mm Rebel back to life.  I'm really excited to get it and put it to use.  I also have some existing equipment at home collecting dust that I need an excuse to use.  So, with all of this motivation, I should have no problems completing a 52 project for 2012.  :)

Over the holiday weekend, my husband and I went to Annapolis overnight for a little weekend getaway.  It's a gorgeous little town.  I took the opportunity to try out some new techniques and settings that I read about online.  I'm particularly happy with the way my fireworks pictures turned out.  Some of the colors might look off in these photos but that's just because I was messing around with settings.  But here you go, some eye candy for the day:

I shall be back later this week with Maraea's first of 52 photographs of the year.  :)