365/365
Wow! I can't believe my 365 is over. So much has happened in a year! I have learned so much throughout this 365 journey, and I am incredibly thankful for the experience. There have been so many things in my life that I have given up on, because they were too difficult, stressful, or inconvenient. But I never gave up on my 365, even though I certainly wanted to at times. From that, I learned that I really can do whatever I want, as long as I decide I am going to do it. I am feeling pretty great right now! I feel a huge sense of accomplishment by finishing this project. And I never could have done it without the support of family, friends, and you guys. That leads me to the important part:
THANK YOU.
Thank you to my boyfriend, Bruce, who continually supported me throughout this project. Thank you for your help and advice, thank you for going out to locations with me, thank you for driving 2 hours with me and spending all day with me yesterday trying to get the perfect shot for day 365. Thank you for listening to me complain and cry when I got frustrated with the project, thank you for listening to me gloat when I took a photo that I really liked. Thank you for standing by me while I neglected everything in my life (including you) for hours on end trying to get the perfect photo and perfect edit. Thank you for giving me your daily opinion on which photo to upload, only to have me do the opposite of what you advised. :) Thank you for your patience, love, and support. I am so very grateful.
Thank you to my family, Mom, Dad, and Jason, for always supporting me and asking me how the project is going, for checking out my photostream and giving me feedback, and for your constant love and encouragement. Thank you, Dad, for keeping up with my photostream and making Mom get on the computer and look at my photos. Thank you, Mom, for being my biggest fan and believing in me more than I believe in myself. You guys are the best and I love you so much. Thank you to Bruce's dad, Bruce, for always being interested in my project, for always asking to see my photos and giving me positive feedback. Thank you to Bruce's sister, Julie, for your kind words and encouragement, for making me see the good in my photos and in myself, for recommending me to your friends who need photographers, for going with me on photo shoots when my creativity was lacking, for lending your creative mind to my project, and for being the best model ever. Thank you to my best friend Lauren, for your love and friendship, for caring about this project, and encouraging me to keep going.
Thank you, Flickr. I give my most sincere thanks to each person who ever commented or favorite-d my photos. You have no idea how your kind words carried me through this 365 and kept me strong. Big thanks to all my friends in the 365 Days - November 2009 group, especially Andrea, Ant, Dyna, Kent, Whitney, Macc, Chris, Danielle, JALD, Victoria, Jill, and Life Imperfect. You guys were always there for me, commiserating with me and lending your support. Thanks also to the November folks who I haven't talked to in a while, but were some of my first friends and encouragers: Ragweed, Troublemaker., ZooDad, Chef, and JestersKiss. Thank also to the lovely Pineapple, who has been encouraging me from the very beginning. I can't thank you enough for your continued support and enthusiasm. Thank you to all the fun folks over at Musically Challenged, especially Rachel, Jason, Brenda, and Daynna. Thank you, Chris AG and Pomegranate for all of your thoughtful comments and faves. Last but not least, thank you, thank you, thank you to Nikoline, the photographer who made me want to start this project. I have always loved photography, and I have always photographed as a hobby, but I kept my photos to myself. Then I stumbled across Nikoline's incredible self portraiture on a blog that I follow, and I began looking at her photostream. In reading comments from other photographers on her stream, and clicking around on other people's photostreams, I discovered the 365 project. So one day last November, I signed up for Flickr and started my own crazy project. And here I am. So thank you, Nikoline, for being my biggest inspiration. You constantly amaze and inspire me with your photography.
Thank you, all you lovely people. I have made so many wonderful Flickr friends along the way, and I'm so thankful for you guys. I am sorry I couldn't name everyone, but you know who you are! Thank you!
About This Shot:
Bruce and I went hiking at this location, Hanging Rock, back in July. When we stumbled upon the cave seen above, I knew that's where I wanted to take my day 365 shot, but I didn't have my camera with me and didn't get any photos of the location. So this past week I started Googling images of Hanging Rock so I could remember what it looked like, and I kept seeing all stills from the film
Picnic at Hanging Rock. I was completely captivated by the photos and the idea behind the film, so I thought it would be cool to do a sort of tribute to the film. That's why I have on the weird, make-shift Victorian outfit. I'm pretty sure the movie was filmed in Australia, so it's definitely not the same location, but they do look similar.
What's Next:
This project has been a sort of stepping stone for me to the next part of my photographic journey, hence the title of this photo. This is certainly not the end for me! Now that my 365 is over, I am going to work on a photography portfolio and website. I am hoping to photograph other people and take a break from self-portraiture. I am also going to give my other passion, music, some attention for a while.
I can't thank you enough for all of your kind and encouraging words! I am looking forward to having more time now to check out all of your streams! Have a great weekend, everyone! =)
