Like most Januarys, last month I pledged to take more personal photos this year. I thought I was doing OK on this front until I realized I already blogged the
photowalk I hosted mid-month, which means I already posted my best random images from the month. Nevertheless, we press on! But before we do, I'm hosting
another photowalk this Sunday. All are welcome!
January was a bit of a rollercoaster for me. I always anticipate that I will be bored in the winter because many fewer people get married or want to do outdoor shoots this time of year. So I cram my schedule full of so much stuff I end up running around crazed, sometimes much busier than in the summer. I say yes to every invitation and my calendar is nutty. But I like it this way.
The photo above was taken shortly after I performed stand-up for the first (and possibly last) time. The wonderful Arlington Public Library hosted a free four-part workshop on stand-up and I went because
why not. I ended up performing the second week and couldn't make the other two.
Also in January, I started guitar lessons (with a beautiful guitar borrowed from the lovely
Bree), calligraphy at the Smithsonian and continued ceramics work with the Art League (Torpedo Factory). See? I'm a crazy person. But it beats sitting around watching Netflix... most of the time.
I came away from a solo photowalk on 12/31/14 pretty enthused about shooting in DC, but on my foray the next week, I wasn't so impressed, with myself or DC. I obviously need to give it another go.
Two wreaths and a squirrel, on the walk I take almost daily.
Alexandria's huge and very old cemetery. It was bitterly, nasty cold that day, but I had to wait for my cameras to get cleaned by the lovely people at NPS.
My friend
Maggie got married in January and held their everybody-welcome wedding reception at a Pietasters show, which is one of the coolest receptions I've ever seen (and I've obviously seen a bunch).
Black Masala was one of the opening bands and they were
absolutely fantastic. I will use whatever opportunity I can to see them again.
And then unexpectedly I had to travel to California. I ended up taking a lot of long walks in the preserve behind my father's house.
All my siblings were there.
My dad lives in a very suburban area, but he has this beautiful canyon running behind his house. And one crazy dog.
My sister is a very gifted pianist.
And that was my January, more or less. For those that find this kind of post interesting, you should consider following my
Instagram account. I post a bunch of day-in-the-life type of photos over there (hardly ever anything pretty). Friends and family would probably be better off looking at that account than this website, which tends to be, by its very nature, full of strangers' wedding photos.
All of the random street images in this post (and all the ones I took last month) are from my photowalk. You see, I'll take more personal images in a one-hour dedicated photography block than in a month of just seeing what comes. That's solid advice to all photographers: you gotta work intentionally!
We photowalked at Eastern Market.
This is my husband, in appropriately Mardi Gras colors. Remember that Sunday when it was 70* and beautiful and we all walked around in tank tops for one afternoon? That was so nice...
And then I went to NOLA for Mardi Gras. Last year, I took a bajillion pictures and busted my ass getting photos. This year, I took it easy and I have almost no images to show. That's how it goes. For me, I can't have a relaxing vacation and also work on photography. It's one or the other. Or at least, certain days have to be set aside to be photography days. That's hard to do with a traveling companion... like a spouse. Other times, I don't want to work. I want to have some bloody marys at 10 in the morning and catch a bunch of shiny garbage made in China and scream for four hours at marvelous floats passing by with rich people on them. (See last year's post if none of that makes any sense). These pictures were taken in New Orleans but they have nothing to do with Mardi Gras:
This is a sick-ass fox that showed up the first morning we were in NOLA. It probably lives in City Park. Also, it might not be a fox. I'm not that great with animal taxonomy.
And finally, this one isn't really a "random" image, but I did a little half-day shoot for Kaplan, the education company. It was way off my normal line of work of weddings and portraits and such, but it was fun to break away for a day and interesting to work for a big company with all their bells and whistles and different departments.
And that is it for February! I've been working on all my hobbies - ceramics, calligraphy and guitar. Calligraphy ends soon enough and I'm going to go ahead and let that drop for a bit. Maybe I'll pick it back up on the other side of Spring. I'm also trying to teach myself to code for Android apps. I made it through 87 beginner Java videos, which I'm going to go ahead and call one semester of Java. I've also been working on The Firestarter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte. Lots of food for thought. See you next month!
And it wouldn't be Accolade Tuesday without a second nod - this one from 
I wish I had a third accolade to tell you about, because I love sets of three, but nope - that's it. Thanks for indulging me.