Some Photography

Mobile photography overtook my focus today, and I absolutely loved it. It meant I didn’t spend my time that wisely, as in, I had a list of todo’s in OmniFocus that I absolutely did not do because I was taking pictures and watching photography courses on Skillshare and editing my photos in various apps on my iPhone. I have no idea if this is just a one-off thing and I’ll wake up tomorrow regretting today’s wasted potential, or if this will turn into a satisfying hobby that will satisfy some sort of creative itch. Time will tell.

My Saturday ritual has started to include a trip to the Starbucks in Polson, and while I waited I took a boring picture of the logo. I wanted to play around with some black and white photography and typography, and I kind of like the end result. I wish I took more pictures at various angles, but I felt that’ll be a little socially awkward for me to do. It’s just a Starbucks after all.

I took this picture after getting a haircut, and I spent at least half an hour editing it in various apps on my iPhone before settling on this final version. I posted it in Instagram, and I really like how it turned out. Montana is beautiful, and I have been here for three years and it feels like I haven’t taken advantage of my time here yet. I don’t know if this photography bug will compel me to travel more and to take more interesting pictures, but if this ends up being the best picture I’ve taken during my time here, so be it. I love it.

Once I came home and parked my car, I saw this field of dandelions just smiling under the bright sun, and I had to take a picture. I took a few pictures, took this one and edited it, and I really like the final result. I upped the saturation, obviously, because I really felt these colors represented spring. Spring doesn’t officially start until Tuesday, but it’s already started here. I love all the green on the ground and the blue in the sky, and everything just feels good when the outside looks like this.

One thing this diversion caused me to miss was reading voraciously. I didn’t read a single word of fiction today, and that makes me sad because, and here it comes, I need to focus on my writing and reading and I failed at that today. It’s great that I found something else that was fun and that provided a momentary break from my usual routine, but I need to be better than this. I have books to read, words to write, and such a limited amount of time to do it all in. Part of me is already feeling like grad school is a done thing. I can’t get complacent. I have to do all the work, no matter the cost.

God… I need to relax, don’t I?