Every year I do a personal photo round up and I pick three positive things per month that happened that year. Or, at least I try to. Some years it’s harder than others. I think for 2020 I only managed one positive thing per month, but I try.
January 2021 – I enjoyed photographing the frost flowers at the Georgia State Botanical Gardens in January. Frost flowers are created when water freezes in the stem of a plant, and is pushed out as it freezes, forming these gorgeous long ribbons of ice. I also hung up one of my favorite images in the studio completing the glamorous pink look that I was going for. Also in January Pete had a life-threatening infection via some broken teeth (definitely not a positive thing). But we were very thankful that the UGA vet school saved his life and he is now completely perky!
February 2021 – in February I enjoy getting out of the house for some macro photos and got some fun new socks. I also had my first ever gallery show at the Georgia State Botanical Gardens for my macro work. I ended up selling about nine pieces, which was nine more than I expected to sell.
March 2021 – with Covid numbers on the rise again, I was so thrilled to be able to get my first and second vaccine doses. It was pretty much all we did this month, and I went to the botanical gardens a lot because I needed some fresh spring air after being stuck in the house so long.
April 2021 – being vaccinated made me quite celebratory and I took the opportunity to get my hair cut and dyed for the first time in about 14 months! Finally back to red again! Since our annual photographer convention was canceled in January, and I drove to Florida to meet up with my photographer BFF in Florida at an Airbnb for a week of business planning. It turned out to be a total bust for her and we had to redo all of our planning, but I did enjoy this nice picture of a frog that we found while we were there and lots of walks on the beaches.
May 2021 – my garden at home was finally blooming and I bought us a pile of mulch that helped make it look nice and tidy for a little while. The garden eats everything every year, so it only worked looked tidy for about a month or two before being overgrown. But it was still a nice while it lasted. I did a behind-the-scenes thing for Click Magazine for a fairy session and had a great time being filmed for that. I also enjoyed the still chilly sleeping at bumble bees flowers in the mornings at the Botanical Garden.
June 2021 – SIGMA sent me to Philadelphia for the flower show and to help out Unique Photo. I enjoyed my first foray into teaching at a camera store and felt like I did a really good job. I made sure to take a stupid selfie outside the store with the SIGMA tech rep Marc who got sent along with me! It rained a lot in June and I enjoyed water droplets everywhere in my garden and elsewhere, and John and I got our photos taken by Evermore photo co. I have always enjoyed her black-and-white summer minis and wanted some for us.
July 2021 – John and I finally upgraded to a king-size bed after I woke up with too many aches from being squeezed into 6 inches of space between husband and nearly 40 pounds of two cats. It’s a Casper Wave Hybrid (with ‘snow technology’ so John doesn’t sweat to death in the summer) and we liked it a bunch. I enjoyed more macro so much that I led my very own local macro walk.
August 2021 – quite a lot happened this month! I turned 42 years old, and the day after I turned 42, the girl that I have been watching for a year as a nanny finally went back to school. We also had our kitchen renovation completed. It was a long drawn-out process because of a few changes we made in the middle of it, but it turned out beautifully. Definitely my favorite part is the green cabinets, but my second favorite thing is the light hanging over the kitchen sink that John’s mother gave us. I also continue to enjoy macro! It helps my mental health to go breathe the green.
September 2021 – I did my best to chase around jumping spiders in September. They were not easy to find, but I think I did a fair job of it. I also got my third vaccine, the booster shot. But I think the highlight of the month was certainly toe surgery. That sounds hard to say, but I’ve had ingrown big toenails all of my life and when I was about 16 we got three of them fixed via surgery, but the fourth side wasn’t done at the time and has bothered me ever since. Complaining about it to John one night and he suggested that I go get the other one done. I had never looked it up because I thought it would be super expensive, but even without them taking my insurance it was only $250 to get it done! I’ll take no toe pain for the rest of my life, yes please!
October 2021 – October was a huge month! I think I could’ve included about 30 happy photos for October. It was a whirlwind tour of Philadelphia again, New York, and Cleveland as SIGMA sent me all over the Northeast for teaching. I was also named an official SIGMA ambassador, which is a huge accomplishment professionally. I made sure to take a stupid selfie at the SIGMA headquarters in New York. To celebrate, I’ve got some new professional headshots for my teaching appearances done by Susan Stripling in New York while I was there, and I think this is one of the best photos I’ve ever seen of myself.
November 2021 – I repainted and re-purposed my carousel horse for some Christmas minis in November, and shockingly it turned out exactly as I had envisioned. I really think I did a good job with the paint on this beauty and I was thrilled to use her for holiday photos. The garden continued to be overgrown and thrilled as we had not had a frost yet, and I enjoyed getting gorgeous mums to photograph as well.
December 2021 – John and I went to the UGA botanical Gardens winter wonder lights holiday light display. It’s the first year they’ve had it, and it was really beautiful! I went back a couple of nights later with a bunch of SIGMA lenses and photographed it, but John and I enjoyed our date night. We also planted about 130 tulip bulbs in our front garden. I ordered parrot tulips so that I could do photography on them when they come up next spring! The biggest project of December though, was a new website! I think that it looks quite professional and elegant, even though it’s very pink.
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