A Very Merry Unbirthday — Year 2!

For a while now, I’ve made the last day of my current year a very conscious day to reflect on that year. I have now taken to writing about my year-in-review for the purpose of remembering my birthday in a way that is just for me. (You can see last year’s memoir here.) I know very well that several years from now, I won’t be able to pin the memories to the given year. I couldn’t tell you at all what I did for my 24th year… although I do recall it involved diapers.

This blog is less for the public, and more for my own preservation of the previous year. Tomorrow marks another birthday for me, and truly I don’t feel any older. Just like last year, I’m still breaking out like a teenager — so who knows when that one will end.

Personally, I’ve spent the last year totally re-directing my energy into photography. I’ve got a GO-JILLION photos that I never turned into something more than a snapshot. So in terms of focus, I left the rental/real estate/insurance gig in the dust for the sake of doing something that I truly enjoy. So in terms of personal growth, I’ve been homeschooling my ass off and learning everything that I can to make a living off of pictures. So far, I’m still a starving artist, but I have faith that will change. Especially since my shiny new business cards are coming! (Everyone knows that when you get business cards you make it big, right!??)

Here’s my year in review:

• We moved to a new shanty by the beach shortly after my last birthday. (Yes. Shanty. 1150 square feet is freaking tiny.)
• Mr. T’s Mom came to visit us at the Shanty for about a month. We hosted and cooked a lot of food.
• I had the joy of taking Pey to Hollywood (per se) for a taping with Heidi Klum. Not a great TV show, but our first LA gig. That was seriously fun.
• I’ve spent way long hours reading, shooting, editing and learning the ropes of how to do this picture-making thing.
• More hours spent on the internet than humanly possible. (Thanks, Pinterest. I hate/love you.)
• Lots of time at Disneyland and the beach. I live in SoCal for good reason.
• Sticking to a really tight budget. (See aforementioned bullet points.)
• My Grandpa passed, and is in a wonderful place smoking a cigarette and flying an airplane without a care in the world.
• Spent an entire month doing a super-fun scavenger hunt for a forum I belong to. (About 400 wacky items were on the list, and Mr. T and I hunted down many of them on some great dates.)

Soooo – not all that exciting to most, but still – it was my year, and I am now headed out to enjoy a wonderful happy hour with my honey to say goodbye to this year and ring in the next. Call it my Birthday Eve. I think it’s a better reason to party than New Years.

Here’s one of my only self-pics this year. It’s from the scavenger hunt and I’m working on the self-portrait thing. I promise to give a better one next year since last years was pretty lame, too.

~dana

Week of Learning – File under “insight” ;)

I’m totally stoked. I finally got the hang of creating, grouping, layer masking and storyboard creation.

Using this kick-ass tutorial found on Clickin’ Moms, along with my two very willing models, I created this fun capture of my daughter’s recent sleepover with one of her besties, Brandi.

Once I figured out how to group each photo with the block that I wanted to work with, it was easy as pie. Now for my Disneyland & Beach Storyboards. This is going to be a rad shooting weekend!

Peyton and Brandi

(Special thanks to Beth Ross for an awesome tutorial… Phew! That was easy!)