Huzzah! It's almost 2010, complete with paradigm shift as I started thinking of what 10 things I'd list for my favorite happenings. I saw a similar post done by a photographer I have come to respect, Melissa Jill, and I thought the concept was great 'n that I'd give it a go as well.
Once I started thinking, I realized a lot has been done and blessed, and I don't feel as stick-in-the-mud when it comes to accomplishments :) God has blessed me with so much and I'd like to share a bit of the colorful life He's given me. It's a great thing to do btw, if you have time...recapping the year helps you remember that your life IS actually moving and growing. Anyshmay, I digress, here's my Year in Review, Enjoy!
1. TKMusgrave Photography is born 'n branded!
It certainly feels like more than a year! Since it had only been 4 months (since I got my camera in August 2008), I didn't give a thought to actually getting paid to do something I loved so much. But I realized it could maybe end up that way. So when I thought of doing a photoblog, I knew I'd need to find a branding. With some help from a graphic designing friend, Stephan Castro, I acquired the first step towards TKMusgrave Photography.
I had the pictures, I had the branding, but I had no way to "put it out there"...well...besides Facebook. After many growing pains, struggling with HTML and calling my techy friends to chase out the bugs, I finally acquired a photoblog with a wide layout, and large high-quality photos! No more photos with low-res square blocks of color :-P My very first entry on my new blog was near the end of March.
2. The Year of Equipment!
We have a start! Got the flash early in the year and have yet to learn how to use it right (a task on my 2010 Bucket List, coming soon!).
The rest I got this summer, painfully starting with the Sigma 70-300 lens to replace the one I dropped. Then came the quick-release and Manfrotto Monopod that can convert to a relatively sturdy tripod.
And then my most exciting purchase this year was my 50mm 1.8! With advice from a couple photography mentors, Kristin Mizo and Alan Darmody, it came highly recommended and I shoot with it 95% of the time now. It was a challenge to master, but I absolutely love it!!
3. Transition from Picasa to Photoshop.
Haha, might seem elementary, but it was a big change this year! I now shoot in RAW and do the bulk of my editing in Bridge, though I owe a lot of the quality to the 50m and just plain, fun experience :)
Before:
After:
4. First Weddings!! Woot! Three's a charm for the first year, though the last one was purely for fun and experience since she already had a photog :) Nonetheless, they were a blast:
Candace & Ricky were married in April...
Kaylin & Jason were married in July...
..and Lindsey & Jordan were married in August :)
5. Designing sleek price-sheets!
Adrienne, one of my best friends and roommate happens to have a great professional eye in graphic design as well as a hankering for late-night banterings (and coffee runs). These worked together well as we randomly decided to design price-sheets for TKMusgrave Photography...until 4 a.m. Lol, we made price-sheets, which definitely cuts down on the awkwardness that seems to grace the stage between friend and pro. But even cooler, we made a memory :)
6. Traveling
Yes, I actually do things outside of photography :-P I was privileged to take some amazing trips throughout this year with family, friends, and art appreciation classmates :)
This summer my family went on vacation together for the first time since I was about 7. It was amazing, we went to Hawai'i on the island of Maui! Later I had the completely rad and random climbing trip with a buddy and his family to Red River Gorge in Kentucky. I led my first sport route and climbed my first 5.10 :)
Then there was the road trip with a couple roommies to Union College in Nebraska where we visited with friends over break. And then over Thanksgiving, I went on the Art Appreciation tour to New York. Incredible.
7. Film Projects
I was able to be part of some really great projects this year. Every once in a while, I'll be called in to help out with some sound design. For Marbles With Thoreau (Dir. Melody George), I did the initial sound design, Derek Taylor did the 2nd pass, and by a sheer blessing, it was re-mastered by a couple producers in Disney studios.
Actually, the entire production is a miracle story (from weather, to soundtrack, to budget) and can be read here. It went on to win a Crystal Heart Award in Heartland Film Fest, and Best Short in the Boston Film Fest. Woot!
As far as the others, The Prodigal, produced by Jeremy Rowland, (Dir. Chris Bohelander) pretty much makes me cry. I did the 2nd pass of sound design. A beautiful project.
And on-set production stills to Washed Away Dir. Zach C. Gray (where I later worked the 2nd pass of sound design) can be seen here, here and here :).
8. Pedestrianic No More!
For the first third of the year my beloved Land Cruiser, Brutus, was spending quality time and many many hours in the shop with Dad, brother and occasionally, me. He had puttered out around 306 thousand miles, but he was too much part of the family for us to let him go that soon. So after an immense engine/transmission switcheroo, he is now happily purring along at 310 thousand in near mint condition :) Yup, my dad rocks.
9. First Classics! Believe it or not, as sad as it may be for a film major, I'd never seen a classic movie before, much less a black and white one. So with the help of a film eval. class, I got a good start by seeing these classics and finding a new spectrum of joy: I LOVE classic movies!
10. Friendships. Friends this year have been amazing and undeserved. New and old, they've been there for me, let me be there for them, made me laugh until I couldn't breathe, and helped me through personal wins & losses. I've had the best time getting to know people better and making golden memories, or finding a good friend in what used to be an acquaintance. They mean the world to me and I've recognized some, though there are many others that impacted me this year.
"Here's to friends, here's to laughter. Here's to the night and days everafter."
God bless the rails ahead, Happy New Year!
Once I started thinking, I realized a lot has been done and blessed, and I don't feel as stick-in-the-mud when it comes to accomplishments :) God has blessed me with so much and I'd like to share a bit of the colorful life He's given me. It's a great thing to do btw, if you have time...recapping the year helps you remember that your life IS actually moving and growing. Anyshmay, I digress, here's my Year in Review, Enjoy!
1. TKMusgrave Photography is born 'n branded!
It certainly feels like more than a year! Since it had only been 4 months (since I got my camera in August 2008), I didn't give a thought to actually getting paid to do something I loved so much. But I realized it could maybe end up that way. So when I thought of doing a photoblog, I knew I'd need to find a branding. With some help from a graphic designing friend, Stephan Castro, I acquired the first step towards TKMusgrave Photography.
I had the pictures, I had the branding, but I had no way to "put it out there"...well...besides Facebook. After many growing pains, struggling with HTML and calling my techy friends to chase out the bugs, I finally acquired a photoblog with a wide layout, and large high-quality photos! No more photos with low-res square blocks of color :-P My very first entry on my new blog was near the end of March.
2. The Year of Equipment!
We have a start! Got the flash early in the year and have yet to learn how to use it right (a task on my 2010 Bucket List, coming soon!).
The rest I got this summer, painfully starting with the Sigma 70-300 lens to replace the one I dropped. Then came the quick-release and Manfrotto Monopod that can convert to a relatively sturdy tripod.
And then my most exciting purchase this year was my 50mm 1.8! With advice from a couple photography mentors, Kristin Mizo and Alan Darmody, it came highly recommended and I shoot with it 95% of the time now. It was a challenge to master, but I absolutely love it!!
3. Transition from Picasa to Photoshop.
Haha, might seem elementary, but it was a big change this year! I now shoot in RAW and do the bulk of my editing in Bridge, though I owe a lot of the quality to the 50m and just plain, fun experience :)
Before:
After:
4. First Weddings!! Woot! Three's a charm for the first year, though the last one was purely for fun and experience since she already had a photog :) Nonetheless, they were a blast:
Candace & Ricky were married in April...
Kaylin & Jason were married in July...
..and Lindsey & Jordan were married in August :)
5. Designing sleek price-sheets!
Adrienne, one of my best friends and roommate happens to have a great professional eye in graphic design as well as a hankering for late-night banterings (and coffee runs). These worked together well as we randomly decided to design price-sheets for TKMusgrave Photography...until 4 a.m. Lol, we made price-sheets, which definitely cuts down on the awkwardness that seems to grace the stage between friend and pro. But even cooler, we made a memory :)
6. Traveling
Yes, I actually do things outside of photography :-P I was privileged to take some amazing trips throughout this year with family, friends, and art appreciation classmates :)
This summer my family went on vacation together for the first time since I was about 7. It was amazing, we went to Hawai'i on the island of Maui! Later I had the completely rad and random climbing trip with a buddy and his family to Red River Gorge in Kentucky. I led my first sport route and climbed my first 5.10 :)
Then there was the road trip with a couple roommies to Union College in Nebraska where we visited with friends over break. And then over Thanksgiving, I went on the Art Appreciation tour to New York. Incredible.
7. Film Projects
I was able to be part of some really great projects this year. Every once in a while, I'll be called in to help out with some sound design. For Marbles With Thoreau (Dir. Melody George), I did the initial sound design, Derek Taylor did the 2nd pass, and by a sheer blessing, it was re-mastered by a couple producers in Disney studios.
Actually, the entire production is a miracle story (from weather, to soundtrack, to budget) and can be read here. It went on to win a Crystal Heart Award in Heartland Film Fest, and Best Short in the Boston Film Fest. Woot!
As far as the others, The Prodigal, produced by Jeremy Rowland, (Dir. Chris Bohelander) pretty much makes me cry. I did the 2nd pass of sound design. A beautiful project.
Prodigal from Jeremy Rowland on Vimeo.
And on-set production stills to Washed Away Dir. Zach C. Gray (where I later worked the 2nd pass of sound design) can be seen here, here and here :).
8. Pedestrianic No More!
For the first third of the year my beloved Land Cruiser, Brutus, was spending quality time and many many hours in the shop with Dad, brother and occasionally, me. He had puttered out around 306 thousand miles, but he was too much part of the family for us to let him go that soon. So after an immense engine/transmission switcheroo, he is now happily purring along at 310 thousand in near mint condition :) Yup, my dad rocks.
9. First Classics! Believe it or not, as sad as it may be for a film major, I'd never seen a classic movie before, much less a black and white one. So with the help of a film eval. class, I got a good start by seeing these classics and finding a new spectrum of joy: I LOVE classic movies!
10. Friendships. Friends this year have been amazing and undeserved. New and old, they've been there for me, let me be there for them, made me laugh until I couldn't breathe, and helped me through personal wins & losses. I've had the best time getting to know people better and making golden memories, or finding a good friend in what used to be an acquaintance. They mean the world to me and I've recognized some, though there are many others that impacted me this year.
"Here's to friends, here's to laughter. Here's to the night and days everafter."
God bless the rails ahead, Happy New Year!