Photo of the Day: Personal Stalker

click to view larger on flickr
(because this thumbnail just doesn't do him justice)

Ever have a period of time where the whole world seems to run in 16x fast-forward? Everything seems to blur together, and no matter how quickly you move, the world stays ahead of you by about ten steps.

I've felt like that lately. The last few weeks have been absolutely insane!

I had an interview yesterday with Lifetouch photography's preschool division. I'm not very confident about how the entire affair went (they confessed that the position is only a "maybe" at the moment, so the interviews are basically a precaution rather than out of necessity), but I've got my fingers crossed all the same. It would be a good position to get more formal training, and simply a nice change from the last job I had where I was on my butt all the time. Prior to the interview and associated insanity, I had my family in town (as mentioned in past posts), and was running like a lunatic to prepare for Christmas and the New Year.

Now, things have slowed down and I can get back into the groove of my routine. I've made a few "resolutions" that aren't really resolutions. I don't typically do the New Year's Resolution thing, and technically I'm not doing it now.

These are things I've already been working on, but will continue to work on into the new year:

1. Get healthy (or healthier)
I've been in awful health since moving back to Texas, and it's gotten worse over time. The stress and environment from my last job landed me in the E.R. via ambulance, and I'm definitely suffering physical results of stress. Breathing and digestive issues are pretty much the norm for me these days, and I'd like for that to stop. So I'm already eating better and getting a bit of exercise, I'm also looking for a new doctor, since my last G.P. was pretty useless.

2. Find a new job
Along with getting sick at the end of 2010, I lost my job at the (very tiny) press shop where I was working. I try not to talk about this much, because it really isn't a very happy-chappy-positive topic, and doesn't generally pertain to this blog. It's a bit too personal. I'm also doing my best to remedy the situation and move on, however.

Basically, the shop where I was working let me go because I was so ill that I missed almost two weeks of work in the middle of a very hectic period. I'd already been looking to find work elsewhere because I was uncomfortable working in that environment (again, long and personal story unsuited to this blog), but since November, the search has been in earnest. Going along with this goal, I've been redoing a good portion of my portfolio and creating new work to put in it.

3. Shoot more and more photos
Like the other two, I'm already doing this! Partly to rebuild my portfolio, partly to have fun and get better at it.

I went to the zoo with my family on New Year's Eve, and took about 600 photos in four hours. Most of them were no good, but I captured a few gems (as seen at the header of the post). I also shot the "family portraits" for Mom's end-of-the-year letter to the rest of our relatives. It wasn't the best session in the world (because coordinating a fidgety not-quite-five-year-old and his blink-prone mother along with five other people is a bit difficult), but it certainly will do the trick for that letter.

Ideally, I want to get some friends of mine together for a few shoots for material for this blog and my portfolio. Mainly, I want to address some of the cliches and tropes of lolita fashion photography (and show you how to avoid becoming one), but I also want to do some candid portraits just to practice and improve.


Have you resolved to do anything special or self-improving this year?