Okay, so today begins my 52 week photo journal. I am setting out on this journey with a few different goals in mind. The first of those goals is to become more familiar and more capable with a camera in my hands. I intend to try and brush up on one particular skill each week, with the end result being better photos.

The second goal is to make a commitment to myself to take some time out for myself. I find too often that I get caught up in the day to day and end up feeling frustrated, depleted, and disappointed with myself because all the "I'm going to get to it's" never seem to get gotten to. So I am making a commitment to myself to take at least one outing per week, to focus on myself. Hopefully these outings will lead me to new places, new experiences, and a new understanding of who I am.

To that end, I ran out the door this morning to get some sunrise pictures. Default to comfortable landscape photos. Note to self, this is a safe bet, not to hard to come out with a decent result. The perfectionist in me would surely be satisfied, or at the very least not too disappointed in what I came back with. And so it went the first lesson to be learned on my way. Learned? No, not learned, but rather confirmed, about myself.....I like things I can count on. I appreciate the safety of the familiar. Only one solution to be reached here...next week's outing needs to put me in some way outside my comfort zone. I thought when I started this I would run out of ideas. It appears as if each week will lead me in the direction of the next. As is life, one step leads to another.

If the message I got from this trip was anything from earth-shattering, that's okay because the outing was enough of an adventure for one day. Once I arrived at the site where I wanted to shoot, I began rushing. The sun was coming up quickly and the colors that I had hoped for were rapidly appearing. Got my camera out, my bag strapped on and headed to the top of the hill. Mount Rainier clearly in sight. Camera lens cap off, camera on....wait, this wasn't the right angle. Adjustment needed to get to exactly the right spot. A short hike, a small climb, and a hop, skip, and a jump away from the spot that the shot would be perfect. Step one, step two, and I'm on my way. On my way into a mound of dirt. Right leg stuck knee deep in mud, left leg quickly following. Right leg removed, but something was missing. My shoe was still two feet deep in mud. Camera in left hand, digging madly with right hand to free my shoe. Shoe retrieved, left leg extracted, and right leg sinking again quickly. Ummm, what now? Finally, crawling on hand and knees, while holding camera out of the muddy mess with my other hand got me to solid ground in time to catch part of the sunrise. Also, brought a smile and the realization that this whole changing habits thing might not always be a walk in the park, but as I look at the photo that came out of it, I have confirmation that the result will be worth it.

Someone said to me this week that the success will be in the doing, not what gets done. Point proven, lesson learned via the journey, with not a bad photo as icing on the cake.