I DID IT!!!!

Yesterday, April 6, marked the 367th day of this blog -- with one extra day for the leap year. I have now posted a photo a day (not always taken right on that day but at least within a day or two) for a full year.

I started off knowing almost nothing about photography. I listened carefully to Keith (after his years at Brooks Institute of Photography, he has much wisdom and a great eye) and observed what my fellow 365'ers posted. I've learned a great deal about noticing and truly seeing the little things -- the curls of budding apple leaves, the hushed light of early morning and late afternoon, the detail in a pansy "face," the joy of taking photo after photo in gorgeous places around San Diego like Summerspast Farms, Balboa Park, Pacific Beach, Mount Laguna, and San Diego Bay. Besides the fun of taking photos in beautiful places, I've come to enjoy the more subdued delight of taking photos of my small town and especially of my family. I've watched our four kids grow in amazing ways this year, and it's a year well-documented, thanks to this blog. The kids also became interested in photography, wanting to borrow my camera to capture a photo of this or that, whether it be a great art project, a very large toad they found, a particularly funny face, or an especially cute pose of our dachshund. I've also been able to document the progress of this year's big project: the stained glass window Keith is working on.

So I shall keep posting quite often -- it's nice to have the daily pressure off in a way, but I'll still keep my camera handy and post often. I still have much to learn about photography, and I'm eager to keep on learning by doing.

Special thanks to my 365 cohorts -- I never would have started this rewarding project without your examples and your beautiful shots spurring me on to greater daring and creativity. For a woman of words (sorry for all the wordiness -- I can never let a picture say a thousand words by itself; I must add my couple of hundred to it, of course), learning to communicate visually rather than verbally was a challenge, one that sometimes left me frustrated, but much more often than not, gave me great joy and a feeling of freedom and accomplishment. So thanks so much for the blessed opportunity to start and FINISH a project -- something we writers are not always particularly good at.

I'll post my favorite photo of the last year here -- I have many photos I've realy liked, but this one immediately came to mind when I thought of my single favorite photo of the past 365 days:



Coronado Bridge from a sailboat on San Diego Bay

So here's to learning more about the art of photography and to learning more from the wonderful women and from my husband, all of whom spurred me to become a slightly more accomplished photographer than I was 367 days ago when I first received my little pocket camera.