neglect and procrastination

Hello fellow bloggers and gentle readers. (I've always wanted to say gentle readers!)

It has been quite some time since my attempt at a new post and even more since my last actual update! Life found me in a bit of a rut photographically, so there wasn't much to update about. I started a couple courses at George Brown College to go towards a Digital Photography Certificate during the months of March and April. They were a great diversion from the rut I was beginning to fall into in my small town and dead-end sports photography job.

My last attempted post, that is still sitting in my drafts and I may or may not revisit, was in regards to my Business of Photography course. I learned so much in that class. The best thing was, our final assignment was to hand in a branding package for our business. This included business cards, a logo for all letterheads and legal forms, etc. It really forced me to think about how I want to portray myself professionally... and also made me realize how difficult it is for me to come up with a simple, concise design that is in fact "me". That's why I probably won't publish that post, because I've decided I want to redo everything until I'm really happy with it.

Since then I was just bound and determined to get back to the big city and rejoin the life I had started to make for myself before university ended. I have so many friends and contacts here in Toronto; it seems silly to go anywhere else. I started looking for a better job and after a long, repetitive process of writing and rewriting cover letters, emails, going to interviews, not getting anywhere, despairing about not getting anywhere, etc... I finally found one!

I'm still quite surprised they took a chance on me, but I'm so glad they did. I love my job. I walk down the street to work every morning and the CN tower is right there! It makes me smile.

Coincidentally, the same day I started my new job, I started my first shooting course at George Brown. I took their Fashion Photography course and got to try out shooting in a studio with lights for the first time. The new job, adjusting to the schedule, the commute, my class (which took a large amount of energy and time outside of class to edit everything... which I'm still working on!), and searching for a place to live has left me pretty wiped out these past couple months.

I'm happy to say that I've found a place to live though! It's right downtown, just a block or two away from a few good friends. I'm hoping that once I move in mid-august that by September I can get back on track with my personal photography and start creating again. I've got quite a few art projects in the queue as well, so I'm hoping to find time for those, at least over the winter.

I really feel like I'm starting a new chapter in life. It feels so strange to finally have a great full-time job that I know I'll stay at for a long time and learn a lot with. I'll be living on my own for the first time (no roommates, eek!). I've also become a lot more confident with my work and photography now that I've gone out of my comfort zone and tested what I can do.

For future updates, I think because there was so much content, I will do class-by-class posts to update with my new work. If you follow my Flickr account or my vaguer Facebook page, you may have already seen some of the new stuff. I'll try to go about it a little differently here so it's not more of the same.

Thanks for reading! Here's to, hopefully, not letting the dust settle so much on this blog!

:)