“They” say that if you want to be considered a good photographer , only show your best photos. I have a friend that I consider an awesome photographer and I knew him for several years before he ever let me see any of his “mistakes”. When he finally opened up his files to me I was so relieved to see that he has his blurred , out of focus, bad exposure pictures too. That little bit of sharing did wonders for my confidence.

But even more was what he said about them. He said unless you are making mistakes you aren’t stretching and learning. Your photography  (or anything else) will get stale and boring. If you are an artist you always need to keep pushing your limits so of course you’ll have some misses.

Last year I was pretty comfortable with where I was with my photography. I’d gotten more confident with my portraits, even taking pictures of people as well as their pets and looking forward to taking more. My landscapes were well composed, in fact I began to miss that WOW I used to get when one of them really stood out.

I wasn’t quite sure where to head next. I began to leave the camera at home because it was bulky to lug around and since I didn’t have it with me I missed opportunities for shots. It was time to shake things up again.

That’s why I decided to try another 365 photo challenge. These are hard, believe me. I did one when I first got the camera. Everything was new and bright and photo ops jumped out at me everywhere and even then I had a tough time some weeks. This time it will be even harder because I don’t want to just take the same old same  old.

That being said, expect to see some blunders and misses and mistakes. I’m going to try some new things, mess them up, study them some and then try them again and I expect some of these mistakes (like Bubbles-First Try) will make it into the 365 pictures I will take over the course of this challenge.

Please look and laugh at them and don’t judge me to harshly. I am trying to “stretch and learn” and you’re just along for the ride. Let’s have some fun  🙂