Genius Hour: My Sentence

I created this sentence to exude what I hope to become at the end of this project: She captured people’s love, laughter, and light through photographs.

The question is, how do I get there? A lot of skilled people are self-taught, but I learn better by asking questions and talking to people who are more experienced than I am. This week I decided to reach out to a professional photographer who lives a few cities away from me. We’re acquaintances online and we’ve talked quite a few times, so I felt comfortable asking her some questions about her journey with photography.

Ashley is a self-taught photographer whose business has boomed over the last couple of years. Photography is her full-time job (when she’s not taking care of her 3 boys under 5) and she’s extremely talented. Therefore, I’m going to embrace whatever advice she has to offer! She suggested that I take out my camera and just “play around with it” as much as I can. Try different lighting, various speeds, and get used to the manual settings. Regarding editing, she said that she watched LOTS of tutorials and videos in order to learn all of the Lightroom tools. And there are a toooon of tools. Thank goodness for YouTube, because there are thousands of videos explaining how to make the most of Lightroom without relying on presets.

This weekend we’re going to my friend’s daughter’s third birthday party (princess themed) and she asked me if I could bring my camera and take photos of the girls. Take professional-looking photos of a dozen toddlers zooming around in princess gowns? Sure! Sounds easy, right?? Well this will be the perfect way for me to launch my 30 minutes of daily photography practice. Wish me luck!

Ashley giving me advice on how to shoot the birthday party this weekend. I understand some of these words...

Genius Hour: Exploratory Experience

This week I spent a little bit of time with each of my choices. I have to admit, it was a lot of fun to devote some time to things that I'm interested in AND since it was homework, I had to do it. 

First I tried out embroidery. I've been a very amateur sewer for a few years now, so I made a stuffed animal for my son based on one of his favorite books, "Creepy Pair of Underwear" by Aaron Reynolds. There was minimal embroidery involved, just a few stitches for his face and ears, and I think it turned out pretty good for a first attempt! I started to look for inspiration for a more challenging embroidery design and found the very intricate ones to be pretty intimidating. Intimidating is fine, that's the point of this whole exercise, but it also seemed a bit tedious, which is not what I'm interested in pursuing at the moment. So embroidery is getting bumped to the back burner for now. 

Next, I watched this video tutorial for beginning knitters. I already know how to crochet and knitting doesn't seem too far off. It looks like it would be fun, but not as much of a challenge as I think this assignment warrants, so that's getting set aside for now, too. 

That left me with photography. I was really excited about this one. I pulled out my "fancy camera" and took some pictures of my daughter playing with her doctor tools. After watching several videos to learn about what the heck all of the buttons and dials on my camera even do, I had a vague understanding. Enough to get started at least. I took some photos in manual mode and, after finding one I was pretty happy with, I got to editing. I have Adobe Lightroom and have purchased lots of pretty presets to edit my pictures with literally one click, but I'm not supposed to be taking the easy way out. So I messed around with the Lightroom lighting and color tools until I ended up with a photo I liked. I can still see plenty I'd like to change about the picture, but I don't know how to do that. YET. I had so much fun taking these photos and I spent a loooong time in Lightoom editing. But I super enjoyed myself and was so excited that I got to call it homework!

SO as you probably guessed, I've decided to focus on photography. It makes me happy and it's something that I think will be fun, but with enough of a productive struggle to make it the perfect Genius Hour project.

Genius Hour: Topic Choosing

I have 3 young children and I teach (obviously) so I feel like my time is precious and in very short supply. There are so many things on my "What Would I Do if I Had All the Time in the World" list that I didn't even know where to begin to select my top 3. BUT, I did eventually manage to narrow it down. I am a very crafty person and once upon a time B.C. (before children) I did a ton of scrapbooking. I would completely lose track of time as hours passed while I cut, organized, taped, glued, and stickered. Therefore, all three of the activities that I'm considering are artistic.

One thing I've always wanted to learn how to do is knit. I'm so envious of people who can knit beautiful scarves, hats, and accessories to give as gifts that are even better than store quality. I've received knitted blankets as presents before and I treasure them. Making something by hand for someone else is such a thoughtful and generous gift. It's always been something I've wanted to learn how to do! Plus, from a completely selfish perspective, I've been wanting a "chunky knitted blanket" for years and I refuse to pay $200+ for one. So I'd love to knit my way into big, big savings.

Something else that's interested me for a long time is embroidery. Embroidery is such a useful skill when it comes to creating beautiful things. I've even seen artists embroider family portraits! We're taking our kids to Disney this summer for the first time, and I saw a lovely blanket that someone made by embroidering the autographs of all of the Disney characters that they met. I mean, how creative is that?? It would be such a wonderful way to preserve the memories made on such a special trip.

The last activity that I'm considering is photography. I've always loved taking pictures and photography has a special place in my heart because my grandmother was a professional photographer. I have a "professional grade" camera, but I really don't know how to use it. I would love to learn how to manually take photos and edit them myself (i.e. no auto mode and no editing presets!) Speaking from a sentimental mom perspective, time goes by so fast and I'd love to beautifully document our "everyday life" moments while my children are little.

So, next step: spend some time with each activity and choose my Genius Hour project. Wish me luck!