Week 2- Warm in January

Please, take some time to compare this photo, and the one from the last year. The same date, the same place and yet completely different. And I prefer the one from the last year. It was snowy, cold, windy, as it should be on a weekend after Christmas. This year we had too much clothes, too little water, I have forgotten to bring a small hair band and sunglasses. Big mistakes in these conditions. And we were drinking the beer in front of the store, which is a kind of favorite village entertainment. Maybe not in January, but this year it was very possible. Why not use an advantage of it?

Now when I analyze a period since October till now, I realize that I gladly took chances to go outside for a walk, coffee, beer whenever possible, always thinking: “OK, I should use this day. Who knows, maybe the winter will start tomorrow and this is the last nice warm day.” And freaking winter never came. No snow at all. Even on mountains. Global warming kicks asses. And it makes me sad and worried.

Week 1- Don’t try this at home.

This is one small detail from our mountain house on Kopaonik mountain. A broken mirror. (Don’t want to be superstitious, but….) There is a funny story behind it.

It got broken one year, when the winer was very cold, we had the problems with pipes, vents, small flood and total disaster in the bathroom. Our cousins were there with a group of friends. The mirror got broken and they came up with an extraordinary idea for fixing it. (Being isolated in a mountain house, eating winter food and having a few shots of strong alcohol can boost your creativity tremendously.) They have decided to stick the missing piece with bubble gums. They were chewing gums for a minute or so and than used them as a glue or kind of binder. Brilliant! Unfortunately, after a few showers, the bathroom was filled with steam and the piece of art fell apart. (Oh, it even rhymes.)

The mirror remained broken. Nobody dared to do try to fix it again. If that ingenious solution failed, is there anything else in the world that could be done? (Yes, we could clean it, I know.)

Week 52- Yeeeeeha! (+ reflections)

I claim this 52 weeks photo challenge officially completed. Yeeeeeeeha!

(Can you imagine how difficult it is to make jumping self portrait?! This was like 55th attempt. I needed one extra meal afterwards.)

Welcome to Kopaonik mountain. We are ready for New Year Eve. Unfortunately, there is no snow at all. Comparing to Week 50, it is a big disappointment. But successful ending of photo challenge is delighting. (And I have decided not to care about snow anymore.)

OK, let me make some reflections about the whole challenge and what have I learned in 52 weeks of making self portraits.

DIRECTION: Setting some sort of creative “limitation” (topic, direction, self portraits in this particular case) is VERY useful. If you try to make random 52 photos, you are likely to give up at week 4, or forget what you were doing. And that kind of limitation is not limiting at all! It pushes your creativity towards new, unexpected destinations.

INDOORS/ OUTDOORS: I LOVE making photos outdoors and I am not very keen on making photos indoors. Teeny tiny movements can cause dramatic changes indoors. Then I need to make endless attempts and it makes me frustrated. As opposed to that, I get good result outdoors in no time! (Except for this jumping photo above.)

HELPERS: It is so much easier to work with a helper. (My boyfriend did it most often, but my sisters and some friends helped too.) Of course, helper is not making a photo for me, all photos are made by me (and timer), but he gives me some instructions from the behind of a camera. And saves my time, nerves and beauty, thus.

MOTIVATION: I didn’t lack the motivation, on the contrary! I had an avalanche of new ideas and stories, which was a pleasant surprise. I have started without any expectation because I haven’t done any creative project for ages. And I am very happy with this one.

PERFECTION: I managed to take 20% of all photos from the first shot. (Meaning that I was quite satisfied with the first one, and all the other shots were just worse.) I was not completely content with quite some photos, but I have published them anyway. Done is better that perfect.

MY APPEARANCE: One of the reasons for starting this project was the fact that I am usually very unhappy with my appearance on the photos. But somehow, I liked myself on ALL of the photos that I have made. (OK, maybe not on this one.) I don’t have reasonable explanation of that phenomena. If you have any idea, please share it with me in comments below. It is maybe because I was relaxed and I focused on being creative and telling an interesting story, instead of being super-hot chic on the photo. I am just guessing.

KEEPING MEMORIES: This challenge pushed me to take more photos than ever before. Also, I needed to follow the pace and come up with one photo each week, during longer period. It is awesome. These photos are my reminder about the whole year behind me. I don’t have memory gaps like: “What the hell I was doing in February last year?” It has all been captured.

EYE OPENER: Photography is a great eye opener, and this photo challenge was a powerful idea generator and a tool for living in a present moment for me. I have found an awesome quote (by Dorothea Lange): “A camera is a tool for learning how to see the world without a camera.” Total bang-bang for me. I couldn’t agree more.

STORY TELLER: I was delighted how many stories can actually be derived from your everyday. These stories are also a hell of a reminder. There are the stories in burned cookies, ruined recipe, misunderstood set of instructions, extraordinary gift, walk, coffee….I mean everywhere. You just need to open your eyes. Or your oven. 🙂

PUBLISHING: Well……that was the part that I was not very happy with. The thing is that I have started blog at June, and I had about 20 photos at the very beginning. I was hoping to catch up, but I just didn’t. Also, I have started a SUPERNOVA project at October and it kicked me out of tracks. However, I have made all the photos exactly on time and I have got everything published one month later. It is a big lesson for me, while the New Year resolutions are still fresh, I am committing myself to consistent publishing.

AND NOW WHAT: I am continuing, of course! And I am looking forward to it. One more important thing to say is that I have started this blog with (not so clear) intention of making something else, like writing prompts, recipes, lifestyle blog or something. But I had so much material in this project that it became the main part of my blogging. And I am very happy about that.

So, see you on The Week one. Here we go again!

Week 51- Celebration

Celebration! It was the last day of my SUPERNOVA photo challenge. And the last prompt was Celebration. So we had to make one.

Pop and me, wine and chocolate, good movie and holiday atmosphere with many lamps. Voila!

Besides of SN photo challenge and 52 weeks challenge, this whole year was one big challenge. So many knockdowns, expectation hangovers and tough decisions. But we made it.

Can you see this parrot-shaped lamp at the top of my head? It symbolizes an ancient Amazonian wisdom that I picked along the way. It makes me ready for some new challenges and adventures. (But I would prefer to enjoy holidays first.)

Week 50- About 2000

Don’t you love this photo? I do.

It has been captured at hight about 2000 meters above sea level. (2033 meters, if you prefer. Bjelasica mountain, Montenegro.)

We had so much luck with the weather.

It was rainy and foggy in Belgrade when we left, and a little worse when we came back.

It is like we have made a leap to another dimension.

Tons of snow, plenty of sunshine, fresh air, breathtaking view.

Perfect weekend. I didn’t feel like going home.

If you look more carefully, you can see that my body seems stiff, like a doll.

Don’t worry, it wasn’t that cold.

I just didn’t want to go home, and it was my way of showing it.