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 30- Make bridges, not walls

Whenever I see this photo, my first reaction is :”OMG, what the hell is this?!” Oh yeah, that’s just me. (Relief sigh.)

So, this is me in a bridge pose, after my yoga challenge, as I promised. It was not that hard. I guess that making this photo (setting the camera, running away from it, making a bridge pose quickly and holding it for a while, bad one, let’s repeat) was the hardest part of it all. Cardio-yoga-photo challenge! But what kind of engineer would I be if I couldn’t make 10 bridges or even more?

However, I enjoyed this challenge, very much. I have actually exercised properly every single day in July, and I did yoga as a stretching or as a workout as well. It did me so good, I could really feel various benefits of doing it. Let me count:

I didn’t have any headache for quite a while.

The pain in my lower back ceased completely.

I became so much calmer and more focused.

I could do yoga workout whenever I felt exhausted. It never failed to change my energy and put me back on the tracks again.

I could notice my own advance, opening and new range of movement that I was able to do.

I felt AWESOME.

And guess what? I became addicted! I want to feel that good regularly.

I will not have chance to do yoga every day in August, but I will try to start again as soon as possible. That is a good and healthy habit that shouldn’t be neglected.

And I do not promise to make any more  funny poses. (It should be a surprise!……………Just kidding)

Yoga challenge

Among the many activities I love, yoga is something that I have just recently fell in love with. I have never been very stretchy and able to do any of skills required for a job in average circus. Not even in a bad one! And I have wanted it so badly!

 I can run for miles, do many kinds of tough workouts, climb, ski, ride a bike, do numerous push-ups, lift a weight, but when I need to touch my own toes…….ouch! It used to hurt me. (Till recently.) Also, I was always looking for some dynamic workout, to get sweat, to lose my breath, to get tired. Yoga always seemed boring and too slow for me. But some people, who had more experience with yoga, have recommended it warmly to me. It IS TOTALLY suitable for dynamic persons, they were saying. I needed a kind of ballast to make me more slow and focused.

I have started to practice yoga, and, step by step, I was able to see some progress. I can do it when I am endlessly tired. It makes me feel fresh and new. It is perfect for all of the people who sit for many (I don’t want to count how many) hours a day. All kinds of activities make your muscles contract, it is only yoga that makes them stretch like a chewing gum. Good enough! I don’t even want to mention the joy of emptying my mind! BLANK!

I was TOTAL DUMMY when I have started, but I am getting better. I have decided to make July the month of yoga. I intended to do some small yoga workout every day and make it non-negotiable. And I have another goal….I have realized that I have rusted so much that I am not able to make a bridge pose anymore. But the real one, like this:

And hold it for more than 5 seconds. Mission impossible!

I have no idea how could it ever happen to me, but since I haven’t even tried to make it for century or two, it is not quite a surprise.

However, I promise to myself and all of you that I will be able to make a bridge pose till the end of July. Yoga and other regular exercises will help me make it. And I will prove my success with a photo on 52 Weeks Project.

And then, I have found THIS.

It is a free 21 day yoga challenge and it is AWESOME. It requires only 5 minutes a day, it is easy and doable! So jump in! Your body will be grateful! I especially love the first video, absolutely anyone can do it and feel as fresh as a flower.

All I want to say now is NAMASTE. Thank you Suzanne! See you on the yoga mat!  😀