Image Explorations - Part 3 - The Matrix
It feels like home to me
Feels like I'm all the way back
Where I belong
Image Explorations was both the most emotionally trying and professionally growing experience of my year. I felt myself stretched so far beyond my comfort zone I was cracking at the seams. So many reasons for that, but I'm not going to get into the darker side of the workshops for now. I actually skipped out on several sessions because I couldn't handle it, though I was extremely productive, doing a lot of sorting and editing during that time. Suffice it to say I was pushing the limits of my every weakness and doing it alone for the most part. It wasn't until I had some help - some friends to talk to - that things got better for me and I managed to relax again.
I feel so equipped to handle photography now. The biggest thing was inheriting a new program that has changed my editing process dramatically and enabled me to do in several hours this evening a much bigger job. I am extremely excited to have found something that allows me to come up with material of such quality and spend more time doing the finer edits that I was unable to work on before. Here's hoping I land at least one or two more weddings this year.
I am staying in Victoria in the house of a couple who are friends of a friend, and I immediately liked and got along well with them. They fed me ribs for supper tonight and I hung around their house eating blueberries and browsing their folder of photoshopped internet memes. The lady of the house invited me to watch So You Think You Can Dance with her and we heckled Paris Hilton during the commercial breaks, and her hubby was once competitive in Ballroom, so even though he's a bit lame at present from a sports injury, we may all go dancing tomorrow night. Suits me!
Spending time in their house editing has been the most comfortable time I've had all week. I'm feeling very blessed to be here. It's a fantastic opportunity to get to know this very cool couple and then I have the opportunity to shoot family portraits with them and their one-year-old who likes me and loves cameras, and I'll even be around to shoot his birthday party on Saturday. This is the way I'd love to shoot all the time. Getting to know people and then finding their essence in the lens.
If anyone knows someone in Victoria who might be interested in having some portraits done, let me know.
I am feeling completely calm and collected. Since the only emotions of IE were blank, excited, and despairing, I feel much more like myself again and less like an emotional rollercoaster.
I feel like I'm in the Matrix about to do battle and they've rolled out the arsenal to choose from - I'm ready to shoot.
My time in Victoria will be sharply divided between family portraits and touristy things, and I am greatly looking forward to both. I feel welcomed back into a place of stability here and hope to continue in that feeling for the remainder of my trip.