Perhaps it's funny to have a post featuring such gorgeous necklaces (I can't take credit) be primarily about photography. That's how it goes today. Despite the fact that I've been getting good work and emotionally I'm dedicating more of my heart to photography, I can't deny that I've been feeling stuck lately. It's not, by any stretch, that I don't feel that I have any more to learn. It's more that I feel that there's so much that I don't know. I don't even know where to begin. I take workshops and a little tiny lock opens. I read an article, and another little tiny lock opens. But there are so many locks! More than that, I still don't completely know which locks are mine to unearth. It's a lot to figure out.

So lately, I've been reaching both out and in. Trying to really understand what my goals are for this work. Trying to verbalize them, if only to myself. And as I understand more deeply what path I want this journey to take, I'm trying to really, truly know what I need to do to get there. So I've been reading and pinning and planning a studio and taking classes and joining a meet-up. All good things. And yet. Yet. I realized this week that I was forgetting to do the most important thing, and that was to take the time to do the work. In my very first photography class, my teacher Jackie's (meet her and her bread here next week) most important advice for us was this: Practice, Practice, Practice.

It's that simple. I've spent too much time flying by the seat of my pants, and not enough properly planning, preparing and executing the kinds of photoshoots that I want to create. It's important to take the time. If I really want my photos to get better, I need to put in that time. So from here on out, I'm giving myself one day a week dedicated just to the practice of my craft. I'm pulling out my creative muses from Plate to Pixel to The Creative Habit and letting them be my guide. Sometimes if might be food, sometimes a still life. But there's no other purpose than just the work. Going slowly and taking the time for the work. You'll see the results here on Thursdays. I'm not sure if this is a blog series or not or if I'll give it a name (any thoughts?), but I figure sharing it with you guys will be good for me. I hope you like it too.

And what about those necklaces? Pretty spectacular aren't they? The artist is Jamie Joseph, and I did some product shots of them for Simply Selma's and oh, you know, just happened to have them lying around. (If you're interested in any of them, they ought to be up on the web site soon, or contact one of the gals and they can hook you up.) The light wasn't great, and the timing wasn't either, but it was a start. A start to paying attention. And I can't thank my ladies there for being my own personal prop closet. We'll see. We'll see where the path leads.