On the Verge of a Milestone

There is something exhilarating about being on the bubble.

As I approach the 100th hour of this project, though I am comically far from my goal of 10,000 hours (status bar: 99% incomplete), I still feel a sense of proud accomplishment and renewed zest to keep on keeping on.

Perhaps it is the fact that I took this last set on New Year's Day and that has me reflecting, but I really have come a long way from six months ago.  When I began this endeavor, if you had asked me what I expected to gain from this experience, I would have referred you to this blog's tag line:  "Looking at the world through a viewfinder, going on adventures, establishing a work-life balance, and reclaiming my personal life."  Yes, I have learned some technical aspects of photography, and yes, I have exercised my creative right brain in developing an artistic eye... but as with most of life's experiences in which you pour your mind, body, and soul, it's been so much more.

Focusing on this personal project has really been a process of self-discovery: gaining a firmer understanding of what I want out of life, what I value, and what I want to spend my time doing.  From the time I was a small child, I was always taught the importance of delaying gratification - to work hard and save to reach a goal... but nobody ever taught me how to enjoy the ride along the way.  It's an unpredictable world out there; knowing how to find happiness is just as important as working hard and saving for a rainy day.  At least in honest conversation with my closest friends, I've found that my generation doesn't always know what makes us truly happy.  We like to think we know because of what society or our parents tell us, but all too often once we actually attain whatever that is, be it material object or professional accomplishment, we end up feeling like we were sold a false bag of goods.  At the end of the day, there are 7+ billion people in this world and I have no doubt that we find happiness all a little differently - it truly comes down to identifying what drives your happiness, be it person, place, thing, or experience.

And after that rather long-winded attempt at profound rumination... actual photos:

Chance juxtaposition in the line for The Jungle Cruise at Disneyland, colors punched up in post-editing

Long Beach, through the periscope of the Scorpion attack submarine

Rivets along the hull of the RMS Queen Mary, holgaish filter applied in post

Up to the crow's nest

Active Shooting Hours: 2
Review Hours: 1
Hours to Date: 99

Christmas, Christmas Everywhere!!

I really enjoy attractions that decorate for various holidays, particularly Halloween and Christmas.  The Long Beach Aquarium had Christmasy decor in the various exhibits and even a diver dressed as Santa - although I would argue he was much too skinny to be Santa and more like the Elf on a Shelf terror.

The lorikeets also had several Christmas trees at their disposal for hiding and pecking at.  Those little buggers bite quite readily - I didn't chance trying to buy food and taking pictures of them at the same time.  I can't wait to go back to feed them though!!

The challenge du jour was really learning to work in completely manual mode.  Since most of the exhibits are in the dark and behind shiny acrylic, I couldn't use flash and had to focus with the manual ring since there's an absurdly bright focus light that the autofocus employs.  As a result, a lot of the pictures came out pretty horrifically blurry.  In some cases, it was pretty frustrating since I know the shots would have been great had they been in focus.

In such cases, the law of large numbers to the rescue and I got some pretty awesome pictures anyway.

A nautilus, floating about its exhibit

Seahorse

And a lorikeet in a Christmas tree - long lost mysterious 13th day of Christmas gift?

Giant Pacific Octopus

Active Shooting Hours: 3
Review Hours: 3
Total Hours to Date: 92