It's been a tumultuous few weeks for me--- I've been working hard on both the film project, which is very close to wrapping, and my personal photography. I started carrying my camera everywhere when I was 14 and snapped pictures of my friends. I had entire albums of photos of people in bands at local shows, people hanging out at school, people getting dressed up and 'modeling' for me. I was using a film SLR at the time, a very nice Canon that my mom bought for me, but I knew nothing of aperture or lenses or depth-of-field or anything else. I was just developing an eye for framing and composition. When I was sixteen, my high school offered a basic intro to photography class, which I eagerly took. We focused on developing our own film (already becoming an archaic and lost practice by that time) and all we did was take pictures of nature, but it was a lot of fun and I learned some valuable things about camera settings. By the time I was in college my photography was a full-blown habit and I rarely left the house without my digital camera. At twenty I purchased a very nice (for that time) DSLR and started learning the finer points. I was working with bands by then; I was doing interviews for a local paper, and that helped me get press passes to concerts. Those press passes enabled me not only to talk to the bands I admired but to shoot them. Over the next few years I worked with dozens of bands, from HIM and My Chemical Romance to Secondhand Serenade, The Spill Canvas, Yellowcard, Avenged Sevenfold and more. I learned about stage lighting and the importance of ISO and shutter speeds; it was all self-taught and I was very critical of my own work, trying to figure out what 'went wrong' when certain photos didn't come out the way I'd hoped. By now, at twenty-seven, I know that I still have a long way to go but I feel like a much more capable photographer now than when I was fumbling blindly along ten years ago. I have been lucky enough to work with some amazing bands and have a few of my pieces published here and there in newspapers or websites, and I know that this is something I want to pursue for the rest of my life. Lately, I've been granted access to photograph Rockstar Mayhem Festival, Vans Warped Tour and a few other upcoming concerts, plus I've been doing tons of portrait sessions with my friends. All in all, pretty productive, I'd say. :)
My trainer has been working me at the gym; we're mostly working on balance and stretching, which is fantastic for me. He's got me using resistance bands to pull my calf muscles and hamstrings out, and the first day we trained he had me jog on a treadmill. After 30 seconds solid I thought I was going to die from being unable to breathe. Yesterday at our session he made me do intervals of speed-walking and full-out jogging for ten minutes straight in thirty or forty-five second bursts. I thought I was going to die, but I made it the whole ten minutes without quitting or stopping for a break. I was so proud of myself. I haven't run anywhere since I played softball as a pre-teen. I don't enjoy running, but it was exciting just to be able to jog without dying or feeling the agonizing pain in my ankle that I used to feel before I lost all of the weight!
My scale is still at 232, but I'm having plenty of non-scale victories. ALL of my jeans are too big, which meant I went to the thrift store and bought a pair today of smaller size. My 'large' t-shirts fit comfortably now and in some cases I think I could even go to a medium. I have so much more energy than I used to have, and I am always wanting to get out of the house and go do something. My skin has also cleared up immensely; I haven't had a breakout since before the surgery. My skin was always pretty clear, but I would get random outbreaks every now and then; since I have no soda, sugar or carbs in my diet now and very little greasy/processed food, my complexion is a dream come true for me.
I am thinking that when the weather cools down a bit I'd like to buy a bicycle. It's so hot right now that I'd probably pass out riding one, but I haven't been on a bike since I was probably thirteen and I'd like to try picking it up again. It'd be a fun way to get around now and again. :)
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