january 2013 | project 52

(pre-posted, i don’t blog at work.

I spent my first minute of February 1st, 2012 looking for my promise rings. Love & Hope; I had them as a promise to myself that I will always remember, to have faith, to accept and to believe. I thought I lost them, but then again, you don’t lose Love or Hope. Then, I spent the next 15 minutes lying on the floor, something I love to do after a long day. Having spend 16 hours outside and at work, it pretty damn well was a long day. That pretty much happens everyday, such is the nature of my job.

Before I know, 31 days in January have passed. I knew, I would feel this way and this was bound to happen. How not to, when you spent 6 days working and then with that precious other day, you squeeze as much as you do in that day? And so, my life becomes a somewhat predictable routine. I don’t mind, in fact in some ways I am thankful to be able to concentrate my time and energy into something better than what that could drive me crazy.

Of course, I have insane days and days that gets too overwhelming. But the first step is always much harder, so is the first few months on the job. And to pretty much stay sane and keep my creative juices flowing, I decided to commit myself to a | project 52, which a year-long weekly photo challenge. There are websites that sets a theme for every week that goes by, but I personally prefer to pick my own theme. I won’t say what my theme is but I think it’ll be pretty obvious from the pictures.

* * * * * * * * * *

[#1] Headshot

[#2] Monotone

[#3] Graphic + Print

[#4] Inversion

* * * * * * * * * *

Starting this project have been pretty amazing for me, pushing my boundaries and having to come up with a picture for every week. I have been really happy with #1, #2 and the best of all would have to be #4. For #4, it’s one thing to have an idea in your mind, to imagine it how the picture would or should turn out to be and having to go and shoot with the result being just as you have imagined if not better. But then again, not every picture or shot will be just like that. There will be a photographer’s block, when what you imagined no matter what wouldn’t turn out as you wished. So, #5 ended up being the picture I didn’t visualize or imagined. I don’t like it because it doesn’t match the set. But this doesn’t matter, the process of taking the pictures was what is important.

[#5] Red Filter.

When I took #5, I had a horrible day before that and also after that. I was so mind screwed, in fact the whole day should be called the day-we-screw-Carmen’s-mind-day. I hope next week will be better. It will, I have faith. The pictures are also up in Facebook and uploaded into that album, with captions and lyrics that I feel most when I took the picture.