Resolutions? Goals? Call them what you may...

Call them resolutions. Goals. Aspirations. Dreams. Passions. No matter what you name them, have a set of goals for yourself and don't stop until you reach them. I have a hard time with the term "New Years Resolutions" because I don't like the pressure of having my goals established and game plan set in place by January 1st. My goals evolve, change, and take on the shape of how my year is progressing and for me? I'm ok with that.

Over the last year I started yoga, crossfit, & joined a new church. I moved out of my parents house and embraced being 25. I got a cat. I got a full time job with health benefits and experienced the glory of PTO for the first time in my life. I learned that it's ok to be alone and to do things because God wants you to and not because you're totally comfortable with it. Going to a new church by myself where I knew practically NO ONE has been a little scary and has forced me to move outside my comfort zone, to start experiencing life with other people & women that I've NEVER known before. I'm just trying to follow God's call on my life and move as He moves, even though I have NO idea what He's moving me towards.

With that, I do have some goals I want to accomplish-hopefully by the end of 2014. I've learned enough about myself through trials and MANY failures to know that no matter how long my goals take, don't ever stop working towards them. My goal for 2013 was to lose weight and get in shape while building muscle. I didn't have a "weight" I wanted to hit because to be quite honest, I didn't know what that would look like. I didn't want to hit a weight, I wanted to hit a feeling. Who knows what my body would look like as I continued to lose and I never wanted to lose my shape or keep going just because I HAVE to weigh 135lbs. I can say that as of today, I'm 75% there. I'm not as low on the scale as I want to be and know I should be, but I FEEL amazing. I'm doing things I NEVER would have thought I could do (hello people? back squat 135lbs?).

Hopefully with the help of my new friends at Crossfit CVI, the people I'm getting to know at Crossway (somehow the word cross keeps filtering into my life), and the quirky group I know at Krav Maga Worldwide Training Center I can accomplish some of my goals. I've already checked off a few of them which is super exciting! Here are the ones I've developed so far:

• RX a workout- Check!
• RX a workout that uses barbells & plates- Check!
• Execute & hold the Crow in yoga for 10 seconds
• Join the worship team at my church & start serving- Check!
• Join a bible study to meet people and grow in my walk with Jesus- Check!
• Test out of Level 2 in Krav Maga and move into Level 3- hopefully by summer! 
• Photograph 2 sessions (life, family, couples) & post them on my blog
• Lose 20lbs of body fat 
• Read 10 novels- 2 down, 8 to go
• Eat dark leafy greens twice a week
• Pick a food item I've previously disliked & cook with it at least once every 3 months
• Move my feelings towards running from absolute disdain to simple hatred

Technical:: Practicing Posing & Lighting

There are a few shoots and blogs that I have neglected to post in the recent months and have become inspired to start blogging with a little more frequency than, oh, twice a year....

It's that bad people...

But it's never too late to change that, right? Good, we're in accord.

So in the spirit of blogging, below is a shoot I did in December before the madness of Christmas and New Years happened. In order to become a stronger photographer, I put together a list of some of my weaknesses from a technical standpoint. I'm pretty comfortable with my camera and shoot totally RAW and Manual which I am pretty proud of to be honest. However, my three weaknesses are posing, shooting backlit, and shooting in harsh light. So how do you get better? You practice. So I grabbed my roommate and her boyfriend and took them to Tree Tops Park in Davie to practice 2 of the 3 weaknesses (can you tell I'm avoiding the biggest weakness? Harsh light= Voldemort).

Now let's go ahead and put this out there-posing is hard. I've worked with people before who used to be or are currently modeling so shooting them is....well, it's almost like not even working. It's so easy. But working with regular people...who aren't comfortable in front of a camera...who don't know what I mean when I say "Smile with your eyes!!" is pretty difficult.

I'm still working and improving and hope to tackle the demon of harsh lighting in the very near future but here is the result of my experimentation.

 

Umm....rawr Briana, rawr...

She is so yoga...

This one's my personal favorite. Set them up in a good pose and then capture the natural energy between the two people :)