ettymarie's photostream  

My beautiful best friend and her beautiful best friend.

New edit of an old classic.

I wanted to update it for my portfolio.

My beautiful baby sister isn't so babyish anymore!

next to Carthage. My family and my sweet Laura went there to watch Nicky play basketball.

Eleven days after my 365 ended, and I think I still got it. Check out the original photo in my comments.

It's here! I originally planned to throw my numbers into the hands of my cousins as we took a group picture, but we skipped the group picture this year so here's a solo picture of me, in a field next to the hotel. (btw-the numbers were stuck together with scotch tape..they were not magically floating!)

While I’m not 100% positive, I’m sure that this 365 project contributed to the fact that 2011 felt like the shortest year of my life. But at the same time, 2011 was filled to the brim with memorable experiences. January feels like a decade ago! I like to think I’ve come a long way since the start. Although my pictures in the later months of this project lacked the crazy imaginative and conceptual feel of my first ones, I definitely think I’ve grown as an artist. The way in which I take photos now is different, because I realize I’d rather get it right as I’m taking it than have to spend hours editing it in photoshop. This year has also presented me with my first experiences with clients, and I’ve been able to finally see my photography as a career. This fall I did sixteen senior portrait sessions and I photographed my first ever wedding for a good friend of my mom’s. In addition to this, I also got to shoot Christmas card family pictures and other events for people. I like to think that my 365 project helped expose my work and got me some of these sweet gigs, which I’m incredibly grateful about, because the money I earned from doing something I love allowed me to purchase a super nice new camera in November. This new camera, named Rosie after my sweet grandmother, is a Nikon D7000 and has already proven to be just what I needed as I continue to grow in my photography knowledge. It takes stunning photos and videos, and has settings to fit about every need of mine. Along with Rosie, there were a few other additions to my photography collection. My 50mm portrait lens, a.k.a. my secret weapon, ended up being perfect for my senior picture sessions. And with Rosie, I got an 18-105mm lens that saved the day when I was shooting the state championship football game and my 55-200mm lens broke (also, my sweet new waterproof case helped greatly with that rainy game). And my most recent addition is my camera purse, which is pretty self-explanatory and allows me to carry my babies around in style! In final camera news, Rodney (my Nikon D3000) about reached his end when the shutter broke in November. After a visit to the camera doctors, my mom and I learned that the shutter of Nikon D3000’s typically only last for 100,000 clicks (and I exceeded that by plenty!). Luckily for me, my camera was still under warranty, and I recently got Rodney back, completely fixed and cleaned up, looking as good as he did in January of 2010. Now that I’m finally done with my nitty gritty details about my camera junk, I owe a bunch of people some thanks (without trying to make this sound like I just received an Oscar)..

A big thanks goes to my mom and dad, who are the reason I haven’t given up on my dream. They bought me Rodney, and thus allowed me to develop a hobby of mine into a full-blown passion. They never stopped supporting me, and they were at my side with every college visit I made this year, trying to find a school that would best fit me for my academics and love for photography. Mom always helps me find the best deals when I’m looking to purchase new equipment, and both her and Dad always get on me when I’m not treating my camera lenses as responsibly as I should..which is the kind of thing I need to improve. And Mom would always supervise my crazy shoots, whether it be watching for cars as I lay in the middle of the road or making sure my sister wasn’t in any real danger as I posed with a knife behind her. All in all, they’ve been my biggest fans and patrons from the start, despite the fact that the field I take the most interest in isn’t the most dependable one. Mom, Dad, I love you two. Thanks for EVERYTHING.

Next is a quick thanks to my brother and sister, a.k.a. my last-minute models on days when I’ve been desperate for a 365 photo. They are the best, and their crazy minds are pretty helpful when creating a fun picture. Nick, thanks for keeping up with my project even while away at college, and Anna, thanks for letting me photograph your pretty little face so often.

One more big thanks goes to my friends, family, faithful followers, and the 100+ people that were a part of my 365 project. It’s easy for me to say I would not have had the motivation to complete this project without you all…especially you, Mandi Djurickovic and Samantha Hoffman, who always reminded me when my 365 was slacking! Basically, I had a blast doing this project because of all the wonderful people who were involved in it at some point or another. Thank you all so much.

Life has so much to offer, and I realized this by watching all the changes that occur over the course of a single year. New friends, new things and people to love, loss of loved ones, haircuts and new clothes, new interests and new tastes in food, new experiences and new knowledge of the world around me...but the crazy thing is, my passion for photography remains.