New Goals!

Ok, so I know I haven’t quite completed my “impossible” goal but it IS rolling along! There is still lots of work to be done and things I need to figure out before I can bring it to fruition. BUT, I am looking past that March 6 event to the rest of the year and beyond. I find myself asking the question of “what’s next?” and have been trying visualize what that looks like. My brain just can’t handle the thought of not knowing what to do next. I also knew that when I was coming close to completing my 2020 goal, ideas and opportunities for further improvement and adventure would present themselves.

I was recently on another episode of the Latitude Photography Podcast with host Brent Bergherm and another regular contributor, Lori Rowland. It was so fun to discuss our goals for 2021! Listen to it here: https://latitudephotographypodcast.com/episode/101/. Here are the goals I announce on the episode:

1. Finalize everything for March 6 home exhibition
2. Get out and shoot 1x/wk
3. Edit 1x/wk – actual image editing vs passive learning
4. More photo trips! Overnight backpack trip with photography involved, more exploring
5. Personal goals – Grow more spiritually and increase my Spanish skills.

When I told my husband, Taylor, about these goals he said some of them were boring. HA! I was slightly offended at first and then decided some of them WERE a little boring. So, I’ve adjusted a few of them to be more specific and in line with the direction I want my photography to go. Here are my revamped goals:

1. Finalize everything for March 6 home exhibition: Fine tune theme and images, edit images, do any re-edits, print, order frames, cut mats, build walls (yes, there are walls!), put it all together and DO the show!!
2. Shoot 1x/wk – This sounds easy but can be deceivingly difficult as daily life happens. My plan is to keep watch on the weather and scout for new places by heading to previously unexplored places. In addition to this, my goal is to do weekend trips in Texas for further adventures. I’m making a list of parks, etc I want to visit and do day or weekend trips.
3. Edit 1x/wk – I barely did any of this last year! I mostly absorbed and practiced some of what I learned. Now I’m heavily into the editing and I plan to do so much more! So, at minimum I am going to edit 1 image/week with the hope of doing more. I also want to attempt some black and white editing. Photography is such an awesome art because there is so much to learn and there are so many creative ways to express myself.
4. Education -After considering some locations I want to visit here in Texas, I realized that I just don’t very much about our landscape. I plan to learn more about the places I visit to deepen my connection with the world around AND to do my best to protect any fragile environments in it. I also plan to learn more about some facets of photography. I have plans to do some night shooting (more on that another day) and we’ll see what other opportunities come my way!
5. Photo trips/experiences – if possible, do at least 1 workshop and 1 solo trip. Most of my photography gets squeezed into trips that are already happening. Whether with my whole family, my friends or just my husband, I learning how to fit in some photography when and if time allows. I want my photography to not just be “chasing the photo” but be more experiential and also for the love of nature.
6. Other personal goals – My next “impossible” goal is actually to be fluent in Spanish. I know it will take a lot of education and practice so I’ll make more definitive plans for that later. For now, I am using Duolingo to practice every day. And, I want to focus more on my spirituality. I won’t go too much into personal details of this but I will say that I believe by putting time for this on my calendar and focusing each day, I can grow more in this area.

This sounds like ALOT to do in 2021! The trick will be to fit all this into my life in addition to all the other demands of being a mom, wife and my other roles. I’m looking forward to the challenge! One last thing I’m looking forward to in 2021 – surprises! I can’t plan for these but I’m looking forward to all the awesome emotions that surprises bring. To start the year, Texas had a record snow day last week. And, lucky me, I was able to grab my camera and get out in it! I wasn’t able to stay out long enough to take tons of images but I’m pretty thrilled I was able to experience being out at my creek during some pretty heavy snowfall. It was SO MUCH FUN!!!

2021 – I’m ready for ya!!!