Stress and My Camera

My goodness!  It’s Monday, it’s past 8:00pm and I’m just now able to breathe.  I really wanted to enjoy my weekend so I refused to work the entire time.  Well I paid for that.  I woke up this morning with an awful feeling of stress.  I had a to-do list that was a mile long.  I managed to place orders to stock up on product, make all of the fresh soaps I need to ship out in the morning, bathe the kids, clip baby fingernails and toenails, clean ears, boogers and catch up on my massive load of correspondence and that’s just a taste of what I did before noon.  This entire week is going to be filled with work, work, work!  I can’t really complain though, when business is good, life is good.  I’ll just keep thinking “Expensive sushi dinner, expensive sushi dinner.”  I want it; or maybe crab legs, I haven’t decided quite yet.    

My biggest problem is taking breaks to do the things I love.  I absolutely love my business and find making handmade soaps completely soothing and a great artistic outlet.  When one comes out just the way I intend, it makes me feel very accomplished and talented.  My blog and my camera have been incredible outlets for me to take forced breaks and completely concentrate on something I love that I have absolutely no obligation to.   The rest of my day I’m pretty much a slave to my kids and husband, but I don’t mind at all because it’s endlessly rewarding and my husband constantly compliments me.   

So, for a fantastic break, I managed to get out a few days the past week and catch up on some practice photography.  On one of my walks with the kids, plus husband this time, I found the coolest little leaf stuck in the ground.  I liked the way the light was shining through the little bug eaten holes.

Then, to my surprise, I captured some decent pictures of landscapes.  I’ve always found them a little boring to be honest.  Looking back now I can see how judgmental that was of me.  I now know that the reason I found them boring, was because I stink at taking them.  If you truly capture the energy of a landscape, the picture transforms into something so much more beautiful than just a picture of a bridge or a sunset.  In the future I will be working more not only on my up close and personal small item photography, but also honing in on my skills with landscapes, my portraits need a lot of work and my action shots and I’ll stop being so pig headed while I’m at it.