Hello, WINTER

I don't do cold.

It's a pretty well known fact that I do not handle being cold very well, and today was by far one of the coldest days we've had this year. {I'm probably exaggerating.}

I grew up in the South. I've seen it snow here maybe four times (and only for a few hours). I am just never prepared for cold weather. [Maybe someday I will be ready for winter in the South, but as of right now, I have one warm jacket, a few sweaters and some fleece lined tights... that's all I'm going on.]

{For those of you just tuning in, on Fridays I a write a short post called "Hello, ____". You can check some of the others out by clicking here.}

Hello, WINTER. We've already talked about  this. Cold is just not my thing right now.

Hello, short workout... I tried.

Hello, ants? All of the ants made the journey from where the heck the originated up to my second floor bathroom. I've been experiment with various ways to get rid of them (trying to find the most effective). So far, the best is to just blow them away with a hair dryer. [They may or may not actually be regenerating, though.]

Hello, senior project. [so much to do, so little time]

Hello, photoshoot! I helped out on a photoshoot today. It was pretty fun until I lost feeling in my body everywhere.

Hello, work.

Hello, dinner date. Dressed up. Went out. Ate everything. {We went to one of my favorite restaurants, Johnny Carinos... yum}

Hello, bundling up under blankets.

Hello, mega-stuffed Oreos. They're real. {fun fact: Oreos are my favorite.}

 

Hello, warm pajamas.

Senior Project

I may actually be going crazy...

Day 7: I am thankful for senior project. {call me crazy}

For those of you who may not know, my school requires seniors to do a year long project in which we learn a new skill. I chose to do photography. My mentor/teacher is John Pyle. I really just think he's the greatest. He has been extremely patient in teaching me and he's really just a nice, hilarious person in general.

I mean, don't get me wrong about this whole senior project thing. I freak about it just as much as the next person (probably more because I'm slightly OCD and I don't stay up late to work on things). In fact, I had a little bit of a melt down on the way to school the other day just thinking about everything that I had to do to prepare for my Phase 2 presentation [there are four phases].

Despite all of that, I LOVE MY PROJECT.

I haven't made a list in a few days, so here is a list of reasons why I love photography and my senior project.

• I get to meet all sorts of new people. Everyone I've met has been incredibly nice and generally pretty funny.
• It's interesting. I just like learning new things. Sometimes, it takes me a while to catch on to all this photography stuff. It's a lot harder than you would think. John tells me the same thing over and over again, I usually don't understand until about the 589579340th time he says it. {I think I'm finally beginning to get it, though-- YAY}
• Sometimes, I get to be behind the camera. I'm always ready for a picture.
• I feel kind of artsy. It's a new feeling. Sometimes I'm a little uncomfortable and unsure of what I should do, but I'm definitely becoming more confident.
• Confidence. (see the above two posts)
• Actually doing the project is pretty easy. Like getting hours is easy enough because all I have to do is show up on a photoshoot. Those usually last a few hours so I'm good to go. (we have to work on our projects for a total of 100 hours)
• It's probably going to be a pretty useful skill in life.
• it's fun and i like it and YEAH!

So, I may be one of the few people who actually love my senior project. I could definitely answer questions and talk about it for dayyyyys. (but I won't because that's annoying)

For those of you wondering, I got a 100 on my presentation. Go Jessie! 
That grade pretty much kick started a great day. 
A few notes on things that made my day great: I got a packet of M&Ms for getting all As. I didn't really do any work. The Blue Door picked out several outfits for me to try on and get for my photo shoot next week. I called my grandmother. I got to talk to my friends (whom I miss and never get to see). I went to a surprise party (that turned out to be not much of a surprise). I had some cake. I paid my deposit to Auburn.

Today was a success. Senior project is a success.

My Understanding

John Pyle.

It's safe to say that most people in Columbus have heard of him, especially if you attend Columbus a High School (in case you haven't though, he's a photographer).

John is my mentor for senior project {at my school we have to do a project in which we learn a new skill and log 100 hours of working on it... there are a lot of requirements we won't get into tonight}.

I usually get pretty mixed reactions from people when I tell them who my mentor is. To be quite honest, person's reaction is generally based off of what "crowd" they are a part of.

There's a group of people who generally seem excited to know more about my project and how it is going when I say I work with him. These people have usually taken pictures with him, or their best friend took pictures with him, or their best friend's cousin's boyfriend was photographed by John. They know him, or they've heard about him from someone who knows him. 

Then there's the group of people who assume things. The people who, when questioned, admit that they have never actually talked to him or asked anyone who personally knows him what he's like. This group of people tend to say things like "he only takes pictures of beautiful girls" or "he thinks he's better than everyone else". [these are actually things people have said to me about him- people who've never even met him] 

*side note: he doesn't only take pictures of beautiful girls... he's good at what he does and knows how to make every girl (and guy) look good in a picture.

Obviously, these groups are just my general understanding of the way people perceive him. Not everyone falls into one of these groups.

After working with him for several months now, I have found that John is one of the nicest people. He wants to give everyone the best experience possible when they're photographed- to make them feel beautiful. And, he's made senior project pretty enjoyable for me. He's a helpful and patient teacher (I ask a lot of questions).

I've become genuinely interested in photography. It's really fantastic, and I love going on photoshoots! I've met some incredibly sweet people, and done some pretty interesting things to get the perfect shot. I'm sure I'll post about my senior project later.