Yesterday was Pi Day. Yes. A day where we Americans celebrate mathematics and that famous never ending number that is 3.14159….well, you know. And in true American fashion, we honor this day by eating, well, pie! So we took the opportunity to celebrate math and family and enjoyed an evening out where we filled our bellies with chocolatey goodness. It was especially fun as our daughter is about to turn two years old at the end of the month and her reactions to things are ever changing and grow more and more exciting with each passing day. Here’s to math and unconventional dinner options!

The white rose my soul

Is blown upon the ways.

Over the high earth

Valleys bring it forth,

And it is found upon mountains.

The white rose my soul

Knoweth all winds and wings,

All nests, all songs,

With each smiling star,

And every graceful day.

The white rose my soul

Is under the world’s feet.

(Only though dost hold,

In that how little hand,

The red rose my heart.)

- E.E. Cummings

Let me start by saying that this was my husband’s idea.

And his ideas are usually good, don’t get me wrong. This one, however, I took a fast liking to which is odd for me because the project I am about to embark on is going to require giving up a lot of control…something I am NOT good at!

So here’s the deal. I need a change. I’ve discussed this recently. And my office is one place that I have a very hard time enjoying and getting work done because I don’t feel, well, inspired half the time. My office is an amalgamation of different furniture pieces with no real cohesion, a closet that is packed full of stuff and a playroom for my two year-old that just isn’t working. Half the time I don’t even feel like this is MY space. There is junk everywhere. It has turned into one of those rooms where we just throw stuff and hope that no one sees it. So knowing how much this has upset me for a while now, my husband sat me down yesterday and said, “For your birthday I want to redo this office for you.” And I just about cried. It was one of those days. But his brainy idea was to make it a fun experience that my clients and readers could follow along with, watch my progress and even contribute to! Yes everyone…I am crowdsourcing my office remodel.

Yup. I am going to let other people (aka YOU) help me make this place the office I’ve always wanted. I will create a Pinterest board of my design hopes and dreams, post color swatches on the blog, items to choose from and I am going to let you all pick. Obviously, I’ll have a little bit of veto power (this my office remember), but I think this is exactly the creative project that I need this winter to lighten things up and have a little fun.

So here’s how it’s going to work. If you’re a twitter fan, follow my hashtag #officeremodel for all the updates. On facebook, just keep following the Anne Schmidt Photography page. Every week, maybe a couple times a week, I’ll post something new about the progress. Leave a comment on my blog (not my facebook page) to let me know what you think or to vote on whatever I’m doing that day. It might be paint colors, or new lamps or a rug…who knows!

So here I am letting you to my life. This is what my office looks like right now. It’s very…well…green. And it is small; we’re only talking a 10′ x 12′ room…barely.

And actually this is the cleanest it’s been in weeks. I couldn’t muster up the guts to show you what it looked like before. As far as what to keep and what to get rid of, I’m very keen on keeping my pink chair. I love that chair. And it might just be my new desk chair. Speaking of the desk, I haven’t decided whether it’s staying or going. This project doesn’t have a super huge budget so obviously I need to have some perspective if I’m bringing in new furniture pieces. If I do keep the desk, I think a new color is in order. (but between you and me, I really want to get rid of it)

Here are things that my new office is going to need.

- Storage (closet, walls, a place to display my books, magazine and various camera tchotchkes)

- A lounging nook. Somewhere to sit that isn’t at my desk

- Plants…this is a must

- Pops of color with decor pieces

- Workflow organization (a place to put receipts, maybe a tackboard of ideas, a calendar that I can look at everyday)

So that’s it for now! Check back soon for the first big update and to track my progress.

Thanks for joining me on this adventure.

xoxo

Anne

Where do I even begin with this post?

I’ve known for quite some time that there has been something missing in my photography life…both personal and professional. Those of you that know me and know my history with the art know that I started in the dark room with black and white film. And that experience lead me to become a photojournalist for my college newspaper and ultimately sealed the deal for me with photography in general. Fast forward almost seven years to the start of my wedding business….and everything is digital…everything. And it’s only been in the last year when I’ve realized that I don’t like it.

I could see my wedding work getting too trendy, too cliche. I was taking the photos that were expected of me. And why? Because a high profile wedding blog says “take cute pictures of shoes!” or “just have them kiss by the lake.” (Any of my friends who were at Mystic this year will totally get that Roberto Valenzuela joke) Anyway….I felt like I was just going through the motions and not slowing down to really ask myself, “why am I taking this photo?”

And maybe this whole need to slow down is just the result of what’s happening in my personal life as well, but I feel like it needs to be said and it really needs to be done. I need to slow down. I need to relax. I need have less clutter in my life. I need to give myself permission to not do what the “industry” is telling everyone they should do. Really…I just need a change of pace.

So I decided this winter that I was going to do that with my personal work. I haven’t shot a digital image on my big, bulky camera in months. And honestly, it feels great!! I have a roll of Ilford HP5 400 inside my little Nikon FM2 and I can’t wait to finish up the roll and see what has transpired in my life over the course of the last couple months (yes…sometimes it takes me that long to go through a roll…don’t judge me). And as I start to take more meaningful photos in my personal life, it is my hope that this will also translate into my wedding work. Now, I’m not saying that I’m going go cold turkey with digital and switch everything over to film; I’m not there yet. But I’d like to start incorporating it into my professional work. I purchased Jonathan Canlas’s Film Is Not Dead book and I’m doing my homework….one page at a time. In the future, I would definitely like to attend one of his film workshops. So I bought my first batch of professional film and this Christmas it was all I shot. I shot two rolls of Kodak Porta 400 at my parents house and eagerly mailed them off to Richard Photo Lab in California. The whole time my film was on the west coast, I had this awful gut feeling that I messed it up horribly. I even wrote the RPL staff a note with my film that said, “This is my first go. Please don’t laugh if I screwed it up.”

I screwed it up.

Something had happened with my camera and I didn’t load my film correctly (remember, this camera is fully manual). One roll was completely blank and the other didn’t advance properly in the reel so every frame had two or three clicks of the shutter on it. And, I definitely overexposed a little too much. I was bummed, but at the same time…well, that’s the beauty of film. You don’t always get it every time. I know I have a lot to learn and I’m excited to keep trying until I get it right. The funny thing is that even though these pictures were totally botched, some of them came out really neat! So, here I am, sharing my failures with you, my mistakes, the things I need to get better at in my life.

Slow down, take your time…and check to make sure your film is loaded properly. This might just be my new, crazy mantra for life.

Nikon FM2 with Kodak Porta 400

For them…I am thankful.