From the Beginning to the End.

“Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.
Delicious Ambiguity.”
― Gilda Radner

Today, day three hundred and sixty five of Photographing my every day life, I chose to revisit day one. I Photographed a Telephone Box Library in a local village, but n the year that has passed, they’ve converted our own village telephone box into a library too. The concept is fantastic, and saves telephone boxes from becoming disused and destroyed. I wanted to celebrate this advance and perhaps encourage others to consider doing the same in the future.

I started the 365 day Photography challenge with the mantra “The Art of Letting Go.” It meant a lot of things to me, and it spoke of many promises, beginnings and fresh starts with just one sentence. Since the start, many things have changed. My approach to Photography has been at the forefront of all that, but most of all having to stick at something for such a long time proved to me that I had will power I never thought I possessed before. By Day One Hundred, I knew I could do this. I knew with utmost clarity that I could keep this up and that I wanted to achieve it. Disregarding of course, if a camera broke or the internet failed me!

Whilst there were days when I had to take a hasty picture that I wasn’t one hundred per cent happy with due to time or lack of ideas, I feel that I certainly made up for it on others when I was able to spend sometimes a whole day, prepping a Photograph or planning a shoot. 2012 has given me many opportunities as I blogged in-keeping with themes such as the Jubilee, The Olympics, Easter, Christmas, Birthdays and so on.

I undertook my first Baby Photography Shoot this year, with huge thanks to an old College friend for allowing me to use her baby as a test subject! After that, the requests flowed in with two more shoots undertaken and a couple more planned for next year. I Photographed a Wedding, and picked up two more for 2013. On Day Two I photographed the January Storms and by Day Five I had a double page spread and my first byline in the local Newspaper. A Tea company has used some of my images for promoting their products, over on deviantART I got a daily award for the time when I hung cups in a tree and called it Art…the list of achievements is endless and I’m proud of each and every one of them. When I reached the -almost end- a few days ago, I headed out and Photographed more evidence of storms, which will be included in this weeks newspaper. I’ve come full circle, it amazes me.

The annual wordpress report gave some incredible facts. This blog had 24,000 views in 2012. The busiest day had over 2,000 views. To get here, you mostly searched for Kathryn Dawson but astoundingly, the second highest search term is Seventy shades of grey. That part amuses me the most because of this post. You’ve come from 117 countries. The most popular were the UK, USA and India. Regina was my top commenter this year with my Mother coming a close second! And finally, I’ve gained 517 followers since January 2nd 2012…wow.

I like that I can look back and a whole year of my life has been documented both visually and in words as most days I’ve accompanied a blog with a few paragraphs. I especially like that I can look back to Day 210, the day I met my now boyfriend of almost six months, best friend of many years. The days that followed have involved many photography trips and shoots that we’ve undertaken together.

I like that over the months, my followers have increased and people have drifted in and out of the blog leaving comments and feedback, likes and follows. Essentially, the internet has had a 365 day view into my life. You’ve seen exactly what I’ve seen, and learned my interpretation of the world each step of the way – from day one to day three hundred and sixty five.

Above all that, I remembered to revisit the mantra. “The Art of Letting Go.” The things that I set out to do, the inhibitions that I chose to discard along the way, the confidence I’ve grown, the things that I’ve changed and the bits that I’ve “let go” are all a huge part of this. I feel that my photography has improved, I’m no longer a perfectionist – no longer only taking Photographs if I know they’ll work out okay. And that, is letting go.

[Don’t go away, I’m not finished with Photography yet!]