January 1, 2010 - Pikes Peak

Over the winter break, I watched the movie “Julie and Julia” which is about a young woman named Julie who decides to start a blog about her yearlong efforts to cook her way through The Art of French Cooking. Julie is an unpublished novelist and believes that blogging will help her writing.

I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but often find myself blocked by the idea that I would never be able to come up with anything as good as what has already been published. I’m a librarian and an absolute bookworm (I also have a blog about books.) I hardly go anywhere without a book. Instead of listening to the radio when driving, I listen to books on audio. All this reading makes me feel too intimidated to come up with an original idea, not to mention a good one.

I’m also a camera nut. Someone once looked at me at a party and said they believed they thought that was the first time they had seen me under dressed. I reached my hand up to my neckline – thinking they were talking about my not wearing the Engineer Castle I normally wear, but she laughed and pointed out that she was talking about my camera. I laughed back and pulled it out of my purse. I won’t carry a purse that will not hold both my Nikon D80 and a book.

I studied photography in college – long before digital cameras made their debut. If I say so myself, I have a pretty good idea for composition. However, I know there’s a lot I need to learn using my cameras (D80 and my D90) to take really great photos as well as learning how to use Adobe Photoshop: two resolutions for the New Year.

After watching “Julie and Julia”, I had the idea that I could borrow Julie’s idea to help me with both my writing and my photography. Instead of spending a year cooking, I’ll spend a year blogging about my search for the perfect photo.

I hope you will join me on this adventure.

Today’s Picture

My family and I live in Colorado Springs. Everyday on the way to work, I get a good look at Pikes’ Peak. I’m constantly on the lookout for THE picture of the Peak. In my opinion, The Peak is one of America’s most beautiful natural resources. If I had a time machine, I’d travel back in time to Zebulon Pike’s day and snap a picture of it its purest state.

This is The Peak at dusk on the first day of 2010.

Join me tomorrow for another picture!