Part of our work for this photography class is to keep an artistic journal. I've found this to be a rewarding and intensely creative process. I write all day, but I've never been a good journaler. As I've often said, I spend too much time in my own head...maybe so much that I don't want to spend any more time writing things down. But journaling is good. And for me, journaling like this, that has a specific structure is especially good. It's helping me learn. This book is holding my notes from class, all the inspiration I'm finding from the web, from lens suggestions to business ideas (AACK) to posing guides, and my thoughts on each of our assignments.

Each week we print out 8X10s to be critiqued for class. When I saw that one of my classmates Liz had also printed 4X6s of her larger prints to put in her journal and make notes, I immediately thought, "I am totally stealing that idea." Thanks Liz! It's been such a help to have the pictures there and be able to write about why I took them and what worked (and oftentimes, what didn't work.)

Every night, after Callum is in bed, I climb on the sofa with my pencil and tape and work in my book. It's a wonderful, reflective part of my day. So now this book has become as much part of my creative process as taking and editing the pictures has. It's helping me think about my photography and frame where I am with it. It's also helping me start to frame where I want to go. I have so much yet to learn, but the sky's the limit baby.