For the last few days I’ve really been missing the whole buzz of working in a newsroom and being able to sort of channel my energy around events like this into something productive. I’ve had all sorts of radars, streams, feeds, etc. running on my laptop non-stop, mostly because I’m a bit of a weather nerd (have I mentioned my love of snow and storms before?), but also because I miss the thrill of reporting that news. Ah the good ole days of being at The Cornell Daily Sun. But then I remember that most days in a newsroom are pretty standard and events like this are more the exception than the rule. Maybe when I retire I’ll become a freelance photojournalist.

In the meantime, here are some of my shots from roaming around Park Slope this afternoon:

Turns out there’s a whole world of tips and tricks and apps for Etsy Sellers – makes sense considering that’s true for every marketplace. So now my mission is to figure it out! I’ve been asking a lot of my coworkers (who are also Etsy Sellers) and I’ve been learning a LOT. Still no luck, but I’m determined to figure the system out!

Not to mention it’s gotten me outside and shooting again! yay!

Check out my shop!

hello internet friends, especially those of you in the NY area!

cherry blossom season is approaching at the brooklyn botanical garden and I wanted to throw this idea out there:

let’s meet up at the brooklyn botanical gardens either this weekend or next (depending on the blossoms, of course!) and take photographs. Kind of like a photowalk, but for photo newbies and pros alike!

for those of you who have a camera you’d like to get acquainted with or just want an excuse to go out and take photos, now’s your chance! i’ll be willing and happy to show you the ropes, answer your questions, give you some tips, whatever.

here’s how it’ll work:

i’ll be keeping an eye on the cherry blossom report. when it’s at a point that will be moderately photogenic, i’ll send out an email/tweet with a date and time to meet up.

just show up. bring a camera. and if you don’t have a botanical gardens membership, some money for admission.

we’ll go around, take photos, learn stuff, make friends, and hopefully stay moderately warm!

interested? sign up for the email here: http://eepurl.com/c_bZU

hope to see you there!

P.S. in case you don’t know me all that well, here’s some of my photography and my flickr

The weird thing is, it bothered me from the moment I noticed it. I LOVE taking photos. I love the whole process. Film, digital, whatever. But for some reason I just couldn’t bring myself to carry a real camera around with me anymore. And if I did get myself to take some photos on a real camera, getting them off of that camera and onto my computer was a whole different story. When I finally brought myself to download a CF card I would find things from MONTHS ago that I’d forgotten I’d even shot.

I miss it. A lot. And now that I’m starting to want to take photos again I find myself really anxious about it. What if I’m not as good as I used to be? What if someone asks me to take photos and I can’t deliver because I’m out of practice and I forgot some stupid setting? I know that’s likely not to happen, but still. For some reasons I have this ridiculous fear.

So I’ve been trying to take more pictures around the house and I’ve at least started to carry a camera with me every day. It’s a film camera and to be honest I think I’ve only used it once since I put it in my bag about a month ago, but it’s progress.

The other day I took a shot on my iPhone of some flowers I got at the farmer’s market. I decided it would be a good chance to break out my good camera (I never unpacked it after the move) and take some shots.

I was definitely rusty – my hands weren’t as steady as they used to be (and that’s important when you’re shooting a macro!) and I had to fiddle with settings for a bit, but it was nice. And then I walked straight over to my computer and loaded them up. And edited them right then and there. It was the first time I edited a photo in a long, LONG time.

Later that day when I logged on to Flickr I saw the two photos next to each other – the one I’d taken with my iPhone and the one I’d taken with my dSLR and edited. That’s when it struck me. I’d completely forgotten about the ART of photography. Without even realizing, I’d gotten into the habit of treating photography like a tweet or a foursquare check-in. I used a snapshot to mark an occasion and wanted to have my shot and have it online in under a minute, rather than my former habit of taking a higher quality series of shots to document the whole experience and then reliving it when I got home that evening to edit an upload. Sure, Instagram and hipstamatic gave my snapshots a little more flavor, but they weren’t PHOTOS. They weren’t PHOTOGRAPHY. At least not by the definition I’d just reminded myself of.

It’s strange that it took me so long to come to that realization considering my history of Flickr photos over the last year or so is almost exclusively iPhone shots with the occasional scanned photo from a film roll. But nevertheless, now that I know, I’m determined to get myself back on the wagon of Photography. Note the capital “P”.

Here are the two shots that lead me to my mini-epiphany:

See what I mean?! That second shot isn’t the best thing I’ve ever done, but it’s CERTAINLY better than that first one. Now I just have to remind myself of that every time I go to take a quick shot with my iPhone…

However pretty or poorly composed a photo is, when it comes back to you years down the line through a nifty tool like this (or just sorting through your attic) and jogs your memory, you’re thankful for all the time you spent with a camera plastered to your face.

Throughout the year I really enjoyed having my list to come back to when I was feeling bored, unproductive, or reflective. It was great to have a tangible set of things that I wanted to do that I could check off along the way. It’s why I created 101in365. I wanted to do it again, but even better this time around.

I rarely made a conscious effort to accomplish one of the items on the list. I generally just let life happen and along the way hope to tick off as many as I could. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t finish a few of them but overall I’m happy with what I was able to accomplish this year. So, without further ado, the list:

START: January 1, 2009
END: December 31, 2009

In Progress
Complete
Didn’t Complete

New Experiences:

1. Go skiing.
2. Master something I’ve never tried. – This is a tough one to determine completeness. I definitely learned that I need to make these goals more specific. I’ve done a lot of things I hadn’t tried before over the course of the year, but did I master any of them? Some more than others. For example, I’m excellent at dealing with my bills and things now, but I wouldn’t say that’s something to check off. Not like becoming a black belt having never done martial arts before. Let’s call this one a push.
3. Ride a Segway. – This one wasn’t for lack of trying. I’ve looked into Segway tours pretty much everywhere I’ve gone just to try it out but they’re always so darned expensive and not really worth the cost. Adding this one to next year’s list.
4. Road trip from Northern CA to Southern CA.
5. Tour Europe. – DEFINITELY accomplished this one. And it was the best decision I’ve ever made. I would do it again in a heartbeat. (See travel.jennvargas.com)
6. Travel to a country I’ve never been (Canada doesn’t count). – I consider this one kind of cheating since I’d never been to any of the countries I visited in Europe, but yes, this one gets the check mark.
7. Try real sushi – like raw fish sushi, not crab/shrimp/veggie sushi. – I’m not sure whether to check this one off. I’ve had raw fish, but I don’t know if it would be considered sushi. Raw fish is still a huge step for me considering seafood is probably one of my least favorite things, so I’ll call this a win.
8. See at least one Broadway show that I haven’t already seen.
9. Visit 3 states I’ve never visited.
10. Visit a place where I don’t speak the local language. – Another one that I can group in with the cheating list. I didn’t speak the local language in most of the places I visited in Europe.
11. Watch the sun set over the Pacific.

College Things:

12. Avoid senioritis at all costs. – I worked my rear end off for my final semester. I think it had to do with taking classes that I actually liked.
13. Become a morning person again. Up at 8 or 9AM, none of this 11AM nonsense. – I have to say that this one didn’t actually happen until after college, but I definitely wake up early now.
14. Go to the top of the Clocktower for a chimes concert. – This is the one I’m most disappointed about not accomplishing. I even had a chance when I went back to Cornell in October, but I didn’t have the time to go. I WILL get to the top of that clocktower.
15. Have lunch with a friend at least once/week. – Did this during school and arguably still since I have lunch with my coworkers.
16. Read at least 3 school/major-related books. (3/3) – I really should have written down the names of the books but I know Here Comes Everybody
    was one of them.
17. Try to complete as many things possible on the “161 things to do before you graduate Cornell” list — in one day. – Did pretty well with this one. Can’t remember how many I ticked off, but it was a decent number.
18. Go to sleep before 11PM twice/month. – Sadly I go to sleep before 11 more than twice/month these days. I usually fall asleep around 10:30 watching TV and then doze on and off until I actually go to sleep in my bed. This whole getting up early thing is a killer.
19. Hand off the Photo Department to Matt in a state that I can be proud of. – I like to think that I did a pretty solid job with the Photo Department during my time as Photo Editor and I think Matt got to start his term on a strong foundation. (02.28.2009)

Food-related:

20. Bake more.
21. Cook at least twice/week. (You’d be amazed at how many meals of chips and salsa or hummus and crackers one can eat in a week.) – I was doing really well with this one during school but then once I moved I lost it. I have been traveling too much lately to keep food around but that’s definitely one of my goals for 2010.
22. Go back to Pinkberry. – Went with Meghan and Matt during winter break. Now that I’m in San Francisco again it’s not nearly as novel but I still love this stuff! (01.13.09 [photo])
23. Go back to Serendipity 3 (thanks Lissy!)
24. Go on a picnic. – Another cheating one since most of my food consumption while traveling was picnic style.
25. Have more dinner parties. – Another where I did well during school but lost momentum after graduation.
26. Learn to cook empanadas. – I KIND of learned, but I need to get my hands on the recipe.
27. Learn to like wine. – I no longer have a complete aversion to it so I call this a win. There are some wines I enjoy – mostly whites – but I’m slowing acquiring a taste.
28. Make chocolate covered fruits (strawberries in particular). – I bought one of those microwave melt chocolate things and dipped strawberries in them every day for like 2 weeks. That was fantastic. (02.18.2009)
29. Make macarons.
30. Make my own pizza from scratch. – I’ve yet to make my own dough so I consider this incomplete. I do make my own pizza, though. Wraps make excellent bases.
31. One last Cooking Extravaganza.
32. Order out at most once/week, but as infrequently as possible. – I set a rule for myself: eating out more than once a week is OK when it’s with friends. Every once in a while I stop by the Taqueria on my way home from the train station, but on average I don’t pick up dinner on the way home more than once a week.
33. Try a new recipe at least once/week.

Friendship:

34. Call a friend, no matter how busy I am, once a week to see how they’re doing.
35. Catch up with at least 4 old friends who have drifted away. – I’m really excited about this one. I got to reconnect with a lot of people over the course of this year and I’m so glad to be back in touch with them.
36. Hang out with Bayonne friends at least once before moving to CA. – more than once! Ioanna and Jimelle came to visit me at the shore and I also went up to Bayonne for the night just before I left for my going away party. I have to hang out with those guys more often.
37. Have Sunday Brunch with friends at least once/month. – This has become Saturday brunch but is still an almost weekly ritual.
38. Keep in touch with old friends: distance and time are not excuses.
39. Meet up with Natalie at least once (it’s been over 3 years!). – Natalie came to visit me at Cornell. (2/22/2009)
40. See Erin at least twice. – Sadly we only got to see each other once this year and that wasn’t in the happiest of circumstances. Hopefully Erin will be able to come visit San Francisco in 2010.
41. Snail mail is fun: send holiday/birthday cards. – I was SO CLOSE to finishing this one. In fact, the cards are all written, sealed, and addressed in my backpack right now. Life kind of got in the way and I never got to the post office to get stamps. Sad.
42. Spend more time hanging out with Margot. – Yep. We hung out a bunch. Now she’s in Ithaca and I’m in SF so that’s tough, but I did see her when I went to visit!
43. Visit Shannon in Portland. – Another that I’m really disappointed I didn’t get to do.

Habits:

44. Be less wasteful. – With all of the moving I did this year I was definitely very wasteful. I did have a garage sale and donate the things I didn’t want any more, but with all of the packing materials and boxes, etc., this definitely wasn’t a “green” year for me.
45. Blog at least once/week. – I did so well with this until I moved out to SF. With the lack of school and travels I’ve yet to find my new blogging mojo.
46. Don’t be a lazy typist. Use capitals and punctuation where necessary, but not unnecessarily. – I’d say I definitely got better at not typing like a high school student. Still a long way to go, especially in terms of accuracy.
47. Don’t sit at the computer for long periods of time. – HAHAH yeah. Right. Like this one is going to happen.
48. Don’t slouch, especially when I’m sitting at the computer for long periods of time. – I’ve definitely improved in this area though. Now if only I could get my hands on a Herman Miller.
49. Go an entire month without caffeine. (I don’t drink coffee or soda, but I do drink a lot of iced tea.) – This one wasn’t very difficult considering I don’t really drink a lot of caffeine in the first place. I basically just had to cut out iced tea.
50. Go outside at least once/day. Pajama days are better when they’re infrequent. – Not quite there yet, but making progress. I don’t have much of a choice now that I have Penny.
51. Make my bed every day for a month (bonus points if I can keep it up for longer!) – I tried. I just don’t get what the big deal is. I’m just going to unmake it in a few hours anyway.
52. Pick 1 day of the week and limit myself to email and classwork-related internet use. No twitter, flickr, facebook, RSS, or other time traps. More on that later.
53. Use the word “I” less often. It’s not all about me. – Made a conscious effort with this one over the course of the year. Tough to measure if I’ve actually managed to complete this one but let’s call it done.
54. Water is my friend. Drink it. – Water is good.
55. Wear my hair down at least once/week or get it cut shorter. – It still surprises me that I’ve actually managed to do this one. I used to HATE wearing my hear down, and to be honest it still bugs the crap out of me, but I do it.
56. Write more. You know, like with a pen. And while I’m at it, fix my handwriting. – I promise I tried, but my handwriting is atrocious.

Having a Job:

57. Aim for 30-under-30. – Nothing to report. Boo.
58. Find an apartment in San Francisco that I love. – Yep.
59. Keep up with new CSS things. – Made up a couple projects over the course of the year just so I could play around with the CSS3 things. Still a few more things that I’d like to try, but at least I don’t feel completely out of touch.
60. Learn my way around JavaScript and Processing.
61. Learn my way around RoR.

Money Things:

62. Have at least $3000 in savings account at the end of the year. – Yeah. Not so much. If I didn’t go to Europe it probably would have been a different story, but it was money well spent.
63. Have no credit card debt by the end of the year. – I follow the gospel of I Will Teach You To Be Rich
64. Finance a good portion of my trip to Europe by selling things I don’t use anymore. – Yep.
65. Learn how to do my taxes. – Postponing this one until next year. Graduation, moving to a new state, and all that other stuff make this one a year for an accountant.
66. Make good progress on paying back my college loans. – Grade period just ended. Now I just have a process in place, the progress part won’t be noticeable until next year some time. Hopefully.

Organization:

67. Don’t keep junk. I only need so many free pens.
68. Get my bank accounts in order and track where I’m spending too much money (yay Mint.com).
69. Keep my desk neat. Piles are the enemy.
70. Keep my room clean/organized/neat for an entire month. – This one is easy now that my bedroom is literally just a bed and a side table. My whole apartment is generally very neat though.
71. Throw away/sell/donate at least one thing I’ve been keeping “just in case” each week.
72. Organize my out-of-control music collection.
73. Plan aforementioned trip to Europe. – See travel.jennvargas.com.
74. Reduce my RSS subscriptions to <100 quality reads. – I think I’m around the same number I was last year. Some of the old standbys are there but more photography and less Engadget type echo-chamber-y sites.

Photography

75. Be in more photos rather than just taking them all the time. – Did well with this one, especially toward the end of senior year.
76. Find and organize non-digital photos from childhood. – Made good progress by digitizing a lot of the photos I found in the process of cleaning out my room for the move.
77. Finish my Project 365. – Matt and I agreed to end it sometime over the course of the summer. It made photography too much of a chore.
78. Print and frame at least 5 of my photos. What’s the point if they’re just sitting on my hard drive?I printed a lot of photos, but never framed any of them.
79. Try to make at least 1 HDR. – Tried and failed. I don’t particularly like HDRs.
80. Sell a photo. (I’ve sold a bunch of photo shoots already, but no photos that I’ve already shot)
81. Shoot and develop at least 8 rolls of film. – Far surpassed this one doing my Psych of Visual Comm final project

Just Because:

82. Build a snow man. – Just last week, in fact!
83. Buy a pair of awesome black heels.
84. Buy a really cool vintage camera. – Bought a bunch of them but still want more.
85. Complete the NYTimes Crossword Puzzle at least once/week (bonus for Sunday!)
86. Get the Sims 3, but curb my addiction. (read: practice self-control). – Got it, played with it, over it.
87. Go ice skating.
88. Go on a date (perhaps combine with #23?).- FAIL.
89. Learn 50 ASL signs that I don’t already know.
90. Lose 15 lbs. – Backpacking for 6 weeks helps.
91. Make decent progress on watching CSI from start to finish.
92. Make a “soundtrack of the year” with 20 of the songs that I loved in 2009.
93. Read at least 1 book by Jane Austen.
94. Read at least 3 non-school/non-major-related books. – Definitely read more than 3.
95. Re-learn Spanish. – Going to Spain really helped but I have a long way to go before I’m anywhere near fluency again.
96. Re-locate my imagination. – Still not where I’d like to be.
97. See at least 25 movies from the AFI Top 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list – SO CLOSE! (21/25)
98. Sell something on eBay or craigslist.
99. Sell something on Etsy.
100. Try a sport other than volleyball, soccer or softball. – Unless paragliding counts?
101. Watch all of the Star Wars movies (I haven’t seen any!).

All I can say is thank god I don’t have to do that manually next year. 46 completed. Less than half, but definitely the better half. Almost done with my list for 2010. These things are tough! Check it out on 101in365: 101in365.com/jenn.

It gets really daunting when you open up your photo manager (Photo Mechanic is my manager of choice) and you’re presented with thousands upon thousands of photos to sift through. When you’re looking for something specific it’s easy: just type in a tag and search. But when you’re looking for things to delete, there’s no way to search for that. If I were better at culling my photos before I archived them this probably wouldn’t be as much of an issue, but unfortunately, it’s not that black and white.

What I want is a little app that I can fire up when I’m sitting on the computer looking for things to do. It’ll connect to my external HD (or another specified location), select maybe 10 photos at a time (that number could be adjustable in Preferences) and present them at a pretty decent, but zoomable size.

Below each photo you’d be presented with 3 options:
KEEP – puts a flag on the photo so it doesn’t show up in the app for at least another year
TRASH – obvious, right?
HOLD – puts a flag on the photo to show it again in another 90 days or so. Maybe you’re not ready to trash it just yet.

The only other option would be a “Show Surrounding Photos” toggle, because it might be a photo that you know you have multiple versions of and you want to make sure you’re deleting the right one.

It’s that easy. I’m pretty sure it could be done with something as simple as an Apple Script, but an app would be prettier.

Just an idea. I know a whole lot of people who would love something like this, but unfortunately I’m not ninja enough to code it up. Bored? Well now you have something to work on!