Project 52 + Depth of Field (Week 9)

Briana Santiago is an Associate Photographer for Christopher Maddox Photography. Check back weekly to keep up with Briana's weekly 'Project 52' posts.

Happy New Year everyone! I can hardly believe that 2012 is here! We see New Year all around us, don’t we? Ads on TV, radio, newspaper etc. Everything geared towards New Year resolutions. “A new year, a new you!” seems to be the general gist of most of them.

The Biggest Loser is one of our favorite shows in this house. And the new season just kicked off. Its so inspiring to watch people completely transform every aspect of their lives to make their goals come to life. I think their slogan is the best that I have heard, and the one that I want to incorporate into my life at this time. “No excuses!”

So in the midst of the ‘No excuses!’ mindset we decided to hike a mountain. It’s a mountain that I have always wanted to climb but never have. There has always been an excuse.

Excuses:

#1 – No trail - There is absolutely no trail. Its not a mountain made for casual hiking. Its all rocks straight to the top.

#2 – Snakes – I have been told that snakes like to nest and hibernate on mountains such as this one. I don’t really care to walk into their environment. I’m picturing Indian Jones! Pit of snakes and me!

#3 – Time – In the fight against the sun and making time to walk, it just never seemed to add up. I would never leave enough sunlight time to make it up and down before the sunset.

#4 – Too hard – Have you ever climbed a mountain that’s entirely rocks? Its like a stair master for 30 minutes straight. There is a reason why I avoid that machine in the gym.

And on and on. Well guess what? Finally I did it. I climbed that mountain. Even not feeling that well. NO excuses! I did it anyways. I made it up about 1/3 of the way. Then realized I needed to sit down and ‘take in the view’ while my brothers and sister finished the climb to the top.

It was at that little perch on that mountain that my ‘Depth of Field’ post came to me! Little did I know that such a moment would dawn on me right there. So I didn’t have my lovely Canon 7D with me at the time. These pictures are out of my little ol’ point-n-shoot!

I was busy looking at the gorgeous slate rock that we had been climbing up. There were tiny algae growing in it.’s crevices. The colors were amazing. The shapes the rock naturally made were fascinating to me.  The sun was setting at the time, so there was also a beautiful glow cast upon them as well. The slate rock basically molts right off of itself. (Which made the idea of climbing up it so reassuring!) Just like a little kid I started breaking the rock away from itself – so intrigued to see the next layer underneath. My depth of field was that rock and that rock alone!


After throwing a nice piece of slate down the side of the mountain, and watching it crumble into a thousand pieces below me, I looked up. I realized I hadn’t noticed the gorgeous sunset that was happening right before my eyes at all! And I had a front row seat to an incredible horizon! Talk about a change of depth perception. I was so fixated on that rock that I was missing a fantastic show of light!

Doesn’t this happen in life sometimes? At times our depth perception can be fixated on the little things going on that we fail to realize that the bigger picture is an amazing production. We worry about the house being decorated, the car being fixed, the dinner being prepared, the yard work or the bills getting paid on time. We get lost in the petty details of life that we forget the bigger blessings. Sure the house may not be decorated but there is a roof over our head at night. The dinner may not be a gourmet feast but there is food to be placed on the table and all our loved ones are around it!

In the same respect our perception can get lost in the ‘big picture’ and forget to notice the small details of life that make it so uniquely special. We can get so lost in accomplishing our massive ‘lifetime goals’ – and ourselves up when we haven’t gotten there yet – that we fail to recognize all the accomplishments we have made already. For instance my husband and I would love to own a home someday soon but have little down payment saved at this point. But we also have zero credit cards and own our car because of our diligence to paying those things off! Those are big deals!

My goal this year is to gain a little balance of both. I want to appreciate all the small blessings of my life. I want to get excited about the bigger goals ahead on the horizon. I want the let the small things fill my present with life and the big things give me the drive to tomorrow.  It’s a balance I hope to create this year of 2012. No excuses!

Always,

Briana

PS - I am sorry to those of you who were looking for a post last week. This time of the year is nuts in this house. We kick off the festivities with Christmas. My daughter then turned 2 on the 28^th (a week ago today), my husbands birthday on the 1^st, my mother-in-laws on the 3^rd and my dad ties it up on the 7^th! Madness!

Swallow your own medicine Briana! No excuses right!? From this point forward I WONT miss a post! I promise!