embracing_calm

 Often in the past when I have made a big list of goals like the one I made for 2026 goals will fall away throughout the year.   I have already posted about my decision to forgive making 100 pieces of paper due to a lack of gardening skills in my new climate (100 pieces  of paper means quite a lot of plant material).  Now I will be adding my sunrise photography goal to the list of abandoned goals.  

Let me explain.

i have taken photos of 4 of the 50 something sunrises (the 2026 goal) with my iPhone. I have seen slightly more than 4, I’m not sure how many sunrises I have experienced in 2026. Of the sunrises I have seen this year, the ones I have enjoyed the most are the ones that I was lucky enough to see when my phone was dead or misplaced.  It is in no way unusual for me to wake up before dawn and I already love sunrises… real ones.  When taking a photo of a sunrise with any modern phone the colors are altered in a way that makes them less subtle and ethereal.  it takes on  a cooler tone, higher saturation and an enhanced black point.  The almost alien or cartoon palette of the photo happens regardless of the setting on my phone and take a significant amount of effort to balance back in an editor.   At that point, this goal which was made to ensure I enjoy sunrises throughout the year has actually served to make them less enjoyable and in a way the high saturation photos seem to warp my appreciation for what is in front of me.

I’m not going to count this as a loss… because I never really do.  the point of each goal is to teach or reinforce something.  this showed me what I largely already knew:  it’s difficult to be truly present when staring at a screen.

Today was lovely. H and I worked on hanging up things in the bedroom. We have afew more things left to hang but it looks so much better. We dropped off two large living room chairs at the thrift store then went for an impromptu trip to the French bakery and pick up a kouign amann each. Later we went to the art store. I’ve more or less decided I am going back to my mixed media dreamscapes on photopaper. I find a standard photo size to be very familiar and working with the reactions of that come with the paper make it more interesting for me. I have some ideas and I’m pretty excited to start executing them. We finally made it to the park as well, it was gorgeous there. Alfonzo had a good time meeting people and other (small) dogs. The sunset was very pretty (pictured) and I managed to get some additional photos for painting inspiration. I made tostadas for dinner. I was craving something Taco Bell adjacent minus the tummy ache.

We still need to give Alfonzo another walk, and we may play a couple games of rummy. I’m not sure what I want to do tomorrow… maybe I’ll sift through my art supplies for a selection to use. Often I find that helps me solidify ideas.