Lately, I’ve been wondering what, if anything, I should attempt as a photo project after my 36r project is over with. I have less than 100 pictures to go. I’ll definitely feel as if something is missing come January 1st 2009.

Taking a photo everyday is not a big deal, really. For me, it was the whole uploading, tagging, etc part that grew tiresome. Perhaps my workflow was/isn’t the greatest though. I’ve enjoyed it for the most part. Getting going was difficult and Winter proved to be the hardest time for the project as I am pretty much a hermit when it comes to winter (I hope to change this though, as I’ve started going for walks after work).

I am thinking I’ll hold off on starting anything like 365 though. Really, I want to focus more on this blog, and graphic design as more of a side career. I have a tendency to load up my plate full of things to do. This would be fine if it weren’t for the fact that I get irritated if I can’t do everything at once. I guess this is the problem with enjoying all the items on your to-do list.

Since mid-August I have been trying to ramp up my web design skills as being creative is something I enjoy immensely. I found a tutorial that does a good job of explaining how to create a Wordpress theme from scratch so here I am.

This is basically a draft and it will likely change a bit as I slice and code it. My ultimate goal will be to redesign my blog with a new theme at some point. It won’t be this one as I’m not terribly fond of it. Really, I wanted a theme of some sort to get my feet wet and this theme will suffice nicely.

In other news, I’ll be working with my sister-in-law to help her design a site for a gluten-free restaurant she plans to open in/around San Francisco. We are still in the very early stages but I’m excited to A: design, B: help her out and C: charge nothing as she’s family and it’s a great cause. I’m sure I’ll post stuff here as I brainstorm.

I am also giving Collabtive a go to see how that works in terms of a collaboration tool for us (and maybe here at work).

I saw via twitter that a handful of people were going pink for October so I thought I’d follow suit. I can’t say I know many who’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer, but I certainly feel that brining more attention to it and raising awareness is never a bad thing.

I can’t say I always was aware of my creative side. Back when I was younger, constructing entire Lego towns in the basement of my parent’s house, I was only concerned with finding “this one brick” or getting everything looking just so.

Once I moved on from Legos (it took me awhile…and now I’m back again) there was a bit of a lapse in creativity. I was too busy being a teenager and I didn’t really have a creative avenue at the time.

In the summer of 2002, I had plans to work part-time but nothing really came about. I felt it was time I dove into the world of Photoshop as I had the app, but was really not very good with it. I joined DeviantArt in September of 2002 and created a slew of things from UI designs, poetry to pixel art. Pixel art isn’t easy to explain. Essentially, it is the creation of an image which has a “pixelated” look to it.

I lost interest in DeviantArt somewhere between 2004 and 2005. I wasn’t as much a part of the community and I moved more into photography as a point & shoot I bought in 2004 had full manual controls (albeit it was a couple steps below SLR quality). I threw some photos up on DeviantartArt but slowly moved over to the beloved flickr.

Photography became (and is still) my main outlet for my creativity. I’ve enjoyed it immensely but felt that after our trip to Japan in November 2007, my interest waned slightly. I decided on January 1st 2008 that I would do a 365 project for myself. The idea is to take a photo everyday for a year. This may sound easy, but it has proven challenging. It has also been very rewarding as well and has helped me have a more enjoyable approach to photography.

All this while, graphic design has been sitting on the back burner. Recently, it has come to the forefront of my brain and I’m finding myself very driven to find all the tutorials I can and learn all I can. The problem I am faced with is that I want to do everything at once. I want to learn it all right now.

I find I have a fairly good grasp on the basics of CSS, Photoshop, HTML and the basics of web design. What I want to do is take my working knowledge and turn into more of an expert. As we design is not my primary profession, it is difficult to learn as quickly as I would like.

I’ve toyed around with the idea of a second Bachelor’s in Graphic Design, but I would at least wait until my wife and I were settled in a place as signing up for a 4yr degree here would not be ideal as we are set on moving next year.

I hope this was a nice change from the typical “here’s what we did this weekend” post. It’s not easy coming up with things to put on this blog sometimes.

We headed out to San Francisco for a trip to see my wife’s family. We had a great time. I kept track of the trip on twitter (Aug 6-10).

Wednesday and Sunday were travel days, but Thursday we went to Point Reyes (which was awesome). Friday we went shopping and dining. Saturday we headed to a public market in Oakland and then had a BBQ at my sister-in-law’s house. All in all, a great trip!