Thursday I took pictures of my new boss (the Learning Center coordinator) for my 365; she did a few leaps that I thought would look awesome but when I went to process them I realized they were terrible. Not her fault of course; the lighting was just bad, the color was dingy, the flash was too strong, and even the background was blah – they just weren’t good photos, period.  I tried to process them anyway, but after about two hours of screwing around with them I realized they were flat-out bad and couldn’t be salvaged. Since they were the only photos I had for Day 22, I actually went ahead and uploaded one of them, but as soon as I saw it in my stream I knew it would never do, and deleted it immediately.

Then – I cheated. I found a picture I took earlier in the week when I was shooting stuff for day 19 and uploaded that instead. I even changed the date in the EXIF data so no one would know. Screw it, it’s my 365, so as the saying goes I’m only cheating myself – and it turns out I don’t mind being a cheater if I know I genuinely tried.  So there.  I’ve actually been saving a few photos from previous 365 shoots that I like but don’t make the final cut, so perhaps subconsciously I knew this would happen and wanted to be prepared. Anyway, here’s the cheat shot for Day 22:

On this day, I went outside to shoot, and it was so humid my camera lens fogged up immediately. I snapped a few photos of flowers anyway, then went inside to get a something better (on this day, I went with the mirror that had the Dame Edna quote on it). I actually liked the effect the fog created on a few of the shots though, so I saved them. Thank goodness.

I was pretty bummed with the crappy photos I got on Thursday,  and once again was feeling like I’d never complete this thing as I’m running out of mojo way too early. But I have no time for anything more complex right now, so it’s the only way to keep my photography going. Another thing that keeps me going is when I snag an awesome shot; it certainly isn’t happening regularly but every once in a while I get a standout (the painter on stilts comes to mind). I got that opportunity Friday morning, when my second period came in and two of the students decided to take up residence on the old sofa I brought from home:

Obviously they were playing it up for the camera, and even gave me permission to put the photo on the school Facebook page under the title “Too Cute for School” – a title they came up with on their own. This may replace the dude on stilts as my favorite photo for the month. Sometimes it’s the construction of the shot that makes it a winner in my mind, while other times it’s the subject matter itself. For subject matter this one wins. Believe it or not, high school students can be really fun.

In other news, I finally watched an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race (Season 4, which has my favorite drag queen, Willam, as a contestant) and let’s just say it’s replaced Intervention as my new addiction. It also has me DYING to get myself back into some “drag” again! Come hell or high water, I’m going to take some time on the upcoming three-day weekend to get gussied up for the cameras (unless family illness intervenes again, in which case it’ll still have to wait). But until then, you’ll be happy to know I’ve made peace with my perm again. I do think the humidity (which, as previously mentioned, has been outrageous enough to fog up camera lenses and spectacles at the drop of a hat) was doing a number on it, as well as getting used to the relaxed nature of the curls. But I’ve figured out how to manage it again, and am once again happy. Still not very inclined to do it again in the future, due to the damage, but who knows how I’ll feel in a few months.