A photo a day. . .

A new year usually starts with an irresistable urge to start a project. Often my choice is to keep a diary, but apart from one notable year in which I filled most of the book, my enthusiasm soon peters out and at the end of December most of the pages remain blank.

For the last two years I chose a word for the year. This was more successful than a diary and helped define my year. My one word for 2013 was treasure, and it reminded me to treasure God's love, my family, friends, nature and many other things. However this choice didn't capture any of my memories.

Two days into 2014 I discovered 365Project. The challenge on this free website is to take and upload a photo every day for 365 days. This creates an online photo journal which documents your life in pictures for a year. Now this a very doable project for me as the site is user-friendly and  I can shoot a picture with my cell phone and upload it immediately without taking my camera out of its case or switching on my computer. But you can also upload photos and videos from your computer if you so wish, or even email them to 365Project. Photos can be uploaded after the date if necessary as it's not always possible or convenient to upload every day.

I decided to take the challenge and signed up. Here are two of my photos. They are not good photographically-speaking, but they are important to me as they bring back bittersweet moments from our holiday after Christmas.

Quiet time and sunrise at Paradise Beach

Sea view on the way to Paradise Beach

I soon discovered other benefits on 365Project including a wealth of fascinating photos on a wide variety of subjects from all over the world to browse. I intend following some of the photographers whose work appeals to me.

And if you want to take your photography to a higher level, there are forums with great articles and tutorials to help you do this.

So now I have my project for 2014.

Please leave a comment if you have a new project for the year. And if you take a look at 365Project, I'd love to read about your reaction.

May God bless you in 2014

Dreaming of Travel

I've had a spring in my step this week, and it's not just because spring has sprung - though it definitely has. It's only been a few weeks since I returned from my last trip. It was a hard return in many ways - I had been sick, and had some travel tangles along the way. But in these past days I have realised I operate best when I have something to look forward to. Therefore, I hopped over to Pinterest and started collecting beautiful photos of places I would like to revisit. The above is a screenshot of part of my feed. It's exciting, I tell you! I love to feast my eyes on images like these, to remember being there - yes, that's what it was like, and it will be again.

Experiencing a range of places is also essential in my writing journey. No location has quite the same feel as another - there are the little things you notice, the smells, the ambience, the colours of the sky, the mannerisms and language of the local people. I have written about many of these places before, and hope to do so again with all the force I can muster, to drag readers inside the experience as if they were there themselves.

Of course, writing science fiction often means the settings have to be tweaked - say, a little for a futuristic Ireland, or a lot for an alien planet.

Even if the travel itself is still a faraway dream, looking at the pictures is a darn good substitute for now.

News from Grace: I'm now posting a daily blog at http://grace.splashdownbooks.com - come and check it out for insights from New Zealand, photography, and a mosaic of random cool stuff.

Visit Grace's new website at www.gracebridges.co.nz (still under construction, but feel free to have a nosey!)

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