The first week of online seminary has proven to be manageable yet stressful. For the most part, it seems as though there are enough small chunks each week that I ought to be able to stay ahead of the game and keep my head above water. However, I get the distinct feeling that it's a lot more complicated than I'm realizing and there are some significant factors that I'm missing. This uncertainty, mixed with the confusion of trying to understand the overall structure of doing a degree online, is causing a fair amount of stress. I understand that I'm less than a week into my current educational experience, but balancing work, school, photography, relationships, sleep, exercise, and social life is already proving to be a trick I don't think I'm as good as as I once was.
One of the things I've been intentional about is trying to find key people to help keep me in check and on task without "coming down on me" if I begin to slide. That's a difficult balancing act in and of itself. I hope I have the discipline to keep from falling into my typical procrastinating ways.
On a totally separate note, I have another headache that I'm going to try to turn into an opportunity for the readers of this blog (the few that remain). I'm trying to find a label to put on my photos and, ultimately, a website I'd like to design. "Jeff Anderson Photography" is just WAY too generic for my taste. Besides, there are more Jeff Anderson's out there than I care to admit. My main focus is travel photography, but I'm attempting to venture into portrait-style photography as well. I thought of using my middle name and came up with GroundsEffect Photography, but it's been pointed out to me that, especially if you don't know my middle name, it just looks like bad grammar. So this is where you all come in:
I'm going to attempt a competition here where I'm requesting submission of name ideas for me. You can give as many suggestions as you'd like. I'm looking for something that is unique, creative, applicable to my photography, and clearly "Jeff Anderson". Whomever comes up with a name that I decide to go with will be able to choose one of my photos and I'll print and frame it for you. You can choose the size of the print, but you'll have to keep into account the type of camera that was used and the number of pixels of that given camera. If it's from my smaller camera, the prints will lose their detail around 8x10. The photos from my newer camera can potentially be larger if you choose one of those.
I hope this makes sense and I hope I get some response/interest. Now get your creative juices flowing and let me hear what you've got!
Friday, March 30, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Come Monday (by Jimmy Buffett)
A year ago, my life was in a completely different place than it's at now. This time last year I was gallivanting around the far side of the world, at the beginning of an amazing adventure that was nothing more than a beautiful mystery to me. Now, instead of living out of my backpack, traveling from country to country, continent to continent, encountering new cultures, making new friends, and reconnecting with old friends, I'm back where I started. I'm living in the same place and, in a lot of ways, doing the same things.
However, because of the experiences I've been through and the people who have touched my life over the past year, I'm in the same place doing the same things with a new direction and a new intentionality. Come Monday, I'm heading back to school. I'll be starting a very long and challenging journey towards a Master of Arts in Global Leadership at Fuller Seminary. Needless to say, my life is about to make some drastic changes.
The degree I'm pursuing is an online degree. This means I don't have to sit through any boring or confusing lectures, but it also means I have to do a TON of reading ... not exactly my forte. I will need to restructure my life to prioritize accordingly. That means figuring out where things like work, school, relationships, photography, social life, etc. all come into play in relation to each other. Areas of my life will suffer, people will likely get let down, I will likely burn myself out from time to time (especially at the beginning), and hopefully I'll be able to endure this time and will be a better person because of it all. Time will tell, I suppose.
However, because of the experiences I've been through and the people who have touched my life over the past year, I'm in the same place doing the same things with a new direction and a new intentionality. Come Monday, I'm heading back to school. I'll be starting a very long and challenging journey towards a Master of Arts in Global Leadership at Fuller Seminary. Needless to say, my life is about to make some drastic changes.
The degree I'm pursuing is an online degree. This means I don't have to sit through any boring or confusing lectures, but it also means I have to do a TON of reading ... not exactly my forte. I will need to restructure my life to prioritize accordingly. That means figuring out where things like work, school, relationships, photography, social life, etc. all come into play in relation to each other. Areas of my life will suffer, people will likely get let down, I will likely burn myself out from time to time (especially at the beginning), and hopefully I'll be able to endure this time and will be a better person because of it all. Time will tell, I suppose.
Friday, March 16, 2007
F-Stop Blues (by Jack Johnson)
I'm stepping out and taking some chances with a new "hobby". I put the word hobby in quotes because I'm approaching it with an attitude that it will develope into something more than just that. I received a lot of unsolicited, positive comments about some of my photographs during my travels in 2006 that I decided to try to do something about it. I've recently purchased a new camera and am attempting to recollect my former knowledge of photography. I'm playing around with some "photo shoots" with friends and trying to see if the eye that I had for composition over on the far side of the world will work here in the U.S. as well. As it turns out, after submitting a couple of my photos into a photography competition, my photo "Three Generations of Beauty" was accepted and is going to be published in a coffee table book of various photographers. As a result of that, my photo has advanced to the next stages of this particular competition. I can't honestly say that I have high expectations, but I'm really hoping this helps me gain some exposure (no pun intended) and recognition. Time will tell.
Unfortunately, with a new job and school coming up in a little over a week (class starts March 26), I haven't had the time I've needed to get my existing photographs in order. I'm working on making them available to view through this blog. Some of my photos are accessable already, but they're more of a concophany of random snapshots than a proper display of my portfolio. I'm hoping to remedy that in the weeks and months to come, as well as to continue to add to it. Until I get that cleaned up the way I want it to be, a grouping of my photos are available to view in my Myspace page (see link on left margin) for those of you who are Myspacers. In the meantime, I'm always open to suggestions, criticisms, jobs, and connections. Hobbies like this tend to be more enjoyable when there are others who appreciate the efforts and results of the labor.
In the next several weeks, I intend to get a little deeper on this topic (assuming there's some progression with it) as well as with my newest attempt at seminary, my new job, and my upcoming travels around the country and the world. So stick around and share the love!
Unfortunately, with a new job and school coming up in a little over a week (class starts March 26), I haven't had the time I've needed to get my existing photographs in order. I'm working on making them available to view through this blog. Some of my photos are accessable already, but they're more of a concophany of random snapshots than a proper display of my portfolio. I'm hoping to remedy that in the weeks and months to come, as well as to continue to add to it. Until I get that cleaned up the way I want it to be, a grouping of my photos are available to view in my Myspace page (see link on left margin) for those of you who are Myspacers. In the meantime, I'm always open to suggestions, criticisms, jobs, and connections. Hobbies like this tend to be more enjoyable when there are others who appreciate the efforts and results of the labor.
In the next several weeks, I intend to get a little deeper on this topic (assuming there's some progression with it) as well as with my newest attempt at seminary, my new job, and my upcoming travels around the country and the world. So stick around and share the love!
Friday, March 09, 2007
Changes (by David Bowie)
A lot has happened in my life in the last three months since my previous blog posting. I've moved, I left my job of almost three years, I started a new job at a familiar place, I'm going to be in another play, I began dating a beautiful and adventurous woman, I've become intentional about pursuing some level of involvement with photography, I'm heading back to school, and I've decided to lead a team of 15 people to my old home back on the far side of the world this summer ... just to name a few things.
Life changes have a way of being beautiful, exciting, terrifying, and confusing all at the same time. There's a certain peace and comfort in living paycheck to paycheck, job to job, even country to country. You wouldn't think that having routine and a healthy paycheck would be a scary thing, but we have a tendency to be afraid of what we don't understand. But change is good. It keeps us on our toes. It forces us to grow. It allows us to see the same world and the same life from completely different perspectives. To endure the growing pains that come with change is simply a fact of life that we need to endure (it's totally unintentional, but we should play a game and see how many 80s television shows I mention in this blog. It's already been two in this sentence alone!).
With all the new responsibilities that come with the changes my life is currently facing, I don't see how practical it will be to improve the frequency in which I update my blog page. However, my intentions are good and I will do my best to update more frequently and simply keep the postings shorter. What I need from you is encouragement and even some occasional nagging to stick to this and keep updating my life for you to read. I just need to know that anyone is still reading this thing!
Life changes have a way of being beautiful, exciting, terrifying, and confusing all at the same time. There's a certain peace and comfort in living paycheck to paycheck, job to job, even country to country. You wouldn't think that having routine and a healthy paycheck would be a scary thing, but we have a tendency to be afraid of what we don't understand. But change is good. It keeps us on our toes. It forces us to grow. It allows us to see the same world and the same life from completely different perspectives. To endure the growing pains that come with change is simply a fact of life that we need to endure (it's totally unintentional, but we should play a game and see how many 80s television shows I mention in this blog. It's already been two in this sentence alone!).
With all the new responsibilities that come with the changes my life is currently facing, I don't see how practical it will be to improve the frequency in which I update my blog page. However, my intentions are good and I will do my best to update more frequently and simply keep the postings shorter. What I need from you is encouragement and even some occasional nagging to stick to this and keep updating my life for you to read. I just need to know that anyone is still reading this thing!
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