Love, Lydia - Notes from a geeky, plus sized artist.: Photo Bucket List + Book Reviews

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Photo Bucket List + Book Reviews

Hello again everyone,

So I read a post a while back from a photographer from the Rising Tide Society which contained her photo bucket list.  I thought it was such a great idea that I wanted to make my own list.  It's a really great exercise in being mindful about my goals, and since two of my goals are using my DSLR more and getting my home darkroom set up this goes right along with them.


My Photo Bucket List

  1. Set up my home darkroom.  Right now I have an unfinished bathroom that's just the right size for a personal darkroom.  I also have an old enlarger, some small trays and tongs, a beaker, and some other small things.  So what I really need to complete this is a sink/cabinetry for the wet side, a redlight bulb, chemicals and jugs to store them, a heavy duty trash bin, a table for my enlarger, some shelve for storage, a couple of large trays, and a proper seal for the door.  
  2. Go back to Ireland and photograph more of its beauty.  
  3. Photograph a castle, even better if there are costumes involved. 
  4. Go out west and photograph the milky way.  
  5. Photograph all the national parks I visit in my quest to visit all the ones in the US.
  6. Photograph a North-South tour of Chile.
  7. Visit some of the towns in Germany that my ancestors are from and photograph them.  
  8. Get better at editing digital photos
  9. Get better at using DSLR settings to optimize the amount of work to edit photos
  10. Become more comfortable photographing people
That's my list, and I'd love to hear about yours!  Comment below, or write your own blog response and tag me.

On to the Book Reviews!

From here on out every Wednesday you'll get a comic review and a novel review.  Today's novel is Off To Be The Wizard by Scott Meyer.

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In Off To Be The Wizard our protagonist Martin discovers a computer algorithm that controls all life as we know it.  He does what more any guy would and messes with it, first to get cool stuff, and then once authorities are on to him to jump back in time to the middle ages where he has plans of becoming a wizard and living well.  Only it's not quite as easy as he thinks to pull off.  I found this book to be a really fun read, and have already started on its sequel.  The only problem I has with it was the severe lack of female characters, this book would in no way pass the Bechdel-Wallace test.  It left me feeling that the author just didn't know how to write women.  However this next book may change that, we'll see.  In any case this book is sci fi, nerdy, light-hearted fun, that's also very accessible to readers of all kinds.

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Next up is Princess Ugg Volume 1 by Ted Naifeh and Warren Wucinich.  Princess Ulga is urged by her mother to find a better way for her people to live, so she goes down into the valley, leaving her highlands for a princess academy.  What follows are misunderstandings, a community that looks down on her and many obstacles for her to overcome.  Ulga has the determined heart of a warrior however, and is set on learning from all the encounters she has in the valley.  It's a cute, mostly light-hearted, and rather witty read, that is welcoming to both younger readers and adults.  It has just enough twists and excitement to keep what could have been a very formulaic read more interesting.

Thanks for reading, I'll see you all again Friday!

Love,
Lydia

2 comments:

  1. What a cute idea! I have to do one of my own sometime. I'm totally with you on the going out west and taking pictures of the night sky! I'm from Alaska and we drove down to North Carolina when my husband got orders for her, we drove through the southwest and I got a few photos but not really to the extent I would have wanted :/.

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    1. It's definitely worth trying. I realized I hadn't been as mindful about my goals once I started putting it together, and it's nice to have more focus as I go forwards!

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