Moving the Goal Post

Now that the spark for wanting to do more photography has been lit, I need to make a decision. I know myself, and I know that I tend to get really involved in a new hobby or idea for a relative short amount of time before I usually will move on to something else. I'm even hesitant to tell my friends of new hobbies I get into for this very reason. I don't want to be 'that guy', so I looked at some long term goals I could set for myself to keep me from doing that with photography.

Living in North Carolina, I can tell you that the state has many, many faults. But when it comes to nature, the state is stunningly beautiful. Beaches, Marshes, Sandhills, Mountains, it really has it all. Along with that, our state has a beautiful set of State Parks. I laid in bed one night until roughly 4am just pouring through the NC State Parks website, and then it hit me. Go see them. All 41 of them. The next morning I laughed at the notion I would travel that much and went about my day. Later that night, I did it again. Link after link I looked at everything each park could offer and again I said: "I'm doing that."

So that's the long term plan. Visit all the State Parks, and even a few historic sites along the way.

I recently purchased a 100mm Canon L series Macro Lens, so my toolbox has grown, and now I have many more ways to create (hopefully) some beautiful photography. The only other thing I really wish I could purchase is a 24-70mm Canon L series lens, but those are a little out of my price range at the moment. (Ah, the joys of being a teacher in the summer where you have free time, but not the resources).

I have already visited two of them (Lumber River State Park and Raven Rock State Park -more on those later), so that leaves me 39 more to go. I don't know at what pace I will pursue this, but obviously summer is the best time for me to do it, so I'll probably hit some of the coastal parks in the next week or so. I would ideally like to save the mountain parks for the fall, as the colors are amazing out there during that time of year.

I'm excited for the idea, and being out and active in nature, and hopefully bringing some beautiful photography home with me so that I can share it to the world.

Until next time.