Christmas break in Vernon

The Towne Cinema in downtown Vernon

         First semester is officially done as well as our winter break. Second semester is upon us here at Loyalist and with it, new photo ideas and writings to come. I hope to be a little more consistent with my blog postings. I am also hoping to add a Photo of the week separate to this blog, so watch out for that.
         I spent two and a half weeks in my hometown Vernon British Columbia Over the holiday break. Even though I had a bit of an illness while I was there, it was a great time. I spent most of my time with family and friends, very little time out shooting pictures. (I will get into that a little more later.) Winter break brought along a lot of questions I needed to ask myself. What are my plans for the upcoming summer? What about the entire year? I've yet to find my niche in photography so where do I stand from a school standpoint? These were just a few questions I asked myself and though I may not have answers to all of them, but I believe that no matter what happens this year will be a great one.
         I guess the biggest issue I ran into this break was whether or not I wanted to continue with photography. The way I see it if you wish to start a career there needs to be a passion for what you're doing, but do I have that passion? That was the biggest question I had to ask myself over winter break.
         I arrived in Vernon and the next day it snowed a lot. I was excited I asked my brother if I could use his vehicle to go out and take some pictures while it was snowing even though daylight was running thin. I got a few good pictures but nothing I was really thrilled about. After that day I went stale as far as photography goes. I enjoyed the company of friends and family but I didn't bring my camera out to much. This is where I started to doubt my passion for photography. I woke up each morning thinking "I should go shoot something today." and it just never happened. It went on like this for nearly the full two weeks. Either the weather wasn't good enough for the photos I wanted, or I just lacked motivation entirely.
        Then it happened, two days before I was to leave the snow hit again. I went out from noon till dusk, squeezing every ounce of daylight I could. I visited a few areas around town that I felt would look great with the fresh snow. I took pictures of anything and everything I felt was visually appealing and in the snow it wasn't hard to do.
        There is something magical about snow. It makes everything gorgeous. A fresh dump of snow makes a magical winter wonderland, and that is something I wanted to capture. And that was all I needed to realize that this is something I love and there is definitely a passion there.
I may not be able to pin point where in photography that passion may be, but its there somewhere. I know I love taking pictures and that's a start. I got a year and a half before this course is done and a life time after that. I'm sure I'll find it eventually, as well as maybe a few answers to some of the other questions I've been asking myself.

Kalamalka Lake in Vernon B.C.  01/05/11