365 Project - Day 343

"Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is not delay, nor defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing." Denis Waitley

So I've been a bit melancholy and existing on little sleep the last few days. I've decided it comes down to a couple of things. The signs of impending winter and rain. I did not enjoy the lengthy winter we endured last year, partly because I was on crutches and partly because, well, it was so cold and wet. Yesterday, it snowed. That's crazy. It is possible that our pastor, who preached one of his all time best sermons on prayer using the story of Elijah expecting rain, caused the snowfall - something about praying prophetically. Still - it snowed! And rain decidedly kills creativity. The cleansing aftermath is pretty sweet, but the rain, ugh.

One of my beefs with rain is that my own hair explodes to 10 times its natural volume in the rain. As long as I have nowhere to go, there's no problem. The bigger issue comes when I have headshot appointments on rainy days. I have shot as many as 40 headshots on a single stormy afternoon and did my best to keep a pleasant attitude. Now, I am tasked with editing a headshot taken on a rainy day and it is making me crazy. I watched a webcast the other day that began with, "these stray hairs are the reason why the suicide rate is so high among photo editors." I sobbed. It seems no method works. I keep telling myself, "the only way I will know if which one works is when I try and fail." Call me "little Edison."

I am determined, but may go nutty along the way. Failure will be my teacher. The question is what kind of student will I be? So far, I've thrown in the towel every day. "That's it," I scream at my screen, "this is impossible." Yet, a voice deep inside rises just as quickly, "It is possible. You will figure it out."

Along the way, I have learned a lot of of other pieces of information. I am getting lots of practice at Photoshop. I now know it is a bad idea to use the backside of my headboard, regardless of how pretty it looks. I am getting more adept at using my Wacom Tablet and I know which edits I want to perform in Lightroom and which in Photoshop. So, learning how to remove dark stray hairs from dark busy backdrops will come. And, also will winter. Both arriving painfully.

Best wishes!

Today's Photo: Winter is next!

"Failures are finger posts in the road to achievement." C. S. Lewis