some favorites + a goodbye to '08

{image taken december 2008 with my canon powershot A470.

type added in photoshop.}

i have only had this blog since mid september of 2008. but i have posted here over 100 times. so i decided with the new year approaching to look back at what i have done so far this year. it's was a lot of fun to go back and remember where i was when i started and everything between then and now. it is interesting to see the evolution of what i see and what captures me.

i started it's just how i see things as a place to put my photos, so as not to fill up space on jorjah-b {which i wanted to keep more open for other kinds of posts}. i never considered myself a photographer, or even a photography lover. i always gave that title to my sister, angela, and my brother, matt. but i never really had a camera that took decent pictures either. and i did not get my first digital camera until shortly before i started this blog.

so, now that i have a camera and its digital nature allows me to shoot to my heart's content, i am realizing that i like this photography thing a whole lot more than i ever realized. i still do not necessarily consider myself good, but i do consider myself better at taking pictures than i thought i was before i had a camera.

i would still like to learn so much—like how to take great people shots the way my sister can, or how to know when the lighting is right for a picture, or how to get a good night-time shot, or learn to take well-composed landscape pictures . . . and the list could go on. one of my goals for the new year is to save enough money to upgrade my camera—not that i will get rid of the one i have now. it is a great little camera, and i love the macro shots it can take! still, i'd love to have something that zooms farther, has more options, and can hold more photos.

but i am content with where i am, with the camera i have now, and the fact that i learn more each day. i'm happy that i have a desire to photograph, a desire to learn, and an eye to appreciate great images. that's where you come in.

thank you to all of you who visit daily or even just stop by from time to time. your comments and thoughts are an encouragement and continually drive me to keep taking pictures and always be striving to be a better photographer. and to those of you who have photo blogs as well—you don't even know how much you make me want to take pictures and create art with this contraption we call a camera. i'm amazed every day at what i see on your blogs!

if you have not already, take a look at my blog roll. these blogs have some of the most fantastic photos i have ever seen. i seriously sometimes look at these blogs with my jaw dropped, because these bloggers keep coming up with more and more wonderful photography! it makes my pictures seem sort of silly, but it also makes me want to get better every day.

well, to celebrate my new hobby of 2008, i have created two "top posts" lists below. one is of my picks for my top 15 favorite posts of 2008. i tried to do my top 10, but i had a hard time eliminating five of the fifteen favorites that i came up with. i based my list on which posts are the most visually pleasing to me—the ones i was the happiest with how the photography turned out. in some cases, it may also be based on what words were chosen to compliment the picture—so not only the photo, but the post as a whole.

there are a couple that i left off my list, because they made it into your list {see below}—so that just gave me more room for my picks. :)

after my top fifteen, i listed your picks for top ten favorites. okay, so none of you actually voted—this list is just based on the amount of comments and/or type of feedback i received from my readers. this is not to diminish the comments that were left on posts where hardly anyone commented. it's just a list to show which posts you were most vocal about and which ones seemed to affect you the most. since your feedback is so valuable, i made this list based on that criteria.

just a look back to celebrate a new passion . . .

my top 15 posts of '08
cactus in my living room
goodbye, summer—we had a blast, you and i
where it all started
looking up, falling in
favorite yhings
letter
oasis—part 2
movement
shadows - Part 3
untitled
delight in woodwinds
my sweet
white {and a poem}
ode to a twin
lovely

your top 10 posts of '08
little things in my treasured quiet space
deafness
nature's lace
first snowfall
doubly blessed
yes, i'll have a blue, blue christmas
oh, no!
roman shoe
philosophy photography {which ironically has no photo}
late blooms and longings fulfilled

i hope you have enjoyed this trip down memory lane. i have so enjoyed this blog this past year {or more accurately, 1/4 of a year}, and i have so enjoyed your blogs and getting to know all of you! i can truly picture YOU via the pictures YOU create. i look forward to so much more in 2009!

happy, happy New Year! . . . happy, happy photographing!

~georgia

{p.s... i'd love if you left me a comment with links to your favorite posts of 2008 from your blog. it would be nice to see them—especially since i have not discovered many of your blogs until recently and I may not have had the chance to see them.}