Things take practice - that's what I've learned this summer. I recently started horseback riding because I really just wanted to be a beginner at something, to remember what it was like to have absolutely zero knowledge of something and yet be expected to do things while muddling your way through them to the goal.
I like tackling new things in community with others, too. I like the process of meeting people and figuring out where they are coming from, what you can teach them and what they have to teach you. Horseback riding is like that - not only do you meet a horse, get to know it, earn it's trust, learn it's commands, and figure out how to partner with it, you learn how to listen to your trainer as she's asking you to do things you've never thought you could do, working through your mistakes, and more importantly, your fears.
Thanks to Jessica blogging has been collaborative this summer, too. It's become a bigger process, and welcoming someone into a happy project I've been working on for a very long time has been a joyful experience. Jessica takes gorgeous pictures and I am so proud of her work and of her dedication to the art of photography, but beyond that she's an excellent teacher, a fantastic brainstormer, and is always willing to answer questions about how to up the ante on my pictures, especially since I feel like I've plateaued in the last year or so with the quality of my own pictures.
Working with someone else inspires me to get out there and work on what I love, to dig out things I haven't worn in a long time, and to try something again, to look at it in a new light. I think everything I'm wearing has been blogged before but never like this.
Honestly, I used to be terrified of collaboration. I was always the girl in school that would take on the entirety of the group project, terrified I would get something less than an A. Over the years, tI've learned to let collaboration be about learning and making mistakes. I've come to grips with letting others teach me. I've slowly opened up by trying to be less shy or more welcoming. In real life I feel that I come off a little standoffish...mostly because I'm somewhat nervous about things because I'm so afraid what I'm doing will fail if I don't make it go just so or people get too close. I've worked hard on that but I still have a long way to go!
This summer I have learned and am learning so much - new writing styles, horsemanship, how too cook, photography basics. Out of curiosity, have you learned or are learning? Who is teaching it to you?
It goes without saying that all of these pictures were done by Jessica Triggs.
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The Hair and Makeup was done by me. I used MAC pigments on my eyes and MAC's Russian Red on my lips. (This is, in my opinion, the best shade of red for redheads!)
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The shirt is vintage, repaired quickly before the shoot after sitting under my bed for almost three years. The scarf and shoes are vintage, too. The shorts are by the talented
Anna Allen.
