My mom, my sister, my aunt, and myself took the opportunity today to visit the New Albany National Cemetery, which lays to rest veterans from 7 different battles, as well as the cemetery where several family members are buried including my dad. It was a humbling experience standing in the National Cemetery and I couldn’t help but feeling overwhelmed with gratitude.

It was a wonderful day to pay tribute to not only the men and woman who have served our country but our loved ones as well.

If you follow me at all you know I struggle with portrait photography, and if you are new to my site  let me tell you this, I struggle with portrait photography!  I am not sure what it is about this type of shoot that makes me uncomfortable or uninspired but I have really tried very hard to overcome this mental block. I have turned to  photography friends Paul and Jon for pointers and tips and while I have taken to heart everything that I have learned from them,  I still find myself dreading the prospect of portrait work.

This week I must have had a break through. I took my niece out for her senior portraits and I had a blast. I was probably more comfortable directing her since I know her but I felt at ease tell her to move around and changing any shot that I didn’t think worked. We even tried several locations and it was a great time. The fact that she is beautiful helped quite a bit but so far the ones that I have edited have turned out really great, if I do say so myself.

The real test will come when she sees the finished product as she is very picky about photos of herself, but I am excited to share them and I am equally as excited that I came away from the experience feeling more confident and positive about portrait photography than I ever have.

Our theme for this week was “looking up” and while I didn’t take the challenge literally I think what I captured really represents this feeling for me at the moment as in “things are looking up”. Five weeks ago my mom had open heart surgery and today she is doing amazing. She is already trying to do way too much  but it is so good to see her out and about and enjoying her new life.

It has still been nasty and raining around here but we are supposed to be getting some sunshine this week and I am looking forward to it. The flooding in our area was getting bad and very dangerous so we really need the rain to go on hiatus. I like a rainy day but only if I can stay in curled up with a good book or the remote control.

The photo I am posting today is another cemetery shot on yes another rainy day. I have found myself drawn to cemeteries lately and I am not sure why. I love really old places with beautiful stones and monuments. I love looking at the dates and finding last names that I have never heard of.

As most of you know I finished my 365 a few weeks ago and I really needed a break, then my family life got crazy so I was forced to take a break whether I wanted to or not. I wasn’t sure what my plan was going to be once things slowed down but I finally decided to commit to a 52 week project and post in between if I felt the need in the photography category. This plan will give me the choice to take a break if I want to or post as much as I like, and I have to say I have missed blogging and interacting with all of you very much.

If you will indulge me for a bit I will catch those of you that don’t know up on what has been going on with my family. My sister hurt her back so badly that she is still off from work and in a lot of pain, my mom unexpectedly went into the hospital for bypass surgery and although she is doing really well it was probably the scariest thing that has ever happened to me,  and tragically my niece and nephew had to terminate the pregnancy of their second child. We have been through a lot over the last few weeks and while it will take time to recover both physically and mentally for all of us I am reminded of how amazing my family actually is. I feel so blessed every single day that I was given the wonderful gift of each and every one of them.

I truly hope to get back to a regular routine with all of my fellow bloggers and my own blog, and I thank all of you for sticking around to see what was next for me and for all the well wishes to my family.

OH, this photo was taken today while I took my mom out for a drive to get her out of the house. We have had massive amounts of rain here lately so I hate to take advantage of the few hours the rain let up. This particular shot is obviously an HDR image and it was taken and the Fairview Cemetery in New Albany, IN.

As you know she was having some issues with chest pain that worried us and we have pushed to get her to the doctor and she finally went. After that first appointment she was scheduled for a stress test that came back normal but that really wasn’t an okay result for us because she has had chest pains since she had her stents put in last June. Her heart doctor scheduled her for a heart catheterization on Thursday and unfortunately the results weren’t good and they want her to have bypass surgery.

We are all very scared because my mom is our world but she has the love and support of the best family in the world and her doctors and nurses have all been amazing. We met with her surgeon today and not only did he explain everything to us in a way that we could understand but he also took the time to tell us that he knows how scary it is and that they will take very good care of our mom. I can’t even begin to explain how much it meant to me to hear him say this. I know bypass surgery has become very common but it is still very serious and it is my mom. Until she is laying in bed recovering I am probably going to be sort of a mess.

So please say a prayer or keep her in your thoughts over the next few weeks and thank you again for letting me have a place to come and share not only the good times in my life but also the scary.

I thought long and hard about how I wanted to end this blog… should I save a “wow” photo for last, do a collage of my favorites from the year, do a self-portrait, and on and on I asked myself. I finally came to the conclusion that it should be about thanking all of you that have went on this journey with me. My final 365 photo is a collage of shots from my everyday life that spell out the words thank you because that is really all I have left to say. (My first thank you should go to my friend Whitney for inspiring the idea)

I can’t believe it has been a year and I have very mixed emotions about it coming to an end. On one hand I am so happy that I am not obligated to post a photo every single day because there were days where  I ended up posting anything I could take a shot of and it seemed like such a chore. I have such an obsessive personality that I couldn’t allow myself to miss one day.  On the other hand I have learned so much through this process about photography and myself,  and I have made so many amazing friends.

Although this project is coming to a close I am not going anywhere (I know you are all breathing a sigh of relief ). I will still post and continue to share my photography with those that are willing to continue to support what I am doing. I will most likely turn this into a project 52 or as Christopher suggested turn this into ‘Mindy’s Any Damn Time I Want To Photo Blog’. I have enjoyed sharing with you guys far too much to stop completely and as you may have guessed I have no intentions of putting down the camera any time soon!

I can’t end this journey without saying thank you to many different people starting with my mom, Beth and Christopher who went out with me on so many photography adventures. You three have supported all my crazy behavior and obsession throughout this year and love you to pieces for always being there for me in every way possible. I will never be able to thank you enough.

To my friends (Kim, Jackie, Bonnie, Lecia, Jennifer, Susan, Thomas, Shari, Barbara, and many others)  that have been so supportive with encouraging words, a pat on the back, leaving me comments on fb to let me know you are there, posting  all of my tweets, or sharing your own blogs and taking the journey with me. You have all been such an important part of this year for me and I am so grateful.

To the many photographers that I found through twitter who have both inspired me and helped me through this process. I consider you all friends now and I am so grateful to have stumbled across your pages and had the opportunity to learn from you and build a friendship. It will take too long to list all of you but you know who you are! Most of  them are listed on the side of my blog  so GO CHECK THEM OUT THEY ARE ALL AMAZING!!! Yes that warranted all caps (Rob don’t kill me lol)

Cathy you are definitely my kindred spirit and I am amazed by you every day!

Paul & Jon I definitely want to be like the two of you when I grow up!

DPixel and Dana, the two of you have definitely made me smile throughout the entire year and the work that you do has inspired me to no end!

To all my friends that came here on a regular basis and left such kind comments, I can’t even begin to say thank you. You made the days when it felt like a chore worth it and I am so grateful that you guys took the time out of your life to share in mine. You have been so supportive and kind and I have no words to express what that has meant. I have found friends all across the country and a few outside of the country through this process and that has been the best gift. Again, you all know who you are so I won’t make a huge list but I will mention you again Miss Barbara because your words have especially stood out to me and meant so much.

So as one door closes I say thank you to all of you for so many reasons and I look forward to sharing the next chapter with you!

I have had very little opportunity to take photos this weekend since I haven’t felt well but I did manage to pull off the side of the road today and capture this broken down old building. I don’t know what it is about abandon buildings that attract my eye but it has definitely been a constant in my blog.

I promise to catch up on all of your blogs tomorrow

I am so exhausted that I can’t think straight but luckily for me Christopher is hard at work and trying very patiently to teach me CSS and how to use WordPress as a CMS. He really is a tiny genius (my humorous play on words considering he is 6’3 lol)  I am quite impatient and easily irritated when I am feeling ill so it takes a special personality to even be around me much less try to teach me something I am so resistant to learning. I really wish I could learn by osmosis, I would be much smarter if that were possible Having said that, I DID learn some stuff tonight so to that I say yay me!

It was such a gorgeous day here that I wish I had felt up to driving around taking photos. The sky looked like something out of a painting and I have been kicking myself all night for not getting at least a few shots in, but it is what it is huh? Maybe when I feel better I will get another day like today and I can go nuts with the camera. I think the photo I did take pretty much sums up the day so in the end it worked out.

Thanks for stopping by and keeping up with me on the weekends even though you all know I won’t be around to reciprocate the love until Monday

Despite feeling ill I had to go to a meeting with my mom that I couldn’t postpone and on the way home the sun was behind this huge cloud and the rays coming through were just beautiful. Of course I didn’t have my camera with me so my cel phone had to substitute. The world around me never ceases to amaze me and I am grateful that I got to share that moment with my mom.