Today is the one year anniversary of my first post on What Next Photography and Graphic Arts! To celebrate, I thought I would explain how the blog came to be, give you some background about me, and share a few of my favorite pieces. I’ve been drawing since I was in college and took a class that was something “non science” to fulfill credits needed at my liberal arts college. It sounded like it would be fun and not too time consuming (I was dead wrong about THAT part!). I discovered that I actually had a bit of talent and enjoyed it much more than I had anticipated. It was also a great way to relax when I was totally stressed out, so I found myself continuing after the class finished. Back before vet school I also used to go to quite a few festivals and art fairs and did reasonably well.

Once I started vet school there wasn’t loads of time for much else, and my weekend schedule as a vet student was quite erratic. I opted to work weekends when I could at the animal hospital where I had been working before vet school. I still continued to do some artwork for relaxation, but the time for that was even very limited. After graduating with a $100,000 student debt I worked at the veterinary hospital all week and some weekends and did vaccination clinics on any weekend I wasn’t at the hospital. The time for artwork became extremely limited, but I dabbled when I could. I kept up that schedule for nearly 10 years before the traveling for clinics got the best of me (and a change in the company’s management, didn’t help, either. Not that the new management was bad, but I had become good friends with the old owners, and it just wasn’t quite the same). I also changed practices and got a pretty healthy raise and a four day work week.

After I settled into the new practice and started having some time to myself, I started exploring the woods around me, and started taking some pretty awful photos. The goal being to begin using some of my own photos as reference images for artwork. I discovered that I enjoyed taking photos almost as much as drawing, and I do absolutely LOVE my nature walks. But I didn’t really get serious about photography and learning how to do more than shoot snapshots until a few years ago, and at the beginning, a lot of those pictures were really bad, too! But as I improved I started considering sharing some of my photos, and even maybe starting a blog. It took most of another year for me to get the courage to actually do it. When I finally hit publish on that first post, I was literally shaking.

It’s been a wild, crazy, and very interesting journey this past year, and it’s had some ups and downs, but I’m so glad I did it! I have “met” some incredible people online who have been amazingly supportive and helpful. I have read and began following some very impressive photographers and artists from all over the world. I have learned soooo very much about blogging, photography, drawing, and wildlife and wildflowers. It’s been an incredible year, and I look forward to starting on year number two tomorrow! None of this would have been possible without all of you guys; my subscribers. I’m so grateful to all of you, and I look forward to another awesome year together. If you have suggestions for things you would like to see or read about, or any suggestions to improve the blog, please leave comments below. Your input helps to guide me, and is very important to me! Once again, thank you al!!!

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