Chasing Dreams

Have you ever thought what it takes to compete at the games and win a medal?

I have read you don’t win the fight in the ring under the lights, in front of the cheering crowd, and with the late push off the mat, but you win running in the rain early in the mornings, sweating in the grungy gym, and having no one there cheering you on.

The reality is no one won a medal here at the games.  They won it through 4 years or more of hard work and training.  I was so annoyed the other day when a commentator said that some one’s girlfriend winning gold would push them to win one of their own.  Come on years of training is negated because of that. No way.

For myself the photography has pushed me to the edge of my skills.  You have to go with what you practiced for years.  The different lighting I have seen here are hockey arena nose bleed height, skating arena, curling rink, outside at night, fire at night, fire at day, buildings, portraits, landscape, concert stadium, sunny, overcast, rainy, in a plane, on a train, in a bus, bobsledding going by you at 150 km/hr, museum, self portrait, running to catch Gretzky, spots on your sensor, sunsets on oceans, aquariums, etc.  My point is all of this took different skills to accomplish.  I normal don’t cover such a variety.  Today I had to remember how to freeze 150km/hr (push the shutter speed, allow the camera to go higher in ISO, and adjust the exposure metering).  A lot of the time I only had a few moments if not secounds to set the camera up to catch the shot.  Again all those camera club meetings, reading magazines, going out whenever I could to take pictures, and just tips and tricks from others prepared me for my Olympic moment (side note I am thrilled with this shot, I would say this alone would make the trip worth it).

I have been doing a lot of pondering about what is I want to accomplish and what dreams I want to pursue now.  Evaluating priorities, and my daily routines.  I realized the pace I was pushing in the fall was burning me out.  It also was not really moving me in the directions I wanted to. So a few things I am going to do differently when I get home are in no particular order:  start reading again – i have been working a way at a book while I have been out here which it has been a while since I have read for me, keep blogging – i rather enjoy my creative outlet to work through my thoughts even though I doubt my subject matter will be as cool as the games like i said I enjoy it,  work on taking more pictures – I honestly hadn’t shot a picture for me since October,  actually learning my school work and not just blasting through it to get the marks,  spend more quality time with people who matter.  There are no surprises here. Honestly I wrote out a list of goals and posted them on the blog at New Years.  My point in this long rant is that it is what you do daily which determines what you will able to do when the time comes.

As I have asked before at the end of other posts what dream are you chasing.  Don’t feel like you need to share it for the world to see but I do strongly encourage you to look at your daily routine and see if it will lead to your goals and dreams.  Go ahead chase the dream in your heart.  The adventure is worth it.

Brian