The most egoistic blog post ever? Month in review! Why? Because it does good more to me than to anyone else. I tend to forget things, especially the little things that make my life good now and “month in review” kind of entries helps me capture all that and be able to recall it later on. I like to stop and look back only to realise that I am actually pretty happy in my life and should stay grateful for what I have.
Morning darkness
January was the last month when I enjoyed the morning darkness. As much as I am looking forward to the long and sunny spring and summer evenings, I actually liked walking to my office in the morning and watching the city still covered in dark blue. I will miss that mysterious atmosphere.
Kraków and wedding photography
January kicked off with a lot of good vibes. I had a chance to realise one of my plans for 2017: I worked as a wedding photographer. To shoot a wedding, I had to travel to Kraków, where I spent three days with my kindred spirit, Roksana. We also met Luu and spent a nice evening eating sweet buns and drinking tea. One of the most heavily discussed topics was the curves in Lightroom and different shades of black.
While I was in Kraków, I also met a fellow travel blogger and a tourist pilot, Mateusz Birówka. We used to know each other only virtually, from the blogs, and my visit to Kraków was a good opportunity to finally meet face to face. I discovered that Mateusz shares my keenness to use juicy words every now and then.
My photographs printed out
In January, I also designed and printed my first photo book in cooperation with Saal-Digital. Seeing my photographs printed motivated me to finally organise my folders with photos and also print out some of them. What’s more, I turned back to my analogue camera. This time, however, I am planning to shoot more of everyday life instead of just trips or the city. When I browsed through the catalogues of my photos in the past 3 years, I found almost none from my daily life. It’s a pity because I would actually like to remember my past. The plan is to shoot at least 10-15 analogue photographs each month.
Balkan-blog meeting
Sometime in the mid of the month, I also met Iza from Moja Albania blog. Our meeting started in a pretty funny way: we weren’t sure what we looked like so once I arrived at the cafe, we both stood in front of each other for a few seconds and stared before realising it’s us. The outcome of this meeting is that I’m going to talk about solo female travel in Albania, Macedonia, and Kosovo in a week’s time during travel show in Poznań. Some other travel bloggers have also been invited.
My first climbing wall
As you can see, I did quite a lot of things for the first time in January. I am now wondering if I will be able to keep up the pace for the rest of the year. In January, I also went climbing for the first time. I was convinced that I wouldn’t even be able to approach the wall, but it turned out that not only did I climb to the top, I also didn’t feel any particular fear.
Three blonde girls conquering Giant Mountains
The ending of the month was pretty sweet too. Together with Ela (niesmigielska.com) and Paulina (obrazkiblondynki.pl), we went to the Giant Mountains (you can read the post here) and spent wonderful three days hiking, eating (sweets!), drinking hot tea, talking about life and all the other things. In terms of priorities, it was a perfectly synchronised weekend.
Working on my portfolio (and how not to get crazy)
In the meantime, I was busy working on my portfolio. When you try to combine working full time, visiting the gym, and doing all the other “life” things, your own projects may get delayed. I was planning to have the portfolio ready by mid-January. It’s mid-February and I still need a few more days to complete my website and publish my new fan page. So be prepared, in the next few days you’ll see the fruits of my work.
January was a woman
When I look back at January, it appears to my that this month was a woman. I was surrounded by so many amazing women that I can only be grateful for that. We share quite a lot of priorities and outlook on life and photography. I am now thinking about my photographing friends (Roksana, Luu, Iw, Anna) with whom we speak nearly every day despite the fact we are all scattered all around Poland. I am also thinking of Paulina and Ela who made that last weekend of January really amazing. It was fun, but it was also honesty and some good talks.
Challenges and hardships
When it comes to challenges and some more difficult moments I can think mostly of the feelings of being in a hurry and frustrated that I am doing less than I should. I was getting angry over my computer being too slow or having a pile of photographs that I need to work on because deadlines were approaching. I was feeling frustrated because this blog, Floating My Boat, didn’t get as much attention from me as it should have. And that going to the gym took so much time but at the same time it’s something I don’t want to give up on. I was angry that I am not able to focus and prioritise one thing only but am putting down fires and trying to do everything at once. And this made me very tired.
Summing up, this was my January. Despite some challenging moments and this annoying, permanent feeling of running out of time, it was a good month. So many positive things happened that the challenges seem to fade away when compared with all the good things that happened and inspiring people that were somewhere around me. Also, when you have a goal in mind, it’s so much easier to keep going against all odds.
