Indianapolis Lifestyle Photographer | Project Ten

Hi group, I’m Casey, … of casey and her camera. And I have some AWESOME news to share with you all.

Let me take you back a year to October 2013 when I first discovered Project Ten and reached out to Jessica to inquire about joining the ‘movement’. I studied photography (and art/education) in college and felt that I was missing that artist connection to my work. I wanted to get back to communicating through my images and picking up my camera for personal use in between jobs.

I was invited to join the Challenge Group and began my projects. I participated consistently until July of this year when I missed my first theme. And then another, and another, and … well, you get the idea, and now we’re here. You see, my life has been a mess since July… how convenient for me to be jumping into the blog circle with this theme!

When I set my 2014 goals, I listed on my goal sheet (that happens to be sitting next to me) that I wanted to ‘be invited to Project Ten’… as in the blog circle. A month ago I received a message from Jessica inviting me to do just that… and to take on the project, as well. The previous blog circle participants have been running this project for 2+ years now and have very full lives and have found that they can no longer balance they project. You will still see them in the group, participating, but they are stepping out of the spotlight and a new circle of us are stepping in! We hope that you will enjoy getting to know us and we look forward to seeing your work!

It’s a bittersweet thing – I have greatly admired Jessica, Sophie, Emily, Sarah, Matt, and Juliana’s work over the last year that I have been cheering from the sidelines, and am beyond words to describe how honored I am to take this project on and support you all in our shared passion to create art that speaks. If you’ve never read the book Art & Fear, I suggest you check it out – I’m reading it for the umpteenth time and each time it speaks to me in a different way – both as an artist and a professional.

When Jessica asked me if I wanted to take on the project, my heart LITERALLY skipped a beat. I think I just stared open mouthed at the computer for a bit. My life has been fantastically packed to the brim with activity since we found out we were moving back to the midwest – hence me dropping off the map in the challenge group. I wasn’t sure I’d even have time to participate, much less coordinate, but I knew I couldn’t say no. So when I found out the theme for this month was mess, I felt a bit more at ease. That’s easy – that’s what my life has been for the last four months – and a hot one at that.

Four months ago, we found out that we were moving back to the midwest… and it came a bit unexpectedly. Within the last 90 days, we moved, our cat died, we bought a house, moved in, have redone the entire first floor and are starting on the second, landscaped the entire yard, I traveled twice for my ‘day’ job, and three times for my business, and are getting ready to host Thanksgiving at our new home in two weeks. My life is a mess, my house is a mess, my emotions have been a mess, my hair is a constant mess (and if you see it fixed it’s because I’m trying to give off the impression that it’s NOT a mess and that I have everything (and myself) in control) and yet I’m oddly at peace with everything.

I worried about moving back here for a variety of reasons, but I’ve felt surprisingly fulfilled and happy with the entire situation (minus the cat part – hence my emotional mess). I thought about sharing photos of our house, our yard, my travels, etc. with you, but when it came down to it, I decided I wanted to focus more on me and less on the externals. Especially since many of you are just getting to know me for the first time.

So I took a ‘time out’ for myself to represent mess through the juxtaposition of ‘getting clean’. It all happened sort of unintentionally, but it works. Mind you, I’ve never been so scared holding my camera over a body of water (ok, tub) in my life. Once I was done, I had to call my husband up to move my camera a safe distance away from the tub because I was having horrifying visions of the side of the tub giving way and a tsunami of water just pouring out onto my camera sitting innocently on the ground as far away as I could manage to get it. I wasn’t the slightest bit concerned about what this would mean structurally for our new home – only my camera. I’m sure you can all relate. 😉

And what drove the point home, is that he walked in and exclaimed ‘what are you doing!?’ and ‘you never do this!’ in relation to RELAXING and the fact that we have 1.4 million things to be doing and taking a bubble bath is not one of them.

Despite my mess of a life, I’m grateful to have this project which (in turn) forced me to relax yesterday for sake of my series of images. It really helped me realize that despite the mess, we do need to take a time out… and frequently… to take care of ourselves. The only times I have not felt a hot mess in the last few months are when I have gotten myself together to head out to a shoot. Once I’m home and uploading/editing, though, it’s a whole other story. Hah!

While busy season for photographers begins to slow down, I know there are many of you who can relate to me our there. Then throw a move and a home-purchase into the mix and you have yourself a mighty-fine mess… and one I would trade ANYTHING in the world for… except maybe the cat part. 😉

I’m happy to introduce you to some of the other blog circle participants that will be taking on this project with me – stay tuned next month to meet the whole crew! As for this month – let the circle begin! And may the odds be EVA IN YOUR FAVA as you check out Erica’s post on mess! Stephanie will be joining us, as well, but had some technical difficulties today – stay tuned for her post later this week!

Looking forward to seeing your ‘mess’ posts, as well!

Project Ten | casey and her camera