"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all." ~ Michelangelo

Fact: I have never been accused of being creative. It just doesn't come naturally to me. I like structure. I thrive off of following the rules. Call me dull, boring, insipid - it's ok, I won't take offense, because when it comes to my artistic juices, let's just say they're lacking.

Hence, I must admit that my Horticulture 203 (Floral Design) class has been more difficult than I had preconceived. Not in the sense that I won't get an A (because I think that may be impossible, but I will have to look into the statistics to confirm that statement), but with me being my harshest critic, I expect perfection. The class is very entertaining. I am learning a lot of different flower names and types, and rules to designing, which is always a good thing to have in my back pocket for planning that wedding in my far future. But most of all, I have gained an immense appreciation for the arts. I always figured it took no skill at all to throw some flowers in a vase and charge $50 for it. Now I appreciate the amount of detail, time, and artistic creativity it takes to come up with these designs. (pictured above: week 1 design: Small Round - using Daisy Pom Pon Chrysanthemums and Standard Carnations).

At the beginning of the semester, the teacher told us exactly what flowers to use and took us step by step on how to make the design, but now we are given more freedom and are allowed to pick and choose which foliage/filler/colors we want, as long as we are effective in making the overall design. One of my favorites we did was the Triangle design (pictured left). Besides Spider Chrysanthemums being one of my favorite flowers, the arrangement was more modern, which is always fun. :) Today we had to make a hand-held bouquet, like for a wedding. It took me forever to make this little pip-squeak of a thing, and I personally was not too pleased with the end result. I would have liked to use more roses, but they limited us to 3. That sucker was not my friend - with flower heads falling off as I was squeezing the design to tie it together, or being unable to get the twisting effect of the stems - it just wasn't my cup of tea. I got a good grade on it, but I think the teacher was too kind (praise Jehovah for her mercy).

So back to the point of the blog. Now that my days as an athlete are over, I have been searching for another hobby, or avocation, if you will. My father has always been into photography, being the #1 fan at all my soccer/basketball/gymnastics/track events, probably taking close to 10,000 pictures of me over the years (Pops, what would your guesstimate be?). Well in the past year, he has been so gracious as to give me two of his old cameras, as he significantly upgraded to a Nikon D2. He handed over his old film camera (a Nikon N7o) which I used on my vacation to Greece and at Rachel's wedding (both of which I got fairly good reviews); then for my birthday, he passed down his digital Nikon D7o to me. I've had it for the past 3 months, but never used it much due to the intimidation factor. All those buttons, dials, modes. Words such as aperture, ISO, shutter speed. It's overwhelming. But recently, under the tutelage of a world-renown photographer (not yet, but probably some day), I have been studying my camera, learning the tricks of the trade, and trying to figure out how to fully use this incredible camera. Check out his work here: Spencer Selvidge and be sure to take note of his pictures of Venice.

I am not remotely close to understanding the capabilities of my camera, or yet have I developed the artistic eye, but I am a work in process. It's something I'm passionate about, much more so than flowers. Trying to capture something in a photograph that I see with my naked eye is impossible, but the challenge is thrilling and exciting to me.

So here are some of my personal favorites up to date. Nothing is frame worthy yet, but hopefully in the next year or so I will start producing some high quality photos.


Above: Academic Plaza on the campus of Texas A&M University. Muster Statue in focus, Academic Building in the background.








Pansies at the Academic Building.
























"Softly call the Muster..."

















Administration Building at Texas A&M University.









Streets of Mykonos, Greece. This entire island was picture perfect.













Dusk in Delphi, Greece.








Beautiful bride-to-be, Rachel Russell.






















Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Sok!