My 1st Post!

My first post on my new blog! Hello and welcome!

For those who don't know me, my name is Anna Thornton and I'm 20 years old. I'm starting my junior year at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in exactly a week majoring in photography. In addition to photography I also have an interest in jewelry (mainly casting and chainmail) and will be taking a couple classes this year. I completed my first two years of college over at PrattMWP in Utica, NY. Although I did learn a lot and I started to grow out of my shell, I was extremely depressed many days, and I always felt like others weren't taking me seriously as a photographer or an artist. (I still don't think people consider me as an artist, because I fail at drawing and painting nor do I smoke or drink.. so I felt left out most of the time). It was not a fun place to live, at all. I kinda hated it, and I constantly felt like I didn't belong. But I keep telling myself everything happens for a reason, so I'm trying to forget about my 'dorm' experience there (because I don't want to forget what I learned in the studios! Just everything else).

For the past year I've been blogging about nails and nail polish, and I still do. I enjoy being able to share my addiction hobby with a bunch of others through blogging and, in addition, sharing my photos on Instagram. I enjoy it so much, that I feel the need to blog about more than just my nails. I'm starting this blog only 7 days before I leave for Brooklyn. I'm so nervous, yet so excited. This will be my first time living in the city. I wanted to make this blog to share my experience of living in the city, sharing my photos, my adventures, my life. I want to take more photos than I am now. I want to document my life more and I feel this is the best way to do so!

I feel like my life still isn't what I imagined it would be since I finished high school, and I have a strong feeling that once I get to Brooklyn, I'll be able to live my life to the fullest potential.

I want to live my live through my photography, through my camera.

Where I live now I feel trapped, not only physically but mentally. I don't own a car, nothing in my town is walking distance, and I don't have a job. Sleeping in everyday until 3 in the afternoon might be some people's definition of summer, but not mine. I've waisted too much time doing nothing. This is not what I want in life. It's been a struggle not being able to live out my life how I want to, but I'm hoping that once I see the Brooklyn bridge Tuesday morning I'll be able to start a new chapter in my life.

This is starting to sound super cheesy, but I'm really talking from the heart. I'm feeling every single emotion someone could feel, all at once. I'm super nervous, sad, excited, light headed, determined.. 

I need an outlet to release my emotions (or well, maybe not release all of them, organize my emotions sounds better) in a creative way that can help me not only share my passion but to help myself grow as a person.

I want my photography to be more than just a life-line. I want it to grow into something I can't control. I want to master everything about it. I don't want to hold back anymore.

I want my photography to become an adventure. My photographs are already turning into stories, chapters, dreams. I like to take photographs of what is around me to not only show you my perspective on life, but to show you what is going on inside my head. Not how I see things as they are, but what they could be.

I like to take a photo of my room and turn that photo into a scene from my nightmares.

I like to spend 6 hours in the darkroom just to make one print. Then do it again 5 more times.

I like doing more to a photo than just pressing the shutter.

I pour my heart into my photography. I've been very knowledgeable about many technical aspects of photography, but only within the past year have I learned how to put myself into my photography not just literally but emotionally, mentally, and psychologically. I've accomplished things within my two years at PrattMWP as a photographer that I thought I could never actually manifest into a physical photographic print, yet it still happened. And it was awesome.

I'm opening up to this blog to share with at least one person what it means to me to be a photographer. I want to share with at least one other person my stories. 

I'm a super shy person with a ton of anxiety, and I've just started to "break out of my shell" within the last year or so. I'm tired of seeing so many people my age so far ahead of me in life and wishing I was in their shoes. I want to start being a better me and I want to start now. The one thing that will never happen on my adventure is me turning into something I'm not, I'm not changing who I really am. I will change, though, my attitude on life, my social anxiety, and my confidence all through my art. At the end of my two years of going to Pratt Institute I want to be able to look back on myself and think differently, more positively about who I am and what I'm meant to be. 

Starting this blog is just the first step.

The kind of things I want to post here, just to give you an idea of what's to come;

-My cameras/equipment.

-My journey in Brooklyn through photos and words, kinda like a journal.

-My school projects as well as my personal projects.

-Anything else camera/photography related!

-Maybe I'll learn some DIY stuff I'll just have to share.

-Tutorials!

-I do a ton of reviews on my nail blog of nail polishes, so I know already how to write them and share information/opinions on products. I'd like to do that for this blog as well, especially since camera reviews on blogs are hard for me to come by!

-I want to post each day, and I want to start a daily "Photo of the Day", a short post of a photo I've taken in the past with a short description and an inspiring quote to inspire others to pick up their camera and go shoot some pictures!

I'm open to any ideas about my blog. Even though this is mostly going to be about my life in Brooklyn, if you have any ideas of things you want to see or things you think I should try, I'll be more than happy to hear about it, just shoot me an email or comment right here.

If you're still reading this, thank you for your interest in my journey! 

This is all I have to say for now!

See-ya later and thanks for reading(: