2011 was quite the year for me.  I had been living in LA for just 3 months, I had my job for a total of 3 weeks when January of 2011 appeared.  I did not know the city of LA, and i was relying heavily on google maps to get to point a from point b.

My job throughout the day was being a SALES rep.  I had to drive from store to store throughout the city of Los Angeles.  The key was finding the stores, and finding them was the hard part.  I navigated myself through the freeway system of LA, and at times, got lost.  I have to say: THANK YOU GOOGLE MAPS FOR BEING SO ACCURATE.

2011 marked the year I was going to go out and start meeting people, and dive into my passion of photography.  One of the first shoots I went on was with the group LA Street Photography, and we were all going to walk along Hollywood Boulevard and see what we came up with.  I found out how intimidating it could be shooting with a group of photographers, and also learned fast how people view things differently.

This shot was taken later that night as my partner drove me through Hollywood Boulevard.  The dog was so cute, and it’s true, people really do bring their dogs everywhere in California.  I just always remember the TV shows of this happening, but wasn’t sure if it actually happened.  It does.

The Frolic Room, one of the oldest bars of f of Hollywood Boulevard.  I have friends that actually know the guy standing outside the bar, and have made comments when they’ve seen the pic, “hey, I know that guy.”

The Lantern Festival was held by the Chinese American museum, and brought the people together near the oldest street in LA: Olvera Street.  I’d been wanting to visit Olvera Street for quite some time, so I took myself out to the Lantern festival to shoot with other photographers.

It was a great time, and I really enjoyed being around other photographers on this outing.  I knew I wanted to do more.  So, the next outing I was invited out by another photographer to the Downtown Art Walk.  In my town, there was an art walk, and I absolutely loved it.  But the Downtown Art Walk was even bigger, and through the art galleries of downtown, a place I wasn’t nearly comfortable enough walking around alone.

It is so funny for me to look at these pictures of my first ArtWalk.  When I look back I already see how much I have improved as a photographer.  I don’t even like the picture above 😉 The first Downtown ArtWalk is pretty overwhelming to go through as a photographer though because there is just so much to see and do.  I began going to the Downtown ArtWalk for the next 5 months with this group of photographers.  Each time I would capture something completely different.

During the summer of 2011, is when I began my passion for writing.  I started to join twitter, and I ran across this website called Galtime.com.  I signed up and wrote an article about making girlfriends in LA.  The co-founder of galtime sent me an email the next morning and asked if I wanted to be a local content writer for them, and that began my journey of writing.  Well, it was the start.  😉

From there, I applied to write for SoCal.com and I began writing reviews of plays, and going to fun events throughout the city of LA to do reviews on.

One such event was entitled, “Cooking for Love” which was a fundraiser for the organization Break the Cycle.  It was a ton of fun.

All of the play reviews I have done have also been a ton of fun, and it brought my love of the theatre community completely out.

In October is when I decided to start writing my own blog, and so minnesotagirlinla was born.  I’ve been having so much fun writing in it, networking with other bloggers, and seeing all that is out there in the blogosphere.

Also, in October I began another adventure with a website called Crowned Rebellion.  It is where we interview real people who are willing to share their stories of how they came to be an artist, performing artist, musician, men and women who have overcome obstacles in their life, and everything in between.  They share their stories, their obstacles in how they got there.  Going through this experience has been truly rewarding as I get to sit down with others and hear their inspirational stories, but it’s also a reminder as how every human has a story to tell, every human has obstacles in their life, but what keeps a person going to still pursue their dreams even if they’ve fallen down?  I’m a pretty shy person, so this has helped me get out of my shell to begin talking to other people, and I’ve learned I have a love of interviewing people.

I truly look forward to what 2012 will bring me, and those around me.  I have a feeling it’s going to be a GREAT year.   This is my year in review.