Photo courtesy of Joergen Geerds at my New York book signing of Straight Up and Dirty
(Click this image, then you can zoom in)

A friend of mine has a fun new site that makes me a bit nostalgic for home.  It also makes me miss photography.  I’ve decided to focus on it again, though unlike my friend, I won’t be focusing on panoramas but on the details, the edges, and gestures within.  I miss looking at everything through a lens, deciding on how to best capture it.  Though it might be tough to balance a heavy SLR along with two children, I can at the very least, read up on photography practices.  And that’s what I do, in fact.  It’s not just about going out there and snapping away in automatic mode.  I like giving myself assignments (shooting white objects with white backgrounds, or photographing reflections or shadows only).  I like experimenting with my metering and still find white balance to be completely challenging with my Nikon D100.  I might just have to invest in a small quality camera with my Hannukah gelt, one with an immediate shutter release snap (there is nothing worse that clicking and missing the shot while the camera sets up to record an image). Since I often receive emails asking for help or ideas for photography projects, I also direct you to the site of a former teacher of mine, Jim Beecher, who covers everything from tips on photographing Christmas lights to including daily assignments to improve your work.  I like the idea of photographing the same thing each day, learning about light and mood, but I don’t know if I’d follow through with all that I have to do now.  I could make room for it, if say, I gave up television.  There’d be room for a much richer life if I did so, but I have enough changes going on this year.  Perhaps it will be my New Year’s resolution.  Perhaps, indeed.