New books, new lens and stagnation

Its not that I haven't been using my camera since the first of the year, the problem is the subjects haven't really been something that I feel is appropriate to share in this venue. They've all been very personal.

On the left is a picture I took of my youngest daughter. My wife really likes the pictures they always take of the kids of families that get the new houses on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

I really want to get better at taking pictures of the kids. This one seems to have captured her natural joyous side.

One of the hard parts in doing shots like this was keeping Mom out of the scene. She was alway trying to straighten things and just kept telling her that if you want pictures that look natural, you can't stage them.

"Photo Idea Index", by Jim Krause, one of the books I got for Christmas, is full of some really cool ideas and experiments. Our family is going to be going through some adjustments over the next few weeks. I might take some free time that this is loosening up and attempt to practice a section a week from this book as an exercise and a reason to get creative. I haven't been feeling all that creative lately.

Also, next weekend, Brenda and I are heading to Fargo, ND for the MN state poker championship. Of course the camera is coming along. Travelling always seems to bring out the photographer in me. I've also wanted to shoot a poker tournament. Unfortunately, that will conflict with the reason I'm going up there. In order for me to photograph the tournament, I'll need not be in the tournament, and that's just not going to happen.