I took this image last week when it rained and rained and rained some more. It’s not a great image, but it demonstrates what I wanted to share with you. This first shot captures mood. I wanted to capture the feeling of the rain as opposed to the rain itself. So I focused on the drops on the window of my daughter’s room. Then I brought it into photoshop and played with a vintage polaroid action, and some shady edges to make it feel real dark and gloomy.

Now the shot SOOC or straight out of camera. No photoshop.

And finally, a snapshot of what the scene really looked like. How boring!

Now I set out with the goal to take a picture of the rain for my project, and I didn’t feel like getting wet. So I stayed inside and found a way to focus on the details. So next time you take a photo, try capturing the mood of what your shooting as oppposed to just taking a pic by focusing on the details.

Yes I know, I missed yesterday for my post a day for 30 days. I’ve flaked already. Bummer. I thought about it around midnight while I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep and figured since it was already past midnight I missed it anyway and could do it in the morning. How’s that for procrastination? So maybe I’ll post twice today, lucky you.

Yeah, so I’ve been on a bit of a blogging hiatus lately. They are terrible really, my blogging skills. But I have given myself a new challenge, two challenges actually. One is to blog every day for the next 30 days. Shocking I know, but I figured it’s a good way to get me jump started. I have so many sessions that I never blogged that I am so excited to share, so that will pretty much cover the next 30 days.

The second challenge is what I call Project 52. Last year I completed Project 365 which was to take one picture a day for the entire year. It was hard, very hard. And I did miss a few days here and there, but overall I was very proud of my accomplishment! Mind you these were not fabulous quality photos. Often they were just snapshots taken with my point and shoot and dare I say, the flash! This year, I’m not quite as ambitious. My project this year is to take one picture a week and share it on my blog, hence Project 52. These will be mostly personal pics of my family, etc. I also plan to take some artistic images and share those too. I’ll often highlight composition details and share photo tips and tricks that I use to make my images better. Come along with me and maybe I can teach you some photo tips along the way!

Anyway, enough talk…here’s the first one. I’ll post 3 over the next few days to get myself caught up from January 1st.

My son, using his very favorite gift from Santa!