On the lengthy list of things I want to work on and improve on this year, photography is one of them.

I know my camera well and I’ve been shooting in manual mode since my first DSLR 12 years ago. I know my studio lights well and I’ve got a plethora of backdrops.

And even with all that knowledge I feel as though I’m missing something, perhaps the emotion of the photograph. You can’t hear that my child is giggling like crazy, so how can I convey that more fully in a picture. How do I frame it differently? How do I compose it differently? How do I see it differently? I go in and out of photography ruts. Sometimes I love it, I feel it  and I see “it”. And other times its a chore. I see a great moment and I pick up the camera and I can’t seem to capture it.  It’s flat. It’s boring. I’m just documenting time.

I’m not much of a post-processing (editing) person. I know you can take any photo and manipulate it to pop or to add drama. But I want the emotion to pop.  I don’t need 500 close up pictures of my kids where their eyes sparkle (although I hate to pass up the opportunity) but I want my pictures to tell stories. Stories that my kids will love to see years from now. I’ve done it a little bit in my “Childhood moments” pictures, but I want more pictures like those. Less staged beauty, more real life. More moments.

So I’m on a mission. I am going to attempt to capture life differently with my camera. I’m reading blogs and photo websites to find the inspiration. I have the technical side down but I need to focus in a new way. You may never see a difference, but I hope to see it and more importantly I hope to feel it.