Wow — this Photo a Day challenge is hard work! When we first started I thought, “How hard can it be to pull out my camera every day and get just one photo?”

Answer is: VERY hard! The problem isn’t getting a shot, it’s getting a shot that matters, or that I feel is actually good enough to post. But that’s the discipline of it. I’m half-way through the challenge and I’m already realizing that I’m looking at everything around me differently. When the light hits something cool or when my daughter tries something new, I think, “Could that be my next photo?”

Not being a professional photographer (I’m as novice as it gets, folks), I feel like I’m looking at everything with a photographer’s eye these days. And, if for nothing else, I think that’s a great reason to join the challenge. Getting some fun, random photos out of it isn’t such a bad outcome though, I must admit.

So, while I’ve missed two days so far out of 15, I started a little earlier than most people, so let’s just call it even. I know it’s officially Day 16 for me, but let me catch up first with my Thursday and Friday photos, Day 14 and 15.

Day 14 — the zebra — was taken through a glass window into a gallery at the art school where I work. I haven’t actually checked out the art show of which this zebra is part, but I’m told he’s a fake. Whew! Camera on automatic, so there’s not much to say. Although I adjusted levels in Photoshop to even out the washed-out color in the original.

Day 15 — The Daughter’s new hat. The background was really dark because I decided to use flash. There were also some distracting objects in the shadows behind her. So, again, I jumped into Photoshop, this time cutting the background out and making it black. Not sure the black works with the bright colors, but it’s better than the original background noise.

Any thoughts?