The Photo A Day Challenge is back, and I’m in. I really can’t believe I’m committing to this. Was it really only a year ago that all the kids were doing this? Time totally flies. Just when you think it’s safe to put down your camera and take a rest (or a straight-out sabbatical, as was the case with Shooting the Kids over the last few months), the fine folk at DP Blogs roll out the challenge.

Bring it, I say! I’ve been allowing myself to get so busy and distracted that I’ve been letting my camera sit untouched for days at a time. I’m ready for a good challenge to get me back in creative mode.

Last year, this challenge forced me to pick up my camera and shoot something (anything!) every day for a month, whether I had the time or not (hence the many after-dark shots I ended up posting) and, just as importantly, whether I was feeling creative or not. And really, that’s what photography is about, right? Just showing up and shooting. Talent and creativity count for something, but you can’t get anywhere without a little discipline.

You should definitely try it this year with us! Stephanie at I Speak Film laid out the ground rules, which are super easy:

• Take a picture every day
• Each day, upload your picture to Flickr in the DP Blogs.com Photo Challenges Group
• Tag your images with “30dayphoto”
• If you like, please also include in your Flickr notes some information about the creation of your image. Let us all learn from your cool pictures.

If you need a little help getting started, check out our photos from last year’s challenge on our projects page to get a feel for the types of things we shot. And in case you’re wondering about the goofy little orange guys above, those are our funny little Alessi salt and pepper shakers we received as a wedding gift. They’ve seen wear over the years, but I still love the heck out of them.