Sorry about the cheesy title. Chris suggested it. And, well, I love the cheese. So it stuck.

I’ve not been around the blog lately. But not because I haven’t had any photos to post. I think it’s quite the opposite. I jumped into a personal challenge for 2008 with A Year Of Pictures over at Flickr, and I’m up to my ears in photos lately.

You might remember, I got a cool new camera last summer and some fun photo accessories for Christmas, and as of January I still only had a handful of good pictures to show for it. So I decided it was time to take this little hobby of mine up a notch and improve my skills. The only way I have ever been able to see any kind of improvement in my photography (or in any area of my life where I’m trying to gain ground) is through consistency. And the only way I’ve ever been able to be consistent is to publicly commit to something.

I’m already over 50 days into my challenge and going strong. And yes, I’ve already wanted to throw in the towel about 50 times, too. But I’m still at it. And I decided it’s time to start sharing some of those photos with all of you. Enter Friday Foto Fun! I’ll likely post a weekly round-up of sorts here or pick a photo theme for the week and go with that.

This week’s theme: our crazy Southern California weather. And by crazy, I just mean, “Oh wow, we’ve had any weather at all! How unusual.”

The photo above is of a break between rainstorms. The view from my backyard. Below are photos from all the varying stages of winter in Southern California.