This month, we’re doing something a little different from our normal weekly contests. We’re simply asking you, our readers, to join us in taking a photo every day in the month of March and posting it to our Flickr group. I can’t think of a better way to get to know who you all are than following your lives for a month! We might throw in some contests on top of the 30 Day Challenge throughout March, but for now we just want to get everyone shooting. Weekly winners will be chosen from the pool.

I mentioned before that I’m coming off a year of daily photos in 2008, and I needed something to jump start me back into the photo-a-day habit without having to commit to a whole year. Because, let’s face it—a year! That’s a lot of photos. But a month? Well, that’s just about doable, don’t you think? If a month seems a little daunting to you right now, why don’t you join us anyway? Just commit to whatever it is you’re comfortable with. A photo a day for a whole week. A photo once a week for the whole month. Or just jump right in and commit to the whole month! Spring is coming. It’s calling us outside!

If you’re concerned about missing the first few days from the beginning of this month, just make them up at the end. Oh, and I know what you’re thinking—why are we doing 30 days of photos this month when March has 31 days? Hmm…good question. Why don’t you consider one of those days a freebie?

OK, on to the photo info.

Yesterday was one of those perfect almost-spring days, and I got to spend it in the park photographing a beautiful girl for her senior portraits. Loved her carefree smile! I brought all my lenses, but I ended up shooting the whole session with my Nikon 50mm f/1.8D Lens. Such a great lens for portraits! And the light (especially in the shade) was glorious.

(Photo at top) Tonight, my son was ready for his bath, but we wanted to squeeze in some dress-up play time, too. So we just killed two birds with one stone and did them at the same time. I used my Nikon SB-600 Speedlight Flash for this one, and I love the high key look it gives the shot with the light bouncing off the white porcelain. This was taken with my 50mm lens, as well. I adjusted the curves in Photoshop to enhance that high key look and then did a black and white conversion on it.

Whew. Two days down, 28 to go. Who’s with me?!