craving creativity

A few days ago I found this article with before & after examples of 15 photographs that had been processed in Lightroom, along with brief descriptions of what had been adjusted for each one.  I haven't spent much time processing my photos in the past, well, 10-11 months, and reading that articles and looking through the pictures reminded me of how I've been missing it.  It got me thinking about how I may want to finally upgrade to Lightroom 3 (I keep hearing how awesome the noise reduction tool is.... would be so nice to have); how I want to photograph subjects other than my children (I love taking pictures of my kids, and if I may say so myself I think I take damn good pictures of them... but still, it'd be nice to experiment with other subjects from time to time); and I want to explore and experiment more with post-processing (for example, learning more about and becoming more comfortable with Develop panels like Split Toning and sharpening tools).

The main problem here, of course, is finding the time for all this.  These days it's all I can do to offload pictures from the camera and add keywords before sharing them on flickr.  But I miss taking time to play with a photo and create something beautiful with it. And, the only way to improve my photography & processing skills is to practice them.

So.  Not entirely sure how I'm going to do this, but I want to make a point of making time for photography again.  I figured that by now, by the time Q was close to a year, I'd have more time for myself.  Unfortunately that does not seem to be turning out that way.  His overnight sleep is basically about the same as a newborn right now, in that I never know how much time I'll get in the evening before he wakes again (this past week it was often at 9 or 10pm, after finally getting both kids down by 8pm).  Yet he barely ever takes daytime naps anymore, or if he does they're short (30mins).  Having the nanny helps, but most of her time here is taken up by both of us getting the kids fed and then to bed.  It's really frustrating having so little time for, well, anything.  But I think I need to make this more of a priority, maybe making time on the weekends.

These pictures were taken months ago.  I found them this morning and snagged a few minutes to play with them a bit while Zach wrangled the kids.  It felt kinda nice to do.  Hopefully I can keep it up.