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Ok, so I fell off the wagon for a while.

A long, long while.

But I hadn't really forgotten about this blog. Real life ran over me a bit during the double move from KC to Boston and then from Back Bay to South End. Follow that with some intense home improvement projects and a little bit of travel and I lost the habit.

But there were some other issues, too. I wasn't getting what I wanted out of the picture-a-day project. I mean, I learned a lot, but the returns were starting to diminish and it began to feel like a burden rather than a joy.

I found myself gaming the system. I'd see a great shot and think to myself, "I already have a picture for today...I need to save something to shoot later in the week." I was focusing on quantity instead of quality: taking pictures on days when there were few options (other than planes) and only taking one picture on days that were full of options.

And I know a craftsman never blames his tools, but my Point-and-shoot camera wasn't cutting it. It is a great camera and I was very pleased with many of my results, but I just couldn't control things that I wanted to control (aperture, shutter speed, and depth of field to name a few).

So I was thinking about revamping the project and starting again in January when I got a most surprising offer from my mother-in-law Judith. She sold me her DSLR, lenses and accessories at a generous price. She's always been supportive of my photography and I'm very grateful for that support and for the new equipment.

So we begin again on January 1st. Or more accurately the first week of January, since I'm ditching the "daily" requirement. I'm still sorting out the details, but I expect the new challenge to have requirements like these:

Focus on quality over quantity
Multiple posts per week
A monthly theme (possibly associated with amateur photography contests)

What are your suggestions?