Some improvement already

My assignment in photography this long weekend is to take 30 pictures. Normally probably not a problem, but with how busy we are in the mornings and evenings, I haven't been able to go outside to take pictures because I just don't want to be in the heat. But since it's Monday and I still hadn't taken a picture, I decided I better do some work inside until I can go out this evening when, if I'm lucky, it will be a little bit cooler. One of the things that I really want to photograph well (and currently suck at), is taking pictures of my cards and other things that I make. So I've been reading up this afternoon and then made my first attempt. I'm really pleased with the result:

  

I really hope I get better than this, and I know it still needs lots of work, but I thought it was pretty good for a first try. Just for fun, here are a couple of the other pictures I took (I didn't edit these) just because I wanted to try out some perspective and blur shots:

 

When I told Lindsay how you could use blur to make someone appear to be a ghost, she had to try it out.

 

In this it's pretty obvious to me that my living room downstairs is going to need some things in it so I can turn it into a studio whenever I need. But I thought it would be a cool perspective to get Cole playing with his toys.

 

This morning was our pancake breakfast and auction fundraiser so Cole's uniform was out and I thought I would try to be artistic with it. I didn't get what I wanted out of the shot, but again I think I need some things in my living room so that I can be better equipped to get what I want (like some sheets to drape over the coffee table on this one so that I could widen the shot). You can also tell I'm experimenting with the lighting I'm getting from outside and the windows near the table I was using was getting too much direct light, so I might have to try this again in the morning. 36 photos left (and I've taken over 30 just to get these four!).