January 1, 2009 started a new beginning for me as a photographer.

Having spent a lot of my free time in 2007 and 2008 helping clean out my parents house,
making the seemingly countless decisions of "keep it" or "throw it", and the many, many hours of sorting, cleaning, repairing, painting,
and the constant reliving of family memories (good and bad)
it seemed that towards the end of 2008 that I was becoming emotionally and physically drained.

I realized that I was "burned out". I would go for many days sometimes without picking up a camera to take pictures for myself.

I actually wondered if I could still "see" photographically. I wondered if I could still make interesting images.

I was always intrigued with the idea of the Photo A Day gallery on Pbase, and the 365 projects on Flickr, but I was always a bit intimidated with the commitment involved.
Realizing that it could help me to get "unburnt" I decided to start it this year.
I am very thankful that I did.
It makes me pick up my cameras everyday, search my surroundings (wherever I am) for images that catch my interest.
It is the best thing I could have done.

One side benefit from doing a Photo A Day gallery was that when asked if I was interested in having a show
of some of my work in the Oklahoma State Capital this summer I had a lot of very fresh work to draw from.

I have been so impressed by many photographers on pbase and other sites. I hope that I am able to see things differently, and if I am it is partly because the
the time I have spent looking and being inspired by other peoples work.

Stephen King in his book "On Writing" says that the only way to become a good writer is to write a lot and to read a lot of work by other authors.
It is the same with photography. You must take a lot of photos, and you must look at a lot of images by others.

I hope you enjoy my humble attempt to show some of the things my eyes have noticed.