After about eight months of photography, I found myself getting a little tired.  I needed something new to rejuvenate my interest.  Having listened to podcasts and read all the websites for more than a year at that point, I felt like I was just getting the same information over and over and over again.  (I’ll talk about photography magazines someday; it’s even worse there.)

So I bought a flash.  The Canon 420 EX II flash. It’s not the top of the line model, mostly because it was $100 cheaper.  But it’s changed how I look at my photography.  I see the light more now. I take better indoor pictures. I experiment with off-camera lighting.  I even got a paid gig once doing indoor photography that came out half-decent BECAUSE I had that flash.  Without it, everything would have been blurry (slow shutter speed), grainy (high ISO), or dark (not enough light).

Now, the flash isn’t a heck of a lot of use when I’m outside taking pics of birds or the landscapes, but for everything else, it’s a wonderful thing.

So if you’re getting bored or tired with your photography, try something new.  Whether it’s a new lens, or a flash, or a computer program to organize/edit your pics, give it a shot.  It’s relatively easy — if not always cheap — to breathe new life into your hobby.

Pictured: Test pic using off-camera flash. Taken during a break in my daughter’s six month photo shoot at home.