Critical

So here it goes.
This weekend I went to a xmas party and decided to take my camera.
So I'm walking around shooting away, and got home with about 190 shots. After deleting the bad ones it's about 160. Not too bad.
Most of the 160 are in my eyes "OK" pics, a little adjustment here and there and everybody likes them.
Some of the pics even say something, wow, I'm getting better.
Two pictures stood out, and I really thought I had a winner there, but then I looked at them on the computer, and sure enough, the focus is not perfect, darn. Granted, prints up to 5x7 won't show it, and I'm not even going to print them at all, my friend might (since he's in them), but the fact remains, I am not as happy with them as I was before I noticed the focus, or lack thereof.
Some might say, better luck next time, others, at least you got the shot.
What bothers me is, that I could have done it better, if only I had taken a little more time. Yes it was not a photo shoot, and most pictures were made without planning and spur of the moment.
Still it bugs me. I just need to learn to slow down, but how do you slow down in a situation like that?
Besides the fact that they are slightly out of focus, am I too critical with myself. I understand that, to get better, I need to find the flaws and figure out a way to do better next time, but shouldn't I still be as happy about the pictures after finding the flaw, as I was before?
I don't know..., what do you think?

Black and White

This weekend I forced myself to shoot not only in B&W, which I just don't do, I also mounted my 50mm f1.8 and switched to MANUAL.

I played around with a few things, "making" a picture,  adjusting the settings and shooting over and over again until I had something that I felt, represented my "Vision" or Idea of what it should look like.

I think I learned a little, but I will have to repeat this a few more times until I'm certain that this exercise was productive enough for me.

On the bright side, I feel, even though I didn't accomplish (yet), what I set out to do, I'm a step, closer to actually making pictures, and not just taking them.

If anybody should read this, I hope it makes sense to them. It does to me, and maybe that's all it takes.

At the top is my favorite picture from this weekend. It's a portrait of my Dad taken at a restaurant. He just gazed out the window and it just struck me. Everything seemed to fall in place, the lighting, the position of his head, and the gaze.

Arizona sky.

D300

next book on my list.

Think before you ...

For a while now, I've been taking pictures, some good, most not so good, well maybe bad.
I always looked to technique as an answer. Maybe if I had that lens, or if I'd changed the settings on my camera, maybe if I had another flash, well that sort of thing.
I just started reading a book, "Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision", and it somehow opened my eyes to what is missing in my pictures, and maybe my life.
I don't have a vision, a picture, clear or otherwise, of what I want my pictures to look like.
Yes, I want them to look good/great. I want to hear "Wow, that's awesome", but I never really think about what I want the picture to say.
I'm reminded of the saying, "Think before you speak", and I guess it goes for photography as well. "Think before you push that button", know what you want to shoot, what you want to say.

For a while now, I've been taking pictures. It's time for me to MAKE PICTURES.