Always Be Shooting

I'm certain I'm not alone among fellow shutterbugs in slacking off from time to time and letting my cameras collect dust or wither away in their bags when going out to shoot just seems like too much trouble. For me, my  excuses are always "fatigue" from a long day of sitting on my butt at the day job, too many obligations to family or household or the overwhelming appeal of another half-hour in front of the television. I'm a victim of Newton's first law of boredom; when I'm bored I tend to stay bored unless acted on by an outside force (usually my wife) and I get off my duff and pick up a camera.

Last Saturday could have come and gone without incident just as so many other days did if not for the encouragement of my wife; I'd been out painting my father-in-law's house for the third weekend in a row and heading back I was grumpy, frustrated and exhausted at the fact that not only had I missed out on those previous, precious weekends but also that I had even more work on the house to do. The last think I wanted to do that night was make pictures. On the drive home we passed by a little, ghetto carnival set up in a shopping center parking lot, the lights caught my eye and I off handedly mentioned how there would be some great shots in there. My wife said "why don't you come back out here after the kids go to sleep and just shoot it?" Instantly I threw one of my default excuses out, "meh, too tired. meh, my feet hurt. meh, fire ants..."

We got home and my choices were either go to bed cranky or go out shooting. Here's the result of my decision.

View the rest of the set here.