In early January I had the extreme pleasure of attending Mystic 5, a photography conference in Connecticut put on by Walter Van Dusen. I confess: it's my first photography conference ever. I enjoyed many of the speakers, took lots of notes, and had the chance to network a bit with fellow professionals.

I left energized, in awe, and humbled. It's amazing how much talent there is in the world. I should really stop being so jealous of others' talents and successes; I could waste some serious time, since there's no shortage of masterly photographers to admire.

When I packed up and left, I had filled several pages of my notebook with frenzied scribbles. I left with loads of ideas and things to try from the technical to the personal, from customer service to camera gear. It's going to take awhile to try everything on.

I also left with a little piece of Jerry Ghionis' educational product: PicPockets (the Ordinary to Extraordinary set). Perhaps not the smartest investment I could make with my limited cash flow, but purposeful nonetheless. As a busy working mom, it's tough to sit down and complete long computer tutorials, to make space in my home to experiment the way I want to, or take time to read a manual on photography.

So, I've alloted myself one card per day--one little piece of photographic inspiration--that will help to create the mental habit of looking for ways that I can manipulate the existing (less than ideal) environment to create dramatic or unusual images. Being in the practice of analyzing my environment with a photograph in mind is vital. It's the photographer's equivalent to an athlete's stretching session: warm and tone your creative muscles, and you'll get better results when the pressure is on.