Another image of the mundane

I feel somewhat compelled to take pictures of routine items that are often overlooked as we go through the paces of everyday life.

Why I do this is more due to my lack of photographic skill than anything else: very soon after I got my first camera, I became frustrated at how long it took me to compose each picture. I was new to the world of photography, and as a result still wasn't comfortable with f-stops and shutter speeds. My camera had a zillion buttons on it, and each one of them demanded to be set just so before I could take the shot.

Needless to say, I was so busy fiddling with the thing that fast-action pictures were out of the question for the first couple of years. So I sought out stuff that didn't move - and wouldn't disappear in the minutes it would take me to set things up.

These days, I'm a lot more comfortable shooting quickly, and following our munchkins around has helped me become a much better fast-action photographer. But a part of me still enjoys creeping up on more sedentary subjects. They give me the time to come up with perspectives that might remain invisible if I didn't take a little more time.

In the end, the pictures still take that same fraction of a second to commit to memory or film. But I still enjoy the peaceful few minutes it takes to think about what - and how - I'm going to capture the scene.

Your turn: What other mundane images - aside from my minivan's tail light, of course - merit your - and my - photographic attention?

Click on the picture for a higher-resolution view.