From hobby to income?

One of my favorite hobbies is photography.  I'm certainly not a professional by any stretch of the imagination (I have friends who are), but I do enjoy taking pictures of my kids, my yard and my adventures in cooking/baking.  A few months ago, I decided that I really loved some of my pictures and that they might look halfway decent on the otherwise empty wall in my front living room.

I really love how this wall turned out.  One of my favorite photographs is featured in the middle:

Several other pictures are featured on either side, some from our yard and two from our trip to Massachusetts last October.

Every time I walk into this room (which is where my hubby is usually stationed at his computer), I stop to think about how proud I am of these photographs, especially since they were taken using the macro function of my tiny little Canon PowerShot SD1000.  I've thought about putting more of them up around the house, but I can't decide where to put them (it would look cluttered to add more in the living room, wouldn't it?).  A friend suggested that I should sell some of my photographs.  That thought has been stirring around in my wee little head for some time now, but I haven't actually done anything about it.

And then a sign appeared at the entrance to our neighborhood.

Newest obsession

One of my projects lately has had me out in the garden taking pictures to document the progress of my veggies, fruit and herbs. I've been very surprised at just how well they're doing. The tomatoes are getting bigger every day, I'm always finding new cucumbers on the vines, and some of my strawberries are just about ready to be picked. But that's not why I'm posting here, I've got a whole other blog for that.

No, photographing flowers/plants/etc is my newest obsession. I took a picture a few days ago of this amazing flower that is now happily blooming along my front yard. (Check out my profile picture or this blog entry for more details.) What I discovered in that picture was a need to replicate the amazing success I had with that one picture. Yes, I'm aware that it was probably just a flash in the pan (found out what that means in Williamsburg!!), but that doesn't make me any less determined to find a way to repeat it. So, I've been roaming the yard, armed with my trusty Canon PowerShot SD1000, looking at the blooms that have popped up in the last few weeks. Oh yeah, and discovering that I want a much better camera for my birthday. ;)

I have to admit, some of these pictures turned out pretty nice. I really love the first one, because it's presence was a complete surprise in our yard. I'm not even sure what it is - it's this amazing three-tiered lily that just popped up amongst the vinca that we're trying to eradicate. I like the second shot too, because Taylor and I had just watered these flowers and you can see the droplets clinging to the petals.

So what do you think? Should I continue to take more pictures or should I direct my energies elsewhere? I know, I know, that mountain of laundry ain't gettin' any smaller...