What I have learned so far...

This last week I took pictures at my daycare and also for a family from my daycare.  There are a couple of things I learned...
1. A Half hour is too short for a family portrait.  We got some good photos, and I enjoyed the time, I just wish we could have done more and I think we would have come away with even better photos. It didn't help that the first 10 or 15 minutes the little girl in the family was refusing to smile, even for ice cream....
2. I need to take charge more, I let the family talk me out of taking more photos, I didn't want to push too hard, and I thank them for respecting my time, but I'm learning here, its okay if we run over for a little while.  I didn't get to do some poses that I was hoping to do, and I should have been a little more leader like.
3.  Sometimes it is just hard to get kids to hold still long enough to get a picture of them that doesn't have motion blur.  I took over 1000 pictures last week, and I'd say at least 30% have some sort of motion blur.  I need to either make my shutter faster, or find a way to keep them still long enough to get a picture with out blur.
4. I need to visit some parks and come up with a list of places that I know of that are good for taking pictures.  I haven't spent a lot of time visiting parks around here because I don't have kids, and I have places I like to go (such as Whidbey Island) that aren't places that I would take some one for photos.
5. Photoshop (and Adobe Camera Raw) rocks.  It has taken so many pretty good pictures and turned them into great pictures in my mind.  I'm a little biased, but it has been quite the lifesaver.  Pictures that were underexposed or the white balance off, have been fixed with great results.  Cropping has been great, since I've been taking lots of pictures of kids and they move I wasn't getting too close to them so I knew they would be in the frame.
I think that is enough for now.  More to come later.