I used to be strolling via a botanical backyard with my six-year-old once I handed him an inexpensive point-and-shoot digital camera – and what he stated jogged my memory of the rationale that I fell in love with images within the first place.
A smile on his face and the brand new screen-free Camp Snap 2 in his arms, my kindergartener stated, “I’m going to take pictures of all the pretty things – and that means you too, mom!”
Naturally, being lumped in with “all the pretty things” made me smile. But then I watched him take footage, and I used to be reminded of the digital camera’s energy as a software for slowing down and noticing easy magnificence.
Walking via a botanical backyard with an abundance of various crops and flowers, the photographs of “all the pretty things” in line with a six-year-old was not the plain blooms – although there was loads of that, too.
His list of “pretty things” included a dandelion – yes, the “weed” that most gardeners pull, which he was ecstatic to find among the weaving paths.
I wouldn’t have stopped to take a photo of a dandelion, nor would I have photographed the stamped pattern in the old sidewalk, nor watched long enough to find the frog in the pond.
Photographers could be described in many different ways, but I think photographers are also Noticers of Things. Painters create art from nothing; photographers seek out the beauty in the world and frame it – and sometimes turn the mundane and even ugly into a work of art.
Sure, there are lots of photographers who create from scratch by building their own sets, props and scenes, but photography as a whole is a way of framing the beauty that already exists.
Kids have a way of being fascinated by the things that adults take for granted. If you want to appreciate the everyday, watch a baby’s reaction to ceiling fans and light switches, or a toddler’s fascination with remote controls and cups.
If you want to stop and take in nature, bring a kid on your hike – your speed will slow to a crawl, but you’ll spend more time noticing and appreciating the things you would have just walked by before.
Kids make me appreciate the small things that I may have overlooked otherwise – and nothing quite highlights this like giving a kid a camera.
Last week wasn’t the first time that I gave one of my kids a camera – and it won’t be the last. If you want to keep a child entertained on a hike or a walk through a garden, a camera is the one piece of technology that will help them slow down.
I love photography because it forces me to slow down in the fast-paced world – and nothing reminds me of that quite like taking a photo walk with a child still enamoured with all the small things, dandelions and all.
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