I feel like if you give me a laptop, a cup-o-coffee, and some time alone, I can tell a pretty good story.  Better yet, put me among friends, feed me, and give me the floor and I can PERFORM a good story.

 

But I am still working on telling the story with my camera.

I am probably being hard on myself.  Ugh, I say.  Do I have to “tell the story” or can I just line the kids up, put the camera settings on the dreaded green box, and yell “SAY CHEESE” and snap the picture.

I know, I know… I can just hear Me Ra’s gasp, can’t you???

What’s a mom to do?

Outsourcing.

So, I handed my $900 camera to my 4 year old son, Ty. “YOU take the pictures today,”  I say.  He beams.  I give him a quick lesson on the basics  –  viewfinder, thingy on back to look at the picture he just took, camera strap (a must!).  Then I set the camera on aperature priority and I turned on all the lights in our house and opened the curtains wide.  And I let him tell HIS OWN STORY.

Then I got out of his way.

How he sees the world made me stop.   One time a while back my then-8-year-old, Izzy said, “Adults get wrapped up in the craziest things sometimes.”  And that quote came to mind when I looked at Ty’s shots.

What he saw was not what I would have photographed.  But it was worth my time.  A fleeting moment of Daddy re-filling the ketchup bottle.

 

 

Mommy’s Desk.

 

Mommy, working on her blog and not looking her best.  But he tells me that I am the “prettiest mommy in the whole world.”  Het tells me I am “wonderful pretty.”

 

 

Part of a toy.

 

 

As Me Ra and Brian head back to Thailand, I think back to a post she wrote on how the people in Thailand really SEE kids and that Blaze noticed this.  He said he “felt invisible” in America. 

Then I thought, THIS is what my son sees.  This is his world.  This is the story he chose to tell with the camera. Although I have a need to photograph him from top to bottom AND in such a way that my love for him somehow translates into digital pixels, that is purely MY need.  HIS need is for ME to see his world the way he sees it.  And, today I did because I handed him my camera.  Today, photography taught me to slow down and really think about my child, my baby boy, and how he must see the world from only a few feet off the ground. 

He turned my paradigm of “Telling the Story” on its ear.  And I am so glad he did.  Because I think I’ll go a bit easier on myself next time I pick up my camera.  It’s not just about me afterall…

Click here to read Me Ra’s post mentioned above about Blaze feeling invisible.

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