Our Family Blog: Lessons in Photography

It recently occurred to me that Adam knows a few odd, but complex (for a baby) concepts about his environment. He understands that shadows and bright spots on surfaces are made by beams of light. When he notices a shadow or a bright spot of light, he invariable looks for the source. He acquired this understanding after countless attempts to catch the light that came out of his little Fisher Price portable projector.

Another thing he picked up early on was the knowledge that the remote controls control the t.v. From the time he could reach for and hold a remote, he would squeeze it and look up to see what change happened on the television. He's since learned that you can go straight to the box (audio receiver, cable box, tv, dvd player) and muck things up there.

Adam has also developed a huge fondness for telephones. When someone is on the phone, he is right there, following from room to room if he has to, trying to get to the phone. He'll listen to the person on the other end and grunt back. If you share the phone with him, you become his best bud.

So, I figured it was time to start introducing him to other concepts, like photography. He is familiar with videos of him and will grunt or giggle when he sees himself on video, but he wasn't so impressed with pictures of himself.

My goal is to take him around the yard, house and neighborhood for photo field trips. I started yesterday by holding the camera in front of him while we photographed a few of his toys. We used Matt's point-and-shoot camera which has a digital display that will show the picture for a few seconds after the photo is taken (like most cameras). This is a great instantaneous way to show Adam what the camera does. He was quite taken with the activity. He even stood still and let me take his picture (blurry, because I was trying to hurry) after we photographed his toys.

The only problem: Adam cried when it was time to put the camera away.