As I was sorting through some old pictures I had and putting them into photo albums, I stopped to actually look at the pictures and noticed something different about them. These pictures were from when I was younger, maybe between 8 to 12 years. Some pictures had a blurred out corner, some had part of my baby finger taking up half the view, while others were out of focus or on a weird angle, but they all had one thing in common. These pictures captured the moments of my life and how I saw them. They were candid moments that I thought were important and showed a glimpse into what I saw from the inside.
The pictures were by no means high quality or even taken with a professional camera, I actually think half of them were from a disposable camera and the other half from a 6 megapixel child’s camera, but they have so much meaning. I can remember the moments from each picture, along with all the feelings I had during those moments. At times I don’t think anyone knew I was even taking the picture and that in it’s self lets you see the true emotions in the moment.
Back then there were no filters to apply to pictures, or digital screens to preview the picture before printing. It was take a picture, hope it turned out okay, move on to the next one and find out how they looked once the film was developed. It was so simple and so innocent. You could capture a memory in its entirety and leave it exactly how it was when it happened.
After looking through all the pictures, it got me thinking about all the times Emily took my phone and started taking pictures. The pictures Emily takes may not be the most professional, but they are fun to look through and a neat way to look at her view of things. I try to keep all the pictures that she takes, but I do delete the ones of nothing or if they are really blurry.
I had an idea for a fun project for Emily a while ago and after seeing my pictures, I think it’s time to start. Once the triplets are a little older I will start the same project for them too. I want to give Emily a camera and have her take pictures of things she sees, places she goes and people she spends time with. It will be totally up to her to decide what she takes a picture of and then I will develop all the pictures for her and place them in a photo album. At the beginning I will give Emily a disposable camera until I am confident she can be responsible for a real one. Originally I thought about giving her a camera every month, but that may be a lot, especially when I start this with the triplets. So for now I think I will buy a disposable one and give it to her at random times throughout the day or if we are going somewhere for the day.
I think it would be exciting to look at all the pictures and save them for Emily to look through in a few years. It’s a way for Emily to create her own memories that she will have forever. Who knows how this will turn out. It could be a great idea and work out exactly how I envisioned it would, or it could be the worst idea and I am left with pictures of absolutely nothing, that I have just spent tons of money on getting developed. Either way it will be something fun to start for Emily and a new way for her to learn.
In the meantime, I purchased a camera for Emily from a For Sale group on Facebook for $5 and she loves it! It’s only a plastic Playskool one, but it does take real pictures, I just have to figure out how to get the pictures on the computer. Emily has been taking pictures of everyone since I got it for her a month or so ago and its neat because you can view the pictures on the wall with just a little switch on the camera. It’s good practice for the real thing soon!
I am going to go out and get a disposable camera right away and have Emily start to take her pictures. Once I have developed the first set of pictures from the camera, I will share how everything turned out, so stay tuned!
The Baby Gang 