The lils had cameras stuffed in their faces since birth.  Their lives have been well documented, and they are very comfortable having cameras in their faces.  Both have gone through phases where they balk at having their pictures taken, but for the most part they play along by ignoring me or smiling occasionally.

For Christmas last year, Woo’s cousin gave him a small digital camera. She already had one, and he had been coveting it.  He loved it and still does, using it most days.  in some ways is is perfect for him.  Designed for little hands, and rugged enough to handle the inevitable drops from those same hands.  It takes pictures and video, and he has a blast with it.  There are two things that limit it though, it is fairly low resolution/low quality lens, and the pictures are erased when the batteries die.  He really loves it.

Woo is also becoming more interested in my photography.  He was always asking questions in the fall, when I took a photography class, wanting to know why I went and what I learned.  Then he started composing pictures for me, asking that I take a picture as a memento of something or because he found a particular scene “really beautiful”, like this one (taken under his direction):

While we were away last week, he started monkeying around with the underwater camera that we had borrowed from Uncle Matt. He took a couple of funny pictures of Willy, who was hamming it up for him. Here’s one:

Then the night before last Willy was taking pictures of the lils, and Woo asked to use his dSLR.  Willy was comfortable with that, so he was allowed to do so under Mommy’s careful watch.  After a couple of false starts, he produced some more passable pictures, including this one, which I like.

I am impressed with how well he framed it, considering he was looking through the viewfinder – no live view here!  The best part of these endeavours is that he really enjoyed both the responsibility and the act of taking pictures.

So yesterday I decided to give him our old point and shoot to use. I charged the battery, plugged in a memory card and sat him down educate him on taking care of the camera and to show him how everything works.  Then I let him go.  No hovering, guiding, coaching or unsolicited help.  He’s getting the hang of it!

As I tucked him in tonight, he wanted to talk about putting the pictures on the computer, so that he could look at them all the time, when he would get to take pictures again, and how he wanted to take pictures just like Mommy.  I am so excited and proud.