Way back in February, I mentioned Thomas’ growing interest in photography. I even promised to be more supportive of his hobby by posting some of his best photos on the blog for you guys to see. Since over four months has passed since then, I decided to do a full history of his photography for you instead of just that one day. (Coincidentally, I also happen to be stuck on a three hour plane ride- ha!)
I decided to skip over the photos that technically he "took" by hitting the shutter button on my iPhone while I was holding it and start with the photos where he was doing all the work and took it all on his own. Needless to say, my phone was constantly full of partial head shots just like this one for a few months.
His first full face shot was actually when he was playing with the iPad. I’m guessing the bigger screen made it easier for him to see what was in the field of view of the photo. Side note - he's grown so much in a year! Awww....
This one he took of Henry and I really surprised me - he got both of us in the frame and pretty level. A huge jump in progress! As a side note - if I look a little exhausted, the reason is in my arms fast asleep. Ha!
That amazing shot was followed by the return to off-kilter self portraits. Though he has most of his face in the frame, so I’d still say he’s making progress.
He at first had a tendency to use the forward facing camera and take photos of himself or the ceiling. When he switched to using the back camera, I got a lot of photos of his feet. Luckily I think his feet are pretty adorable.
Lots and lots of feet.
Then he discovered the filters that iPhones have available before you even take the photo. Cue a million photos of the same thing in different shades. Some of them actually look pretty cool - like this black and white shot of his building blocks.
The filtering on this one was a little more subtle, but since there were 10 versions, I noticed the subtleties. :) Plus I think these socks are great - half a bear face on each sock - adorable!
He started to move away from foot portraits and taking photos of things around him. His composition is obviously a work in progress, but you can certainly tell how happy Henry was that his brother was taking photos of him. :)
And I may have occasionally handed him my phone when he was getting antsy and I wanted to finish what I was doing - like finishing the most amazing hot chocolate ever. Win-win, right??
Then we switched to letting him use the real camera. I was expecting with something easier to hold the pictures would just get that much better! Or, you know, more photos of feet…
He always tells me he's going to take my picture and then aims the camera at my knees. So, being the loving mother I am, I sometimes try to help him out. Not my most flattering photo, but he was so excited he got me!
He will ask for the camera sometimes after dinner when he is done, but we are still eating. We have a pretty firm rule that no one gets to leave the table until everyone is done, so he will ask for things to do instead of just sitting there. Obviously I was the only one still eating this particular evening since Matt is coloring. I must have been taking forever...!
There started to be an uptick in Henry themed photos once he was moving around more. I guess he was more exciting to play with once he wasn't just laying there all the time. Can't blame Thomas for that. ;)
Plus if it is almost dinner time, Henry is a captive audience! This photo was actually a little bit out of kilter when Thomas took it. I didn't really do much editing on the photos, but I did straighten out some of the photos for him. He's better than I would have anticipated about keeping them even, but he still is just three years old!
I thought this one just looked neat with the light streaming in all around his artwork. I went though a phase where I hung his artwork on the door to dry. He really thought it was neat to see it on display there and obviously felt it was photo worthy. :)
This one he got when I was trying to get photos of him with his camera back in February. So this is apparently what he sees every time I am trying to get photos of him. My camera is huge and kinda scary up close!
And *the* photo of Nonni that I originally promised to post. She looks so happy, doesn't she? :)
And he got one of me where I was fully in the photo and didn't require me to squat down! What an improvement! I can neither confirm nor deny if I was throwing this ball at my son...
And in case Matt's parents are feeling left out, he got a series of photos of you both as well! You are just on the TV instead of in our house. He is a bit scattered (attention wise) when we Skype with either set of grandparents, so it makes total sense he ran off to get his camera and take photos at one point. Given the amount of toys on the floor, I think was the post-birthday show and tell of what Henry got!
Henry again! This is when he was his phase of only being able to push the fire truck backwards and was always stuck against the wall. I think he's outgrown that... He hasn't been on the fire truck as much since he gained the ability to run around like a crazy man. ;)
There are, of course, a ton of random photos every time I download his camera card. He tends to pull it out at times when I am being boring (in his mind), so there are a ton of photos of me cooking. Well, partial photos of me cooking. And it is truly love to show this awesome photo of me in my Christmas pajama pants... Surely everyone changes in to pajama pants as soon as they get home??
My little photographer! Sometimes I worry about the camera quality because a run of photos will all look bad, so I took a photo of him with his camera to test it. Turns out fingerprints on the lens and a shaky hand can mess up photos pretty easily, because this one of him is pretty sharp. But apart from that, I think he is doing great considering he's only three!
I hope he continues to take photos, because it makes me pretty proud every time he asks for his camera. :) And I hope you all enjoyed the break from the usual journaling and a slightly different photographic bent than normal. I do have to indulge the urge to brag on my kiddos every now and then... ;)