Snapshots in Nature

Photo courtesy of Henry Aiello.

Thanks to new technology, taking beautiful photos is easier than it has ever been before. An iPhone, for example, can take pictures that are as high-quality as a Canon Rebel. And with an array of photo editing tools available for free online—like pixlr.com—each of us can become an expert photographer. I love taking photos of my children and of nature, just like many people do. And because it’s so simple to create something amazing these days, I am addicted to photography.

It’s also an excuse to get outside. Scanning the landscape for artistic images occurring naturally outdoors, and then snapping them in the perfect light, from the perfect angle, is a calming activity for me. Plus, it's creative. Even though each of us has the tools to produce flawless photos, it doesn't mean we're all producing the same thing. We each still see things in different ways, which means the way we take personal photos and the subjects we choose for personal photos allow us to express our unique selves and the varied ways each of us sees the world.

Children are no different. In fact, they see the world with fresh, innocent and curious eyes—through the same eyes we all once saw the world, but that time and life have changed in us. That’s why I love to hand the camera over to Henry and watch him as he walks through the woods, taking photos. I like to see what he is drawn to, and hear the way he talks about why he wants to capture a certain image in a certain way.

Henry loves to take close-up shots (another reason why I turn him toward nature and away from candid shots of mom, for example), and he has an eye for finding and photographing intricate textures found in nature like the mossy, peeling bark of an old tree, or the slick green gloss of a brand new leaf. And he loves to take pictures through the trees, where the branches become spider webs crisscrossing blue sky.

Photography is an activity that combines Henry’s love for technology with the peacefulness of the outdoors—and introduces him to the notion that art is more than just drawing or painting (something he struggles with in school). With photography, he feels free to create an image and he feels less confined by commanding his brain to tell his hand to draw the perfect set of eyes on a self-portrait, for example. Those skills are extremely important, but when something like art or music is a struggle there is the threat that a child will turn away from it completely because it’s too challenging or they feel they cannot master it. Of course, they do need to know that it’s the daily practice and, quite frankly, the struggle that helps improve any skill, but he also needs to know there are other ways to express creativity that might come more easily. For Henry, it’s pictures of nature (and making videos of himself singing “You Might Think” by the Cars, but that's a whole other blog).

Lastly, in regard to nature photography, I always try and take a picture of the kids in the same place outside, but at different times of the year. For us, we tend to take shots near a favorite tree at Maudslay State Park. In some photos the tree is full of green, in others it is bare. The tree changes a little every time, and as we continue the tradition, the children will change as well. Someday, I hope we will have an album full of these photos and they will become a flip-book of all the many points in time we stood in the same spot.

When we return home from our photo excursions, we feel like true naturalists, uploading our photos and reviewing them, choosing which ones to edit and save. Family photos taken this way have become less of a practice in “Aw, Mom. Do I have to smile?” (where the result is two scrunched up faces forcing painful-looking smiles) and more of an experience that we really enjoy—where the smiles and laughs are 100% natural.