A Photo Walk With My Kids (Part One)

When Covid shut down the world, I started going for walks by myself and taking pictures of flowers as I walked. This became something of a coping strategy for me, a form of therapy, physical movement paired with the act of capturing beauty. If you look at my camera roll over the past two years, there are probably no less than 500 pictures of plants, flowers, the sky, all taken in my neighborhood while I walked by myself.

I bought a new-to-me camera a few weeks ago. I’ve wanted to get a mirrorless camera for a while now, and finally purchased one when my favorite used camera shop had a sale. I already own a bulky DSLR, as well as a pretty sturdy film camera, but I’ve been wanting something lighter, something smaller, something I could toss around my neck like a lanyard.

Something I could use instead of my phone, one might say.

My daughter has the same Vtech camera we purchased for both of her brothers around this age. All three of my children have loved this camera, mostly for the little games and strange effects they can apply to their videos. I have never, not once, actually taken photos off their cameras. They typically take pictures until the memory card fills up, wipe the whole thing, and then start over.

(I sort of regret that now, although, in my defense, 99% of the images and videos on these cameras are of their stuffed animals.)

Yesterday I told Presley I was going for a photo walk, and asked if she’d like to grab her camera and come with me. We did a short loop, and each took pictures of things we found beautiful. We talked about the flowers, and the sky, and how big girls don’t use pacifiers (“Well, big girls still use pacifiers for bedtime, right momma?” she refuted).

When we got home, we sat on the couch and compared our photos. She took some of me, some of flowers, many many many of the ground, and one of a “Pray for Ukraine” rock we found in someone’s yard.

For the first time ever, I took the photos off the camera so I could save a few.

Here is our photo walk, from Presley’s perspective:

I still love walking by myself, but maybe I’ll ask my kids to join me more often. Maybe I’ll start saving more of the pictures, too.

I forgot how enchanting it is to see the world through their eyes.