WIlliam had a blast this evening using his new digital camera. Shooting everything from the pumpkins he and Daniel decorated, to the cat, me, and Jeremy, William took 100 photographs in a single night. It's a lot different than when I got my first camera.
I think I was also about eight, but the camera was my mother's Kodak Duoflex II, a simple twin-lens reflex camera with a single-element fixed-focus lens. It used roll film with twelve exposures per roll, and took remarkably sharp pictures.
What I remember so well from that time, though, is my mother telling me to be very selective about what I took pictures of, and no wonder. The cost of film and processing added up very quickly. Even later, when I learned to process and print my own pictures, photography was a very expensive hobby.
Now I'm happy that I can tell my son to shoot as many pictures as he wants, of anything that interests him, no matter how silly it might seem, no matter whether or not he is sure he can get a good shot. Just keep shooting and shooting. There is almost no additonal expense; just a little room on my hard drive.
And as you will see in the days and months ahead, letting him run wild with his imagination, though it will produce a lot of pictures destined for the Trash folder, will also produce some gems from a perspective I could never duplicate. I'm looking forward to it.
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