The side effects of photography

I love taking photos. I just adore capturing candid, natural moments in a still image. A memory caught in print forever. Really, nothing beats that. So, I tend to take photos often. In fact, my camera has become known as the "third baby" as it comes with us where ever we go and my husband has joked about it needing its own special seat in the car.

My kids don't find it unusual if we are going for a drive and I suddenly pull off the road. They wait patiently while I grab the camera to capture that image which has just caught my eye.

It is only recently that I have noticed a certain side effect of this photography habit emerging in my children. They are learning to appreciate the beauty in everything. Things they may not have ordinarily thought about twice they now ask "Do you need to take a photo of that Mummy?"

Driving home from a long day, Leo will look into the gorgeous pink sunset and ask if I need to photograph it. When Leo and Delilah water their garden of a morning, they will often come running in excitedly, "Mummy, Mummy, we have some new flowers, get the camera!"

And in turn, I am learning to see the world from their perspective. What is important to them and what they want captured forever.

In fact just today, a day of absolute perfection, beautiful sun with a light breeze and occasional overcast moments, Leo came inside to suggest I bring the camera out with the "stick thing" (tripod) as is was such a lovely day that I needed to be in the photos he was about to direct.

We love self timer. The tripod is a bit fiddly for my liking, despite Leo's insistence, and I tend to use random objects of acceptable height to prop the camera up on and then run into position to beat the 10 second timer. Today those 'tripods' came in the from of an esky and the top of the slide.

There was of course lots of photos of the kids and I, under Leo's artistic direction of course. But then I love when they decide what should be photographed. "Mummy, look at these eggs, take a photo, the black chook laid this one."

"Mummy, the clouds, take a photo of the clouds. Mummy, the grass, look it is so green and there are bugs."

"Mummy, look here on my arm, take a photo of this spot." Leo had discovered his first freckle.

I really do love photos.