Say Cheese

If you give a three year old a digital camera…you come up with art.

It’s true. I’m telling you, just try it. Of course, that’s if you don’t mind your prized Canon SD400 being manhandled by peanut-butter stickied fingers and possibly dropped into a toilet, river, ocean, or steaming bowl of soup.

We took the plunge out in California and handed over the camera to eager-eyed Benny. The results were pretty amazing. The kiwis (above) is my favorite, but check out some of Benny’s other masterpieces at his flickr page.

Okay, I admit I didn’t upload all his shots on flickr….like the one of my left nostril and one of Benny’s palm or the three blurry shots taken while Benny tried to photograph a basketball bouncing.

But there weren’t too many deleted ones. Most of them were interesting little gems. And after pondering Benny’s shots, it occurred to me that people go to photography school to relearn what they lost in the process of growing up. They (re)learn to have the child’s eye again. To see things as photographable, when a million others wouldn’t.

So I say, go on, give it a try. Hand your kid the camera. They might break it, but they might also win an prestigious photography prize while their at it.

Joanne Rendell is in the middle of writing her debut novel - to keep up with her progress as a writer, wife and mum, visit her at her blog, http://www.joannerendell.blogspot.com.