Give Your Kids Cameras! Preserve Those Memories

What kid doesn’t ask for a camera at an early age? Or, I guess these days, they just pilfer a parent’s phone to sneak a photo opportunity. The point is that kids love taking pictures.  Give them cameras!

Back when I was younger it was a lot more expensive to take pictures. There were no cheap throwaway cameras. Instant photos weren’t an option. Cameras required film and some kind of flash. (Don’t open the film door before using the entire roll of film! Someone would kill you!  You ruined the entire roll of film!)

When you finished a roll of film it needed developing. The local drugstore was the usual drop-off point. There were some places you could mail it to for cheaper prices, but it was more convenient to drop it off locally and wait a week to get your pictures back.

And, when they did come back you never knew if you were going to see good photos. Forgetting to attach the flash before a dark photo would be a black photo. Too much light on the film and you wouldn’t see anything.

Then came the Poloroid instant cameras. They required special film that processed the photos minutes after they shot out of the camera. It seemed like magic to the rest of us who still used rolls. 

Now, we have a camera in our pocket to capture anything we want at any given moment. There are cheap one-time use “throwaway” cameras you can buy for special occasions. There is no excuse anymore not to capture memories as they happen.

With all the losses in my life in the last year, one of things that has been apparent has been that there have not been enough pictures taken. When funeral time came and everyone was scrambling through their photos looking for great photos of their loved one, so few were found.

This week a man who was a second father to me died. It’s like losing my own father all over again. And I am going through my photos to try to find good ones for the family. Regretfully, there aren’t enough and I wonder why not. We spent a lot of time together. Why didn’t we take more pictures?

Logically, I realize a lot had to do with the cost of film and developing it. Back then cameras were used for special occasions only. But there’s no excuse for not having more recent photos.

We are wasting a lot of chances for photos. Kids love to take them. And even though some of them don’t start out as magazine-worthy, if we give them a chance to take pictures, they will learn how to take better ones. They may learn certain techniques, or achieve that “photographer’s eye” that just knows how to set up the photo to make it pleasing to the eye.

Our kids can help us preserve memories and would be glad to if we introduced them to the concept. Let them take pictures every chance they get. Buy them cameras or let them use old phones that can be uploaded to computers or tablets.

Teach them to journal about experiences that tweaked their emotions. In capturing moments, they are capturing life itself. Then, when the time comes to find those moments again and share them with grieving families, there will be so many to choose from.

So, give those kids cameras! Teach them to capture the joys in life, and to experience all that life has to offer. I’m grateful to have developed an interest in photography early enough that I do have some photos. But I wish I had been able to start earlier and captured more.

I’d love to hear of other ways to capture life and share it. Inspire your kids. Help them be inspired. Life is just too short to spend it in a screen.