Campsite Scenes

There are many times when I use my 300 mm. telephoto lens to photograph my family. I'm not a fan of the typical travel snapshot, in which a person stands grinning in front of a sign, a precipice, a statue. Blaa. No information content, no artistry, no interest, no life.

So when I crawled out of the tent and saw this scene unfolding below I deployed the long lens for some paparazzo-style documentation of Liam self-actualizing.

Liam loves, loves, loves to cook. He is almost always between me and the saute pan or mixing bowl. Perhaps because my mother would only let me rinse bowls, never allowing me access to the messy stuff, I try to let Liam stir and mix and pour. It's hard, I'll grant Mom that, to stand by and let somebody do something wrong, or messily, but how else is he going to learn to do it right? And how hard is it to wipe up afterward, if he gains confidence and surety in the process?

Jim and Nick asked Liam to mind the sausages. And mind them he did.


I love how he's holding the tongs here. He doesn't quite get that tongs are long so you don't get burned. Had I been hovering, I'd have shown him how to hold them. But I stayed back.


Hmm. Is that done?


We all agreed that the sausages that morning tasted extra good, and wondered aloud who had cooked them so masterfully. It was me, Mommy!

Later, I looked up from packing the tent and sleeping bags to see this fine example of anthropoid ape grooming/bonding behavior. Out came the telephoto.


Yes, candid shots are ever the best.