Daddy-Daughter Photo Meetup

Nothing surprised me more than to hear one of my kids wanting to come with me on a photo walk. It was a great surprise, but a surprise nonetheless.

I was meeting up with my photo group to shoot evening photos around the ByWard Market. We met at William and George streets, where you can look across to the Market Plaza and the main landmark building.

As I was gathering my camera gear to head out, Kid 2, who was only 10 at the time, asked if she could come along? I caught me by surprise because she had never seemed to show an interest in photography.

She loved to ham it up for a camera but never seemed keen on being on the other side of one.

This was back in the day when the only D-SLR that we had was my Nikon D80. We had some Canon point-and-shoot cameras, so we settled on one of those for her to use. I had only one tripod but we would share it for the evening and that worked out well.

The majority of photographers for this meetup were middle-aged to seniors, and they were all surprised to see a kid in the group, but they were all friendly and treated her like she was just another photog. And Kid 2 watched to see what they were doing and tried to copy some.

Granted, there were some limitations with the Canon Sure Shot, versus a manual D-SLR, but Kid 2 held her own. She would take a shot, see the result, make some adjustments, and try again until she got the shot she was looking for.

Over the past few weeks, I've been going through some old external hard drives, looking to back up old photos and video on newer drives, should the old ones give out, and I came across a folder that contained Kid 2's old images, including her shots from this meetup. I can see all of her trials and errors, plus some real keepers.

Not bad for a point-and-shoot camera!

I have to admit, at 10 years old she already had an eye for capturing moments. She even captured some behind-the-scene shots of the other photographers.

And a few of her dad.

I didn't photograph any of the other photogs with my D80, but at one point I took out my cell phone and snapped a quick shot of my kid as she set up her camera. In 2013, it's clear that my phone wasn't made for capturing shots in low light.

Though we had a great time, it was the last photo meetup that Kid 2 asked to join. When I moved up to my Nikon D7200 a couple of years later, Kid 2 asked if she could have the D80, and I obliged.

I never saw any of the photos that she shot with it. Years later, when I asked her if she still used the camera, she said she didn't and didn't even know where the camera was.

Her interest in photography is now limited to her smartphone and I rarely get to see those shots. They are of her cat, of her and her boyfriend, or the odd video of her playing her drums.

But I'll never forget the evening when she asked to join me on a photo walk.

Happy Tuesday!