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Photography through a 5-year-olds eyes

Some of you may have seen on my Instagram that my 5 year old came with me to Eagle Rock Camera recently. She begged me to buy her this yellow film camera box set. I relented (film is expensive!) but finally gave in.

The camera itself is as simple as it gets: fixed focus, manual advance, it is a literal plastic box with a plastic lens. You can’t even adjust film speed; you just stick in a roll of ISO 200 film in and shoot.

She loves this camera and brought it with her on a recent trip to Joshua Tree. My edginess around the cost of her burning off 36 shots was completely offset by the images she ended up bringing home. They’re some of my favorite and most treasured photos of our vacation because they’re so present and unvarnished - the kind of images that remind me of why I fell in love with photography in the first place.