Fun photos and hanging out with my inner child

/ Su Leslie
Macro b&w shot of cut onion with bokeh. Image: Su Leslie, 2017. Edited with Snapseed.

Image: Su Leslie, 2017. Edited with Snapseed.

We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
— George Bernard Shaw

For me, photography is play.

I have no-one telling me what to shoot; or how and when. I don’t make money from it (although I’d like to one day). The only constraints on me are time, light and my imagination.

The shot above is pure play. Not just the messing about with an onion, a smartphone and some tinfoil (now there’s a sentence you don’t often see), but the afterwards playing — the electronic doodling with photo-editing apps.

Diane Ackerman said “play is our brain’s favorite way of learning”, while the psychologist Jean Piaget offered this advice about creativity:

If you want to be creative, stay in part a child, with the creativity and invention that characterizes children before they are deformed by adult society.
— Jean Piaget

Written for Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge at Lens and Pens by Sally

 

42 thoughts on “Fun photos and hanging out with my inner child”

  3. Very cool image. Play is so important. I live in an area where children are expected to excel in everything and to participate in way too many things. I think children need a lot less scheduling and a lot more free play time in the outdoors as much as possible. Until my children are old enough to express their own interest in activities, I try to limit them to one or two things per year – ie tball. And as little electronics as possible. Hopefully I’m keeping their inner child alive. 😉

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    • Thank you. It worries me how commodified “play” seems to have become. The little kids I know now don’t seem to have the freedom to explore and invent that my generation had. I tried to give that to my child (19 now), and he typically preferred the cardboard box to the contents. Lots of parents seem to worry at that, rather than going with the child’s desires and visions.

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      • I too preferred to make-believe with boxes, sheets, sticks, and the outdoors instead of things that came inside packages. The simpler the tool the more it lets the imagination play, and the more rewarding the play becomes. It would be nice to return to that.

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        • Yes: it’s an active struggle to stop kids being bombarded with the kind of toys that require no imagination. But I guess capitalism can’t thrive if kids are happy with cardboard box games and blanket forts!

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  6. Great photo, tools, effects, and supplementary quotes. I agree that people need to stay connected to creativity and play. Unfortunately, for some reason I keep failing to remember to apply the concept to myself. lol

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  8. Pingback: Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Black and White (Palms and Succulents) | Lens and Pens by Sally

  12. I can’t digest them so they make me very uncomfortable. But I guess capitalism can’t thrive if kids are happy with cardboard box games and blanket forts!

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    • So true sadly. I recently read a book called ‘The Making of Home’ which was about how capitalism has driven the development of domestic “need.” Interesting and sobering.

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