KALEY CAPTURES

I've been spending a lot of time with my niece on the weekends. She's in second grade now which is crazy because I feel like my little sister is in second grade. Hell, I feel like I'm still in second grade learning long division from Ms. Chow. My niece, Kaley is very chatty. Way chattier than both my sister and I were growing up. She's also very affectionate which is super foreign to us. She constantly says I love you and gives lots of kisses. That's not how my family typically rolls. It's not like we were raised with no love, being vocal about it was not how we expressed it. So, it's very refreshing to see my niece this way.

Kaley's at a really fun and helpful age because she's curious and excited about everything. She's into gardening, and building things. She's also really into flossing and brushing our teeth together and examining each other's molars. And help with laundry? She's totally down. So awesome. I definitely see myself trying to be the cool uncle. I make sure we do lots of creative stuff like, draw, paint and take photos. I mean, we play with Legos and Barbies, and eat tons of ice cream together too. She's always been fascinated with the camera so now I hand her my old Canon Rebel XTi with a 35mm lens and let her go to town with it. All these photos were taken by her when we visited my aunt. I gave her no direction. I just told her to snap away and girl, she did! She even gave some art direction when she tried to take photos of me. Is she boss or what?

What I really love about Kaley's photos is that it's carefree but still thoughtful. There's a sense of spontaneity which gives it so much life. She doesn't overthink about the composition. There's also a good range. I was watching her for a little bit and she's very comfortable with getting down on her knees to photograph different angles. And she's not afraid to get up close. I was very impressed and was blown away going through all her photos. This girl is gonna take over my blog! Ha!