I was on assignment last Wednesday, photographing a “Grandparents Must Be Supervised” event in Edgewater, when a five year old in attendance stole my camera. Little punk.

OK, so it didn’t exactly go down that way. In fact, the little human in question was quite sweet, and oh so curious.

The event was sponsored by JFS Colorado Senior Connections. JFS offers a variety of events for grandparents and the grandchildren they care for when classes let out during the summer. This event brought these two generations to a park in Edgewater. There were horseshoes and ice cream and bubbles. And me, the rather tall lady with two giant cameras dangling from each shoulder. As a precocious little kid, how could you not investigate.

After about 30 minutes of me crawling around making photos this little boy named Brody came over, pointed at the camera and said, “I want to try.” Straightforward, direct, I couldn’t very well brush him aside. So I knelt down, showed him where to look through the viewfinder and what button to push to release the shutter, then held the camera firm and steady for him in my hands and let him fire away. He was entranced. After a few minutes I told him I had to get back to work — “OK!” and off he bounds as only a five year old can — and I thought that was that.

But, no, he soon returned to have another go. This time with a new friend plopped in  front of him as a test subject. This time I focused the camera, showed him the shutter release button again (made sure I retained a good grip on the heavy — and expensive — camera) and he and his four-year-old friend, Zane,  made a photo. This is what they came up with.

I think it can be very easy to get caught up in the technical side of photography and the elements that make for a good photo. But sometimes, you just have to fire away for the sheer joy of seeing something in front of you and capturing that tiny portion of the world onto your little camera screen.