I sometimes think that Google Reader has ESP. There have been so many times when a friend or collogue and I have discussed something and then within a day something on the topic has popped up in one of my RSS feeds in Google Reader.
It happened again today. After long day of grocery shopping, lawn care, fence maintenance (I added the wire to the split rail fence I put up last weekend so my dog will stop trying to break and enter our neighbor’s kitchen) and church, the kids have been bathed and pajama’d and it was time for a little relaxation before bed. We planned tonight to watch the second episode in Syfy’s Tin Man. As soon as we all sat down, my 7 YO asked “Dad, can we check out the Stormtroopers?”
“Not right now, we will check tomorrow morning, I don’t feel like getting up,” said the lazy ass father.
I hopped on the computer after the kids were in bed, and, like it was reading my mind, I saw a post in Google Reader feed that marked the end of the Stormtroopers 365 project. Stormtroopers 365 is a photo project started on April 2, 2009 that features a photo each day of two Hasbro Stormtrooper action figures. I first read about the project in November 2009 through one of my feeds I follow in Google Reader, of course. I loved it and I figured that my boys would want to see it too, because it featured three things that they love, Star Wars, toys, and funny pictures. The project was already a few months underway. The boys and I spent an hour or two browsing each and every photo. I didn’t realize that they would be so interested in it and that it would trigger another outlet for their own artistic expression.
My boys are very creative and artistic, something that they didn’t inherit from me. They love to draw and color, create cartoons and now, after watching Daddy write “stories” (i.e. my blog posts) at night, they have started writing their own “stories” too. My 7 YO has even had his art displayed in an art exhibition sponsored by the county board of education. The art would be included with pieces from other students from the county schools. He was the only second grader with art displayed and one of two students selected from his school.
The same night that we checked out Stormtroopers 365 photo pool for the first time, I had to set up a photo studio in the basement. I let the kids use an old digital camera I had, set them up with a tripod and showed them how to use everything. The subject matter would be, of course, stormtroopers. The next day I had to spend a few hours editing their first “shoot.” Most of the photos were just random shots of toys, but some of them had a “story”, not bad for a 5 and 7 YO with zero photography experience.
I have a couple hundred photos that I have yet to download from the camera. Now that the weather is getting nice again, I can’t wait to see what they come up with outside.
I wanted to thank the creator of the Stormtroopers 365 project for the wonderful and funny work and also for inspiring my two boys.
Hi! Great story, thanks for sharing it. I'm the author of the Stormtroopers 365 series, and I'm glad that my humble pictures have inspired your boys to do some toy photography. Congrats to them for their first pictures! I especially like the 1st one (with the Lego Stormtrooper under the car's wheel), because it's not only funny but also well executed.
ReplyDeleteKind regards to you and your boys!
Stéfan