Week 49: The Gift to be Simple

My thoughts this week are an outgrowth of last week's post and also bit repetitive. I never ceases to amaze me watching Jonah play. Needless to say, he's growing up in a time of enormous growth in technology and he's certainly pre-wired to use it all. He knows how to use my iPhone as if it were second nature. He has plenty of toys with lights, wires, music, noise makers. . . any kind of distraction that you can imagine.

All of that said, though, the toys that he turns to most often look like the one in the photo for this week. He has three wooden trains. He loves them all and gets a lot of good out of them. He has old-school metal Tonka trucks - loves them. One of his favorite games is taking the cardboard boxes from items we have delivered and hooking them together to make a train he can pretend to ride. He has all of the more advanced distractions, and they catch his eye from time to time, but that attraction has always been fleeting and he returns to his simple toys like I played with. Like my father played with. Like his father played with.

I just came back from a business trip to Boston and Providence this evening and had to get my photo in for the week. The last meeting I had before getting on the real train back to NYC was with a superintendent with whom I'm just beginning to work. After the business was discussed we started chatting about our families. She has two boys that are both grown and she was giving me some pointers and things to expect. She asked Jonah's age and started giving me birthday present tips - her number one tip was to go buy cardboard boxes, duct tape, string and a bolt of fabric for creating forts, tunnels, castles, etc. She said that was the best money she ever spent on a toy for her children. I believe it.

When we were back in Missouri this past week for Great Grandpa's funeral, Jonah instantly saw the wooden train that Great Grandpa had made some time ago sitting up on a shelf. He wanted it. Badly. We tried to distract him with other things as we weren't sure how Great Grandma would feel about Jonah playing with the train - could have gone either way as our emotions were certainly on our sleeves. Jonah was persistent and eventually got his way. That train occupied him for hours over the course of multiple days. The train stayed with Great Grandma, but I know that Jonah will remember to ask for it the next time we're in town.

It really is wonderful watching him use his imagination. It's heartwarming to know that he'd rather use his imagination and play with a simple toy (most of the time) than turn to the toy with lights and buzzers. I know it will change when he discovers video games, though. . .

Photo: This is three lights. The train is sitting on a piece of white plexiglass and the white background is a light in a 3x4' softbox set up against the plexiglass. That light is 2.5 stops over the main exposure. There is a light high camera right in a reflective umbrella for highlights and the other light is low camera left in a reflective umbrella. That light provides the main fill and exposure for the train. This is shot on my 135mm lens at f/8.