Let them take the picture

Do your kids ever ask to play with something and you say no but you’re not 100% sure why? That’s me with the Instax camera. Which essentially is just an updated version of the Polaroid cameras from when we were young.

I bought the camera (Facebook Marketplace FTW) for my oldest daughter's Pokémon themed 6th birthday party so we could do a little photo booth area. It worked great for the party and then we didn’t use it again because the film ain’t cheap. That was in April...of 2018. I brought the camera back up last week for a project I was working on and forgot to put it back so when my kids saw a hot pink object on my dresser, it was like a moth to a flame. They, of course, asked to use it and I said no - again, the film is on the expensive side and, to be honest, I didn’t really feel like monitoring things to make sure everyone got a chance to use it.

A few hours later though I thought about it some more. What was the point of it sitting in the box in the basement going unused? If I was only going to use it one time, why did I even buy it?

So I changed my mind and let them each take a couple of pictures. And wow am I glad I did. In the lot of pictures there was one of grass, a couple with people not camera ready, a “we’re not sure when we’re supposed to smile” picture and then this one. 

A moment of joy captured on a Polaroid camera that was from shear luck. In a world that doesn’t print nearly as many pictures as we used to, I know this will be treasured for a long, long time.

I’m out of film for now, but the thing I've learned is that the $10 or whatever it is to refill the camera has been proven to be worth it. 
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