John Tedesco

So I bought my first DSLR camera, a Canon Rebel T1i, and I’m having an absolute blast taking pictures of Pete with it. This thing is addictive. These are a few Thanksgiving pics I took, which is a fraction of all the pictures I snapped yesterday without even thinking about it.

Why is this so much fun? Why not use a basic point-and-shoot camera? What’s wrong with me? Those are all valid questions. Jen and I own some nice point-and-shoots. But I wanted really good portraits of Pete in natural light and with blurry backgrounds. Our basic cameras didn’t really do a good job at that task — especially indoors, where Pete spends a lot of time learning how to walk and find new hiding places.

When I plunked down $575 for the Canon on Amazon and said to Jen, “Guess what I just bought?” she gave me the arched-eyebrow look, which usually happens after every gadget purchase. When she found out how much the camera cost, she said she was glad we have separate savings accounts.

But we both quickly learned that a good camera with the right lens can be a lot of fun, and we’ve taken a ton of pictures of Pete that we probably couldn’t have taken otherwise. I like this shot Jen took yesterday of me and Pete:

Now I just need a new gadget to store our massive collection of digital photos …

Hard to believe Pete was born a year ago. At the hospital, Jen’s dad suggested we take a picture of him every day to make a time lapse video. Here’s the result.

I’m glad we took the time to do this because the video shows just how fast Pete is growing up. It’s also cool to see how Pete began smiling and interacting with the world.

If you want to do this kind of project, all you need is a camera, a tripod, video editing software, and the patience to stick with it. There’s no way you can take a picture every single day — you might be out of town, or the baby might be sick, or you might just simply forget. But I’d suggest taking a picture every day in the first few months at least. That’s when they really pack on the pounds. As you can see, it didn’t take long for Pete to become a cute little butterball.

Happy birthday, Pete.