I love photography.
I love it in the way a little girl loves horses, because they are magical and make the world more beautiful.
I do not love it in the way a championship Thoroughbred stable loves horses, with an eye for technical detail and mechanics. While I certainly enjoy learning more about the process, and have been known to make my kids sit through a million pictures so I can practice manually setting my aperture or exposure or something, Photoshop is still going to be my best friend forever and ever.
That’s one of reasons I love Instagram. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Nikon D5000 so much that after husband/children/contacts, it’s the one thing I would make sure I grabbed in the case of a house fire. But there is something that appeals to the “magical and more beautiful” aspect of photography like that so-simple-it’s-crazy smartphone app. Instagram has the ability to take the most mundane, the most prosaic pictures and with a few jabs at the touchscreen, transform them into something more interesting.
To prove this (and because I couldn’t think of another thing to write about today and had already pulled the “list post” card last time), I took the most mundane, the most prosaic member of the house and photographed his day. I now present to you “A Day in the Life of John-Luke, Made More Magical and Beautiful Thanks to Instagram.”
(this exhibit made possible by a generous grant from the Ken Donaldson Foundation, who gave me his old phone to monkey around with when his new one came) 
8:00 a.m. John-Luke demands second breakfast, consisting entirely of Ritz crackers. Despite having both overall straps firmly buckled not 5 minutes earlier, he is sporting the “Bubba Chic” look. Instagram filter: Brannan
9:00 a.m. John-Luke, done with first breakfast and second breakfast, falls asleep in front of an educational episode of “Woody Woodpecker”. Note overall strap STILL unbuckled, and hand down the pants. Instagram filter: Amaro
9:15 a.m. Having been informed by a herd of giggling boys that John-Luke’s fallen asleep on the couch, I carry him to a more appropriate sleeping spot. I am vaguely aware that he may be discomforted in his later years that so many pictures of him sleeping appear on the Internet. Instagram filter: X-pro II
11:00 a.m. Awake in time for elevensies, unconcerned that he’s woken up in a different location than he fell asleep. For the millionth time, I note the similarities between toddlers and drunken adults. Instagram filter: Amaro
11:05 a.m. Elevensies (more crackers, bien sur) with an arts-and-crafts chaser. The markers are non-toxic, so if he decides to color his crackers before eating then, it’s all good. Overall strap: 603 Mom: 0 Instagram filter: Valencia
12:00 p.m. Crackers gone, art time over. The look he’s going for here is “young artist applies marker so as to look like a boxer”. Instagram filter: Brannan
3:00 p.m. Time for a quick nap before pre-dinner snack. This time, he insists that I lay down with him in front of cartoons. Who am I to refuse? Instagram filter: Earlybird
So there you go. My shameless love affair with Instagram. But not ill-fitting toddler overalls.
Can’t get enough of the heart-pounding action that is Clan Donaldson’s photostream? Find more of it here.
