A Proud Mother

There is a contest at school where the kids are asked to submit something creative based on a theme. This year the theme was "WOW!" Sam wanted to participate, and he chose to enter in the photography category. One of the rules of the contest is that it has to be 100% the child's work. Sam started brainstorming ideas for pictures. For every idea he had, I would ask him to tell me how it "WOWS!" him. Some ideas were good {a photo spread of his gecko catching cricket}, others were not so good {the wind blowing the grass}.

He tried to take a picture of the gecko eating, but sadly, the gecko would not cooperate. On to idea number two. He chose to take a picture of the American flag {because it is a symbol of our freedom}. Life being crazy like it is, he didn't get to take the picture until close to sunset. But that worked to his advantage. He got the camera in position, then put it on rapid shutter mode and clicked away. And we came home with some winners.

Next came the photo editing. He wanted to edit the photo so that it would look like it was taken at Fort McHenry, where in 1814 the valiant defense of the fort by 1,000 dedicated Americans inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.” I was skeptical at first, but he did a great job!

So here are Sam's pictures. One original, and one Sam's photoshop special.