Finally A Babysitter Story That Makes Everyone Happy

I can’t even count the number of times I’ve written stories about nannies and daycares – and it’s usually because of some horrific incident that has gone down. I guess warm-fuzzy news stories aren’t as popular. You don’t really alert the authorities when your babysitter is awesome.

That’s why it is so refreshing to see a story that celebrates a babysitter for being great. Toronto-based photographer and nanny Alex Neary had a great idea; allow the 2-year-old in her care to direct some photo shoots. The results are amazing:

From Neary’s website:

I am a nanny to the world’s coolest kid, Henry.

I have been looking after him for about a year and a half and for that entire time

he has had to pose for my camera.

One day he turned to me and said, ”˜Alec, take a photo of me like this.’

The pose he chose was”¦interesting.

He then declared that he wanted to take a photo of me doing the same pose.

It was right then and there a lightbulb went off and ”˜Henry’s Concepts’ was born.

All of the locations and the poses are Henry’s idea. She snaps the image of him in the original pose, then she mimics the pose and he takes her photo. As a photographer myself, I am digging this kid’s composition ability. If I handed my two-year-old a camera to take my picture – we’d probably wind up with the tree behind me, the sky or dirt. This kid is good:

I love this for so many reasons. She’s an artist and she’s exposing the child in her care to the craft that she loves. She’s letting him “direct” which is incredible – and this is just a great idea; a great idea that a 2-year-old had that Neary was smart enough to recognize.