Young boy’s dream

I am particularly proud of this photo. Not because the model in it is my son, but because what was a quick snap shot that I thought would be cool, ended up being really cool and simplistic.

As a photographer, I often spend a lot of time setting up a shot – trying to get the right angle, aperture and moment. So when I willy-nilly snap a photo and have it capture everything just right, I’m pretty excited about it.

My 3-year-old son (at the time) and I were visiting the Hill Aerospace Museum in Roy, Utah. My grandpa, Leo Carlton, was a B-24 co-pilot in WWII who was taken as a POW for nearly a year. It is in memory of him that I enjoy checking out the museum, which now has a re-built B-24, and thinking about what it was like for him in the 1940s.

After touring the museum, we stopped at the gift shop and he wanted to purchase this little biplane. As we walked to the car, my son was just ahead of me flying his airplane. I pulled out my little digital point-and-shoot and snapped the photo above.

I have a framed copy of that photo in my office, which reminds me of my grandpa, through the actions of my son. It also reminds me that photography can be as simple, or as complex as you want it to be, and on a few occasions, the outcome is the same. What made this even cooler is when it placed in the Davis County Fair, as well as the Utah State Fair that same year.

~signed, Carltonaut