12

As adults, time seems to race past us, every year feeling shorter than the last.  There never seems to be enough time in our days, and as grown-ups we unfortunately have a tendency to mark the passage of time with such trivial milestones as rent payments, work deadlines and annual visits to the dentist.

But as children it was different; school days passed in slow motion, Christmas Eve was the longest night of the entire year and summers seemed to last forever.

I will be 38 years old this year, and I can still remember the summer holidays of my childhood in brilliant detail: eight glorious weeks filled with such carefree joys as waterskiing on the lake, building tree forts in the forest, racing my bicycle along muddy trails, staying up late in the tent talking with my brother and then waking up early the next morning to go fishing with him as the sun rose.

I recently spent three magnificent weeks in Ontario, Canada with my family, including my three young nieces -- Carissa (5 years old), Brooke (6 years old) and Paige (8 years old) -- who were in the midst of their own joyful, carefree childhood summer.  It was magical for me to behold their boundless energy, marvel at their imagination, share in their wonder and indulge their curiousity.

Like last summer, on this visit I again abandoned my DSLR and instead carried my iPhone with me everywhere I went with the girls, making snapshots of the experiences we enjoyed together: running through the sprinkler, riding a ferris wheel, building a homemade camera, taking a sunset stroll, picking flowers, eating birthday cake, climbing on monkey bars, colouring pictures, leaping off swings...

This is a collection of those times we spent together, rendered how I chose to witness them -- inquisitively, spontaneously and lovingly -- through the tiny lens of my iPhone camera.

Carissa, Brooke and Paige are too young to understand how ephemeral these times are.  Ironically, it is their innocence that provides me the perspective and desire to document, capture and preserve a handful of the fleeting moments that make up the endless summers of their childhood.

See more of my iPhoneography elsewhere on this blog or on Flickr.