Google’s search app for the iPhone now lets one capture an image, turn it to text, and translate it on the fly. I took a few snaps around Brussels to see how well it fared in French and Dutch. Quite well in French, not so well in Dutch.

Following on the success of the Rainforest Bouncer, I ordered the Rainforest Gym from amazon.de. At first, Hayden wasn’t terribly impressed, mostly beacause he had to lie flat on his back, not sitting up like in the bouncer. However, as he has developed, he seems to be enjoying this a lot more. Now that he can rock from side to side, he slowly wiggles his way around the mat, play with the various hanging toys. He likes to hit the rattle with his feet to make a noise, and hold the spinning paddle with two hands and slowly rotate it. He will often look quite serious when interacting with the hanging toys, almost as if he is conducting neurosurgery rather than shaking a toucan rattle. He also gets very chatty, singing along with the rainforest song. We try tummy time here and I hold the mirror up to his face, but he’s not very impressed and much happier on his back. He will entertain himself for up to an hour now, which would give me time to do other things, if I didn’t just love sitting beside him and watching him play.

In many ways, the internet gives us many gifts. Adrian can spend more time at home or on holiday with us because he can often run his lab from anywhere that has an internet connection, from Norwegian ferries to Azerbaijani hotels. The web helps me feel connected to the friends and family we left behind when we moved to Belgium. I can introduce Hayden to my grandmother via Skype, and she can see new photos of him every week. Through Facebook I can witness weddings and birthdays even though I couldn’t be there in person. I can read about the life journeys of friends and strangers as they record them on their blogs. We can have virtual video hangouts with others from around the world (if anyone turns up).

However, I do wonder how this will affect Hayden as he grows up. Digital cameras and camcorders are now ubiquitous – everyone with a smartphone carries a video camera in their pocket. I know that I need to check my hair and my clothing before I head out to a social event because chances are the photos could appear on Facebook a few hours later. If I make a bad wardrobe choice, it may be broadcast to the world.

As Hayden grows, I feel an intense need to capture every moment. The way he smiles and gurgles in the morning, the way he waves his hands when he sees his bird mobile move, the way Adrian makes him dance on the table. Yet I know how much I hate being videotaped myself. I become instantly self-conscious, picking each word with care and so afraid to make any mistakes. If I put myself behind the camcorder, I too change. I try to stage the event, to ensure that the people act properly to bring about my vision of how it should go. I am no longer in the moment, I am focused on how the film will later look in iMovie.

So Adrian and I have decided that we will not videotape Hayden as he grows up. On one hand, I do feel sad that these fleeting moments may be lost as they pass. On the other hand, this means that I am more present and able to focus on Hayden, rather than making him perform for the camera. As he becomes self aware, we hope to give him as many years as possible where he feels that he can make mistakes without consequences.

As a compromise, we have a nice camera to take good quality photos of him. Much more flattering than iPhone pictures through a 2mm plastic lens, I hope that these capture the special moments of our lives without too much interruption. I try to only use the camera for at most five minutes each day, and its bulky size encourages me to leave it at home, which frees me from the burden of recording every moment.

In Hayden’s generation, I think that anonymity and freedom to control ones own image will be rare commodities. It will be a challenge to balance the joy I get from documenting our lives while still giving him shelter from an internet that never forgets a byte.

We have a great EF-S 18-200mm F3.5-5.6 lens that Adrian uses with his Canon 50D while on the move. It lets us travel light and is flexible enough to be used for most situations. However, I found it a little frustrating when trying to capture moments with Hayden, especially indoors. After some research and some discussions with Adrian we decided to purchase the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens, as it had excellent reviews on Amazon for portrait photography. This was the first prime lens that I had ever used, and the lack of a zoom took some adjustment – I hadn’t realised how often I used the zoom to frame a photo until this functionality was removed. So on one hand it certainly makes composition more difficult, but by forcing me to actually move around to get the shot I want, it also suggests new angles and ideas. This is fun when we’re at home producing portraits, but quite frustrating when out and about and trying to capture a fleeting or distant moment. However, the wide aperture means that we can get some vibrant photos in low light without resorting the flash, and brings with it a buttery soft background.

I don’t know much about photography other than the rule of thirds, so using this lens is introducing me to concepts such as the relationship between aperture and depth of field, and also encouraging me to cross the line and venture into the manual settings on the camera dial. In low light settings with a wide aperture it can have a very narrow depth of field, thus it can be very difficult to ensure that the focus is where I desire. The manual focus ring can be used even in autofocus mode, but sometimes it is still tricky to ensure perfect sharpness when peering through the viewfinder. I often set the the camera to just use the central AF sensor to lock the focus, to ensure that his eyes and not his hands are sharp.

Despite these technical challenges, when everything comes together I am able to produce some nice shots. I’m having fun learning more about the technical side of photography, and so grateful that I have this beautiful lens to help me catch some of these fleeting moments of Hayden as a newborn. We took a trip to the park to see how this lens performed in the early morning light, the joggers and dog walkers laughing at me as I walked around with a baby in a basket.