Adventures

At summer camp.

Last week, I spent my time on the shores of Lake Marion at Camp Bob Cooper volunteering my hours and my camera toward capturing 250 kids having the time of their lives. Camp Happy Days rents out the entirety of the camp’s facilities each year around the 4th of July and provides children going through pediatric cancer a week of fun; they let them be kids instead of worrying about their treatment or how the cancer is affecting them and their families.

I want to preface this column by saying that I had never photographed people before last week, so this was an entirely new photography experience for me. I shoot product photography where I work, and I shoot nature in my free time; people are a completely different beast. Especially kids. For one, they don’t sit still, which I learned very early on. And two, once they notice the camera, it’s game over.

Kids—especially teenagers—don’t like to be photographed! This makes my job much harder than it needs to be! The younger kids don’t seem to mind much, and one of them actually approached me with his own tiny camera and declared, “I want to be like you when I grow up!” I still smile and feel tears prick my eyes when I think about that.

While some photos I took of the kids may appear on Camp Happy Days’s Facebook or website, I personally cannot share any of the photos, so you’ll just have to trust me when I say that the images of the kids tubing on the lake are my absolute favorite. The joy on their faces is absolutely priceless. I went out on the boats several times throughout the week to capture these moments.

My week at summer camp wasn’t just driving around on the golf cart and snapping photos, however. I also got to have fun! Flowers out of pipe cleaners, necklaces out of bandanas, and tie dye were just a few of the crafts I got to do and experience while at camp. I also got to paint a ceramic whale (it’s a piggy bank, too), and try my hand at canvas painting.

I used every single fruit-themed charm they had for my bandana necklace.

🍋🍉🍓🍊🥝

I had the opportunity to go tubing, and was able to capture the full moon rising over the lake on Monday night. I made a few new friends, who I’m already eager to see next year (or sooner). I’m still editing the hundreds of photos I took, but I’m already itching to be back. Even if I had to try to be everywhere at once to capture these beautiful, joy-filled moments, I think I had more fun at summer camp as an adult than I did as a kid.

The camp life treated me well, too. We had Swig & Swine catered to us, and the camp breakfasts weren’t bad at all! I ate, let’s just say that. There was no shortage of food or sweet treats between the catering, the ice cream trucks, and everything else in between. The cabins were, well, cabins, but I slept great on that old rubber mat.

All-in-all, it was an excellent adventure surrounded by beautiful people making incredible memories. I’m looking forward to next year.

Have you gone on any new and exciting adventures recently? I’d love to hear all about them!

—Carissa