I was recently organising baby photos when I realized that this was interesting data – how often did I grab my phone to take a photo over the months?
As I carefully organized them, there definitely seemed to be fewer photos to sort through for each successive month. So I thought I’d chart it out and see whether the numbers supported my horrifying-to-admit hunch – was I really finding my baby boy less interesting enough to record precious moments as time passed?
Answer: no (phew).
Apparently I’m taking more pictures than ever recently. But for the first nine months there was a general month-on-month decline. Despite major milestones such as crawling, sitting, weaning, standing, cruising etc, I was taking fewer and fewer photos.
Milestones don’t seem to have much bearing on photos taken.
But I can explain that! With every milestone as he swiftly became more mobile, I probably (actually) had less and less time to stop and take photos.
But that changed when the weather got better. Better weather means more outdoorsy activities and so more fun photo opportunities. And of course the first birthday also naturally equaled a photo explosion.
Good weather does have a bearing on number of photos and videos.
Also another fun fact. Over the first nine months most of the photos I took were almost exclusively of Nael. But more time spent outdoors over the spring and summer has meant I’m taking much more non-baby photos – and that’s more time for creative expression and sanity.
Babies DO get easier with time (after the first year) and you have more time to breathe and appreciate things – and take photos.
But now that winter is coming – uh oh. Going by what the data says, life is probably going to become a little less interesting over the next few months.
Disclaimer for the nitpickers: This is not rigorous scientific analysis and is based on my experience of one person.
Here’s the Tableau Public link:
