Smeeta Mahanti is a successful lifestyle and editorial photographer who started out with a degree in education—a field she loved for its focus on the developing brain. But after a move from Michigan to California and the discovery that she was going to be a mom, Smeeta decided to stay at home for a while and focus on the wonder that was her son.

In those early days following him around as he discovered the world, Smeeta took out a camera and began to document his life. Maybe that was the inquisitive educator in her, but she laughs when she says it was more to show her husband what their son was doing while he was away at work than anything else. In any case, these weren’t your average posed photographs. They were images of discovery—both for Smeeta and her son. If he was about to eat a […]