They say that smiling when you get your picture taken is a learned behavior. This is why when children smile for the camera it sometimes looks over exaggerated and silly.
This was not always a behavior that needed to be learned. When cameras were first invented it wasn't a custom to smile. When looking at old black and while photos of my ancestors they appear very serous and unfriendly looking. As I recall from school this can also be seen in old presidential photos such as those of Abraham Lincoln.
This is a picture that I took of a bonobo at the zoo around 10 years ago. When I looked at the photo I was shocked that he smiled for me as I snapped the photo. Perhaps enough smiling families took pictures next to him that he learned that when he saw someone taking a photo he knew it was time to smile. Bonobos are Great Apes and one of the most intelligent creatures on the planet.
Unfortunately the flash shined off the glass that was between him and me and caused some ugly glare.
Thanks for reading. BTW I haven't posted in a while and this is actually my first blog post on Hive. My previous posts were published on Steem, before the fork.