Tuesday 7 February 2012

Photography for kids


For the last six months or so I have been letting Cakey use my little, very old digital camera. It is not the one I use on a daily basis but hangs around to be used when I let the battery run down on my other camera. I guess what I am saying is – I let her use it, knowing there is a possibility it will get broken. If that happens we are down to one camera and we will live with it. No doubt one hour after this gets posted the camera will get smashed and I will feel like a total doofus.

When she uses the camera she has the wrist strap ON AT ALL TIMES... she doesn't fight me about this, she knows using the camera is a privilege.

So far she has had six sessions of photo taking and produced more than 400 photos. I have followed her around as she photographed all the rooms in our house and the garden. I have also given her the camera during quiet time (to try to keep her quiet) and let her photograph all her toys on her bed.

When she first started, her fingers were planted permanently over the lens. She was mystified as to why all her photos then contained finger-shaped lumps. Now she is getting better at keeping her fingers to one side. A lot of her photos are of the ground and things on the ground. Her focus is always hit and miss – some are crystal clear, others are very blurry. In fact, she has taken a number of photos where she must have been moving – they have this fabulous swooshing effect. I have included a sample of her photos in this post. I love them.

Fingers over the lense

Slightly spooky photos of dolls taken during quiet time

The garden series

A study of feet

In the aquarium

Cool blurry effects

Her feet and our pantry

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Linked to Friday's Nature Table, Family Frolics, It's Playtime and Red Ted Art

14 comments:

  1. My lil guy also has become quite interested in the camera lately. I was 'brave' and let him explore (with me right there) and it was sooo exciting watching him *figure* out how to take pictures...the pics from different perspectives can turn out pretty cool...we may have a couple budding photographers on our hands.

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    1. I visited your blog, it was lovely to see your son's photos. I loved the way he set up his 2 cars to photoraph.

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  2. My 3 year old loves to take pictures and I recently did a post on my blog with some of her pictures. It's amazing what the world looks like from a little person's perspective.

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    1. Thanks Christy, I found your post - great photos.

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  3. she took some good ones in our garden too, interesting to see what catches her eye, maybe it gives us an insight into how children see the world

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    1. She is getting better too, lifting the camera a bit more, although still taking a lot of photos of the ground.

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  4. Her photos are great! I love letting kids play with our adult toys too. My lad loves to have a turn with my camera, and funny he takes lots of foot photos too! It was actually one of my first posts ;-) http://happywhimsicalhearts.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/arts-crafts-foot-files.html

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    1. I visited your post - I love your son's feet series.

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  5. Those are some great pics - when she is older she is going to love that you have a copy of her early work. :)

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  6. Oooh we had a "photo" week a few weeks back and like you say, the results were surprising. I love the photos my son took and to see things through his eyes - and they were surprisingly good!!! :-)

    Thank you for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!

    Maggy

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  7. Brilliant. We got my son a camera for Christmas and he loves it, but his photo's are similar. I love her painted toenails!

    Thanks for linking to Family frolics. Hope to see you again.

    Kerry
    x

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  8. Fun post. Love the aquarium ones and little toes. My son used to snap a lot with his kiddy camera when he was two and my biggest eye opener was how short he was. His point of view was so low :)

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  9. Love it! I handed over my old digital camera to my 5-year-old and he is obsessed with taking pictures. Our next step is to get prints made and let him put them in a special album.

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  10. Great photography. My daughter loves taking pictures with my old camera too.

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