“It is important to remember that we all have magic inside us” – J.K. Rowling
As a young teenager, I have loved taking photos with the back in days “latest” compact film camera. It was always so exciting clicking and finishing off the 24 exposure so I could post off the roll for development. Yes there were times where only a handful of photos were actually in focus but the joy of receiving that packet containing just a few of your masterpieces (which my mum still has framed) was priceless. That’s why I love teaching photography to my children.
Cameras have come a long way, with smartphones being the easiest and most common way of photographing (I have no shame in admitting it), but I still love strapping my SLR camera over my neck and looking through the viewfinder to capture photos. It makes me even more happy when I see my children wanting to take photos with me.
How do you introduce children to the world of photography?
Well start by choosing a child friendly camera
My son needed something durable so I chose the Nikon Coolpix W100. This camera is sturdy, robust, fun, easy to use for this age range and the quality of images are excellent.
My daughter on the other hand needed a camera easy enough to start with but also something she could grow with. I chose the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT30, which is easy to use, great features (including using it in manual mode), waterproof and lightweight.
Photography Activities for children to start with:
1. COLOUR:
Ask children to take photos of objects such as flowers, pencils, legos, cars, marbles that are a certain colour or perhaps an object that comes in different colours.
Photo credit to my daughter – Panasonic Lumix
Photo credit to my son – Nikon Coolpix W100
2. FAVOURITE FOOD:
Get the children to decorate/style their favourite food on a plate and add other objects to make it interesting. My son loves milk and cookies so we added stripy straw, cane candy and berries to give it a Christmas festive look!
Photo credit – My son Nikon Coolpix W100
3. FRAMING:
You can either ask the children to imagine or use a frame to take a picture. They start thinking about composing their images and how to frame something.
Photo credit – My daughter Panasonic Lumix
4. CLOSE UP:
Get children to go right near the subject and take a close up photo. If their camera has a close-up/Macro mode then use that to take a photo. Try taking photos from different angles, straight on or from above.
Photo credit – My son Nikon Coolpix
Photo Credit – My daughter Panasonic Lumix
5. ALPHABET GAME:
Ask children to find letters around them. This is a great one for children to really look at their surroundings and finding shapes/letters in the strangest places! They can either try to find all the letters in their name or even go as far doing the whole alphabets.
Photo credit – Various children and cameras from my after school Club
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