Photography for Kids – Go Out and Take Pictures

The past three days I’ve given tips and “assignments” that can help kids (really anyone) take better photographs. Reading tips, however, isn’t enough; kids need to explore nature with a camera in hand. The nature can be in their backyard, at a state forest, or at their summer camp. Kids can give themselves a goal – take 25 pictures a day, for example. They could take 25 pictures in ten minutes or over the course of ten hours. If they find an interesting subject they could take additional photographs.

I know a graphic designer who received a camera one Christmas and made it his goal to take 100 pictures each day, thereby teaching himself how to be a photographer. Granted, he had a trained artist’s eye, but still, he did a lot of experimentation as he played with the best angle to photograph ice and learned how the lighting at different times of day affected the forest, the field, water.

The first thing, of course, is that kids need access to a camera. There are enough inexpensive digital cameras that will allow a kid or teen to experiment without the concerns that come with borrowing mom or dad’s camera for a day. Here are some other tips for kids …

- Read the manual. It may be boring but it will tell you about features on the camera that you might overlook.
- Keep the batteries or camera charged. Have an extra set for backup. I’ve known a lot of kids that have had to stop taking pictures because their batteries died ten minutes after they turned on their camera.
- Download photos regularly and clear you memory card. There is nothing worse than losing a photo-taking opportunity because you are scanning through your camera’s memory trying to decide what to delete.
- Set a goal each day. Take pictures at different times of day. Do the “assignments” in composition, lighting, and angles.

Photography for Kids – Angles

Changing the angle at which you take a photograph is one of the most fun and easy ways to create interesting photographs. Instead of taking a picture head-on from the obvious “front” you produce imagines that get viewers to pause and maybe even think about what you are showing them.

By walking around a subject kids may discover a “secret” about that object that others overlook. By changing the tilt of the camera, kids can manipulate an image so to make it look larger or smaller

If you hold the camera high and angle it down, you can make something look smaller or foreshortened. Angling the camera is an easy bit of ‘trick’ photography; although you’re not creating an optical illusion, you are making people see the subject of your photo in a different way than they may normally have view that subject.

Walk around one interesting subject and take a
__Front angle
__Back angle
__Left angle
__Right angle

Select one subject and take a
__High angle
__Normal angle
__Low angle
__Take a picture while holding the camera at a small tilt
__Take a picture while holding the camera at a medium tilt
__Take a picture while holding the camera at a large tilt

Check out more fun art projects in by eBook, Art in Nature, Nature in Art.

Photography for Kids – Composition

I’m focusing on photography for a few days because it’s summer and kids go to camp or on vacation or do things they don’t normally do. This all adds up to opportunities for taking pictures. Whether kids have a disposable film camera, a digital camera, or a camera in their phone, they can practice some of the skills that will improve their pictures.

The activity below is a to-do list of sorts from my eBook Art in Nature, Nature in Art. If kids work their way through the list, not just once but several times, using different subjects, they will teach themselves how to take interesting photographs. In this case, interesting relies upon composition or where things are placed in an image. In some cases, kids can move something around before they take its picture, but in most cases the object is where it is. When kids can’t move the objects around, they can change their position, which will allow also them to modify their picture.

For example, stand back from a tree and take a picture of it from the ground to the leafy crown – this is a 3/3 crop. Move in closer and eliminate the bottom 1/3 of the scene and you have a 2/3 crop (because you can see 2/3 of the entire subject). If you go closer (or use a telephoto lens) to focus your picture on the leafy top of the tree you’ll have 1/3 crop. Don’t worry about dividing a subject exactly in thirds.

Another thing to think about is the Rule of Thirds. Imagine a grid that divides the image into thirds horizontally and vertically. A photographer should line up the subject of their photo along one of the imaginary horizontal or vertical lines. This allows the viewer’s eye to flow across the image without jerking here and there without settling.

__Take an overall picture of a scene
__Move in for six detail pictures
__Hold the camera vertically
__Hold the camera horizontally
__Take a picture at a tilt
__Crop an image 1/3
__Crop an image 2/3
__Crop an image 3/3
__Fill the frame with the subject
__Place the subject on the left 1/3line
__Place the subject on the right 1/3 line
__Place the subject on the bottom 1/3 line
__Place the subject on the top 1/3 line
__Place the subject on a “hot spot” – where vertical and horizontal lines meet

Create a Photo Story

When was the last time your child held a camera? Did they use your camera or did they use their own camera? What was the occasion? Kids don’t have to limit taking pictures to vacations and school field trips. Digital cameras are inexpensive enough nowadays that parents don’t have to worry about handing over their expensive camera when their child wants to take pictures. Once a child has the physical ability to hold and aim the camera while pressing the shutter button, they can start exploring this hobby, which gives them another way to connect with nature.

Some kids (even, or especially, adolescents) go a bit wild when they get their hands on a camera. I had one experience with a group of homeschoolers where they spent the first day of a nature photography class taking close-up pictures of each others’ nostrils. Cameras can become an exploration tool.

Send your kids into the backyard with a camera and ask them to take pictures that tell a story. The story might be, “After the Rain,” “Spring,” “Green.” This is a case where kids don’t have to worry about incorporating an exciting plot. Encourage them to take a lot of pictures and then come inside and pick their favorites. They can then order the photos into a story. This last part, indoors and on the computer, can be a way for parent and child to talk about the child’s experiences outdoors.

Turn the photos into a slideshow screen saver on the family computer. Print the photos and slide them into a small album; add words to elaborate on the story or allow the pictures to speak for themselves.
Although a child’s first forays into photography may not produce much more than some out-of-focus close-ups, they can continue to use a camera to capture their observations of nature.