Get the Kids Involved: Photography Activities to do with Your Kids

This past weekend my oldest daughter Megan took out her photobooks and wanted me to sit with her to look through the pages. I sat with her for a while and then got up to do a few things around the house. She continued to sit there taking each book out and looking through the pages. I'm not going to lie, to see her pouring over these books of photos that I have taken of us over the years made my day.

When I take my camera out at home, I sometimes get the annoyed: "stop mom, no photos", sometimes they don't notice and other times they want to get in on the action and take photos themselves. They may take 21 photos of the same thing that are blurry and cut off but the point is not a perfect photo. My 3 year old took this portrait of me and I love it.

All of this got me thinking, I need to find ways to encourage this side of my kids and maybe there are others like me. One big thing about photography is that it really helps to develop the "observer" or the "noticer" part of people. It takes you outside of yourself to see things differently, to seek out an interesting perspective and to capture it.

I came up with a few games you can try with your kids that centre around photography. Every child is different and of course these could be adapted depending on the age and abilities of your child/children.

1) Take three photos of random objects around your home. You can do this with your child or you can do it yourself to make it a surprise, or even take turns. Use those three photos to build a story where you incorporate each object into the story.

2) Pick a theme and ask your child to go around to find and take photos of all of those objects that fit the theme. This can be as simple as a colour (find anything green and take a photo of it). You could take turns and see how each of you captured the same theme.

3) Take close up photos of various objects around the house and ask your child to guess what they are.

4) Scroll through that big photo library on your phone and find a photo of your child. Tell them the story behind that photo. You can also ask your child to pick the photo they want to hear about. What were you doing that day? Where were you and who were you with? Kids love to hear their stories and too often those photos get stuck on our phone and our kids never see them. I'm so guilty of this!

5) Ask your child to photograph 5 things they love. Get some of these printed just for them.

6) Let your child be the photographer and document some of your family time together. Ask them to take photos to tell the story of your morning or other routine.

These activities can be done indoors or outdoors and can be a great way to beat that cabin fever if you are stuck inside. They invite your kids to capture the details of the things around them. You may be surprised just how observant kids naturally are.

Do you have another game or activity to add? Let me know about it!

4 Photo Project Ideas You Can Start Today

I’ll soon be sharing on my website the latest session in my series: “do what you love” which is an ongoing personal project of mine. Personal projects are a great way to get those creative juices flowing, to re-focus, or to experiment with new techniques. While you hope that others will enjoy and be inspired by it, it is something you do purely for you.  With this in mind, I wanted to challenge you to take on your own personal photo project in the context of family life. As we move into the cooler seasons, we are typically at home more which is a great opportunity to push yourself to explore your creativity, and at the same time, to document your home life. 

A good way to start is by making a list of those things you want to remember about your family as they are right now. You may be amazed at how the act of just taking the time to think about these and write them down will get you to notice these moments more when they do happen. Start using your camera to document those moments. This may mean scheduling a little window of time in the day to use your camera. Keep the camera close, with extra batteries and memory cards handy. Taking a few photos a day or each week doesn’t take that much time. Yes, there will be days when you may just go through the motions, feeling like there isn’t much to capture. If you keep with it, however, you will find those times when everything comes together and it will all be worth it. When you look back on all the photos you captured, you may be surprised to see how the photos as a collection speak to you about your life. 

Here are some project ideas you may want to try:

1)      Photograph the evidence that the kids were there: the aftermath, the forts they build, the trail of toys, the piles of laundry. These all tell a story of your life right now.  There is a wonderful website dedicated to documenting details of evidence that the kids were here. It is worth taking a look for some inspiration and how interesting these images can be - even a sink stacked with dishes is worth documenting.

2)      Document an activity:  get kids (young and older) involved, ask them what they love to do and want to remember. Let them pick the activity and work on telling the story of that activity. Use various perspectives. Don’t forget to include the context. For example, if the activity is apple picking, include wide shots of the orchard, the signs, close up shots of apples.

3)      52 week challenge: the idea behind this challenge is take a photo every week for a year. You could take a portrait of someone in your life or a self-portrait every week for a year  - explore different lighting, locations, moods….or if 52 weeks sounds too hard to manage, try it for a few months. You can pick different themes each week or just shoot whatever inspires you. Photograph parts of the same routine and challenge yourself to find a new way to photograph it, a new perspective, play with light and composition. Photographer Dale Foshe has put together a 52 week photography challenge with weekly themes. You can download his list and get started. You can share your work or see what others have done by following the various social media links provided.

4)      Details only: Focus only on capturing details - whether details of people, things or places. Think about photographing that messy bedhead, details of hands, textures, shadows. Once you start looking for details to shoot, you begin to see things around you in a new way.

  

These projects are meant to challenge yourself but it is important to have fun with it.  Don't be too hard on yourself. If you forget or truly don’t have the time for a few weeks, that’s ok. Just pick up where you left off. This is a project for you and you can make the rules. 

I would love to hear what ideas you come up with! You can visit my website to read more about my personal project focusing on local business owners pursuing their passion.