Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Kids and Photography

I do a lot of photography with my grandkids. Enough that I can trust them with my camera. Of course I keep an eye on things but at age 14 a boy or girl can be responsible for things if you expect them to. You just need to teach them some basics and be able to step back and let their imaginations go to work.
This past weekend I handed my camera to one of my grandsons charging him with shooting his brothers baseball game. I had captured two games the day before and thought he would like to do this one. I had the camera set up so all he had to do was frame his shots, something he thinks about and is good at.
The result of letting him shoot that game is phenomenal. Not every picture is perfect as you might guess, but the story told by the series of images he shot is amazing. All totaled he shot 1191 pictures. Mostly of the ball game, but there are other things there too.
It has pictures of me from across the field, he also has pictures of a very pretty girl from across that field too, and later there are more of her from a little closer. I'll talk to him about that! Not that he shouldn't take pictures of girls but how and why and the ethics of doing it. The thing is that he shot and captured what he saw through his lens. Family members and friends all became part of the story. In the end what he captured was the essence of a weekend of baseball with family and friends. It couldn't be done in one or two simple photos no matter how perfect they could be, instead it took over 1000 images to make the story whole. We can edit this down to fewer images and we will, but it will be the photographer, my grandson, and I doing it together and he will have the final say as to what we use in his story. I just might make a coffee table book out of this collection or maybe a screen saver. Isn't photography fun!
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Photography Tips

Here are a few things you can do to improve your photography that will apply regardless of what camera you use. These are the basics that every photographer should know and do to get reasonably good pictures out of any camera.

Make sure you have a clean lens. Don't just blow the dust off, but use a clean cloth suitable for cleaning lenses and do it right.

Set up so your camera is stable and won't move as you press the shutter. You can do this a number of ways. If you will be handholding the camera, hold your elbows in against your sides, and stand with your feet apart with one slightly forward of the other. You can also lean against a solid object like a light pole, tree, building or whatever. The best method though is to use a tripod or monopod. I have both but I like to carry the tripod best. If I want to use it as a monopod I just extend only one leg and us it as I would a monopod. I'll add instructions about to how to use these tools later.

Finally the "First" basic thing you need to do is read your manual and learn what all the parts of your camera are for and how to use them. If you understand how your meter works and what white balence is you'll go a long way to getting that shot you want when the light is wierd and you are wondering why your pictures are all dark or yellow instead of like what you saw on the monitor or in the viewfinder.

I'll expand on all these topics in the coming weeks and months so you'll want to check back and see what I've added from time to time.