If You Give A Child A Camera...

Have you ever wondered what it's like from your child's point of view? For the Cranberry Fest I gave each of my kiddos a disposable camera.

The first shot on each camera was taken by me of the child who owned the camera. That way when we picked up prints at Walgreens there could be no arguing of who took what should they happen to take identical photos. 

The photos made me feel kinda bad for G. I'd forgotten that at 7 years old you can still be kinda butt level on adults. 

click to enlarge.

I can't decide if he was attempting a photo of D's butt or the maple cotton candy. Probably both.

Fi's photos were much more focused on people she knew. She took a lot of photos of us and at one point I told her "your camera is not to be used as a weapon". G's were of things he hadn't seen before that he wanted to remember, hers were of familiar things she wanted to remember. Funny how 2 kids in the same place with the same style camera will take completely different photos (if you leave them alone and try to keep thing 2 from copying thing 1 to irritate her). Included is a photo of our landlady (in green) and her daughter. I love the photo of the little girl looking up at her mother and I. Small among giants but just below eye level for Fi!

I hope those of you with kids will invest in some disposable cameras and let your kids explore sometime. Also fascinating to them? You can't see the photos! And the button you push to activate the flash caused them some alarm. Then winding. It's a much more physical interaction with a camera than what they get with digital. Also the limits of having only 26 shots instead of unlimited with a digital camera. Causes them pause before they just click away madly. 

Now we'll discuss composition. And maybe try to get G to not stand so close to strangers and be aware of unknown butts in frame.