MomShots

Hi! I’m a friend of Jessica’s, and she asked me to visit and share a little. This is a bit intimidating, because I know next to nothing about photography, but luckily she asked me to talk about one aspect of photography I do know: handing my camera over to my kid.

My daughter Zoe is 3 1/2, and she LOVES taking pictures. She walks through the house snapping photos of whatever takes her fancy, and while some of the results are …. interesting:

sometimes they’re really neat.

By looking at the pictures she takes, I’ve learned some lessons to incorporate into my own photography attempts.

Get close. Really close.

Capture those everyday moments you wouldn’t think to photograph,

and the moment just after that.

Pick colorful subjects.

Most of her picture taking sessions come randomly- when she asks to use my camera.  One fun adventure came, however, on a day we went out for a walk with the express intention of taking pictures of things she was thankful for.  They included the sun:

and a dumpster (we have yet to figure out the reason for that one):

Since she really does get such great joy from taking pictures, we’ve considered getting her one of the cameras that they make specifically for kids, but have decided against it at this point. The quality of the prints is reportedly low, and with the great photos she’s taking, they deserve to be seen in higher quality. And this way she’s learning respect for the camera - she’s quite careful, and knows how to turn it off and on, and most importantly, to put it back where it belongs when she’s done.

When I asked Zoe to tell me about why she likes using the camera, this is what she said,

“I like to take pictures of my plants because I love them. I like to use the camera because it’s so great.”