Like many people I picked up my camera because I wanted to capture every single waking second of my daughter's life. So we bought a fancy DSLR and I imagined all the adorable pictures I would take. I did not take into consideration my daughter's complete lack of cooperation. She would never look at the camera. And forget about getting a smile out of her. She would much rather throw me a silly or angry face. One time she literally hid under the dining room table trying to get away from my lens.
I tried bribing her with promises of candy, cookies, and princess stuff. It never worked. She had no interest in taking a picture, but she sure was interested in my camera. Always grabbing at it and always wanting to see all the pictures. Ding! Light bulb moment! If she understands how the camera works and how fun it is to take and see a picture, maybe she will smile for me. So when we upgraded our little point and shoot camera, we gave our daughter the old one. Then for her 3rd birthday a very generous Aunt gave her a nice digital camera complete with neck strap, just like Mommy. And yes we are quite the sight with our cameras.
I leave her camera where she can reach it and when the mood strikes her she will grab it and take photos. I even started her own photo blog, just like Mommy. I have found that by giving my daughter a camera I have been able to really see the world through her eyes. And when she mimics me by posing us, "Mom you stand here, Dad you over there" I realize what a bossy photographer I am!
There are many great and affordable digital cameras out there designed just for kids. They are built with handles to avoid the finger over the lens and they are built tough enough to take every bump and drop. I highly recommend giving your kid a camera. You never know what wonderful pictures you might end up with
Yellow polka dots and shiny red shoes
by Sophia Lerma age 3
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We had great fun playing with camera's last holidays – and really I was pleasantly surprised at how creative and actually really good at photography these little kiddo's were… All those hours poring over the brilliant photographs in DK books must have paid off! I wrote a post on some of the photography games we played and you are welcome to take a look: http://www.se7en.org.za/2009/01/24/se7en-do-photography
My 3 year old has been taking photos with our old digital camera for over a year now. We produced a blurb book of her photos from age 2-3 and we can see how much better she is at capturing images in the lens. She sets up photos of her dolls and toys and loves to take it to pre-school and take photos of her friends. We have just ordered her a new camera!