A Very Special Guest Photographer at the Frankston Festival of Lights

Today’s guest contributor to the blog, is my son Jesse. Well, to be more accurate it is his images that I want to be show casing.

Jesse is not the most cooperative of subjects in front of the camera. In fact he down right hates having his photo taken. I’ve written about how this may have come to be and the steps we’ve been going through to change his mind set in another article HERE. Over the last few months this has been slowly improving after trying a few photography ideas, but he still can have his moments.

Photography Ideas for Kids

In my mind I have had several photography ideas that I wanted to try that would hopefully spark his interest in photography. One of these ideas was to have him carry out his own little photography project. I thought it would be interesting for him to document some type of festival or street event. That way there was plenty of opportunity for him to casually walk around and take photos.

Recently Frankston City Council had their annual Frankston Festival of Lights celebrations. We decided to go and join in on the fun so it was a perfect opportunity to let Jesse do his stuff.

What I was hoping for was that Jesse would start to enjoy photography more through the process of actually taking photos. Also it would be very interesting for me to see the results through the eyes of a child. In particular his perspective or camera angles, what he considered interesting or what was photo worthy and of course his story telling process.

At first the only instruction I gave him was to take photos of anything he saw that was personally interesting. But as this was the first time he ever held a camera for an extended period of time I could see he was getting frustrated and unsure at what exactly he was supposed to do. So I guided him a little. Some of the ideas I suggested were to try and tell a story about the event: where are we? What about the people, are they interesting, maybe dressed up funny? Are they having a good time? What are they doing: eating, going on rides? Close up shots?

He soon got the hang of it and the following images are the result. The pictures here are pretty much straight out of the camera with very minor post processing (a little boost in contrast) so I was quite impressed.

So for Jesse’s benefit (because I know he will read this) I have added my thoughts below.

Jesse, I like this shot because immediately I know where you are. This is important when you are telling a story.

This one gives us more information which is great.

You did well here Jess’. The sun was going down so it is sometimes hard to get sharp shots especially when objects are moving fast in low light. You can see that the kids are having a lot of fun.

This is a cool photo. Everyone is concentrating hard to burst their balloon first. I like the water coming out of the guns and the fact that you have gone in very close.

Another detail shot. Well done and good spotting.

This is my favourite shot Jesse! I wish I took it. I love how the man is in a perfect position opposite to the girl singing on the big screen. The girl’s eyes are looking straight at the man. Well done.

Yummy!

This is also a fun shot. I like it because it is slightly blurry. It is like the man is rushing away from the food stall and is in a hurry to eat his food. The queues for food were so long that day so I personally know how glad and relieved he must have felt to finally get it.

Great shot Jesse. Again the kids are having fun and the blur makes the ride look like they are travelling really fast. Which it was.

…and always when telling a story you have to set the final scene. Fireworks are a great way to end a fun day. It can be hard to photograph fireworks well especially if you don’t have a tripod. So you did really well here.

You did a great job Jesse. Maybe next time we could do a REALLY BIG festival and then you can come work for me. I will pay you Daddy rates of $1.50 per hour? 🙂 What do you think?

Have you ever tried this with your kids? It’s fun and I recommend letting them have a go. I’m sure the results will surprise you!! Do you have other photography ideas that you may have tried? Let everyone know in the comments below.

Take care

Warren