Max Learns Photography!

Photography is a huge part of our lives. It’s both our passion and our profession, and so naturally we’ve been itching to share it with our son, Max. He’s had toy cameras since before he was born, but now that he’s 2.5, and able to understand more, we’ve decided to start to actively teach him photography!

Max Learns Photography is a new series that we’ll be covering on this blog, and one that we’re SUPER excited about. We’ll be sharing our experiences as we teach Max to become a “tographer” (as he calls it).

So take a gander at the video above to see what camera he’s using, an adorable look at him opening and using it for the first time, and get a peek at some of his shots so far!

Here’s a quick summary:

– We got Max a shockproof/waterproof camera – the Olympus Stylus TOUGH TG-4. We got this particular model because the shutter release button was the easiest to press out of all the shock proof cameras we tried.

– Right now he plays with it for about 3-5 minutes at a time.

– He knows how to turn the camera on/off and how to take a photo pressing the shutter release button.

– We’re focusing on getting him to take a photo when he likes what he sees in the frame.

We’ve only been at this for a week, but here are a couple tips we’ve picked up for teaching kids photography:

1. Try not to have any expectations of what photos they’ll take and how interested they’ll be. Some days he wants to take shots, other times he says “No thanks. Later.” We’re learning to follow his lead, and not force photography. That’s a surefire way to make it a chore instead of a joy.

2. Try to make photography an activity that you do together. He’s shown more interest when we are taking photos together.

In the next instalment of Max Learns Photography we’ll be sharing his experience printing photos on a little 4×6 printer we picked up!