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Thread: How young do you start 'em?

  1. #1
    dubaiphil's Avatar
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    How young do you start 'em?

    Well I was at a local show over the weekend - it featured lots of vintage cars and aircraft plus some live music from the era (mainly 40's and 50's). Once baby naps had been done and dusted my wife, mother-in-law and children joined me. Oliver, my eldest, really wanted to take some photos so with a very short neck strap fitted I let him loose with my camera. At nearly 2 1/2 he was clearly having a great time though not fully up to speed with fill flash for back lit subjects as he kept overriding daddy's choice of camera flash for a few portraits! He created his own attraction though, shooting an air display on continual high with a gripped full frame camera while screaming with delight (Nikon shutters do sound great, but don't drown it out with your own screams, Oliver!)

    It's very interesting reviewing his images - even though he only had a 35mm prime lens on board (which isn't exactly ideal for aerial photography!) he got some great shots of a display team and it's very interesting to see the world from his perspective down low with people and family shots! Even little old Nanny looks tall from down there with a moderate wide angle!

    So my question to all you photographer parents - when did you start off with your children if they showed an interest in photography and with what equipment? I'm thinking of getting something toddler proof for Christmas now and there are a few cameras on the market. I think in the long run Oliver with his very own camera will be good for him AND my equipment!!!

  2. #2
    Kodiak's Avatar
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    Edit is OK… always want to learn!

    Re: How young do you start 'em?

    Quote Originally Posted by dubaiphil View Post
    So my question to all you photographer parents - when did you start off with your children if they showed an interest in photography and with what equipment?
    Hi Phil,

    After a bad domestic accident, an operation, and three months of physio-
    therapy, I was still not in condition to work and carry my gear alone. My
    sons were then most eager to help me… for what I am still grateful!

    They had to learn how to handle the equipment, change lenses, clean and
    protect the gear, format cards… and everything and all about it for quite
    some time.

    Soon enough and for sure, questions came up:
    • what did you shoot daddy, I see nothing?
    • why you don't do the same thing as before?
    •… … … endlessly and the deadliest one had to come:
    • "Dad, can I try?"

    Many told me I was dumb to let my kids play/hold such pro gear! There is
    no difference in my book between holding, changing, cleaning, storing all
    that gear and taking it to your eye and have to think prior to shutter release.

    Olivier was 12 and Bénédict 16 when they started asking me to take a camera
    and a lens to explore outdoors the possibilities for themselves.

    I know I can trust them, but always keep a third eye on them.
    I know accidents may happen anytime to anyone but I'm covered.
    I do not own anything but pro gear, so I have no choice.
    I know I have to agree to their exploration if anything should come out of it!
    •••

    I think it depends on you, your kid, your relation with him and if you have
    spare cameras!
    Last edited by Kodiak; 29th September 2014 at 02:02 PM.

  3. #3

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    Re: How young do you start 'em?

    I think that if your child is showing interest get him started. Nothing like starting young.

  4. #4
    Shadowman's Avatar
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    Re: How young do you start 'em?

    It's been suggested that providing the kids with their own camera for family vacations keeps everyone interested in the activities.

  5. #5
    Black Pearl's Avatar
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    Re: How young do you start 'em?

    My youngest at five is a keen Galaxy Tab photographer using it to take snaps around the house and garden - in fact a few month ago he shouted me into the living room and proudly displayed some of his pictures on our TV. No idea how he had figured it out but it being a Smart TV it is connected to the house Wi-Fi and so it his Galaxy so he was fiddling and managed to get them to talk to each other....its a generation thing I think.

    I have let him use my DSLR but its too big for him and he has played with one or two of the compacts we have knocking about but at the moment he prefers the 7" screen on his tablet. He can shoot, edit and share with ease so I'm going to let him just explore what it can do and cross my fingers in the hope he out grows it and wants to move upwards.

  6. #6
    rpcrowe's Avatar
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    Re: How young do you start 'em?

    At a LOT YOUNGER than when we shot film and each frame of film cost money, not to mention processing and printing...

    Additionally, there are a lot of very reasonably priced used DSLR cameras as well as bridge cameras on the market that are perfect learning tools for any child. As an example, a used Canon 350D with Kit Lens can be usually had for around a hundred or so U.S. Dollars on U.S. eBay. I recently purchased a Fuji underwater camera for about $80, the virtue of which is that it is virtually indestructible. It can be soaked, dropped and other ways manhandled with no bad effect. Great camera for a young kid!

    Of course, there needs to be some thought given to the weight of the gear vs. the kid's strength...

  7. #7

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    Re: How young do you start 'em?

    Grandson is three, and he shoots with his tablet, but is always eager to try my camera. It was last year that he made his first shots with my little compact that I wear most of the time, and a few times with the system camera as well. I'd say he did well at the age of two. His perspective of the world is a bit different from mine.

  8. #8
    dje's Avatar
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    Re: How young do you start 'em?

    Yes my grandkids dabble with photography on their "devices". I was trying to explain DOF to one the other day but he just didn't seem interested.

  9. #9

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    Re: How young do you start 'em?

    When my boys were young, I steered them into Scouts. When they were 11 and 9 years old I bought them each their first "real" knife. This only after they had shown they were trustworthy to follow instructions and be safe.

    They never showed interest in taking pictures with my gear. Later in their teens I got them each a P & S. Within a few moments they were posting selfies to Facebook. A skill I had never thought to master.

  10. #10

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    Re: How young do you start 'em?

    I never steered mine anywhere, but i did hang on when they got interested in something. My youngest started to program computers in the eighties at about eight. After dabbling a bit with Basic, he turned to assembler code for the 8088, then higher level languages. Began running Linux five years later when it was new, and is still programming another twenty years later. Another grandson started playing violin at six, and now he's eighteen and a virtuoso giving concerts and studying music seriously. Kids are different, they get different interests.

  11. #11
    IzzieK's Avatar
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    Re: How young do you start 'em?

    And to think that giving my grandchild of 19 months too early? I bought her a Leaf Frog recently for a 4+ years old that included 2 built-in cameras. She goes around their house pressing that button of everything she fancies!! Now I have to think of adding more software to her repertoire. Kids nowadays are smarter with newer technology...She understands 3 languages so why not start her young? Her mother, my daughter-in-law is a good teacher (actually she is an accountant). And my son thinks his daughter is the salt of the earth for speaking more Chinese phrases than him...so I bought my son a 3-part Chinese language series DVD for his daughter's Leap Frog so he will learn Chinese too...am I going backwards? Problem is putting the telephone on a higher shelf so she doesn't press buttons to talk to someone in Timbuktu...

    I agree...start them as young as possible.

  12. #12

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    Re: How young do you start 'em?

    Somewhere, I cannot find it at the moment , there is a shot of my wife and I leaning over to one side as our 'little lad', pretty young then, took our photo and we saw the camera was tilted over to one side in his small hands, a Pentax SLR, and we managed to stay in frame. That was back around 1969 ... he uses a G3 these days

    How young do you start 'em?.

  13. #13
    Doorstop's Avatar
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    Re: How young do you start 'em?

    I recently took my g/children, aged 13, 10, and 3, to a nature reserve, and gave each of them a p&s, set on automatic everything, and they were enthralled.
    They did not even bother with the bag of crisps and sweets and biscuits, forgot about the coldrink, PSP and cellphones.
    The results were not THAT great, but the enthusiasm was and still is, tremendous.

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