Teaching kids Photography

karlkarlkarl

karlkarlkarl

Suspended / Banned
Messages
37
Name
karl
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi All,
I'm looking at running an after school photography club at my daughters primary school. The club will run for 5/6 weeks and be aimed at 9/10/11 year olds. My plan so far is to do an introduction to types of photography, types of cameras, famous photographers and 'rules' of photography. I also plan on doing some practical sessions, such as, a walk around the grounds, water splash and light painting.
My question is, does anyone have any experience or suggestions for teaching kids for teaching photography to kids.
Thanks, Karl
 
My suggestion would be to ignore exposure completely. Focus on composition, but keep any "rules" quite vague (I'de avoid the "ruleof thirds" for example and instead look at the difference between having something in the middle, and not having it in the middle - but that could just be me being very disillusioned by the RoT as a concept).

Over that sort of 5/6 week period with that age group (about the age of my nephews), if I was doing this I might keep to the simple theme of "shapes and patterns". That works quite well on a lot of levels - look at photographs by famous photographers and spot the shapes and patterns, look at the world through a lens and see the shapes and patterns in the world. The children could make their own shape/pattern recognition cards at the start (diagonals, triangles, simple curves, s-curved, circles and ellipses, converging lines, centred, off-centred) and use these both to help them see the patterns in photographs and in the world around them. Yo could add in another levelif you needed to, "point of view" should work well using near/far and high/low.

Oh.. and if you get a chance, you must do a camera obscura in a blacked out room!
 
karlkarlkarl said:
an introduction to types of photography, types of cameras, famous photographers and 'rules' of photography.
Click to expand...

I would ignore all those topics. Get them to photograph things that are important to them, to tell a story they care about. eg something about their family/a family member, or some activity or other influential person in their life. Make them see photography (as any other art form) as a way of expressing themselves.
 
Jayst84 said:
I would ignore all those topics. Get them to photograph things that are important to them, to tell a story they care about. eg something about their family/a family member, or some activity or other influential person in their life. Make them see photography (as any other art form) as a way of expressing themselves.
Click to expand...
Yes.
Don't stifle them with stupid and confusing "rules", although I do think showing them some famous photographers with different styles might be nice.
 
ghoti said:
Yes.
Don't stifle them with stupid and confusing "rules", although I do think showing them some famous photographers with different styles might be nice.
Click to expand...

Yes, particularly those that show that some of the perceived rules aren't necessarily so - in particular that good photography can be soft, or blurred, or out-of-focus, or over-/under-exposed, or with limbs/heads cropped from the edges of the frame. And that good photographs can be of very ordinary things, or very ordinary people doing very ordinary things.

I find my nephews are always keen to do photography with me, but sometimes lack a bit of imagination to start with. So I started taking photos and then show them a couple and point things out on the rear-screen to them - such as how I've put the road on a diagonal so it points to the church or some such thing. At that point they're off, looking for diagonals. And the next thing I know one's showing me photos he's just taken of his Lego plan where he's put the wing on the diagonal. You need something up your sleeve to break any inertia at the start - I haven't run out of shapes and patterns yet!
 
I used to do the very same thing.
Some of the kids were wonderful, some just loved the idea of being a 'photographer' and some were just left at school as their parents were at work.
It is hard in many ways.
Getting them involved is the key - they need to choose the subjects, they need to be shown in dramatic fashion how a different position, different lighting or a different crop can affect an image, but most of all it has to be kept simple. Many of my kids (over a 3 year period of doing 6 week courses) had great ideas but would forget about the whole thing the moment they left for home, some didn't want to show me their pictures, many would turn up with no memory card or a flat battery but a few would get their mums to contact me, would drop off prints or a memory card and one or two are still into it several years later. A school exhibition cost me a load getting prints done and mounted but just how proud were those kids..!
They were not interested in famous photographers, technique or rules. I think Simos Ess mentions fun. Give them that in spades. Show them that the camera isn't important by using one the same as them and get them both sides of the camera as often as possible.
Finally, good luck.
I still get stopped in the street by a few of my one-time pupils. I also get ignored by many !
 
Thank you very much for some great ideas.
I very much like the idea of setting them a project to tell a story about someone they admire/member of their family. Also, I think the idea of an exhibition is a great idea. Thank you.
When I say 'rules of photography' I intend to keep it very simple such as thinking about backgrounds (no trees sticking out of heads), keeping the horizon/lines straight, leading lines and natural frames but I also intend to make a point of saying all the rules can be ignored which I think will appeal to kids.
I fully agree about keeping it fun and fast paced. One of my opening things is talking about the most expensive photo in the world and asking them what they think it would be, celebrity, pop star, film star? And then showing them Gusrsky's Rheine II.
I also intend to try and set up a camera obscura/pinhole camera.

Thanks all for your input, some great ideas there!
 
Some good advice and I think you have some good ideas on how to go about this activity. I would not bother about famous photographers, just get the children taking photos.

You could sometimes set them a challenge such as take photos of, say triangles and circles, for example, roof angles, road signs, flowers, fruits.

Do you have access to a printer? I think the kids will like to take their photos home.

Dave
 
I've worked with kids in many different activities. I have instructor certificates for seven different sports and I've found the best technique that works with every one of them and a saying comes to mind, "a picture speaks a thousand words" (pun intended). I found that the less I spoke and the more I did, the kids enjoyed the activities more and began to enjoy it, even the ones that failed miserably lol. I'd get your classes out shooting more than talking to them. Even 11 year olds don't have the best attention span so the more you keep them doing hands on stuff the more success and interest you should have from them. Obviously there are certain things you have to explain but try and get them to try it whilst you are explaining it and put your points across in simple ways.

Good luck and great idea:) My kids love taking pictures and seeing them whilst they take them. I bought them a cheap point and shoot each. They are only aged 3 and 4 but they sure do love it. Try talking about it though and that's a different story.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for your further comments.
I very much agree that 'doing' stuff will appeal for more than just listening to me waffle on.
The school has a number of digital cameras so I think practical tasks are the way forward.
 
Lets just hope it all goes well. My kids love their cameras.
 
Karl,

Firstly well done you for getting involved with the school.

Fun, involvement and fun must be the most important elements.
The comment by John-oh (although perhaps lost within his feelings on children!) about 10 rules of Lomography have to apply,
boil it down and its - use the camera anywhere, take anything that you want, have fun and enjoy.

My wife is part of a duo that runs an after school photography club for the same age group and I am certain she would say the underlines elements apply.

Good luck, don't forget its fun for you too.
 
you will need a few "spare"cameras, depending on the size of the group. they will all want to hold/try one. let them take loads of pics, have a goal. best pic from the whole course, a little prize would encourage them. hth mike.
 
hi Karl, well done for taking up this club. I've been running an after school photography club for the last 5 years at the primary school where I work. As others have said the main thing is keeping it fun! We get lots of ideas from the children themselves.
Some do use the club for free childcare but the majority are there because they want to be. As a school we are very lucky and have access to a Nikon DSLR, several compacts and also ipads, we don't allow the children to bring their own cameras into school. At Christmas we take pics that we make into cards and sell at the fair, I also take my lights in an we have a studio at the fair which is very popular. The 'photographers' take all the pics, edit them and then deliver them to the classes. We raise a lot of money for the school doing this. The club also take pics of any events at school to put on the website. We do a 'photo treasure hunt' several times a year where they have a list of pics to take (worms viewpoint, something soft, self portrait etc), they love doing this! This half term they have been taking lots of pics of items for a 'guess what it is' comp for the school to take part in - this was one of the childrens ideas1

Above all keep it fun, we don't do a lot about famous photographers/history - we tried one year to get them to but they weren't very interested! After a long day at school a lot of them need to be mobile and not sat down listening or researching1

Good luck and I look forward to hearing how you get on!:)
 
All your input has given me some great ideas, thank you.
I will report back once I have started the course (back end of April).
Cheers, Karl
 
Good rule of thumb is that attention span roughly age in minutes -10 yr old 10 mins. Switch up tasks as often as possible using 10 mins or so as a guide. Give them control but have some ideas ready as some really struggle to think up ideas independently. Also make sure you get the OK from the school that all have agreed to have their picture taken, they should have the paperwork, you don't want to get into issues if a picture ends up on display/online from your class and a parent goes mental...
 
Did week 1 of photography club today and it was great!
Started off with introductions and then asked them what they thought the most expensive photo sold would be of. The should them Gursky's 'Rheine II'.
Let them loose with some of the schools compacts in the school grounds and then did a group photo and that was an hour gone.
Looking forward to next week. Once again thanks for all the advice people provided as it was a great help.
 
Ok folks, another update and a little insight more insight for anyone who comes across this thread while searching this subject.
I have just completed week five of my photo club, next week will be the last week and then I will start up again in September.
Things that went well:
We did some water splash photography with a vase, water coloured with red food dye and a lemon. The kids loved this as it was messy and they even managed to get a couple of good shots which was impressive as they were using cheap fuji compact cameras.
Did some light painting today which they really enjoyed. We used my DSLR for this. I got them to try and write their names and draw flowers in light and also come up with their own ideas.
I took in my flash and reflector and did portraits one week. They enjoyed this but not as much as the more hands on/messy projects.
Playing with perspective. I put them in groups of three, one using camera, one close to camera another further away looking like they are in the palm of one closer to camera.
One week we did panoramas, we didn't have a very inspiring vista (school playground) but they enjoyed seeing the finished panorama shots after I had stitched them together using PS.

Things that didn't work well:
I tried to explain how to frame things by giving them actual frames and getting them to go outside and use them to frame their shots. Didn't work well but it was the first week and would maybe work better now they have a bit more of a grasp of photography.

I've hopefully inspired a few of them to think a bit more about photography and even if I haven't they seemed to have a lot of fun.
Once again folks, thanks for all your initial input, it really helped me.

Karl
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top