A photo project for children

BellyBoy

BellyBoy

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Name
Christopher
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Hi,

This year, I'm involved with a local organisation working on web design as well as some project management.
One of my projects is a digital media project where I'm trying to get kids interested in photography (also linked to the environment). It is a community based project where people with photographic skills in the community can pass on their skills to the kids, so the kids can learn new skills or improve their current skills. It's also a good way to keep them out of trouble :D

I already have a few ideas about the project and it's starting to come together, however, I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to make a photography project interesting to young people and help to engage and excite them?
The age group is from ~12 to 18 year olds.

I have thought of the following:

-take them out on trips when the weather's nicer to animal parks etc
-make the learning process fun and activity based
-giving them challenges, such as giving them a subject which they have a certain amount of time to photograph.

The main equipment used will be bridge cameras and compacts, although those who already have good skills will be given a chance to use a DSLR and will be given more complex tasks in a group lead by myself (wildlife photography using stalking techniques and bushcraft).

Can anyone contribute any ideas which kids might enjoy?

It will be interesting to hear what others have to say :)
 
Shooting:
skateparks?
Graffitti?


Printing the entries would be good also to show there parents what they have achived?
 
1st of all, good on ya BellyBoy for doing such a thing! I would of loved this when I was a kid! and its great to see people help out in the community!:) have a :beer: on me! (but not while your with the kids:lol:)

The idea of animals as a subject is good, kids like that.

Other then that, perhaps you could try a few fun things (multiple exposures, playing with colours and motion blur etc) -get a photo of them all jumping? colour flash?

also, perhaps some phunny photoshop? you know, putting a cats head onto a donkey? then get some kids have their photo edited in a funny way?

Dunno what else! just have some fun! if you have website skills, then you could put one up showcasing their works, then all can se it! -cheaper than printing, which is a good idea too...

anyway, good luck with it and well done for doing it!:clap:
 
(my ideas are more for the young kids).

But for the older ones, get them to brainstorm some ideas that they would like to explore, and (just being 18!) treat them more like an adult! I found that really helpful during a-level photography. it made it fun, but it still had some seriousness to it!
 
Sounds like a great idea for the youth and interesting work nice one!

Anyway some ideas:
- sports events? school football/netball/hockey/rugby matches?
- maybe some portraiture/model type shoots? parental consent etc maybe required.
- some photo diaries as projects? eg. pics of places a certain cuddly toy has been during a weekend, that gets passed around every weekend or individual chosen toy over one weekend for participants.
 
glad i can help:)

you ideas are all good! it all depends on your timescale, no. of kids etc! I like the idea of the cuddly toy (an idea inspired by the monkeh threads on TP no doubt...) I was going to suggest possibly hiring a model for a day perhaps, and setting up a "proper" studio scene for them to get a good feel of it, and to learn about lighting. The only thing is that you will probably get the odd cheeky teenage boy asking if they can do nudes.....

When i did my a-level, all the girls were interested in fashion photography so something revolving around that? anyway, im sure you will do fine!
 
Thanks guys for the ideas, they're good and I will add them to my list :thumbs:

I'm glad photoshop has been mentioned as I aim for the kids to learn basic to advanced photoshop (dependent on age). I think some weird and wonderful manipulation may go down well with the younger kids :D

The multiple exposure idea is good too and there is a go kart outdoor racing track near me, where motion blur skills can be used.

Thanks for the advice Aleksander regarding treating the older kids like adults (they seem to grow up quickly anyway :lol:).

I was also thinking of time lapse photography too and maybe even some animation (taking photos of a subject to be animated, then putting the frames into some movie software).

I'm fairly young myself (20) which is why I was asked to lead the kid's projects (more cooler than an older adult I suppose :exit: :lol:)
We are getting CRB checks and insurance so that should be all ok and some parents might join in with the younger kids.

I'm quite excited about it, especially with the advanced group who want to learn wildlife photography and stalking techniques as that's my favourite photography subject.

Cheers guys
 
sounds like a fun plan!

be carefull with animation though! i started a project like that thinking it would be a strole (well, a jog) in the park. Turned out to be a marathon up Everest. if it was made of sh%t! took me ages! its lots of work!

oh one last thing, over-lapping images, and then putting them together on photoshop (so, get the same scene captured a few times without moving the camera. just get all the people in it to move about so they are in a few placed in the same image!)

I have to say, I wish I was closer so that I could help out/take part! I love the idea of wildlife photography, but I don't have the lens, the know-how or the location (Central London, with no car!)

haha, its how young you are "at heart" that counts! (though ive been told thats just an excuse for being old:lol:) It does help so much to treat them more like adults though, helping out at a school for work experience ive seen peoply die on their feet for treating some teens as 9 year olds! (don't worry though, im sure you'l do fine!)
 
How about a treasure hunt activity.

Give teams a camera, send them on a mission to get a photos of different things.

Can work a couple of ways:
1) Give them a list of 10 things to photograph
2) Give them a clue that takes them to a location where they get their next clue. At each location they are asked to take a specific photo. Two winners - the fastest and the most creative.

HTH
 
we did the treasure hunt thing for a photosoc taster thingy except we also had a funniest.

what kind of budget do you have as some of that stuff could get deer (printing as well as admission to places)
 
Hi BellyBoy, two words you have used stand out to me "Community" and "Environment".
So why not ask your group to photograph what they most like or dislike about the place where they live?

I'm sure the results would be interesting.
 
Throughout the project you could have an ongoing sub theme for each of them to get as good/interesting a photo of each one of the other kids on the project. So if there are 20 kids on the project, their aim would be to get together their best photo of each of the other 19 kids. In fact make it 20, and ask them to submit a self portrait as well.

You could then put all the photos together at the end of the project but group all the photos of a specific person together so you'd end up with lots of different interpretations of the same kid.

It would also be interesting for each of the kids as they would all come away with lots of different photos of themself taken by all the other kids.
 
I thought of that too C&C but I reckon its a recipe for disaster.

Could be fun though lol.
 
THe treasure hunt stuff looks good.
Alternatively, make some pics yourself, and ask them to find the location and subject and take a picture themselves.
 
Exellent idea.

Wish there ws something like that available down here.

Anyway projects?

what about people at work? [ie mum doing dishes, dad gardening, teacher maybe???]

still life [ie fruit, vase, fave book or cd]

view from your window

flowers

portraits [introducing black and white]


God I would love to be involved with something like this.

Keep a thread open to tell us how it is going.
 
Thanks for the replies!

The creative light painting sounds a good idea, I love that (even though I forgot about it :lol:)

The treasure hunt sounds really good, I think that's something I'll do for sure :thumbs:

The idea of asking the kids to take pictures of what they like and dislike in their environment is a good idea too and I think it will be very useful (we could put the pictures together in a slideshow and show it to the local council to show them what the kids think needs to change).

The photos of each other also sounds good so I'll consider that too :thumbs:

The idea of me (and others) taking pics of certain places (probably around town) and asking the kids to find those places and take pictures is a good idea and I think I will also include that in the project.

I will keep you up to date with what goes on as and when it happens.

If anyone is interested, the organisation I'm working for is Riversmeet (based in Cockermouth) http://www.riversmeet.org/
 
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