Asa photographer, I have been photographing my children and our surrounds even more than usual in these crazy and unusual times.
One of my children became curious and asked to borrow my camera and take some photos herself. Whilst I balked at the idea of her getting her mitts on my precious Canon 5D, I did reconsider after she asked some really great questions and showed serious interest in what I was doing. I dusted off of an old back up camera I had, put it onto automatic and handed it over. She took some initial snaps and as I reviewed them we fell into our first conversation about perspective.
Inspired by her enthusiasm and interest I was reminded of Lisa Swerling’s gorgeous https://glasscathedrals.com and https://miniature-calendar.com by Tatsuya Tanaka and showed her some of their images and creations. She was transfixed and utterly captivated by these artists' vision and work. We decided it would be really fun to have a go ourselves and so we borrowed Ron Weasly from her Hogwarts Express lego model and set to work to create some of our own perspective creations.
It kept my daughter occupied for hours and I was so impressed with her results. It made her pause and think about composition, angles and where she should position herself - she was lying on the ground, climbing step ladders and really considering the image she was trying to achieve.
So - IF you are stuck for activities over the summer I highly recommend this. You don't even need a camera as you could just use a phone. It’s not about the quality of the image but the consideration and creation. AND the two of us had a fun time thinking of ideas and hunting through the lego box for props and the garden for the setting.
Most importantly it encouraged her to look at things she might be looking at thousands of times a week a little differently.
