The next school holiday is fast approaching and
if you’re anything Iike me you'll be searching for ways to keep the kids
entertained without it costing you a fortune. Well here is a cost-free and
simple idea to add to your repertoire and it is sure to be fun.
A couple of weeks ago we headed to Bexhill-on-sea
as a family and the kids spent the afternoon taking photos of their choice
around a prompt (or theme) I had chosen for them. I told them in advance that
one child would be the winner and would receive a prize, but didn't reveal what
the prize was. This was because I didn't want them to put in effort according
to how good they each felt the prize was. I just said it would be something
they liked and different for each of them.
If you fancy creating your own photo walk or
competition here are the things to think through -
1. Choose your date and check the weather. Some
children won't mind if it is pouring down outside but of course, others will
hate that and it does make taking good photos much harder, so try to pick a
fine day. It doesn't matter if it is cold or frosty, you can just wrap up and
of course, you can get some fab photos in the frost or snow.
2. Choose your location. You can create a photo
walk or competition anywhere. We chose our local seaside town as the venue but
it could just have easily been in the woods, a park or the local neighbourhood.
3. Get your cameras ready. It doesn't matter what
equipment you use, you just need to ensure that each participant has something.
We have old point and shoot cameras sitting in our drawer and of course phone cameras can be great now as well. For particularly young children you could use
disposable cameras but then you need to get the pictures developed,
whereas with anything digital, the images are much more instant and often that
appeals to children. Make sure you've charged up batteries and ensure there is
enough memory to take a good amount of shots.
4. Decide the prompt. I wanted to give the kids a
really wide brief so they had the prompt of circle but it could have been
anything. The types of prompts I'm going to use in the future are other shapes,
colours, a number, a letter, vehicle, human, hat, top, bottom, stair, roof,
walk, picture etc.
5. Decide on the competition rules. At first, I just
said to the kids, take as many photos as you like inspired by the prompt
circle. That doesn't mean there has to be a circle in the picture, the image
just has to suggest the concept of circle to you and you need to be able to
explain why. Give me one image by 6pm and I'll judge the winner.
Then the kids bought up all these questions I
hadn't thought through, like could they use an image editor? Could they take a photo, print it and cut it into a circle? Could it be lots of images together
to make a collage circle and so on? It doesn't matter what your rules or boundaries
are they just need to be consistent for all participants, so think through all
angles in advance and communicate them to your participants.
6. Choose your prize. You can award anything you
like, I have a present box and said the girls could choose something they
fancied as their prize and if JJ had won I had a big packet of M&M’s for
him.
7. Go and have fun taking the photos. I was so
inspired by how much all three of my kids got into the competition. One of
them is a keen photographer so I knew she would enjoy it but the other two less
so. It was really great as an educational activity to help them see beyond
their normal view and to use their creative eye.
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| The submitted images, the one on the right was the winner |
8. Judge the submitted images. I thought this would
be easy but actually, your emotions can kick in and I ended up feeling bad for
my daughter, Miss E who loves photography as her twin had submitted a picture
that was outstanding. Miss M had only taken about 8 images in total but one was
amazing, whereas Miss E had taken about 60 and had numerous really lovely ones
but she didn't choose the one (in my opinion) that was outstanding (see below).
I ended up posting the three photos on FB and
not telling my friends who had taken which, so they could anonymously vote.
This was a much better idea for me as I didn't have to disappoint any of my
kids. I also awarded a highly commended prize to Miss E for all the effort she
put in and the enthusiasm with which she had approached the task.
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| The one of Miss Es that I adored |
10. Display the photos. I think it is nice to then
either short or long term display each of the images. I'm going to be putting
ours in a frame with three cut-outs to allow for the three photos.
We had so much fun as a family undertaking this
task together and I hope it works out just as well for your family.
Why not pin this post for later?
Why not pin this post for later?