This afternoon, while trying to think of something fun to do with Liam and Kai during Kingston and Evangeline’s nap, I came up with a photo scavenger hunt. My original idea was to let the boys use our point and shoot cameras to take pictures of the things on the list. But I learned the hard way about not thinking this up in advance. One of our cameras was nowhere to be found. The other one had a dead battery and missing charger. This was after I had already explained my idea to these two excited boys and they were eagerly waiting to start.
I suggested waiting until a different day, Liam suggested using the DSLR. Liam’s idea won. Kai got stuck with the low quality kids camera that also has little games on it. At this point, Kai gave up on the scavenger hunt and sat down to take pictures of himself and play games.
With Liam so eager to begin, I tried to explain to him about thinking through the composition of his pictures and what would help make them more visually appealing. For example, don’t just take a picture of an empty sippy cup on the counter. I tried to gently direct him on what would or wouldn’t be a good idea for a picture without actually suggesting anything specific. We have a lot to work on but it was fun to see his mind coming up with the photos he wanted to take. Here are a few from the hunt…
Liam had a really good time coming up with all his pictures and I had a really good time watching him. He has requested doing another scavenger hunt soon. So hopefully we can pick a day that is not gloomy with the flash popping up for every picture.
We are also going to try to do a photo-a-day challenge in February with a couple of friends. I’m hoping that’ll motivate me to take a few pictures and that I can teach Liam a few things in the process.