When my kids first discovered the camera feature on their tablets, they immediately started wandering our house to photograph every item they could find. Then they repeated the process again and again. After several viewings of their work, I noticed they were photographing their subjects in the same way, from the same angle, every single time.
While I am no expert in photography, I saw this as a teachable moment and came up with a list of 10 challenges to help my kids think outside the box when snapping their next picture.
Use our free printable (shown below) to challenge your photography skills when you're out and about.
The Backyard Photo Challenge
1. Rainbow-colored objects: Photograph one item from each color of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. If you don't have access to all these colors, swap in black, white, gray, or brown as needed.
2. Person in mid-air: Work on timing. Capture the moment when someone else has just jumped and has both feet off the ground.
3. View from below: Get creative with angles. Take a photo while lying on the ground and looking upward. One idea is to try positioning yourself under a tree to get a different perspective.
4. Close-up image: Photograph a plant or friendly bug as close as possible while keeping the image as crisp as you can.
5. Silhouette: Explore light. Take a picture of an object directly in front of your light source to see what it does to the subject.
6. Trick shot: Create an optical illusion of a person standing in the palm of your hands by playing with distances of objects to the camera.
7. Through nature: Take a picture while peeking through a plant.
8. Panorama: Test different photo settings. Use the panorama camera feature to capture a wide view.
9. Stop-motion: Tell a story through photography. Take a series of 5 photos to make a mini-movie.
10. Selfie: Pose in front of a beautiful space & capture a photo of yourself in the moment.
Like most hobbies, photography is a learned skill, and through some creative mini-challenges, you may notice improvements in your child's (or your own!) newly discovered passion.
