Through her eyes...

I was taking photos the other day (as you do) and Matilda asked me if she could have a turn.



I paused... my precious camera... sure you can... stay here with me though!







So I transferred the strap to her neck, showed her how to move in and out, how to focus and said - 

"You can take 10 photos... make them precious ones"

and she did! 






I was rather taken with her view of the world, her composition and thought. 

She loved it. 

It inspired us to give her a camera of her own, a second hand one that she could experiment with, away from my watchful eye... she had a birthday coming up and so we did!

















I am sure their are plenty of 'selfies' and random blury shots to come, but I love the idea of children being able to document their world, through their eyes. A sneak peak into their thinking and what is important to them. I await the 'first download' to see what treasures we have :)

Our Nikon Baby

I adore taking photos. Always have. But it isn't something I had ever really thought much about, other than for family snaps. This changed when I was asked to run a professional development for the teachers at my school on what makes a good photo. How to capture the moment and the engagement of children. How to tell a story with photos.

In my work setting taking photos is a big part of my job. These photos are used to tell stories of the children's investigations, discoveries and development. They are used to share relationships and celebrate the joy of children. Also to empower parents to see the importance and worth of children's play and communication. To see that their investigations have a real purpose. These photos are highly valued by the parents that I work with, and they always enjoy what a celebration of their child they become. Due to privacy issues I can't share these photos with you, so will have to just show you my beautiful children :)

I have always had a point and shoot camera and I snap away happily, every now and then I capture a beautiful shot, but I often feel frustrated that they don't have the richness I know photos can have.

Also in the modern day of smart phones, I rarely bother taking my camera out with me. My phone takes equally as good, if not better shots and it is always with me.

  

We have an adventurous holiday coming up (more details later) so I though this the perfect excuse to buy us a new camera.... One that can challenge my photo taking abilities, use Nathan's photographic study and hopefully give us rich and engaging photos!

So we did some research into entry level Digital SLR cameras and decided that the Nikon D3100 twin lens kit was the camera for us! We shopped around for along time to find this baby on sale. It usually retails for over $900 but we knew we could find it for less. With the current stock take sales it went down to $750 but we wanted more!!! We eventually took the risk and brought it online for $620 - bargain!

Yesterday it finally arrived!!! Boy have I been keeping it busy! The kids are being great models and allowing me to experiment with all the different settings. They are obligingly posing in the bright sun, dark rooms, and in strange positions. They will run super fast to see if I can capture them clearly by changing the shutter speed and jumping high into the air to see how we go capturing movement.

 So far I'm in love with my new baby and hope she supports me through a photographic learning curve. I am open and ready to learn! She has a great tutorial mode that is teaching me about how to get the effects I want. I want to challenge myself to make use of this camera and use her to her potential, not just as a fancy point and shoot... as she's a little big to fit in my pocket  :)

Photo Opportunity :)

One of the Mum's that attends the facilitated playgroups that I run, is studying to be a photographer. She is interested in working with families  to create beautiful photo's to remember. 

To get some practise, particularly with a variety of age groups, Gemma asked if she could come and take some photos of my beautiful children... How could I refuse!! We all know I have two stunning children, who wouldn't what to photograph them! Just kidding :) Ollie is very beautiful, but is at that wonderful age of face pulling and tongue poking that makes for a stunning photo...

Matilda already knew Gemma quite well as they are at playgroup together each week, but Orlando has never met Gemma before. Gemma was great. The house was hectic (as always) when she walked in and she was happy to join in the mayhem until it settled down. She then took the time to spend a few moments with the kids before taking photos. This allowed a relationship to develop which supported the rest of the morning. She talked to them about things that they like to do in the garden and they happily ran off to show her all the things they like to do and she snapped away.

At times photographers are in your face and everyone feels slightly uncomfortable, but Gemma was not. She was laid back, attentive and responsive to what the kids were doing. With little, natural questions she was able to get the kids to look in the direction she wanted or be where she needed them to be. She was happy to consult if we had any 'particular' shots or locations that were important to us, but if not she was busy snapping to the opportunities she saw around her. Where possible she tried to capture the children's personality in the photos and with my two she got this beautifully.

We now have a collection of beautiful shots and a really nice variety. I'm a bit chuffed :)

I have not been paid in any way for this post, just wanted to share some of the beautiful shots of my babies and put a good word in for someone who has done a great job! Enjoy!