My daughter, the photographer

[ray_g]

Ok, indulge a proud father. 🙂

My wife and kids spent the day in NYC today. My wife brought the GRD, and my 8 year old daughter Rica, one of my old film point and shoots.

The film cameras batteries promptly died. She spent the day shooting with the GRD.

At FAO Schwartz:

This is a full frame, uncropped shot of the skyline. All I did was adjust levels and convert to mono/tone.

Okay, for this last one I cheated a bit. I cropped a tiny bit off the bottom, and used converttobw pro to adjust the "print" exposure to grade III.

I think it's time she got a camera. 😉

End of proud father rant.

 

[back alley]

ask her if she'll teach me a thing or 2.

great shots.

joe

 

[John]

She is a natural. Great shots! 🙂

 

[Honus]

You should be proud, Ray, those are better than just good. For Rica's 9th birthday, I would suggest an M8 and Noctilux 😀

Robert

 

[Keith]

I think I'm going to go out to the back yard ... dig a hole and bury all my cameras. Then I might go and have a lie down!

:bang:

 

[MinorTones]

Great images. I like the photo you took of her because she has that other eye open. She is looking for the shot thats so cool.

I'm curious did she take one shot and then move on to another subject or did she work on a shot for more than a couple frames?

 

[Avotius]

that grd looks nice, maybe you should pick her up a half way decent point and shoot digital eh?

 

[rover]

Very well done, does she spend time looking at photographs? I always think that seeing is the best way of learning and I wonder if she was making images based on examples she has seen before.

 

[ray_g]

Great images. I like the photo you took of her because she has that other eye open. She is looking for the shot thats so cool.

I'm curious did she take one shot and then move on to another subject or did she work on a shot for more than a couple frames?

Thanks. Yes, I found it interesting that on most subjects, she took at least 2 or 3 frames. She took the equivalent of 2 rolls - around 72 shots.

And she DOES shoot with both eyes open. 🙂 I think she will be looking for a camera with a 1x finder in the future.

 

[ray_g]

Thanks guys.

Yes, rover, she does. Yesterday, she was taking pictures of pylons, street signs, and perfume bottles in the department store. In the liberty island ferry, there was a yellow butterfly in the middle of the deck. Everyone was watching her -- she got in close and was trying to take a macro of the thing!

 

[oftheherd]

Good for her and good for you. Keep encouraging her interest as long as she can sustain it. Neither of you will ever be sorry.

And yeah, find our what she likes in a camera and if you can afford it, buy or give her something she likes (and all the film she wants of course).

 

[rover]

Kids are amazing, you really have to take a step back to fully understand everything they know and can do.

 

[Keith]

I seem to remember hearing about a photographer who gave a bunch of young children point and shoot cameras for a day and told them to photograph whatever they wanted. They handed the cameras back to him at the end of the exercise and he went off and processed all the films. Apparently he was amazed at the quality of some of the pics and it changed his attitude towards photography considerably!

🙂

 

[captainslack]

The girl has potential!!!! I see a Zorki 4 or Canon P in her future!!

 

[ampguy]

Ray, your daughter takes excellent photos. The skyscraper shot reminds me of one of the better photos in the "Angels World" book. Our daughter does funny things with her digicam, she used to be afraid of the big aggressive ducks at a local park, after an ostrich chased her at a zoo once, but armed with her camera she now gets extremely close macros of their faces, equalling what I would get with a ~400mm lens, with her 3x zoom not fully zoomed. She also takes pictures of every page in a library book she likes that is about to become due. I'm glad she's using digital...

 

[peter_n]

That is just awesome Ray! She has talent, no question! Is she excited by what she produced or is it just like "OK now I need to go swimming"?

Did Luisa take that pic of Rica? That's not bad either. You could be in for an expensive time my friend... 😉

 

[Terao]

Got my first camera at about the same age. The great thing about giving kids cameras is (a) they'll try anything and (b) they get great waist-level shots. And they're a stealthy street-shooting ninja in your arsenal as well - people either don't notice them or don't care that they're taking photos. Friend of mine has just bought his 3yo a little digital and she's addicted already - never too early to start...

 

[raid]

Excellent photos from your daughter, Ray. My daughters are still too young, but I am encouraging the older one (3.5 years). Children may have a different perspective of life around them than we have.


Raid

 

[SalmanA]

You have reason to be proud... those are very good photos! She seems to be a natural with the GRD, perhaps a 2nd GRD is in order?!

Cheers,

 

[ray_g]

Thanks, guys.

Exactly, Raid. I would like to see "her view" of the world, before I give her any input about composition, etc. I just want her to take photos, to develop a love for it.

Yes, Peter, she is excited. We have decided to have her 10 top picks printed. She wants to show her friends.

Yes, expensive. But also a good rationale for me to upgrade. 😉