My son taking pictures when he was 4 years old!

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I found these old photos I snapped of my son taking pictures with his first camera, a Canon Sure Shot Owl, when he was four years old. He's 13 now and using a Nikon D70 to shoot scenes he builds with Legos to make stop-motion animations! Its never too early to get your kids a camera!

In the last photo, he was being grumpy cause I told him to stop taking pictures for a minute so I could do a portrait of him, lol.

Shot in March, 2001.

 

[Vincent.G]

Cute photos of your son, Chris. I guess kids are very good at imitating adults. In your case, your son probably see you everyday using a camera so I believe he will want to do the same too.

 

[nobbylon]

nice! I remember getting my first camera for xmas in 1970 when I was 6. It was a kodak instamatic with cartridge film. My brother got one too. I then started using my dad's 35mm stuff until I saved and bought a K1000 Pentax when I was 11. I still remember the smell of that camera when I opened the new box, magical.
I've always encouraged my kids to take pictures and my daughter uses a D40x and my eldest son a sony w120. It's different though for them as I was always so excited and impatient to get my prints back from the chemist where I got them processed. Happy days.

 

[Matus]

Great shots indeed. What does your son thinks about them today?

 

[oftheherd]

Cute shots with good memories. Stop action with Legos? That has to take both skill and patience.

 

[robklurfield]

great stuff, Chris. Is he hooked?

 

[charjohncarter]

Right, get them started young, that way they will have a great portfolio by the time they are 21. And imagine what those photos will be like in fifty years.

 

[Darkhorse]

You know, as much as I love my dad, despite my interest in the camera growing up he really kept me away from it lest I break it. Or lose it. Maybe I didn't vocalize my interest in it photography well enough. But it wasn't until I was nearly 20 that I was able to explore photography at all.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Right, get them started young, that way they will have a great portfolio by the time they are 21. And imagine what those photos will be like in fifty years.

When I was 21 I had already been in several exhibits in local galleries and one in the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. I got my first manual camera when I was 11!

My son isn't that interested in photography in and of itself anymore though, he uses it as a tool for making the animations and to document stuff he designs with Legos. I suspect he'll get more into photography itself when he gets older.

 

[shadowfox]

Those are very cute photos of your son, Chris.

This reminds me of last week, when I introduce my daughter (six y.o) to the dilemma of choosing which camera to use on a trip:
I asked her to choose between mom's red XA2 and red Konica C35 EF3. She couldn't make up her mind for a long, long time.

She'd feel right at home on RFF 🙂

 

[Steve_F]

Wonderful images Chris. My 3 yr old son got one of those Vtec kiddie digital cameras last year. It gives me pure joy to see him use it and then skim through the files to see his world through his eyes. I'm loving putting my M6 TTL in his hands when he wants to take a picture of his 10 month old sister. He loves looking through the finder and "pressing the button". Watch this space.

Steve.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Wonderful images Chris. My 3 yr old son got one of those Vtec kiddie digital cameras last year. It gives me pure joy to see him use it and then skim through the files to see his world through his eyes. I'm loving putting my M6 TTL in his hands when he wants to take a picture of his 10 month old sister. He loves looking through the finder and "pressing the button". Watch this space.

Steve.

That kiddie digital camera sounds cool. They didn't have anything like that when my son was 3, so we used the disposable cameras since they were easy to use, cheap, and didn't have to worry about him breaking them. In the long run the digital would be cheaper if its built for kids (indestructible!), since the cost of the disposables added up fast, plus film processing.

 

[NickTrop]

All the pics of your son are great - but the last one was priceless. Cameras are great gifts for kids - especially digitals, since they sometimes burn through a roll of film in a minute, which is what I used to do to the chagrin of my father. Do you have any pictures he took at that age? Would be cool to see them.

 

[andredossantos]

Yup, I've been putting cameras in my daughter's hands since she was born! These were taken right before her 2nd birthday. She's showing her 80 year old grandmother how to "go digital" 🙂

Untitled by andre dos santos, on Flickr

And here, the art of chimping 🙂

Untitled by andre dos santos, on Flickr

 

[pakeha]

These are all so cool, and if that is your sons grumpy look, man you have got off light.
regards
CW

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Yup, I've been putting cameras in my daughter's hands since she was born! These were taken right before her 2nd birthday. She's showing her 80 year old grandmother how to "go digital" 🙂

Untitled by andre dos santos, on Flickr

And here, the art of chimping 🙂

Untitled by andre dos santos, on Flickr

Cute! Looks like she got a good pic from what I can see on the LCD. 🙂

 

[Dave S.]

Wonderful photos Chris! When did you give your son his first camera? My daughter just turned 2 and I'm starting to think about what camera to give her and when.

Do you remember what camera/film you used to shoot those great photos of your son?

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Wonderful photos Chris! When did you give your son his first camera? My daughter just turned 2 and I'm starting to think about what camera to give her and when.

Do you remember what camera/film you used to shoot those great photos of your son?

I started giving Mack single use cameras when he was 3 and bought him the Canon Owl 35mm point-n-shoot when he was 4. When he was 8, his mother bought him a Kodak digital point-n-shoot. When that died a couple yrs ago, when he was 11, I gave him my Nikon D70, which he uses to do the shots for his Lego animations.

I used a Hasselblad with the 80mm lens and the old version of Tmax 400 for the shots I took of him that are posted in this thread.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

All the pics of your son are great - but the last one was priceless. Cameras are great gifts for kids - especially digitals, since they sometimes burn through a roll of film in a minute, which is what I used to do to the chagrin of my father. Do you have any pictures he took at that age? Would be cool to see them.

I have a lot of searching to do, a lot of my stuff got scattered about and disorganized because of having to move around so much back when I was really poor. I still have the negs, just have to dig them out to scan, but I did find on my computer some of my son's early stuff.

He did this one of me (with short hair!) when he was four, using a Fuji Quicksnap.

He did this self-portrait with his Canon Owl camera's self-timer when he was 6. He helped me develop the black and white film!

This is me photographing my son while he photographed me. He was 6 when he did this with the Canon Owl.

He shot this with the Canon Owl when he was 6 when he went to an abandoned house with me.

He made this photo of one of his cousins with a Kodak digital point-n-shoot camera his mom bought him when he was 8.

Another with the Kodak digital, when he was 8. This cat belonged to his grandparents.

 

[icemendicant]

Lovely pictures, and some wonderful memories!

I have an old Pentax WP digital camera which I've given to my boys (ages 9,7,5,3 and 5 months) and they love it. It's waterproof so can be washed under the tap if it gets sticky, and relatively shockproof, so works quite well as a kids' camera. Now I just have to stop them sneaking around trying to catch pictures of us in the bathroom, which they think is hilariously funny!