Start 'em young.

[John Bragg]

My 4 year old Daughter loves taking photos with Daddy and has done for over a year. She knows about film and digital and has a very critical eye already. She appreciates black and white and loves to help me scan and edit my photos, usually portraits. How did you start your kids on their photographic journey and at what age ?

Cake by E.J. Bragg, on Flickr

 

[johannielscom]

My daughter caught the bug at age 17, she’s 26 now and while her approach is more of the hipster generation (lo-fi, expired film etc) she shoots really cool stuff. Mainly while travelling, which she does a lot. She regularly checks in for some advice or to borrow something from dad.
My 20-year old son has briefly shot film some five years ago, one summer with a one week vacation to Berlin. He still keeps his SLR in ready mode, but I don’t think it goes out a lot.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

John,

I think its great you're helping your daughter get into doing photography at such a young age! You should post some photos she has taken.

My son was three years old when he started showing interest in what I was doing. I started buying him Fuji Quicksnap single-use cameras, and he quickly learned how to use them, even turning on the flash when needed. I soon after got him the Canon SureShot Owl, a 35mm point-n-shoot camera, which he is using in the photo above, taken when he was four. He later got a digital point-n-shoot and I later gave him a Nikon digital SLR.

He never got into doing photography seriously like me; he uses photography for other things like documenting things he builds with Lego bricks. He did end up following in my footsteps as a professional artist, though! He does 3D modeled illustrations of spacecraft for aerospace companies. He's making very good money doing it; though it doesn't take up a lot of his time, he has made more money this year from illustration work than his fulltime job as a software engineer pays him.

He did these for a company called Nanoracks

This is one of many that he has made for nasaspaceflight.com

 

[John Bragg]

John,

I think its great you're helping your daughter get into doing photography at such a young age! You should post some photos she has taken.

My son was three years old when he started showing interest in what I was doing. I started buying him Fuji Quicksnap single-use cameras, and he quickly learned how to use them, even turning on the flash when needed. I soon after got him the Canon SureShot Owl, a 35mm point-n-shoot camera, which he is using in the photo above, taken when he was four. He later got a digital point-n-shoot and I later gave him a Nikon digital SLR.

He never got into doing photography seriously like me; he uses photography for other things like documenting things he builds with Lego bricks. He did end up following in my footsteps as a professional artist, though! He does 3D modeled illustrations of spacecraft for aerospace companies. He's making very good money doing it; though it doesn't take up a lot of his time, he has made more money this year from illustration work than his fulltime job as a software engineer pays him.

He did these for a company called Nanoracks

This is one of many that he has made for nasaspaceflight.com

That's a great story Chris. He has done you proud ! Emily has a small digicam and I will get some shots off and post. She is too young for a complicated film camera, but that Owl looks amazing. Regards, John.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Nobody started me. Nor I starting our.
Our first daughter has interest in it as teenager. Later she did video clips production all by herself, we purchased camera. And later she did as first female photog at night clubs in GTA. With her own gear. We purchased it from her after she quit. Non crap photography is not self sustainable here.
Nobody teached my wife, either. She takes great portraits.
Second daughter was using film cameras. Because it is fashionable.
Fourth daughter more into YouTube like clips making with tablet.

 

[John Bragg]

Nobody started me. Nor I starting our.
Our first daughter has interest in it as teenager. Later she did video clips production all by herself, we purchased camera. And later she did as first female photog at night clubs in GTA. With her own gear. We purchased it from her after she quit. Non crap photography is not self sustainable here.
Nobody teached my wife, either. She takes great portraits.
Second daughter was using film cameras. Because it is fashionable.
Fourth daughter more into YouTube like clips making with tablet.

There is great satisfaction in being self taught. I had nobody in my family that was interested in photography. My daughter may not want to learn as she gets older, but she and I can share our passion for now.

 

[charjohncarter]

I've given my kids and grand kids cameras and film. None of them have caught the bug though.

 

[John Bragg]

I've given my kids and grand kids cameras and film. None of them have caught the bug though.

That is a shame John. My other half is like that. Her phone is her camera. My daughter however really wants to know. I just don't want to force feed that enthusiasm.

 

[nikon_sam]

Our kids both were given film cameras when they were young but they never took to them, later they got the small Nikon/Canon compact cameras. They used them a bit longer but not much.
Now they just use their phones...I must admit with our son being a military jet pilot we have seen some beautiful shots he's taken while flying....

 

[Richard G]

I tried to influence my young colleagues when they had children. Get a film camera and take some slides at least once a year. None have taken that up so far as I know. Twenty years of your children growing up is the blink of an eye for parents, but many many lifetimes of digital media. And the young parents don't print them either..... My daughter took a great picture of me when she was four with the family work horse camera, M6 and 35 Summicron. Composition very well considered. Can't show it right now.. Has a beautiful very late Nikon F3HP since 17 but mostly uses the phone.

 

[lynnb]

My older daughter took snaps in primary school and lost interest. My younger was interested at an early age and was very good at people photography as a child.. I gave her my Canon 550D but she's rarely used it since. She's not interested in using film, but she likes some of my film pictures. She doesn't much like bw.

Both girls use their phones to take endless cat photos and videos 🙂

 

[olakiril]

Looking at me taking pictures all the time, my children naturally wanted to imitate me. I have tried several cameras, always digital. From Go Pro, Olympus tough series even to my larger cameras with extra care. Nothing worked that well though.
Then I came across this project at hackaday:
https://hackaday.io/project/18913-diy-instant-camera
I immediately started getting the parts together and made a small camera but at the same time there were Chinese solutions much better made (and at a cheaper price point!) offering the same thing

An instant camera with thermal paper.

They could now take and print as many pictures as they liked. I also got them a tiny photo book for Polaroids and they could insert the ones they liked the most. Of course these don't last long but a few years is enough and you also have the digital files.

I can't think of a better solution that offers the full experience of photography for young children. Well worth the 50$ even if it broke a couple of years later.

Now its mostly mobile phones and tablets. But occasionally I give them my converted x-pro1 and they do enjoy the process even if they can't see the final result.