I had this amazing idea earlier in the school year to bring in a couple of my cameras and let the kids see what it’s like to use use an SLR camera, while I used my third camera to take pictures of them doing it.

It was an awesome idea, I thought.  Planned it out.  Told the teachers.  Then wondered, would insurance cover two four year olds colliding on the playground, shattering lenses?

But I needn’t have worried.  It was a great time, and I achieved what I considered my main objectives:

• to give the kids a sense of what it feels like to hold such a heavy camera (even with fixed lenses on there, the Nikon D300 and D700 are heavy cameras)
• to show the kids how to put their eye right up to the viewfinder and take a moment to see what they were going to be taking a picture of
• to teach them the proper grip for the camera (aka, left hand wrapped under the lens, bearing the weight, fingers carefully not blocking the lens; right hand, 3rd, 4th and 5th fingers wrapped around the grip, pointer finger on the shutter button)

I’ve seen many adults shoot with a poorer grip than these kids had!

Here’s another look at a great grip (this one’s my son!).  As you can see, the grip was very important, because these kiddos were too little for the strap to be of any use!

Aside from a fun time, an unexpected benefit is that I now have dozens of pictures of myself, with camera in hand.

So, if you ever need pictures of yourself, just grab your nearest preschooler….

(A couple of these kids have a pretty good sense of composition, too — or else, seriously good luck.    You can see some original-crop pictures on my Facebook Page.)

A huge hug and thank you to the preschool teachers who facilitated this and so many other fun and new activities for these eager little minds!

- Danie

The “stomach flu” hit us a couple days after we returned from California a few weeks ago, so Thursday was pretty much spent helping my little daughter regain fluids.  She turned out to be a big fan of the pedialyte popsicles.

Meanwhile, my son and I battled over whether he would “cut things” or help me with dinner, until I had the brilliant idea to wash his Crayola kid scissors and let him use them to cut the carrots into microscopic pieces fit for our fried rice dinner.

Finished cooking dinner, my son then decided, quite out of the blue, that it was his turn to take pictures.  With my camera.  With my professional camera.  My Nikon D700.  Fighting the urge to simply say “no”, and madly trying to remember the fine print in my insurance policy, I agreed.  I showed him how to hold the camera (left hand under the lens — for adults, this results in sharper pictures because the camera is steadier; in the hands of a 4 year old, this was the only possible way he was going to be able to hold the heavy camera without dropping it!), and he finally managed to contort his hand so he could press the shutter.  We then launched into a discussion of photo techniques, as I encouraged him to try to get both our heads in the picture, for example.  After a while, he got more comfortable and started telling us how he wanted us to sit (or lie on the floor).

All in all, I found myself extremely impressed — and not a little proud of myself for obviously being an amazing photography instructor, lol.  (Though on a more serious note, I am happy to teach private lessons if you’re new to your SLR and would like to understand how to really take advantage of that amazing piece of equipment!)

Looks like my problem of never being in any pictures is over!

- Danielle Smallwood, Bethesda, MD children’s photography