[lavascript]

My oldest son is six, and he's always shown an interest in photography. We bought him that Kid-Tough Fisher Price camera when it came out a few years ago, but that thing took some horrible photos.

Yesterday, I gave him my old Minolta superzoom, the camera that I used to learn about aperture, shutter speed, manual, etc. It's even got a hotshoe, so in the future, I can get him an adapter and let him play with Strobist stuff.

So, obviously, he's six. He knows nothing about photography. I'm afflicted with over-informing people about everything, but I want to avoid that with him. So what do I do? How much do I tell him now? Do I just play it by ear?

Last night, I basically just handed him the camera to play with. I think tonight, I'll show him the basic things, like how to turn the flash on and off, the concept of the half-press, how to review and delete.

And if you hardcore full-manual folks think I should start him out like that, convince me.

[geauxpez]

This may be a little more basic than what you want to do, but there are more links at the bottom of the page.

As an aside: Where are you in the Rouge? I was just there over the July 4th weekend visiting family. RECORD heat in Louisiana is freakin' HOT!

Cheers,

Adam

[lavascript]

Thanks, Adam, that's a good link. I seem to recall seeing that article when it was posted, but since I wasn't doing it at the time, I just kinda skimmed it.

I'm close to the river. And yes, it is HOT indeed. A shame I drive a black car.

[Cosmo]

Just give him a 120 holga.

[lavascript]

Just give him a 120 holga.

Yeah, sure... my kids are not aware of the existence of cameras that do not have screens on their backsides.

[Leaf Fan]

Nice story.

My 7 year old daughter and I went to a local hill the other night when I wanted to photograph the sunset, she grabbed her Fisher-Price camera and I was quite taken aback that she even wanted to really participate, I thought she just wanted to get out of going to bed on time. I was so impressed by this little gesture that I let her use our Point and Shoot exclusively (I didn't touch it) after showing her how to turn it on/off and which one was the shutter release. When we were on the hill taking photos I also let her take some photos with the K20D after I had set everything and it was on the tripod.

I haven't downloaded the photos from the P&S yet, but she showed them to me on the display after she shot them and I was impressed for a 7 year old.

Kids are awesome.

[Cosmo]

Yeah, sure... my kids are not aware of the existence of cameras that do not have screens on their backsides.

Well show him.

[raymeedc]

I would start him out on a Hasselblad with a full compliment of lenses. It'll give him a sense of responsibility, pride of ownership, and a high standard of expectations he'll feel obligated to live up to. We sometimes do our kids a disservice by underestimating their capabilities.

[lavascript]

I would start him out on a Hasselblad with a full compliment of lenses. It'll give him a sense of responsibility, pride of ownership, and a high standard of expectations he'll feel obligated to live up to. We sometimes do our kids a disservice by underestimating their capabilities.

And I'll throw in a '53 Corvette so he'll have something nice to photograph!

[PeterAM]

I started my daughter at about 12 with my old Spotmatic and a lesson on basic exposure issues;she was already somewhat of an artist by then and had a better eye for composition than I did. That start cost me a BFA and MFA in photography for her.
I think that with today's digital cameras I'd just give him something to shoot that he could handle and not worry about the technical aspects. Look at his pictures and discuss them with him. If he likes it and gets into it, I think it's better to just let him develop an "eye" and get the rest later. I have two 8 year old grandchildren that like to take pictures, but when I try to teach them, they lose interest. Better that it's fun.
Best part with my daughter was when she would give me lessons in the darkroom. She managed one of the high end photo galleries in NYC while getting her MFA and had a few really interesting art/photography related jobs (like setting up exhibits around the US and Europe) before she stopped everything to be a mommy. She's getting back into photography now and we occasionally shoot together;she also uses my scanner and printers.
You never know where it will lead......

[patrickt]

"And if you hardcore full-manual folks think I should start him out like that, convince me."

This reminds me of the little kid who asked him mom where he came from and she'd been dreading the question. She sat him down and gave him the story about babies and where they came from. When she finished he said, "Well, Bobby comes from Atlanta and I just wondered where I came from."

I had a friend's daughter who started taking pictures with my P&S camera. We talked about composition mostly. I explained my views on implied movement and how peoples eyes move from one point to another in photos and she enjoyed it. We also talked some about focusing and light source. Her family was amazed at how much better her family snapshots were than those by other family members.

At some point, your son will start asking about shooting backlit scenes and such. IMHO, that's the time to get into the details. Overwhelm him and he might just lose interest.

[raymeedc]

I agree with most of the above sound advice. I would get him a used ultra-cheap compact point & shoot camera, tons of which are available on Ebay.

[LenWick]

I gave my little girl an old 6mp Fujifilm to play with at 3 - she understood how to point and shoot, turn the camera on and off, and review the photos. Then we would supervise as she wandered about taking pictures - turns out she watches her mom and I pretty close - it has been really fun to see what she takes pictures of - she's four now and still loves to shoot. I plan to start intrudcing technical topics in two to three years. - my 2 cents

[opfor]

When our middle son was a toddler and still in a stroller, we kept getting confused by strange pictures that would show up on the rolls from the wife's camera. Years ago she had a coke-a-cola point and shoot 35mm. It took us a while to figure out that our toddler had been watching mommy use her camera and could manage to reach around the stroller to get it out of the bag on the back. When no one was looking he would grab it, pop off a few shots while properly advancing the film, then put it back before anyone would notice.
Now a days, he wants to borrow my DSLRs...

[SOldBear]

A nice thing about digital photography is the instance feedback. This is great in teaching kids photography. With film, by the time you get the photos back, they totally forgot what they did.

My son got his first real camera, a 3 mp Konica when he was 5. He learned mainly the basic operations and composition. When he was old enough to know math (about 7), I taught him manual exposure using a Canon G5. He also used a Minolta 7xi (film of course). Two years ago, when he was 11, I gave him a task of recommending the DSLR that we would buy as Christmas gift for the whole family. He spent three weeks doing extensive research and suggested the Pentax K10D, which we bought. I later bought another K10D (used) so we wouldn't have to share camera body.

His regular setup now is K10D + Tamron 18-250 or Sigma 18-50 + Metz 45 CT-1. He brings it everywhere he goes.

The only thing I wish he had paid more attention to is post-processing. He can do simple editing using LR and PE but doesn't have enough patience for serious editing.