The Joy of Photography.... Kindergarten Style!

We all have our "happy places" around town and Gardenview Montessori is near the top of the list of mine. I've been the school's "official" photographer for the past few years now and it's my number one place to go if I'm feeling a little low because hanging out with children always makes life seem just a little less complicated. For all the joy the Gardenview kids and families have given me, I decided this year I needed to give something back! I had always thought doing a photography project with the kids would be fun and had the idea that coupling the project with the Essence of Bellingham photo contest would give us a good framework to work within. I threw out the idea to Kelda, the school's teacher, and she loved it!

The photo contest is open to kindergarteners so we focused the project on the children who are about to graduate from Gardenview- which was *completely* unfair, as I was emphatically told by one younger student. (Did I just say hanging out with kids makes life seem less complicated?) Thankfully I could blame the contest rules so I could escape the permanent "big bad meanie" label : ) It looks like the photography project might have to become an annual thing!

The project started when I went to the school and talked a little about the art of photography with the kids. Being a mother and working with kids as much as I do, I'm familiar with the attention span of the average 6 year old, so I wanted to keep things pretty simple. I basically just talked a bit about how taking pictures is more than just pointing a camera and pushing a button... it's a decision making process in which we really look at everything in a scene and decide what we want to be in our picture, then moving our body to the right place to capture it. We talked about Bellingham and the places here that we enjoy, and I showed them the photos I have entered in past contests. After that was a quick lesson in handling the camera- how to zoom the lens in and out and which button to push to close the shutter. Then we were off and running around the school grounds to take some practice shots.
A few days later, Kelda and I took two groups of three kids each to two different locations that we felt were good places to capture the spirit of Bellingham. The first group of kids, Rhea, Kyana and Roman, ventured down to Zuanich Point Park for their photo shoot and we had so much fun! We had a camera for each of the kids to use so everyone was constantly shooting pictures. I loved seeing what each child decided to document, and how different their photos were when taking pictures of the same things. Of course I had my camera with me to document the fun and here are a few photos I took of these young photographers in action...

I thought it was pretty clever of Roman to try taking a picture through the telescope at the park! We thought it would be fun to mix up the shoot locations for each group of kids, so later that afternoon, Kelda and I packed up the car with Aliza, Claire and Fiona and headed down to Maritime Heritage Park which was a good starting point for shooting in a few fun spots. Here are some photos from our afternoon adventure in photography...

I think I might have started a trend of taking pictures of your own shoes among this group of kids. Someday I will post a blog of the series of photos I've taken of my All Stars in various locations : )The kids took turns using my extra DSLR camera, so to be able to tell which pictures were created by whom, I snapped a picture of each child at the beginning of their turn. Here are those pictures and each child's contest entry that I like best! (You can see the rest of their entries here.)The Sign WorldBaby Geese SwimmingPlaying FetchAliza Picking FlowersRushing Over Rocks

Rocky Beach

And finally.... a few fun photos the kids took of each other... and Kelda... and me...

Photo by ClairePhoto by Claire
Photo by Fiona
Photo by Roman
Photo by RheaPhoto by KyanaPhoto by RheaPhoto by RheaPhoto by RomanPhoto by Roman (who was very reluctant to give up the camera : )

All of the kids' photos are officially entered into the contest and now we wait to see what the judges think of their work! Of course *I* think their photos are fabulous and I am so glad I decided to take some time out of my busy schedule to have a little fun, which isn't always easy for me to remember to do... maybe I should go make a promise to that sassy too-young-to-participate Gardenview student right now : )