Camera Games | Light Play #1
Wed, January 20, 2010 at 09:00AM 
Bedtime is the perfect time to make new discoveries; the kids are incredibly interested in anything that might allow them to extend their day a bit longer. The girls wanted to put on a "light display" for me, shining flashlights like scientists through objects to project color and shape onto the walls and ceiling.
They explored their rooms for other translucent objects for further experimentation: a polka dot glow ball, a large crystal, colored plastic boxes, a pink transparent piggy bank. They set up elaborate combinations of the above to see what would happen. And then... I noticed that at a super slow speed, the camera actually captured the movement of light. I held the camera and photographed the girls making shapes, letters, swirls, and running over to check the results on the camera screen before trying another!
They talked and talked about and asked again the next night if we could try again (we did: Light Play #2).
Check out the multi-part series on child photographers. In Part 1, thoughts on whether to buy a camera for your child. In Kids + Cameras (Part 2) and Part 3, a focus on travel photography. In Part 4 kids use the video setting on the camera.
Reader Comments (2)
of all the things I never got around to trying during my 365 last year, this is the one I *must* do this year!
Wholeheartedly agree on letting kids experiment with cameras. Even when young I'm fascinated by what they see and how they see it, often such a different view from my own. Both my kids now have "real" (still point and shoot, but not toy/plastic) cameras (at ages 11 and 13) and I love seeing their what they choose to snap. Their smaller cameras also make great backups when I run out of batteries, forgot to replace the SD card, etc in mine!
What a wonderful night of discovery and fun!!! The 'heart' would make a striking journal page! Can't wait to see more light captures. Fabulous! Hugs, Terri xoxo