Raising Creative Hearts: Photography Walk

My husband and I have given our preschooler our old digital camera. We came across it while looking for items for a yard sale and since it is over ten years old we decided that instead of selling it for $5, we’d outfit it with a neck strap and hand it over to our preschooler. It is pretty fun to see pictures he takes from around our house from his point of view. He takes pictures of things that are important to him and that he finds interesting.

from our flamingo tour

Now that warm spring-like weather has arrived, we’ve been able to break out the sit- and-stand stroller and take the boys for walks in our neighborhood. One of the fun things to do with my little budding photographer is to go on a photo walk. Sometimes we decide ahead of time what we are going to look for and take pictures of. We’ve been on a flamingo tour of the neighborhood. We’ve watched for flags, pumpkins, shapes, birds, flowers and litter (which we picked up along the way). Our most recent excursion was to take pictures of signs of spring. Sometimes we have a certain destination like the post office or library and we have created a game for him to practice counting. He knows how many pictures he has room for on his card. We divide that number in two and he pays attention to the number on the screen and tries to pace himself, taking half the photos on the way out to our destination and half on the way home.

When we return home we watch a slide show on our computer of the photos he took and choose the best ones. We then upload these to Facebook where we can share them with friends and family, especially his grandparents who have an interest in photography and are probably his biggest fans. We sometimes do some more counting as we figure out how many photos were taken in a certain category. For example, we add up the total number of flamingos in our neighborhood, how many flags were American flags, or the total of each shape he found.

Our photography walks are a fun way to get some fresh air and exercise while taking in our surroundings, teaching my little one a creative way to be more observant of the world around him. Dust off that obsolete camera in your closet or keep a lookout for a cheap one that has been tossed aside. It may turn out to be very valuable to your creative little heart.