A Photog in The Family...Helping Kids Find Their Passions

In my blog post, Back From Paris, But Not Quite Back, I shared with you some images of our family trip to Paris this past summer.  One image in particular that I shared was taken by my 14 year old daughter on a day in Luxembourg Gardens.  I had allowed her to use my Nikon 3100 camera.  Quite frankly, I had grown weary telling her no, under her constant requests.  Little did I know what a blessing that acquiescence would bring.  

Image taken by my daughter in Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, France.

As I loaded the images from the day on to my laptop back at the hotel, I was stunned at her images.  I have never taught her a thing about photography.  She has never had one lesson, and yet her natural compositional abilities could not go unnoticed.  I scrolled back in my mind and thought about all the hours she has spent recording videos and editing images for her Facebook page.  Could it be that she might have a special ability in this area?  What a revelation.

An excited teen on her birthday.

So, in response, for her 14th birthday just a few weeks back, I gave her a Nikon Coolpix P500. She has been begging me for a good camera for a long time and for some reason, until that moment in Paris, I didn't understand.  I'm an artist.  How did I miss that one?  Well, she is only 14.  So it didn't go too long.  The Coolpix P500 is an awesome piece of equipment.  She is super responsible, so I knew I could make the investment in a decent camera for her to start using.  My mother's father use say, "It's all about the tools."  I agree.  Tools matter.

She has been happily snapping images, uploading them and editing them.  Where she goes, so goes her camera.  A few days ago, I looked out front in the late afternoon to see her doing this....

Yep.  That is my daughter laying in the middle of the street in front of our house!  I freaked out and ran out only to realize that she had a photo shoot of her brother set up and was trying to capture an image of him that she thought might be neat.   My teenage son is a musician and is always looking for images to use on his musician/artist page online.  It was late in the afternoon. The traffic increases from neighbors returning from work.  It made me a nervous wreck! She insisted that it was the perfect time of day for naturally lighting what she wanted to capture.  Yikes!

With no editing, this is the image she came up with from a photo shoot that took about 15 minutes to complete. Even though, for me, it felt like hours seeing her lying in the street.

Pretty awesome, right?!!  She 'saw' this through her camera lens.   This raw image rocks my world in so many ways.  It is not only compositionally interesting, but the back-lit landscape and angle of the shot tells a story.  Magic.  You can't teach this.  You just can't. 

Parenting is such a tough job.  We all do the best job we can.  I have always thought that one of the most important gifts we can give our kids is to help them discover their passions.  After all, what is life without our passions? 

-The End-