Children's 1st try at DSLR photography

After a very busy week working back to back, I felt trapped in routine, my mind heavy with work. So I decided today we'd take a break. I woke my children early, told them to pack and said "We're heading to the jungle!" My children rejoiced with "HooRAY!!!!" and off we went to Bukit Cahaya.

My goals for the morning were to 1) Teach my children Photography 101, using my DSLR
                                                   2) Collect leaves for collage art
                                                   3) Create inspiration/imagination for story writing

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Within minutes of walking, I spotted a dragon fly down a slope near a pond and wandered off to capture shots of it. (I admit, I forgot my children for a while.)

 I was drawn from photography by the cries of my children shouting "Mum! Mum! Where are you???" I ignored them for a while till I saw them bounding down the slope towards me saying "There she is! I knew mummy would wonder off!!"

Hahaa.......wonderful start to inspiring my children. Well...I decided heck, while at it, why not give my children a shot. So we looked for things my children would like to take.  I gave them just one rule for the day-  "Shoot photos, but for today, DO NOT put your object in the middle of the screen, anywhere but middle is fine."  I set the camera in auto mode, but allowed them both to use the zoom lens as well focus manually to see how one can focus on particular objects in the same area and make others look blur.

 I chose these leaves as Nel's first subject, asking her to take shots from different angles. As we looked at her 10 over shots, we noted how sometimes the branch was in focus and sometimes the leaves, depending on where she focused.

 Then using zoom and manual focus, Nel captured a shot of this dragonfly. She's pretty pleased with her shot and now wants a DSLR! :)

    Nel's 3rd subject of the day.

 THis is Jo's photo of the day. I told her I liked it, coz it has a little frame around the flower, and she's pretty happy with it too.

     Jo loves weeds, she's always making bouquets out of them for me. Thus her shot of this wild flower today. While editing, she wanted more red in it. I did that for her, and here's her shot.

Will continue about story writing in a new post tomorrow. Now inspiring them to write was an interesting exercise for me and them! Will write about it soon. Stay tuned. :)

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