Passing It Down...

[Jdumas]

I have been teaching my stepdaughter, Adria (age 10), photography for around 2 years now. Everything from how cameras work to how film gets developed. She shows a real interest in the arts in general and we support her in every way we can. Hopefully, she will be the one in the family to make some money at this.

We went to the park last Saturday and she really likes to shoot macro pictures, so I gave her my XSI with the 60mm macro and I took my Super-Takumar 135 3.5 on my 5Dc. After we shot some tulips we caught up with the rest of the family and I shot these of Adria taking pictures of her little sister named Sofia (age 1).

This is her in the act...


and her result...


And her taking one more...


And her result...



I think Adria got a couple of real keepers here. She also has a old Nikon FG I bought her and does a fine job with manual metering and focus, I am very proud of her.

Do you guys pass the enthusiasm for photography down? I would love to hear thoughts and see your stories!

James

[Skrim17]

I've not let my son, 9, use the DSLR much, but he enjoys using the G3.



He enjoys taking pictures of his cat mostly, I think the faster shutter of the dslr would be helpful for him tho as he does get a lot of blurry pics.

[philwillmedia]

Yep...
Without a doubt.
My 15 yr old nephew grabs hold of my gear every chance he has had since he was about 8.
Really likes the 100-400 and has taken a shine to the 300/2.8 since I've had it.

Got his head around the controls and menus of the 1D MkII fairly quickly.
He sometimes comes out to rallies with me but because he's not 18, I can't get him any accreditation so he shoots from spectator areas.
The rest of the family think I'm nuts letting him use "all that expensive gear."
Point his, he's not likely to do anything to it that I'm not.
They say "What if he drops it?"
I say "What if he doesn't."
If he does, he does -
What if I drop it? - no different.

[Chris_Hoskins]

i don't have any kids of my own to pass it on too, but my 2 year old nephew loves my 50D! He loves the shutter sound and all the buttons. Obviously he doesn't understand what he's doing. But I plan on keeping going with him and making it fun so that he picks it up. His Mum and Dad have bought him a wee kiddies digi camera which he loves (lot of belly button shots!) so i think he will pick it up.

I already have plans for when the missus and I have kids - got some old film cameras and started to build up a collection of my old digi cameras for them to use as they grow up!

[SuzyView]

My almost 13 year old with my new 7D and 70-200 2.8 IS. I left him shoot with it all day. He was surprised how heavy it was. I told him, "Welcome to my world, kid!" My 10 year old uses my 40D with 17-40. It's a well-geared family. I let them, and train them.

Here's the one Jared shot. It was so good, I added it to my galleries:

[wardie]

My 11 year old with my 30D + 100-400L




Her Shot

[Milla]

Awww these are great! When my kids get old enough to be trusted not to drop my camera I will definitely be passing down the photography love

[Chet]

We started Luke out very early, he's quite accomplished already.



His shot.

[SuzyView]

Chet, that's too much! Cute!

[Sledhed]

My oldest daughter Natalie (11 at the time, now 12) shooting with the big glass.

[Jdumas]

These are all great guys, keep it up!

I generally never worry about my camera when Adria is using it. She knows she can borrow it whenever she wants and sometimes just takes it off the shelf. I might be a little more worried if she wanted to borrow a big white lens like you guys have but I don't have that problem, yet...

[Karl Johnston]

I wrote a small article about this but cant find it. I copied down the blog entry, but cant remember what happened to it. I will try to write it out from what I remember and bits and pieces I have saved. I didn't know her previously, nor kept in touch but I hear shes still out taking pictures and had a few of her shots put up on the municipal website.

It's a common rule with professional photographers to not work for free. Your time, your work, is valuable and you should not give away that for nothing..that said; there are some exceptions! (names were changed to protect privacy)

Actually, technically speaking I did not "work for free" but I gave something out for free; it was a donation of an old camera and print to a teenage girl. She was staying at a crisis support center for youths and I was told she didnt have a lot with her, so for something like this it would basically be like Christmas for her.

I'm going to call her Jamie. A few months ago Jamie put out an advertisement which I came across. It illustrated her desire to become a professional photographer and she was offering to take people's pictures for money ..providing they had a camera for her to use, for them.

Now it's not everyday you saw this, so I was intrigued, until I read further into it. She has a deep desire to be a professional photographer, and was staying at a crisis/treatment center under the care of youth workers/guardians. I was to get in touch with them if I wanted to contact her, first, and they were asking for donations for a camera for her.

I had an old powershot sx100 that I had learned basically everything I know of the building blocks of on. I dropped off this camera with them and we talked briefly about how much of a difference this camera would be for her; it would be like christmas for her.

I was surprised..I felt bad for not being able to give her a DSLR. So to make up for that I gave her about 4 sets of batteries; the manual, the cord, everything it came with and a CD to work the software on the computer.

When I met Jamie a couple of days ago she was with one of her youth workers, and I will call him Simon.

Simon introduced me to her and said that this was the girl who I had donated a camera to. She handed me a note, and smiled and said thank you.

I read the note..let me say that it inspires me everytime I hit a low point with photo. I had it framed and put on my wall. It is beautiful. A work of art on its own.

She talked about how it was the best thing anyone had ever done for her, how caring and compassionate I was and despite not even knowing her or who she was I would give her a gift like this. Despite not knowing her, I read her ad and I thought of myself a few years ago; desperate for a DSLR to advance my skills. I used to envy people with XTIs and kit lenses because they had the building blocks of what I needed to create my vision.

Photography is an expensive hobby to get into, and an even more expensive one to continue. It is one hell of an expensive venture to make a business at it with even a minimum wage profit.

It touched me deeply to hear from her, meet her, and receive this note from her. Within it she said that it was her dream to become a professional photographer and she would do anything to create that dream into a reality. She would keep this camera that I have donated her for life ...and burn my name within her mind for what I have done to help her out.

This is why you should work for free..sometimes the payment is not monetary...but priceless, all the same.

I have never been so moved by something like this before. I have donated money, clothes, gifts..prints and services for charity before...but never has any one person moved, touched and made me work 11x harder as deeply as this girl. Pretty sweet.

[tonylong]

That's quite a story, Karl, it looks like you may have really started her off in a life-changing direction! Kudos to you!

My grandson began using my point and shoot cameras and would go with me on various photo outings



Sometimes he'd be the adventurous one:



Eventually my P&S cameras all broke down, and he's used my 5D on occasions when I've been shooting with the 1D3:



My daughter became pretty enthusiastic shooting with an S3 IS compact digicam, so I bought her an XTi, which she's been using for several years, and occasionally uses my 5D as I believe she is here:



She likes to do some street photography with me on occasion:



My son goes out occasionally with me doing various shoots, including a lot of wildlife/nature shooting with my old 30D that I passed on to him:



Even friends get roped in!: