Our 10 year old son buying own gear

At our daughter's soccer games, I will sometimes let our 10 year old shoot w/ my MkII and 70-200 2.8. He will re-position himself throughout the game to get the best shots and is actually putting some logical thought into it. He will kneel down most of the game and pop up for some different perspective shots. Anyway, the rule is that any picture he takes and sells, he gets the money for it. He shot the entire weekend with me (4 games in 90+ heat) and you can tell that hand-holding it that long was taking its toll. He has sold quite a few from this weekends tournament and asked if he could get a monopod to help him take better shots. Anyway, I ordered him his very own Manfrotto monopod. He walked over to me during halftime and asked how much it would take for him to buy my MkII off me. He used to shoot with my 40D and said he likes the bigger body (1D series) more. On the flip side, our daughter will shoot with the same kit for her brother's games. It looks like I might be investing in some new gear and passing the MkII and MkIIn down. Here's one of his shots from this weekend.

That's awesome, Nice time to start collecting

Congrats! Now you have a legitimate reason to "donate" your gear to a good cause so you can upgrade your own stuff.

Thats awesome, I wish I had started that early : )

That's very cool. Wish I'd been exposed to an SLR when I was that age!

Where does he sell his pictures?

Does your son actually sell enough photos to buy his own gear?

That is really inspiring. From such a young age, I think you have a great photographer on your hands

amp3dx wrote in post #12530699
Where does he sell his pictures?

I post them on my exposure manager galleries. I know what he sells by the file number.

ThreeSixty wrote in post #12530899
Does your son actually sell enough photos to buy his own gear?

Not yet, but he is saving for some gear. He has enough for a new monopod.

Nice photo (obviously cropped) and this may be off topic. But all this turning kids into technology buyers/consumers is unbecoming IMHO. I hear more and more about parents letting kids buy $300 ipods and gaming systems and games instead of saving money. Saving for college. And some even let their kids pay a $30/month mobile phone data package. $30/month is $360/year or $1440 over 4 years of high school. It adds up!

I recently got my 10 year old a used 10D. He has a couple of his own lenses (my older ones before I upgraded) and his own tripod. I think he wants a battery grip next so it will be a similar size to the 1D - but a heck of a lot less expensive. He is still learning and a careful student but I feel a lot more comfortable with that kind of investment (~$100 plus my old stuff) than giving him a 5D2.

I know that each parent is much better equipped to make the same or a different call for their child than I am for them. I'm just saying what worked for us - perhaps for consideration.

Now if the idea is that you have an excuse to buy yourself a new camera, then it sounds like a really good plan.

Sharing your hobby with your children is so unbecoming IMHO....

HappySnapper90 wrote in post #12532346
Nice photo (obviously cropped) and this may be off topic. But all this turning kids into technology buyers/consumers is unbecoming IMHO. I hear more and more about parents letting kids buy $300 ipods and gaming systems and games instead of saving money. Saving for college. And some even let their kids pay a $30/month mobile phone data package. $30/month is $360/year or $1440 over 4 years of high school. It adds up!

You might want to get with the times. Technology is the right thing to do or they will get left behind.

Now, before you hijack this thread with your opinion, let me shed some light on the subject. First, the ONLY game system we have in our house is a Wii and that's in our living room. They don't have one in their room. There are 3 TVs in our house. One in the living room, one in our bedroom and one in the kids' common area downstairs. Their TV is locked out from 9:00 PM-8:00 AM and only certain channels are unlocked. My kids don't have $300 iPods, but do have a cheap mp3 player to listen to. Our daughter referees soccer and gets $25 a game. She sometimes will do 3-4 games a weekend. She babysits our neighbor's daughter from time to time and gets paid there. She gives 10% to the church and the rest goes in her savings account. She gets an allowance for doing her chores. Most times that turns into spending money when she goes to the movies with friends, or the like. Our 10 year old son, who took the picture, also gets an allowance for doing his chores. No chores, no allowance. By the way, yes the picture is cropped. He also gives 10% to the church and we don't have to remind him to do it. Yes, my daughter has a cell phone, but she pays for that herself. It costs her $9.99 a month, if you care. We are teaching our kids sound financial principles. If they want to take the initiative to save the money to buy a camera, what's it to you? Chances are they will have more respect for it than if we just give it to them. They need to see that if they work hard and save, then they can have nice things, too. Oh, by the way, both our oldest (12 and 10) have straight A's and on top of playing select soccer, volunteer about 20 hours a month to a large retirement community.

Looks like your family has a talent for photography/soccer

400dabuser wrote in post #12533614
Looks like your family has a talent for photography/soccer

My wife can cook, too. Life is good!