How to teach photo to children [???]

[Anscojohn]

That's why i was thinking about something like my OM10 but i don't know in the other brand if i can found a camera with the same caracteristics but cheapest and easy foundable....

Thanks :)

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Oscura°°
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Welcome, Oscura. My suggestion for equipment is a totally manual Zenit or a Praktika. If you can sit them down long enough for them to be comfortable handling a manual camera corectly, you are starting them on their way. And, later, if they drop it in the canal, it is less of a problem than if they drop your OM-10 or a more expensive camera.

If you are interested in what I have suggested, send me an email at JayKhill@aol.com

[WolfTales]

Maybe an automatic camera so they can get used to the idea of film and exposure....

[calceman]

To get kids into photography is to get them to drop their jaws in awe. Not too sure about giving them cameras and let them go trigger happy 24 or 36 times will give them amazement. One thing that has fascinated me for a long time is the camera obscura, the one you can step into.
Seen the movie "The Fall"? Besides the really great intro slow motion scene, few minutes into the movie there's a pinhole image formed from the keyhole and is projected onto the wall upside down. Amazing!
There was another scene from a tv show when I was a kid about children being abducted and locked up in a truck. The clever kids had a white sheet of paper and projected a pinhole image onto it from the some tiny opening in the not so well sealed truck. This way they would know where they were taken.
Now I was just in France and saw "Le petit Nicolas". Guess what? The opening scene is an inverted image on a ground glass of a class picture.
In all, what I want to say is that taking the photo is not important, it is seeing a live and moving upside-down image projected onto a surface that is amazing.
I would choose a well-lit room, seal off the windows and all opening, and pierce a hole according to the formula to create a giant pinhole camera. The children would participate and for sure will be amazed of the results.

[Denis R]

go here new eyes project (http://k12photoed.org/)

[viridari]

My oldest daughter has seen me develop film in the kitchen countless times. She always lights up when I hand her a P&S and tell her she can finish the roll for me.

I'm planning on getting her a P&S camera of her own for Christmas, and will give her up to 1 or 2 rolls of film per week so long as she keeps taking photos.

If she does well with that, when she's a little older & can handle the responsibility, I will give her a Canon EOS body and a nifty fifty lens. Her mathematical capability isn't yet at the point where she can comfortably handle juggling the variables of a manual exposure, but I can introduce her to the properties of shutter speed & aperture via priority modes and build on that.

[kennycouch]

I take my nephew with me about once a week to the local arboretum. I bought him a small digital just so he could follow me around and have some fun. It took about three shots when he realized that I did not have a picture to look at immediately. He thought this was the most absurd thing in the world. I loaded another roll and let him shoot the whole thing (with my assistance of course) and when we were done told him he had to wait until the next time we hung out to see his pictures. How to know if a 5 year old is interested in something? When he calls you everyday for a week checking up on his pictures. When he finally saw them he was ready to go again.

At such a young age our core curriculum is pretty simple. We have to come up with 4 good reasons to take a picture, and I just make him do everything slowly. He doesn't realize that the time is passing because we talk about the shot as we set it up.

Just make it fun. Right now my main goal is to produce a calm, laid back who knows that instant gratification is not the only gratification. If he ends up loving photography that's just a perk.

[Worker 11811]

Here's how my dad taught me when I was about 10 or 12 years old:

He handed me a camera with the shutter set on 60. He showed me how to focus. He showed me how to turn the aperture ring until the little needle inside the viewfinder was between the lines. He said, "When this little number gets up to 24 give the camera back to me." He sent me on my way with a final warning: "If you bust that camera I'm going to bust your ass!"

When I was done, he took the film out and that was it. Dad had the film developed and he gave me the results.
We sat down together and he told me what was good or bad about each shot. Which ones were in or out of focus. Which exposures were too dark, too light or just right. He took a red magic marker and wrote a note on the back of each one and gave the pictures back to me.

Those pictures are still around, somewhere, because I know my mother has several envelopes full of photos stashed away that are marked, "Taken by Randy."

[Mats_A]

I take my nephew with me about once a week to the local arboretum. I bought him a small digital just so he could follow me around and have some fun. It took about three shots when he realized that I did not have a picture to look at immediately. He thought this was the most absurd thing in the world. I loaded another roll and let him shoot the whole thing....

Very nice. You are a lucky man to be doing this.

r

Mats