PixieBlue wrote: When my daughter was 7 I gave her a Fuji digital camera, nothing fancy, just something she could experiment with and start capturing what
caught her interest. We would then upload the images and go over them
together and I would ask her what caught her attention when she took the
shot. On hikes I would encourage her to try different angles on a
particular subject, such as getting the camera to the ground and
shooting the trail ahead.
Remember, the world is gigantic to a 7 year old and they have a voracious appetite for learning. If your
child puts photography on the back burner to learn something else, don't
worry, the seed has been planted and they WILL come back to it.
Practice produces passion and even if they put the camera down for a
couple of years, the desire is still within them, as with my daughter,
who gave it up for about a year and a half, only to pick it back up again
last month. Here is a recent photo she took (she is now 9):
I asked her the other day what caught her eye when she was taking this photo and she said that she likes how the branches seem to be touching the sky. We uploaded this image to a free online user-friendly photo editor and she "tweaked" the photo. It is best not to get too technical with children at first because it may frustrate them, so keep it creative and fun....techi stuff can come later.
PS. sorry for the jacked-up text format.
icepics wrote: I was thinking along the same lines, maybe suggest mirrorless for a more compact size. For that age I don't think it would be worth the expense of a DSLR - even if he's interested now, kids' interests change; the camera may end up in the closet or basement along with everything else that kids eventually outgrow.
I've been a teacher and I think the idea of a photo walk is great. I'd let him ask questions and let that guide you in what he needs to know - kids usually will ask about whatever it is that they're ready to understand and that is at their level. If he asks for example about why/how the lens opening changes that could be when you talk about how aperture works.
Maybe sometime he might have a school assignment that would be appropriate to use his camera for and you could help him with that. I don't know offhand of any sites for kids related to photography but of course you want to send him to the internet with guidelines and supervision. I've seen and used info. on a couple of museum sites related to composition - you can search to see if you find anything for his age that he might like.
http://www.getty.edu/education/kids_families/do_at_home/artscoops/index.html
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/students/just-for-you.aspx
Found these (and now I want a Nerf camera!).
http://www.adorama.com/alc/0013267/article/Teaching-Children-To-Take-Pictures
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/indepth/photography/buying-guides/cameras-kids
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