Young praise

QMy nine-year-old daughter is showing an interest in photography. How do I encourage this and help her improve? Grace Rhodes

AHaving spent some time teaching photography classes in a local school, I’ve realised that the emphasis must be on being creative and having fun, rather than concentrating on more practical elements of photography. At nine years old, your daughter will be naturally creative, so I suggest thinking up some projects you can do together. Put her camera on Auto so she can just concentrate on composition, and go out shooting.

Kids love a challenge, so you could do things like trying to get a great photo of a snail in the garden, or looking for interesting textures on tree bark. It’s important to go through the images she takes, and give her lots of praise and encouragement. Point out what she’s doing right with composition or viewpoint, as well as suggesting things she could try next time. You’ll find the analysis of the photos and the suggestions you make will all be taken on board, and you’ll start to see even better images really quickly. I found that once youngsters get inspired, they’ll soon start asking their own questions and want to know more about some of the practical elements, so you can deal with things like aperture and shutter speed when they’re ready.

I also think that actually printing out some of your daughter’s better photos and putting them in picture frames will act as a great encouragement to her. A printed picture feels so much more special than one that’s still in the camera or that you only view on a computer.

If your child wants to learn photography, come up with some creative challenges to encourage them to have a go!

Combining panning and flash creates a sense of speed.