This week I'm continuing the theme and sharing another photography project for your children to get involved with. (In case you missed last week's silhouette portrait activity you can find it here.) This week's activity is a scavenger hunt and provides lots of opportunity for your kids to get creative and create compositions of their own.
Here's my step-by-step guide to setting your photo scavenger hunt up...
To Set Up Your Photo Scavenger Hunt You Will Need:
A list of items to photograph (find my list below, or create your own.)
A camera (it doesn't have to be fancy - a point and shoot or even your old phone would work just fine.)
Awards or prizes (optional.)
I've deliberately kept the items on this list open to interpretation, to encourage creativity. If your child is younger you may want to substitute some of the broad topics with more specific ones.
3. Self Portrait
How The Photography Scavenger Hunt Works
The basic premise of this activity is that you provide your children with a list of things to photograph and a camera, and depending on their age you can either give them space to find the items on the list and create their photos, or work through the list with them. Here are my tips for making it fun, and encouraging your child(ren)'s creativity:
Tailor the timing to your child's age: You can either work through the list in one go, or you could choose one item on the list for your child to photograph each day, and spread the challenge over a couple of weeks of the school holidays. I think age and interest level will factor your decision on how you do this - young children will likely move through the list very quickly and gain enjoyment from taking a quick snapshot and ticking each item off. Older children and teenagers who enjoy being creative could spend half a day composing one photo - encourage them to try different angles, perspectives, and to think creatively.
Help your child get creative: If your child is interested in photography, or having difficulty coming up with creative ideas give them a little help. There are lots of wonderful collections of photographs online that they could look at for inspiration - I love The Guardian's photography pages, and The Telegraphs Photographers' Pictures of The Year. Alternatively, why not make a day trip of it and take advantage of the wonderful, free museums we have in London. The National Portrait Gallery is a great place to start.
Create a gallery: After your child has finished photographing the items on the list, why not print their photos and create a gallery with them. Lots of photo printing sites like Photobox and Snapfish offer free prints when you first sign up - this is a perfect opportunity to take advantage of these offers, and I'm sure that your child will love seeing their creations in print.
Have an awards ceremony: Add a little fun and excitement to the activity by putting on an awards ceremony afterwards. You could award prizes or certificates for different categories - most creative, most colourful, most unusual. The list goes on.
Over to you
I'd love to hear how you get on with this activity, and how your children get creative! Let me know in the comments below.