Every week for the last month or so I have been working with thirteen and fourteen year old’s after school. No they don’t have film cameras!  A few have old basic digital cameras, but most come to class equipped with their mobile phones. No sweat, I’m just trying get them interested in learning about photography and making pictures. They’re very polite but don’t speak very often, so it’s been a bit of a challenge, but I feel I’m making more progress every week!

A couple of weeks ago it came time for the much anticipated outdoor photo walk. I had everything scouted out for some interesting pictures and was pretty jazzed about what I found!  Like my recent photo walk with older teenagers, the idea was to look for exciting opportunities that are usually passed by without a thought.

So off we went. The problem, or so it seemed, was that some of the things I thought were pretty spiffy appeared to be flat out uninteresting to them!  I would point out something I thought was cool and then say “so what do you think?”, only to get the deer in the headlights look, or a “nah”.

But was there was a silver lining that made the experience a success?

I realized that while I was trying to get them to think about making photographs of things I found interesting they were making photographs of things they found interesting! The more I thought about it, I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.

Then at class last week they showed me the pictures they had made on their phones.  As I looked at their pictures I noticed something very interesting … along with all the pictures of what they thought were interesting were some of what I thought were too!

Those sneaky kids!

I’m glad they made pictures of what they saw, as well as ones of what I saw.  And while there were some promising images of what I pointed out, the best ones were all theirs … and that makes me especially happy.

I hope I succeeded in getting them to begin to open their hearts and mind’s eyes to the vast array of photographic opportunities that will always surround them as they grow up.

They agreed I was on to something here … I know they are too.

Stay well,

Michael