Taking Photos

 I love taking photos. It's a great way to preserve memories and capture moments. There were four main photo events this week for me (both in front of and behind the camera) in addition to the regular snaps I take during the school day.

1) I took "fun pics" of our Grade 6-7 and 7-8 students to use for photo collages for the digital Winter Concert.

2) I guided some Grade 2s in taking independent stop-motion mini-films for their social studies projects.

3) I received a sneak peek of some fabulous images from Christine Cousins (featuring me and my dear pal Wendy Burch Jones) that will be used in an upcoming issue of Voice magazine. (Sorry, can't share any of those yet.)

4) My family and I arranged a "photo shoot" with a talented and beloved family friend, Freddie Malcolm. I insert a photo every year into the Christmas cards I send out, and we had no decent pictures of the four of us to select. (I won't post the one we chose but I'll share a couple of others that were taken.)

A few stray thoughts:

a) Photography is an art (and a science). Freddie took note of so many factors while arranging shots, and also worked hard to make the photos as natural and informal as possible. He was the one that recommended the certain time of day to take the photos, and paid attention to the direction our house and windows faced. These "little things" matter.

b) Labels matter to some. I kept referring to our picture-taking time as a "photo shoot", which displeased my son. The term made it sound as if the "appointment" was a big deal, and that stressed him out. (This is why Freddie's calm presence was extra-beneficial.)

c) Colour vs black and white makes a difference. Compare these two shots. They aren't identical, but how does the "message" change when colour is added? 

d) We are hardest on ourselves. When Wendy and I looked at the photos of us, I was blown away by how absolutely STUNNING Wendy looked in almost every image of her, yet she texted me saying "I [Wendy] am horribly critical of most of the ones of me -- and think all the ones of you are gorgeous!"

e) Being goofy with friends for a camera can be fun. I took so many great pictures of the students clowning around with their classmates and it was hard to pick which ones to use for the photo collages. Would the experience have been the same if it wasn't in-person?

f) Some people love having their photo taken and some hate it. I'm a big ham so I don't mind posing for pictures. You can probably tell that I'm the minority with that opinion in the family. Look at my toothy smile. (Years and years of wearing braces gave me those teeth and I flash my pearly whites whenever I can!) 

g) Videos are twice as complex as photographs. There are so many more things to consider when taking a video. I really should begin with photo-taking before moving on to movie-making when I work with students. 

h) Sometimes little children can surprise you with what they create. I was skeptical and a bit scared to see what the Grade 2s created with their individual stop-motion animation. It looked like they were finishing way too quickly to actually have produced anything decent. However, when I looked at their clips, many of them were quite good. The topic was on how holidays, traditions and celebrations change, and we discussed - based on their request to focus on Christmas - how the contents of stockings were different in the past. 

I should not be surprised - Jane Dennis-Moore wrote a fantastic paper for Treasure Mountain Canada called If You Give a Kid a Camera that described the possibilities - but sometimes when you are harried with a flurry of questions, doubts creep in. I should also remember all the great things that Tina Zita did during her ETFO Summer Academy this past summer.

i) Photos don't tell the entire story. I'm reminded of my Kindergarten AQ course and our instructors Gail and Kenisha providing readings about pedagogical documentation that emphasized that it doesn't and shouldn't stop with just taking the photo. We need to annotate it with things we heard said, or what happened just prior to the photo. I need to do that more often with the photos I take during lessons.

j) Having good equipment helps. For the stop-motion animation, I remembered to bring my tripod and that made things steadier. Freddie and Christine had some high-quality cameras with impressive lenses.

Big thanks to everyone who helped out with these "photo events".