Photo projects

I've been wanting to do some photo projects for a while.  We've done some successful ones in the past such as making photo sculptures with photo cutouts and a decorated plaster base, photo tinting of pictures with markers, superimposing family photo images on old fashioned pictures or other interesting pictures a la Anne Geddes .  In general photography is a very creative and child friendly activity for children 6 and up and making projects with pictures that are already printed out could be done with children under six as well.  Digital photography, if anything makes it even more child friendly because it is so forgiving.  There are so many great possibilities from using different props to taking other themed photos, experimenting with different techniques, making collages or putting together albums, scrapbooks or photobooks or making cards.  My eight year old son is an excellent photographer.  For years he has been convincing himself, much to my chagrin, that he is not artistic because he had trouble with many things involving hand eye coordination.  But picture taking helped him get over  this train of thought to some extent and he's since branched out into other areas of artistic experimentation with a lot more success.   So if you have some older digital cameras lying around or could get one relatively inexpensively, it might be a good idea to equip your junior photographer and let him loose to explore the world out there.  It's a very educational activity  and could be useful in teaching other subjects as well.  One could make up photo challenges for kids like take 20 pictures of fruit or 20 pictures of something green or something made out of plastic or something interesting one would find outside or inside or whatever and see what they'll come up with.   It's great for nature study too because it teaches a child to look closely at the world around him.   So a great, versatile and creative activity which doesn't have to be too expensive and is a good skill to have anyhow!