click
here to see sample photos
Digital Kids
How to Take Great Pictures
of Your Kids
to
Create Books, Cards and Memories.
by
Jane Hanstein Cunniffe
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
New and inventive ways to take pictures of your kids and how to create
amazing projects: including announcements and invitations, books,
calendars and scrapbooks.
Chapter 1 ¥ BASIC EQUIPMENT & KNOWLEDGE
á Why a digital camera?
á Downloading
á Printing
á About megapixels
Chapter 2 ¥ TAKING PICTURES: Things you need to know
á Avoid clutter
á Cropping is key
á Daylight works best
á Perspective. Get down to their level
á Designing your shot
á Wardrobe Ð keep it simple
á What to do when Junior wonÕt smile
Chapter
3 ¥ STEP-BY-STEP DO-IT-YOURSELF PROJECTS
á Start with one letter: The Making of R is for
Raisin Bread.
á Take a series that spell out a word or name
á Teach your little one colors
á Easy and original gift ideas
á Celebrating hands and feet!
á Emailing pictures
Chapter 4 ¥ MAKING YOUR OWN CARDS
á The Birth Announcement
á Personalized Thank You Cards
á Postcards
á The Birthday Party Invite
á MotherÕs Day, FatherÕs Day and other holidays
á The ultimate holiday card
Chapter 5 ¥ CREATING YOUR OWN BOOKS
á Why
bother?
The
Positive Effect on kids [parents and teachers, too]
á Counting Books Ð as easy as 1-2-3
Henry
Counts and Eli Counts Too
á ABCs and Beyond
From
HenryÕs Delicious Alphabet to
ALPHaTRUCKS!
á Storybooks: Write (and shoot) your own.
The
making of No Train for Henry!
á Celebrating the ClichŽ & other great book
ideas.
á Recreating fairy tales
Chapter
6 ¥ NEXT YEARÕS CALENDAR, THIS YEARÕS HOLIDAY
GIFT.
á 12 pictures make a calendar: Choose your theme
Holidays,
Colors, Seasons or ClichŽs
Chapter
7 ¥ DOCUMENTING YOUR
FAMILY HISTORY
á Pictures preserve and create memories
á Monitoring your childÕs growth
á Start a family tradition
á Record history [recreating photos from earlier
generations]
á Same time next year [series and collections]
á The Classic Group Project Ð everyone submits a
page
Chapter 8 ¥ HIGH-TECH
SCRAPBOOKS, ETC.
á Create a digital scrapbook
á Make your own memory book
á Launch your own homepage
Chapter 9 ¥ THE CLASSROOM
á
Enhance
your teaching with Project ABC
á
Student
involvement guaranteed
á
A
step-by-step guide to making an ABC book with your class [including sample permission
slip, as well as a template]
á
Make a
counting book to learn Math
Chapter 10 ¥ COMMUNITY
PROJECTS
á The perfect fundraising concept.
á A step-by-step guide to making a book
for and with your community. [Including a sample project showing how you can do
the same.
Chapter 12
¥ TRADING
PLACES
á Letting Junior take the pictures
Chapter 13
¥ THINGS TO
KEEP IN MIND
á Picture taking and Birth Order
DonÕt forget to take pictures of your 2nd
Born
á What might the future hold?
á Keep your camera with you and your batteries
charged!
á Back up your files.
Glossary of Terms
Inspiration, Influences & Acknowledgments
¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥
WhatÕs
so great about these books and pictures?
To
see samples of the books and photographs explained in the book, visit SmilingGoat.com
[for a chronological overview: http://smilinggoat.com/Mac.html]
Introduction
This book is based on a simple premise:
If
you take 50 pictures of your kid, one of them is bound to be good.
ItÕs part how-to book,
part memoir. ItÕs a book about how to take amazing pictures of your kids and
what to do with them once you have. YouÕll find easy-to-grasp digital
photography tips and explanations Ð not so much about f-stops and aperture, but
new and inventive ways to have more fun taking pictures. All you need to get
started is a digital camera and a little imagination.
Instead
of taking the same picture of your child over and over, hopefully this book
will free your mind to imagine all sorts of pictures to amuse and educate the
whole family. YouÕll find great ideas, simple step-by-step instructions on how
make an educational counting book, create an original birthday card, or invent
a new family tradition. The process itself should be a good time, and the
end-result, a picture or picture book you will enjoy for years to come. The
ability to take dozens of pictures at no extra charge, with instantaneous
results, gives this next generation of parents a massive advantage when it
comes to taking pictures of their children.
In
early 2000, I got a point-and-shoot digital camera. At the time, I was a
stay-at-home mom with a ten-month-old and too much time on my hands. Three
years, thousands of pictures, eight books, two boxed-card sets and another baby
later, I am setting out to show others how to do the same. This book is about
that journey.
It is also aimed at early
childhood educators for whom it can provide a useful guide to innovative
classroom projects. Whether youÕre teaching wide-eyed three-year-olds or
boisterous second-graders, it will give you a variety of ways to entertain and
educate children by involving them in the process. YouÕll find easy steps
explaining how to turn your photographs into creative learning tools that work
extremely well at home or in a classroom setting. Put your child or student in
a book, and youÕve got their full attention. It gives them a sense of
ownership. They are the focal point and the hero.
The best advice I can
offer: Buy a camera and use it.
Take pictures of a glass
of milk, or your front door or a box of cereal. Making books for your kids is
all about celebrating the ordinary. If you use your camera for a few weeks
before you really care about the shots, you will be more confident. YouÕll
start to understand that if you take enough shots, surely youÕll get one that
you like. I sometimes take fifty
to 100 photographs for every shot that makes it into a picture frame or book.
Also, IÕm often surprised by the pictures I cherish most Ð many are cropped
just so, or a choice IÕd never have expected or planned.
Given
the time and inclination, what kind of nifty book might you create for your
toddler?
YouÕll
also find a series of do-it-yourself projects and exercises that will keep any
beginning or accomplished photographer entertained. You wonÕt be able to help
yourself. Soon youÕll be wondering what you would do, knowing full well your
little one would enjoy his own counting book, that sheÕd delight in her very
own ABCs.
Whether
you set out to make GretaÕs Alphabet Soup, HannahÕs Holidays
or Brandon, Boy for all Seasons;
when you place your child in a bookÕs title and their pictures in the pages in
between, you simply canÕt miss. You can make a quirky book called EleanorÕs
Days of the Week; or encourage
your toddler with How Olive Learned to Tell Time. No subject is too small to be a book. Anything
from ÒAll about LemonsÓ to ÒLeah
likes Milk,Ó youÕll find new
ways to think about taking pictures of your children. Hopefully, youÕll also
discover an inventive approach to run-of-the-mill activities. YouÕre going to
be taking pictures anyway, so why not make something that actually sings.
YouÕll
find a new way of looking at the world.
Chances
are, most of the time you just shoot random shots of your kid in their element:
Sitting in their high-chair sloppily eating spaghetti or on a swing at the
playground. From all of those pictures, some may be brilliant, others your
favorites. Save them. They may very well be perfect to include in one project
or another. Whether Z is for Zebra, or as a page in a story youÕve yet to
write. Be they card or calendar, counting book or work of art Ð these images
celebrate life and can give your kid a sense of importance. Trying all the time
to avoid the clichŽ, we dive right in and pay homage. Sue me for liking the
visual pun. To prove it, in these pages youÕll find well over 100 clichŽs,
ironically illustrated and otherwise.
Finally something to do
with all of those pictures!
If your children are
older, this book will also be useful because chances are you have shoeboxes
filled with pictures. That means you may be sitting on a gold mine. You can use
this book to learn entertaining ways to organize your favorite pictures, make
books and cards, and/or celebrate your family. To be able to manipulate and use
the printed photographs youÕve already taken all you need to do is a scan them
into your computer.
Most
people might not bother, but youÕre different. Your kidÕs going to be different Ð a learned soul.
Start simple and work your way up to more complex projects. She may not tell
you now, but one day sheÕll let you know that she appreciated your efforts. Or
at least thatÕs what IÕm counting on.
Ð
Jane Hanstein Cunniffe