Bringing the Family Closer with Photography

In today's societal life families seem to be spending less and less quality time together and much less sharing activities together that they can enjoy together.

Photography is one medium that can have a reverse effect. It can actually bring a family closer to each other by the interaction brought about by taking photographs.

The act of taking photos by itself is often enough but a photographic project has many facets in which each member of the family can be involved, often one family member becomes a "specialist" in one or other aspect of the entire project.

For example; lets say that the family will be taking a trip to a nature preserve to try and record images of the local wildlife population or images of the local birds that inhabit the area. One family member may be entrusted with researching the several species that call the preserve home and the best times to capture them.

Yet another member of the family can be asked to select the equipment that should be taken, yet another is in charge of recording the times, locations and other aspects of each shot as well as the scientific name of each species/subject. The family as a whole can plan best travel times and routes to take and any lodging arrangements.

Not all photographic projects require this level of planning and dedication, other smaller projects can also be a family affair. If your plan is to photograph still life, then one member may be in charge of selecting acceptable subjects.

Others can be in charge of constructing a holding platform or positioning a holding table or arranging the subjects in pleasing manners, selecting appropriate backdrops even making them and so on, and lets not forget DIY projects which involve making a diffuser for example.

These family oriented activities can give birth to individualized photo projects in which one or more family members get involved in other aspects of the art or becomes a specialist in one technique or another. A father can enjoy nature photography, the mother can really get into still life and the kids realize that they like doing silhouettes or portrait photography.

One family member may discover that black and white is the best choice in formats, another may lean towards color film and yet another may decidedly stick with a digital medium. The possibilities are endless.

Don't underestimate that this can also lead to the creation of a photography family business. I have seen countless examples of a husband/wife, siblings etc being involved in a photo business.

This may seem like an expensive undertaking specially with large families, but most digital cameras in the range of 4 to 6 megapixel can be obtained for as little as $100, and film cameras for much less. If possible get cameras that allows one to interchange lenses thus adding to the versatility of the medium and broadens the range of subjects that one can record.

After every project the family can get together and share their experiences ,suggest changes, critique each others work, plan presentation formats, catalog images, download the images into the computer, edit the images through Photoshop or any similar digital editing program and by the way, kids are definitely better suited for this than most adults!

Nothing can bring a torn family together if it doesn't want to in the first place.

But the more activities that they do together and that are enjoyed by all and where each member has an ability to offer input and be listened to which can also offer a degree of responsibility to all involved is seldom anything but a benefit to a family as well as providing a feeling of pride, accomplishment and achievement to each.

One may even discover that someone in the family is really talented and consistently produces quality and pleasant images that are worthy of submission to photography publications and photographic stock houses and who knows, even make it as a professional photographer at one point.

In a way the sky's the limit, encourage each other, celebrate each other, help each other and reach for the sky.

Don't worry, if the photos are not quality, submission type.

I have a secret for you: the photos were not really the main point, your family was.