Nature Photography With Kids

I've been getting more and more into taking photos of nature- especially close-ups of flowers and insects. To help me in my quest for great photos, my husband recently got me a fancy new camera with a zoom lens. The next day, I set out  in our yard to try it out.

Here are some of my photos:

 Bleeding heart

Fiddleheads (ferns as they emerge from the ground)

Our "non-lawn" with our house in the background

One benefit I hadn't considered was how a new camera might impact my kids. When I picked up my new camera, my daughter asked if she could use our old camera to take pictures (a digitial "point and shoot" model). I had previously let her take a photo here or there, but I confess I hadn't really encouraged her to go out on a photo shoot of her own. Usually I was the one with the camera in hand trying to get that great shot.

Here she is working:

The fun thing about this is that her interests are different from mine, so she took different kinds of photos. Sure, she shadowed me a bit and took some photos similar to mine, like this one:

But, not surprisingly, she also took lots of photos of little things, or things on the ground that I might ignore. (She is a lot closer to it than I am, after all).

Hosta in my garden

Weed in my garden- I think it's beautful in her photo.

Violet in my garden

And here's something adults would almost never photograph-- her shadow in the grass. Yet, kids her age are fascinated by their shadows.

And the final one I'll share. Any guesses as to what this is?

Ok, that was a bit of a trick question because it's not a nature photo. It's my car's headlight. I never would have photographed any part of my car, yet I find this photo very appealing. How about you?

Have you ever given your child control of the camera? What were the results? If you've never tried this, will you? What benefits can you see from an activity like this?