the blind (me) leading the blind(my daughter)

[bribrius]

trying to teach my 13 year old daughter photography.
As I was so tired of her taking selfies with her tablet I brought her out with my bridge camera. So yesterday I tried to cover the triangle with her, shutter speed iso aperture and showed her the difference between the different modes (but made her primarily stick with manual).
she seems to have picked it up pretty quick, three hundred photos later (dog photos, dropping ball photos, shade vs, sun photos )she ended up with at least a couple semi decent waterfall pics. course leveling and post work would help..

which I don't think was too bad for the first day with a camera (that isn't on a phone or tablet). course she picked one out that went right on her facebook cover.
oddly enough, she loves the menus, you know the things we all hate and prefer buttons. And she started looking at light differently already. Also had her shooting cars and adjusting shutter speed and iso whether they be going by in the shade or sun for stopping action or giving motion blur. That will take some practice though I still screw that up sometimes. lol She doesn't seem to have much interest in editing or post work
Any thoughts or idea appreciated. Her first semi decent manual photo with a actual camera...

 

[bribrius]

oh, touched on the rule of thirds too. I put three outside toys spaced in a line and explained and had her put each in a third of the frame. then layered them foreground mid and background and had her focus on each while keeping the others in the frame on the third lines and adjust aperture. Not great basically the grunge basics.
course now, I am wondering how much she will remember...
lol
thinking of covering symmetry and frame balance next and positioning things in frame corners for her to work on. I think she likes it but cant really tell if she likes it because "dad does it" or likes it because she really likes it.

 

[tirediron]

I would just leave things up to her... next time you're going out shooting, casually ask her if she wants to come along. If she does, great, if not, oh well... Photography is art, and you can't force art. If she does come along, then DO NOT be too pushy; let her shoot, ask to see her shots, and make occasional suggestions for improvements. While it's a cliched metaphor, you really do have to let the seed germinate. If it grows, it grows. If not... t'wasn't meant to be.

 

[bribrius]

I would just leave things up to her... next time you're going out shooting, casually ask her if she wants to come along. If she does, great, if not, oh well... Photography is art, and you can't force art. If she does come along, then DO NOT be too pushy; let her shoot, ask to see her shots, and make occasional suggestions for improvements. While it's a cliched metaphor, you really do have to let the seed germinate. If it grows, it grows. If not... t'wasn't meant to be.

That would probably be the opposite of what I did yesterday. the only camera I brought was the one she had around her neck I didn't take any photos myself.... lol
just tossed in questions and "do this" "see the difference?" "can you guess what your setting should be? okay lets see if you are close"
or like walking from sun to shade "your setting just changed can you guess how?"
yeah, probably too much the drill instructor you may be right...

 

[Derrel]

Well, you are at least making an effort for her, so kudos on that. Leading, not just standing back. Actively parenting, with forethought. All good. I'd forget the rule of thirds, since it's really kind of a modern invention and a crutch that easily leads to bad compositions because the "rule" is very dubious. It was invented in the 1940's for popular science type magazines...it's a MIS-appropriation of an older painting concept about the way to balance landscape paintings, made first by a hack writer churning out the kind of articles we now call "click-bait" in this age. It is NOT an old-time, real concept in design, nor in composition, so stop even mentioning it. The earlier rule of thirds referred to the balance of foreground, mid-ground, background that ought to be included in a scene painting, or earth, water, and sky, and their relative preponderance within a painting, and had NOTHING to do with ANYTHING related to photography. The rule of thirds as it related to photography sprung forth, created by some talentless magazine writer looking for a shortcut to somehow teaching "composition" by way of a clever shortcut or gimmick that the masses would eat up; it is not a part of photography, but has been endlessly repeated as if it has some actual value. Stick with the elements and principles of design.