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Posts Tagged ‘Childhood’

How Your Childhood Inspired the Future of Your Photography

07 Feb

The post How Your Childhood Inspired the Future of Your Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Mat Coker.

If you’ve had a camera in your hand since you were a child, stop and consider how that camera helped to shape your future. How did it bring you to where you are today?

There are a few ways that your childhood love of photography may have inspired the future of your photography.

My obsession with photography began when I was just ten years old. I was in Niagara Falls the moment I realized I must get a camera!

Exploration

As a child, you were a natural explorer. There is a lot to explore in this world, and there is a good chance that whatever you loved to explore as a child still inspires you today. Some kids grab a camera and sneak a bunch of candid photos. Others go to where the action is or discover the macro world that is usually invisible to the eye.

You explore, then study your photos, then explore some more. A photograph anchors you in the experience you had as a child and keeps calling you back to continue the adventure.

There was a lot to hold us back as kids. But the joy of growing up is the ability to step out the door and explore the world around us.

As a child, it may not have been that you brought your camera on adventures, but that it was your camera bringing you on an adventure!

As a child, I would photograph anything that grabbed my attention and made me look. Dinosaurs were one of those things!

Seeing

Along with exploration is the ability to see. Seeing doesn’t just mean looking. Seeing means piercing deeper than the surface level scene in front of you. It’s noticing patterns and humor and beauty.

With a camera in your hand, you look at the world in a different way. That deeper ability to see shaped you as you grew up. No doubt, your friends and people you work with are fascinated by the unusual things that you notice.

You don’t just see, you imagine. You bring your imagination to life for all to see through the images (photographs) you make.

“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” Dorothea Lange

When I really started to learn about photography I had to be very conscious about getting clean backgrounds. Notice how this dino is framed by the objects around it rather than overlapping with them.

The scariest part of a dinosaur is its teeth. I used a wide angle to bring the viewer right into the jaws!

I share the love of Niagara Falls with my kids. We couldn’t help but imagine the chaos of the dinosaurs coming to life. While riding the Ferris Wheel, I timed this shot to be able to see the T Rex in the background. In black and white who’s to say it isn’t real?

Your own form of magic

Think about this medium that you discovered as a kid. You explore and bring your imagination to life. Through print or a digital medium, you get to show everyone else what you saw. You can make a portrait of your father and pass it on for countless generations. It doesn’t have to be a standard portrait either, but your father as you saw him and knew him.

Through photography, you transfer the image in your mind into the minds of people you may never meet.

When I was a kid, I visited air shows with my dad. The planes always appeared as little specks in my photos. I look back at those photos and remember how inspired I was by those planes. Now that I’m a dad, I share that love with my kids.

I would never have noticed the potential beauty of light and texture as a kid.

Savoring the moment

The heightened attention that you learned as a child makes life meaningful today. Not only did you learn to see but you learned to capture that on film (or pixels). You could sneak into any situation and come away with a little slice of the moment to carry with you.

Even when you don’t have your camera, you can look at a scene and know this is a moment worth capturing. You can stay in the moment, recognizing something special, knowing this is a moment to be savored.

“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.” Marc Riboud

I loved to take pictures of concerts as a kid. Back then I had no appreciation for angle, backlight or decisive moments. Now, I roam around the audience and time moments for gesture and dramatic backlight.

Recall to adventure

If I could write a letter to my childhood self, I’d thank the little guy for pressing on with photography even when nothing really worked out for him.

Have you lost your sense of exploration and adventure? Is your life consumed with work and monotonous routine? Think back to when you were a kid. What adventure would that camera take you on today? What experience is there around the corner to savor?

Charge your batteries, clean your lenses and fall in love with photography all over again.

Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies.” Diane Arbus

The post How Your Childhood Inspired the Future of Your Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Mat Coker.


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Photographer sues Bruno Mars for posting childhood photo of himself on Instagram

29 Nov
Photo by Brothers Le, CC-BY-2.0

Singer Bruno Mars recently shared a childhood photo of himself from 1989, and now the photographer behind the photo, Catherine McGann, is suing him for copyright infringement. The image was shared by Mars back in June on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, amassing more than a million ‘likes’ and thousands of comments.

As of this writing, it’s still live on the pop star’s Instagram account:

A post shared by Bruno Mars (@brunomars) on

The lawsuit, which was first surfaced via TMZ, is being leveled against both Mars and record label Warner Music. According to McGann, Mars never asked for permission to share the image on his social media accounts, and the lawsuit seeks any and all profits made from the image’s use, plus damages.

A look at McGann’s Instagram page shows that she posted a version of the image with a copyright notice on November 3rd, 2016.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Weekly Photography Challenge – Childhood

06 Sep

What does childhood mean to you? This could be photos of children, their small hands, or the things associated with that time of life like crayons, rubber boots and puddles, frogs, toys, old photos, and so many other things.

Crayons are for kids – or are they? Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Weekly Photography Challenge – Childhood

Let’s see what childhood means to you?

Share your images below:

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images on the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Childhood by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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6 Moments of Childhood to Capture Beyond the Obvious

18 Feb

If you are a parent, you probably pull out your camera to take photos of the big moments in your child’s life. You have almost certainly captured her first taste of solid food, his first steps, and her first day of school. You probably also have a handful of photos from family vacations, and you may even have an annual portrait for the end-of-year holiday card.

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But, looking back, you are likely to find that these photos don’t tell you much about what life was like for you, and your child, during his early years. To help you capture the smaller, but special, moments of your little one’s childhood, be sure to take photos of these essential parts.

1) Your Child’s Friends

Your child will always hold a special place in his heart for his childhood friends. While it is tempting to always get shots of your child alone, you and your child will appreciate having photos of him with his friends to look back on through the years, especially if you, or a special friend, may one day move away. To make these photos even more meaningful, get a shot of the kids engaging in a favorite activity together – whether it’s playing board games, dolls, or soccer.

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2) The Fits

One look through your Facebook or Instagram feed, and you might think that all of your friends’ kids are happy, all the time. While your friends may work hard to make their little ones seem perfect, the reality is that disappointment is a big part of childhood. Don’t overlook taking pictures of your kids when they are in the midst of a temper tantrum, or when they are doing their Oscar-worthy performance to try to convince you to give them an extra 10 minutes of screen time.

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3) Bedtime

Bedtime happens every night, and by the time it rolls around you are probably just ready to get the kids to bed, and aren’t thinking about taking photos. But, there are lots of great memories being made at the end of the day. Your kids probably look adorable in their jammies, and brushing their teeth. If you read books before bed, getting photos of your child flipping through her favorites, while snuggled under the covers, will bring back memories of the books she loved the most, years later. On the nights you take out your camera, be sure to get at least one shot of your sleeping angel.

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4) Their Little Quirks

Although they may not seem like picture-perfect moments, capturing the little mannerisms that your child makes as he grows up, will be precious to you when he’s older. Did your baby start putting his hands on his head when he’s upset? Does your toddler cross her arms to show she’s angry? Has your pre-schooler started covering her mouth with both hands when she’s excited? Whether these mannerisms are fleeting, or stay with your child for life, you will appreciate having photos of his little quirks when he’s older.

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5) Playtime

Your child sitting on the floor playing with blocks, or on lounging on the sofa with his tablet, may not seem noteworthy now, but in a few years her interests will change. Having photos of your child at play, will bring back precious memories of what your child was like back then, and will help him remember specific toys and games he liked to play during that time.

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6) You and Your Child

There is probably no people more important to your child, than his Mom and Dad. If you are the one picking up the camera, you are probably not in a lot of pictures. Your child will want to remember what you looked like when they were little, and will treasure photos of you and him doing activities together, even if it’s as simple as playing a game or baking cookies. Find a way to get into some photos with your child, whether it’s by using a tripod and remote, handing the camera to a friend, or hiring a professional photographer.

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Do you have any other moments in your child’s life that you feel are important to capture in photos? Please share in the comments below your thoughts and your images.

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The post 6 Moments of Childhood to Capture Beyond the Obvious by Jamie Davis Smith appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Childhood Obesity – Effects On Body and Mind

06 Oct

Children and the future have always been seen as signs of hope. However, with childhood obesity being in the way, the future has ceased to be promising and hopeful as parents often desired it to be. This is because obesity as a threat has lifelong and long-term effects that kids face in future.

Much disheartening possibilities, poor life quality and health, shorter longevity and compromised psychological health are just some of them. Thus with such desolate scenario, adults must now take action to give kids of this generation, a better future. For this to happen, it is vital for them to understand the causes and effects of obesity.

Causes of Childhood Obesity
Obesity in children is known to be caused by several factors including:

Genetics: Truth is, it is more likely for obese parents to bear obese kids. This shows the fact that genetics have momentous influence on obesity. However, just like any other genetic potential, all this can be controlled depending on the surrounding of the kid.

Lifestyle patterns: A person’s lifestyle is mostly influenced by family activities, culture and food preferences.

Environmental factors: Besides genetics and lifestyle patterns, there are other environmental factors, which are very influential. They are the major issues that the bigger society should curb. Some of these factors include processed food surplus with preservatives sold in groceries, food commercials that support unhealthy foods and new technologies that promote sedentary lifestyle among many others.

The good news is, all these can be restrained mostly through parental care. This is because of the wide scale patronage. But with working class moms of this generation, the whole situation again becomes more complex.

Effects of Childhood Obesity to the Body and Mind
Obesity among both adults and kids can bring grave medical disorders. Kids are prone to develop major health concerns such high blood pressure and high cholesterol that make them liable to heart illnesses as grownups. According to private study, Type 2 diabetes, which used to be a disease for adults, is nowadays noted to grow in obese kids. However, kids with normal BMI are free from such disorders and run a lesser threat of catching the same during maturity.

The most worrisome childhood obesity effect is mental health. This is because the effect can be immediate and could run to lifetime potentially if not addressed at an early stage. Obese kids have a low self-esteem and feel discriminated by other kids because they think they are different and worse than other kids. According to a study performed by Schwimmer in the year 2003, overweight kids compared their quality of life to those of youthful chemotherapy cancer patients.

The study further proceeds to reveal that various obesity-linked problems affect these childrens’ wellbeing. Such problems include bullying at school, sleep apnea, difficulties in playing many sports and fatigue. As if this is not enough, overweight kids are much more likely to drop school leading to miserable lives without employment or low salaries.

Help the Kids Feel Better
With a society that has been filled with biased cultures and many stereotypes, feeling discriminated by these kids is not so imaginary. Bullying comes from friends and adults like teachers and families. As the children internalize this feeling, they tend to feel more inferior, imperfect and also lose aspiration.

The powerful communication presented to them by the society at large about the idyllic body weight only help to exacerbate their psychological sufferings. This brings up a question that everyone should ask themselves. Does everything change for the better as these children become older disputed rather than conquered? There are very few instances when surmounting the odds made them successful. However, statistics show that many of them end up defeated with the rest of their lives becoming poor and depressed.

After all is said, there are various things all responsible adults can do to soften childhood obesity effects. In the United States, solutions by Surgeon General’s “Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity” were proposed. Most of them lied within the capacity of what parents may do for their kids. Regrettably, not all environmental features can be controlled by these kid’s parents. Thus, the only thing left is to hope that the society in this generation will wake up with this major call.

Your Child’s Health

 
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Never Let Go of Childhood Wonder (3D Zen Magnets)

01 Aug

Surprise, our original award winning Zen Magnet video was filmed in 3D the whole time. Watch it in yt3d 720p or above. You can get free red/cyan anaglyph 3D Glasses at 3d.zenmagnets.com If using red/cyan glasses, use “optimized debois” mode, or grayscale to strengthen the 3D effect. If watching on a 3D screen, you should be 3-5 times the screen diagonal measurement away from the display. For example, be at least 10 feet away from a 42 inch screen. If you’re watching on an Evo 3D, hold it a foot and a half away. The original video: “Never Let Go Of Childhood Wonder” Which was Best of Youtube #531, can be found here: www.youtube.com Zen Magnets can be found at ZenMagnets.com If you’re having trouble watching 3D. Make sure your screen is not the problem www.youtube.com Music: Kilowatts – Old Twisted Trees DLID – Color in your Hands (Leonizer/Metroplastique) YT3D

 
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