Nature Photography Workshop for Kids

This morning I conducted a 4-hour photography workshop with six young nature photographers at the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Sudbury, MA.  The workshop was sponsored by the Friends of the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge (Great Meadows and Assabet River NWRs are part of the Eastern MA refuge complex).

The photo above shows Grace, Maya, Ingrid, Norman, Thatcher and Joseph seeing first-hand the effect of slow shutter speeds.  I had the Canon 5D Mark 2 plugged into my projector and we could instantly review the photos as they were taken (we also attempted to show the effects of depth of field, exposure compensation, and other aspects of camera operation.)

After a couple of hours of camera talk coupled with the NANPA ethical photography rules we headed out on one of the refuge’s trails and, after getting attacked by mosquitos, retreated to the wildflower garden.

I think everyone had a good time and we were able to show how their point-and-shoot cameras can be nudged into taking really interesting photographs.  We also briefly covered some basic post-processing — turning an average photograph into something really special.

I hope I’ll be able to conduct additional workshops for kids in the future.  I consider photography to be an active arm of stewardship of the environment — the ability to document and communicate with images the beauty and fragility of our local refuges, rivers, plants and animals will continue to be an important tool for advocacy.

Related posts:

1. Riverfest and Photography Workshop
2. Photography workshops at the Great Escape
3. First cut of a nature video short
4. Radiance of Nature Exhibit at the Maynard Public Library
5. Radiance of Nature Exhibit coming to Agawam, MA