Meet my little photographer.

Recently I have been trying to encourage my 7 years old daughter, Summer, to pick up the camera. To shoot and document whatever that is around her. I didn’t teach her any technicality of photography. Not that this interest her. No shutter speed or aperture. Everything is in P mode. The only thing that I probably try to teach her is the understanding of highlights and shadow. And also some framing idea.

Shot this in 2016. Summer was 5 years old then. I handed her a Fujifilm XP90 as her working camera. For obvious reason because its drop proof, waterproof and comes with zoom. What more can she ask for. She is invincible! After she gotten the hang of it; I started letting her shoot with a X70 or X100F. It’s a great time to teach her the responsibility of taking care of her gears. I know some Papa might freak out letting a kiddo handle such gears.

Other than paper and color pencils that is on the table; these days there will always be cameras for her to pick up and shoot. When Summer sees something nice at home, naturally she will quite quickly pick up the camera and try to document the scene that fancy her.

Through these few months; I have never review so many blurred photos in my life. Slowly it’s getting better. At the same time I see some beautiful blurred photos too. As a commercial photographer I have always felt my photos are too polish. It lack that rawness in the frame. In this process of trying to show and teach her all that I know; I think she has taught me more than what I have.

Every year Summer understand I will send in my best few photos for a photo competition. She ask if I could submit hers. I replied why not. I email International Photography Awards (IPA) to ask if it ok for a 7 years old to submit their photos. Apparently the minimum age is 18 years old. But they did encourage me to submit as a series which is possible. Mixing both my photos and her base on the theme and direction of my concept.

I submitted two photos of my own work and a series collection from Summer and myself. Series of 10 pictures. 7 from Summer and 3 from me. Yesterday I received an email from IPA that I have been awarded with 2 Honorable Mention Award. And one of the 2 awards was the series with Summer. I name it Work in Progress. I was really happy and share this happiness with Summer. Indeed a milestone for us. As the title says it, our photography work is always “Work in Progress”. Here are the 10 photos that we have submitted. Picture on the left are shot taken by me taking a shot at Summer taking a shot. And the last 4 shots are all Summer’s.