{"id":225,"date":"2015-04-29T16:36:23","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T20:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karasevstudio.com\/o2\/?p=225"},"modified":"2015-05-09T11:59:25","modified_gmt":"2015-05-09T15:59:25","slug":"when-you-give-a-little-kid-a-big-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karasevstudio.com\/o2\/2015\/225","title":{"rendered":"When you hand a big camera to a little kid"},"content":{"rendered":"

What happens when you give\u00a0a seven-year-old girl a full-frame camera that weighs a kilogram?<\/p>\n

As the\u00a0wedding I was shooting was wrapping up,\u00a0a restless\u00a0flower girl seven years of age\u00a0(we’ll call her Jess) and her friend were increasingly pestering me with questions about how I take pictures and how my cameras worked. Rather than ignoring them or asking the parents to rein them in (hopeless endeavors both, what with all the guests, lights, music, and desserts), I handed Jess\u00a0my backup camera and with a straight face tasked her with taking additional pictures of everybody, together with her friend.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0camera\u00a0I handed Jess (a SONY A900 full frame DSLR) was insured, but it would have been impossible to find a brand new replacement lens, a magnificent Minolta 28mm f\/2.0. Still, the girls were\u00a0curious and excited about this, as was I, and since\u00a0neither of them has handled a\u00a0DSLR before, these are the five things I’ve told them:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Don’t walk when looking through the camera’s lens. Watch your step.<\/li>\n
  2. Get close. When you think you are close enough, get a little closer still.<\/li>\n
  3. Talk to everyone. Tell them you will take a photo of them that’s different and special.<\/li>\n
  4. Don’t put the faces in the middle.<\/li>\n
  5. Hold the camera steady,\u00a0like this, and press the shutter button slowly.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It was quite dark, with intense colors and spotlights, so I set the camera to ISO5000, f\/2.0 aperture priority, wide AF area, and wished the\u00a0girls\u00a0good luck. Here are a few\u00a0of Jess’s\u00a0photos.<\/p>\n

    \"7<\/p>\n

    \"7<\/p>\n

    \"Seven-year-old<\/p>\n

    \"7<\/p>\n

    \"7<\/p>\n

    \"7<\/p>\n

    \"7<\/p>\n

    \"7<\/p>\n

    \n

    Following the girls\u00a0around would have\u00a0affected people’s reactions, likely stifling the entire thing – not to mention that the whole point initially was to get them to leave me to my work. But I’ve taken a couple of shots of Jess in action just to capture the experiment and to show her parents.<\/p>\n

    \"7<\/p>\n

    \"7<\/p>\n

    Needless to say, I love her pix. There\u00a0are a few\u00a0lessons in them that we can all heed:<\/p>\n