“No place is boring, if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.”  ~Robert Adams

Most of you who know me, know that I breathe only to make photographs. I see the world in little 4×6 boxes. And I can’t help but share my love for making pictures with the little people around me. No one is too small. If they can hold the weight of a camera, they can make a photograph. Plain and simple.

This week at Small Potatoes, we will be “focusing” our attention to the camera. My favourite subject. And of course, you all know how I like to start a week’s theme…in a box!!

So here is our Shutterbug Box…it contains everything your little one will need to be a little photographer.

First…cameras! I was fortunate to have our local camera store donate all their old cameras they found in the back to my day home. You could ask your local camera stores to do the same, use disposable cameras, toy cameras, or check the thrift stores for old cameras.

I also added various magazines to the box so the children could cut out the photos that “they” made and glue them in their notebooks.

I am too cheap to buy note pads, as I figure I have perfectly good paper here I can cut and staple together!

Add glue sticks, scissors, erasers and pencils too! This way they can build their photo albums without having to go looking for supplies.

My kids have seen me wear my company photography badge around my neck when I photograph weddings, and I figured they should have one of those too.Nothing makes you feel more official than a badge! I googled “press pass” images and found one I liked. I added a clip art camera to where the photo should go, and made them each their own press pass.

I laminated them and put a piece of yarn thru the top. Easy.

Now the only thing left is to get “shooting!”

After the kids shot photos around the house, they took to building their notebooks.

Cutting, pasting, and writing…

Even if they can’t write letters yet, it still fun to pretend. Even the small ones can be a photojournalist!

By the end of an hour, the kids had filled their notebooks halfway with photos they had “taken” with their cameras! And they were so proud of themselves! The toddlers were not so good at cutting, but they loved to snap photos, and they could definitely write in their notebooks. We are looking forward to our week of learning about cameras. We hope you’ll come back and see what we have been up to.

Thanks for stopping by!