Composition
* Consider investing in a cheap tripod (prices start from about 20) to help teach children how to frame a shot. Not holding the camera will give the children one less thing to think about while learning how to co-ordinate eye with viewfinder and provide opportunities to view and discuss the composition of a shot.
* Give the children squares of card with asmall rectangle cut in the middle and encourage them to frame and talk about the composition of 'shots'.
* Let the child use the eye they are most comfortable with. Each child will have a dominant eye.
* Don't take shots of things too far away. Birds high up in trees can end up a series of black blobs on the printed picture.
* Hold the camera properly. Jam your elbow into your ribs and rest the body of the camera in the palm of your hand. (Some children's cameras such as the Fisher Price models come with handles and the added advantage of a device that prevents the children from accidentally opening the back of the camera.) * With digital cameras, use the viewfinder for composing general shots and the camera's image display LCD panel for close-up shots.
Light
* Use the flash when photographing on sunny days.
* Don't use the flash on a subject more than three metres away.
* Avoid overly glum days. The light will be poor, making the chance of camera shake all the greater because of the slow shutter speeds that will be needed.
Batteries
* Take spare batteries with you when you take photographs out of the nursery.
* Use rechargeable batteries if possible - they are more economical.
Downloading
* With digital cameras, give the photographs names as you take them to make it easy to later find the ones you want to download.
* Don't enlarge photographs with a low resolution. They may look fine on screen but will lose clarity in the printing.
Prepared with the help of photographer
Neil Turner.
