Adventure Class

Ever since his sister gave him her old point and shoot digital camera, Reo has been an active photographer. I decided to harness that creativity and curiosity so he could see how easy it is to produce something great using only his creativity and curiosity. We started a Photo Journal as part of Art class. Photos are printed out and installed on the blank pages of a notebook. He then dates the photos, names them, and proceeds to add whatever pleases him that's relevant to the photograph.

I started by giving him themes.

Weather was the first theme.

He could take as many photos as he desired that he felt would be relevant to the theme and then choose one to place in the Photo Journal. He did well with this but I noticed that he was taking a lot of photos that he wasn't able to use. While this is often the way that it goes for professional photographers who agonize for endless hours over selecting images for pieces and then selecting pieces for shows, I really could not justify a reason to limit his photo journal to those rules. For the little collage I made for this blog post, it was difficult to select only four weather shots from his folder.

When he started taking photos of his sister's soccer games this season and truly delighted in the opportunities to capture images of motion and experiment with composition, I decided there was no need to dictate weekly themes. The Photo Journal officially left Art class and became its own off-textbook experience, Adventure Class.

In Adventure Class, his photography depicts his adventures, as he sees the world around him, and his Photo Journal is the book that tells the story.