Maybe she can avoid my years of blurry pictures of flowers
December 16, 2009 3:48 PM Subscribe
Gift-filter: I'd like to find a book about fun photography projects for a very smart 14-year-old girl.
A family friend, a freshman in high school, likes to take photos out on walks around her neighborhood. That's the age I started to get into photography, so I'm really happy for her. What book can I get her for Christmas that would give her some good ideas about how to expand beyond shots of roses? She's brilliant and very artistic, and she has a typical small Canon compact camera.
I found Click: The Ultimate Photography Guide for Generation Now and Digital Photography for Teens, but I don't know if they'd be good. I'm hoping to find a book that would present some principles of interesting photography, samples of styles, and a bunch of good examples -- something encouraging and fun to browse, but not childish, and not focused on DSLRs. It doesn't have to be "digital photography for young people", but an Ansel Adams formal technical book would probably be too serious (I looked at this previous question). What's in between?
A family friend, a freshman in high school, likes to take photos out on walks around her neighborhood. That's the age I started to get into photography, so I'm really happy for her. What book can I get her for Christmas that would give her some good ideas about how to expand beyond shots of roses? She's brilliant and very artistic, and she has a typical small Canon compact camera.
I found Click: The Ultimate Photography Guide for Generation Now and Digital Photography for Teens, but I don't know if they'd be good. I'm hoping to find a book that would present some principles of interesting photography, samples of styles, and a bunch of good examples -- something encouraging and fun to browse, but not childish, and not focused on DSLRs. It doesn't have to be "digital photography for young people", but an Ansel Adams formal technical book would probably be too serious (I looked at this previous question). What's in between?
When I was her age an learning photography our teacher used Freeman Patterson's book which it looks like he's updated - It's called Photography and the Art of Seeing -- really ground-breaking for me.
posted by nnk at 4:38 PM on December 16, 2009
posted by nnk at 4:38 PM on December 16, 2009
Best answer: Sort of diagonal, maybe, from exactly what you're looking for, but Photojojo's book has photo-taking tips in addition to diy projects for the photos she's taken - if she's artsy, she may enjoy the projects as much as learning about photography.
posted by faineant at 6:05 PM on December 16, 2009
posted by faineant at 6:05 PM on December 16, 2009
Learning the fundamentals of composing good shots can indeed make a lifelong difference in the quality of her shots. But if it's immediate fun you're looking for, and this is a creative and artistic person, consider a book on stop motion animation. With so much free software out there, anyone with a camera and a computer can make their own little animation stories easily. Well, it takes some experimenting, but it's such a fun process and you learn a lot - how you need to compose your shots, how to take advantage of different settings on the camera, how to control for lighting, how to use the software, how to get enough shots and make enough movements to simulate real motion, what makes an interesting story, etc.
And it doesn't have to be clay figures or little armature figures - it can be anything, even the flowers you mention. She could do a little tabletop scene where little objects travel around the table. She could take a picture of the same thing on her walks from the same precise point x number of times throughout the day or over a number of days and do one of those time lapse things like you see on the nature shows where the bud opens or whatever. She could paint a picture and take a shot after each stroke, then stringing them together into a picture that seems to be painting itself. Loads of options. She could share them with friends on Youtube.
Throw in a mini tripod so she can take multiple shots from an identical unmoving vantage point from shot to shot.
posted by Askr at 6:10 PM on December 16, 2009
And it doesn't have to be clay figures or little armature figures - it can be anything, even the flowers you mention. She could do a little tabletop scene where little objects travel around the table. She could take a picture of the same thing on her walks from the same precise point x number of times throughout the day or over a number of days and do one of those time lapse things like you see on the nature shows where the bud opens or whatever. She could paint a picture and take a shot after each stroke, then stringing them together into a picture that seems to be painting itself. Loads of options. She could share them with friends on Youtube.
Throw in a mini tripod so she can take multiple shots from an identical unmoving vantage point from shot to shot.
posted by Askr at 6:10 PM on December 16, 2009
interesting photography, samples of styles, and a bunch of good examples
How about The Photo Book from Phaidon Press?
posted by marsha56 at 7:43 PM on December 16, 2009
How about The Photo Book from Phaidon Press?
posted by marsha56 at 7:43 PM on December 16, 2009
No specific recomendations but I would also recomend just getting her the coolest book on photography you can find.
I generally suggest people buy books of photographs rather than books about photography. Particularly if she just has a cheap point and shoot camera, she may not be able to do anything advanced technically. But a really great book of photographs might inspire her to dig deeper and see what photography offers.
I think this is one of the best books I've ever seen:
http://www.amazon.com/Joakim-Eskildsen-Journeys-Cia-Rinne/dp/3865213715
Good luck!
posted by sully75 at 5:49 AM on December 17, 2009
I generally suggest people buy books of photographs rather than books about photography. Particularly if she just has a cheap point and shoot camera, she may not be able to do anything advanced technically. But a really great book of photographs might inspire her to dig deeper and see what photography offers.
I think this is one of the best books I've ever seen:
http://www.amazon.com/Joakim-Eskildsen-Journeys-Cia-Rinne/dp/3865213715
Good luck!
posted by sully75 at 5:49 AM on December 17, 2009
Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! These are all great ideas. I think the Photojojo book will be most helpful in this case, since it looks like a lot of fun, and she likes to make presents for people. I'll probably come back to this thread for future gift ideas too. :)
posted by dreamyshade at 7:23 PM on December 17, 2009
posted by dreamyshade at 7:23 PM on December 17, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
I'd suggest you look for any casual-to-beginner level introduction to photography that, as you say, isn't focused on DSLRs.
A search for casual digital photography at Amazon brings up books likeDigital Photography Simplified, Digital Photography: The Missing Manual, and The Digital Photography Companion. Might something like these be appropriate?
As a complete dummy to photography who has only used point-and-shoot cameras, I like the looks of Understanding Photography Field Guide: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera.
posted by Anephim at 4:26 PM on December 16, 2009