Never underestimate what a 6-year-old can do with a DSLR

It was a normal family day long weekend until I gave a DSLR to a six year-old to capture what she sees.

Apparently, Hazel, a grade one student, did some impressive photography artworks that her parents and I have never expected. It was an afternoon at home when she was making some crafts. Besides me, her dad, younger sister and grandparents were in the house, so were another two of her dad’s friends.

Equipment: Canon 7D; Canon EF Macro 100mm USM (lower ended model)
Pre-setting: 1/160, f/4.5, AWB, ISO-3200, central one-point focus

She wasn’t even able to hold a DSLR properly as what adults do. Rejecting a given iPhone, she insisted to have my camera taking pictures around her house. With some hesitation at first, I finally accepted her “multiple requests”.

No live-view but viewfinder, holding a relatively heavy equipment to her, plus having a running nose that day, she started her short but great indoor photo journey. And there you go.

hazel grandpaA sincere smile she captures for her grandpa. Considering that she held up in about 60-degree when the equipment that weighted about 1/10 of her, the UNEDITED picture’s field of depth is just perfect. Yes, when enlarging the image, you might see shaky and blurry and to-be-improved lighting, but the smile wins.

beer and ukelele Hazel set her own scene, indeed. A drink at front with a red ukelele at the back are what she directed us to put on. She discovered the uekelele looking great at the high-to-low angle, so she asked her dad to put down the drink onto a soft’s arm. The color combination is just excellent.

Makayla eyes   A macro shot with her younger sister’s eyes. Her younger sister is a moody little girl: she can laugh hard now but literally yield at you in most furious way in the next minute. Hazel caught the angry moment. So as the below one.

makayla sad Poor little the second time she was moody. And Hazel got her sister’s moment, again. A typical portrait-photo-skill. As well, all the strips in the photo are consistent, as if they are matching one another.

color craftSimple but colorful. She took a picture of her craft. Aware of architecture beauty, putting one a pink paper, standing on a chair, she told us a fact, by a picture, that how the craft looks like and its nature.

I’d like to show more, but I stop from here.

Hazel might took some great pictures by luck, some by skills, some by observation, and  some by creativity. A pure heart shouldn’t be ignored. By the time she grows up, photography technology might have been improved to another level, but her photographer-eyes is always with her.