Pack - Photography

What's the best way to go about photography with the whole pack ?

I was thinking of getting disposable cameras for the whole pack, that way:
- no sharing required
- everyone has the same equipment
- it's not a big deal if something gets lost or broken.
The downside of this would be the cost of processing old-style film

The alternative would be getting them to share a smaller number of digital cameras provided by the youth/parents or loaned from leaders:
- sharing
- different models of camera - different instruction required
- risk of damage
But - cheap production of prints

Does anyone have any experience with this? Am I missing anything ? What's the best way to go ?

Thanks

As a professional photographer, I was asked to teach the photography badge for both the Pack and Troop levels. What seemed to work the best, and generated the most interest was you're own suggestion of getting disposable cameras - usually with a 24-print exposure.

I came in and gave basic information on photo composition and how the camera works. We then gave each youth a disposable camera to play with for a bit.

Since we'd also scheduled a sleepover at a local air museum, we took the cameras back (names written on the camera) and a leader brought them to the sleepover. The assignment was to take photos during the sleepover, have them developed and bring back a presentation to a future meeting (we'd set a date and kept reminding the youth about the deadline. This gave the youth some ownership of the project - and, yes, some youth didn't complete the assignment.

If the cost of processing is a concern, budget for this and process all of camera and give the youth the prints.

If youth have their own cameras (one of our Scouts had his own SLR), let them use it instead - don't let them use cell phone cameras because the resolution is poor.

I agree with your points on sharing digital cameras - the most significant is the risk of damage and who would be responsible for repair/replacement.

I cannot claim this as my own idea and must give credit for it to my son's favorite cub leader...Margaret Orr. She had a large cub pack and made arrangements for them to visit a local shopping mall. Each cub was to bring a camera from home, either disposable or digital. They were put in small groups and paired up with parents or leaders (I can't remember this detail accurately...) and given a scavenger hunt list of pictures to take. One of the pics on the list was a picture with their mom. The cubs had a blast taking pics of the items required in the hunt and two weeks later the mom's pics turned up in cute cub made frames for Mother's Day gifts.

Just a thought.

Marnie

If you follow up on Marnie's suggestion, make sure you check with the mall first.

At least in Ontario, some new privacy laws are making it more difficult to take photos in some areas and of some people. A check with the mall might reduce some embarrassment and/or frustration.

Marnie's idea is a good one. I was in the same group at the time and was one of the 'items' the cubs had to find. When they found me my task was to take the picture of the cub and their mom. It was a fun activity that the cubs really enjoyed.

As was mentioned though just check with the mall first. As long as you're not taking pictures of customers they will generally be fine with anything that brings potential customers in!

Thanks for your responses. I think we'll go with the idea of single-use cameras. I hadn't thought about getting parents to bear the cost of developing and printing.

I appreciate the input.

We did an overnight "camp-in" (a in-hall sleepover just after the tenderpads came up, kind a gentle introduction to Cub camps) and a photo-enthusiast leader ran a photo program. Some brought their own digital camera and Baloo distributed (very brave, I wouldn't do it) several of his cameras with a roll of film each. We went on a ramble taking pictures.

Those with film took it home to have it developed. Bringing the pictures in was the last step in earning the photography badge.

Seeing the immediate gratification of those with digital cameras showing off their pictures with Chil's laptop and the digital project we borrowed (we watched The Jungle Book that night) was fantastic! It was also amusing to see several of the kids ask us to put their 35mm film into the laptop. The concept of developing film was new to several of them!

I've put links to Scouting Life photography articles and the very good Get To Know mini-lesson on digital photograph on the Scouter Wiki Cub photography page. http://scouter.wikidot.com/photographer-badge Feel free to add any program suggestions or links.

I got this idea from another pack, Each six had to think up of a Joke or story to act out.
Then they took a photo session with a Digital camera and created a comic strip by digitally adding speech bubbles to the pics.

I would like to do the same activity with my pack, and perhaps have them print up a variety of pics that we have from many events and paste a small story board with it. Fun wacky story with a variety of images. Best story telling activity ever!

Hi - while I realise that this thread is quite old - technology is such that is always moves along. I've been watching ebay for a while and have discovered that you can buy decent, but older, point and shoot digital cameras on there for five or ten bucks - they're in the 3 megapixel range but, as a teaching tool, you'll get better quality out of them than you would out of a disposable camera - for about the same cost, when you figure in developing. You would have the choice after the activity of collecting the cameras up for the pack for the next year or having the parents pay for your costs and just give the cubs a camera - that they can then take photos with the rest of the year.

As for a program, here is what I would recommend:

- look for nature and use the cameras as a way to take good photos but also as an identification tool (take the photos home and look on the internet)
- work first on composition - you can cut out paper "picture frames" in 4 x 6 to have the kids "frame" things before taking the photo - you can talk about how photos look better when things aren't centred
- use the hope of a contest as part of the game - Scouts Canada sponsors Robert Bateman's Get to Know program's art contest each year and we should get some more entries - you could also look at the Canadian Geographic Photo contest
- since you're going digital - share the photos on flickr (make sure you have photo releases for all the kids)
- use picasa to play with the photos - cropping, etc - it's free!

Hope that helps!

Good Scouting and Keep the curvy side of your canoe down!

Mike

We did a camp-in where the cubs wrote, directed and produced a movie. They had a blast!