Kids, insects and photography

[bugmadmark]

Hi Pete, Guy, Gruditch and everyone! I was just wondering if other members out there had children who had taken an interest in butterfly/insect photography too? Both my 9 and 4 year olds have taken a huge interest in looking for butterflies, beetles, bugs, newts, frogs and toads in the garden. I think this was inspired through the children flicking through all the wildlife books I accumulated as a teenager - and which are now very worn out with their rough handling (hence my recent requests for advice on best butterfly guides). Anyway, with the rapidly decreasing cost and increasing quality of basic digital cameras, we bought my 9 year old a sub £60 Samsung digitial camera in Feb. Unfortuantely it used up the AA batteries so fast it would have cost us more in batteries so we changed it for a 8Mpix £99 Fuji finepix with rechargeable battery. A bit more than we intended to spend on a 9 year old but he's really making a big effort to take care of it!

Anyway we hoped he'd capture a range of subjects (including me with the family as I'm never in the pics cause I'm always behind the camera - im sure the other photographers know the feeling?). However 99% of hisimages so far are attempts to capture anything that moves! He was thrilled to bits when I showed him that I'd uploaded his pictures of a Comma caterpillar and tortosieshell/Comma butterflies the other day. I'm sure there must be others akids eager to learn about insects and photography. Given the Butterfly Conservations recent moves to promoting butterfly conservation via it's new 'Learn' web pages, I was wondering if there was a gallery or forum where kids could specifically upload their pictures and for the children to comment on their experiences? Just an idea. Mark.

[eccles]

I don't think there's an age limit in this forum and I'm sure Pete and co would be only too happy for you to set him up a gallery. Alternatively there's several free photo websites. http://fotopic.net gives you your own url and 250 MB in which to upload pictures. I use it for my own gallery (http://mike.photos.gb.net)

[Pete Eeles]

Anyone can set up a gallery - they just need to register!

As for comments - there are several options. One is to comment on photos in the gallery. Another is to join the regular forums. Another is a new forum of kids.

All suggestions welcome!

Cheers,

- Pete

[bugmadmark]

Thanks Eccles/Pete. I think (providing there is enough interest from other kids) that a gallery specially for kids images may be a nice idea. Kids love praise and i think putting all their work in one area would be lovely for them to see and learn from comments of others. As for the external websites - i recently tried flickr. No idea how they all compare or what the benefits of one photo site are over another. What i have found is that when you upload to most galleries (even the one on here) the Exif data disappears/ Mark.