The Camera Expert

TT taking a photo of an eel.

Over the past couple of months TT has taken a huge interest in using the camera and enjoys taking photos of his friends. We get the camera out daily to capture the learning and teaching moments in our room and TT has decided that he would like to be a part of capturing these moments. Most mornings he will ask for the camera and will check if the battery has been charged. This morning we were off to Kelly Tarlton’s with the toddler children. TT made sure I had the camera and we made our way to the train station. As we got to Kelly Tarlton’s TT asked for the camera to take pictures of the stingrays. It then turned out that the camera was permanently attached to TT’s hand as he explored Kelly Tarlton’s taking photos of things that interested him. By encouraging and giving the children the opportunity to explore their surroundings using the camera helps children to develop “an expectation that they take responsibility for their own learning” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.84).


Child’s Voice

A photo of a stingray and a fish that TT took.

TT – “Look Jody I got the stingray, and the fish in the photo too”

TT – “Should I get the penguins too?”

Jody – “Yes but you need to turn the flash off”

TT – “Will it hurt them, I know how to turn it off”

TT – “I got heaps of penguins in my picture”

PS – “TT can I take photos”

TT – “After, after I get the crayfish”

TT – “OK your turn, take a photo of the shark, look shark there”

TT - "I got the penguins"

TT spent the excursion taking photos of the different sea animals and worked with his friends PS to share the camera. I decided to observe throughout this experience as it gave TT the opportunity to capture what photos he wanted and it allowed me to see how much he knew about cameras and their functions. “The early childhood educator must always be a careful observer to learn what is going on and to step in when needed” (Gonzalez-Mena, 2008, p.109).

TT's photo of a crayfish!

When looking back through the photos he had taken I found a large majority of the photos were taken of the stingrays. When I asked TT about his interest in stingrays he informed me that “I love stingrays, there big and the man was feeding them”. These photos were very focused and each one had a meaningful significance for TT. On the train home TT showed the photos he had taken to his friends and explained what each photo was about. As we got back to the centre and the children had their sleep, TT came with me to the computer room. We together put the photos onto the computer using the camera USB cord. Once the photos were transferred onto computer TT browsed through the photos and chose which one’s he wanted in his learning story and which ones he wanted to print off for himself. Through his selection of photos I noticed he chose to print most of his stingray photos. Photos are a great way of encouraging children to recall or remember what happened in a particular experience. “The ability to recall something relies on our ability to bring things back into our memory that we have known or experienced in the past” (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004, p.173).

TT - "I got the blue fish look"

Once the pictures were downloaded TT brought the camera back to the room, took the battery out of the camera and asked me to put it on charge. His camera interest has allowed him to develop the working theories of a camera and the camera’s functions.