Immeasurable Pride!

The state-wide winning photograph made by my 11-year old granddaughter! (click to enlarge)

Last fall my middle granddaughter, age 11, called me and told me that the group to which she belongs (The National Beta Club which emphasizes achievement, character, leadership and service) in school had assigned projects to its members.  Her choice of a project was photography.  Being the family photographer, it was expected that she would ask my help and I wholeheartedly said YES!  She didn't know exactly what she was supposed to do so I told her to find out exactly what was required then we would work on it.  I also told her that she would be required to do the work.  I wasn't going to do it for her.  It turned out she was to make and bring in a photograph.  

Neither of my children nor my other two grandchildren seem to have any interest in photography, except with their mobile phones, so I saw this as an opportunity not only to help and teach my granddaughter but maybe also to spark a photographic interest in her.  Fingers crossed!

One morning in early January she called an asked if we could go out that day and make the photograph.  While on the phone I asked her what subjects interested her.  After some conversation she thought she wanted to make a photograph of an old derelict boat.  (I think she may have seen a few of my photographs of them over the years.)  I told her I knew just the place.

We drove to a nearby inlet where crab fisherman unload their catch and moor their deadrise workboats.  But there was an old derelict deadrise also there.  I've photographed it many times and posted images of it on this blog.  You might recognize it.

Before getting started I spent about 15 minutes teaching her a little bit about composition and the operation of the camera I brought.  I brought the OM-1 with the 12-100mm f/4 lens.  I set the camera for aperture priority, set the aperture to f/5.6 and Auto ISO.  I also showed her how to operate the exposure compensation dial if she thought what she was seeing in the viewfinder was too dark or too light.  Also, I told her that if she saw orange blobs that that was an indication that the photo was overexposed.  Blue, underexposed.  Finally, I talked to her about how to hold the camera steady, keeping the horizon straight and how to zoom in and out to frame her photo so it pleased her the best.  She seemed to pick up on all this new information well.

We set about walking the various piers and she stopped and made photos along the way.  She would make an exposure, then look at it on the display.  I would ask her if she liked it and she would point out things she didn’t like, adjust the zoom and/or composition and make another image.  We repeated that process over and over.

  In the end she made about twenty photos of the derelict from across the harbor, from behind it, from an adjacent pier as well as the view you see at the top of this post.  She also photographed a couple of well-maintained deadrise crab boats against the horizon across the inlet.

When we returned to my house, I loaded the images into Lightroom and showed them to her on my large monitor.  She picked two she liked best but the derelict was her final choice.  I did some minor editing (as I recall only brightness and a little bit to open the shadows).  Olympus files are so good right out of the camera, oftentimes, very little needs to be done to them.  I sent the image off to MPIX and asked them to enlarge it to 11X14 inches and mount it onto a mat board.

When I received the package in the mail, I took it to her to open.  The enlargement looked really, really nice and she was very pleased with it. (so was I!)

To make a long story short, she won the competition at her school.  Then her photograph was submitted to the state-wide competition and she won that as well!  We were all thrilled!

Next is a national competition.  I'm not sure when that is, but I'm hoping she does well there.

Now if only this early success ignites a passion for photography, grandpa is willing to teach her all she needs to know!  

#oneproudgrandpa!

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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