Last month I made an appointment to go for a haircut at my friend Matt’s Salmon Arm Barber Shop.
I had mentioned that I was going to Jo and she suggested I take her son Emit. He was off from school and I am sure she felt a quick road trip was a change from a day of video games. So off we went, I had my camera and I also brought a neat little Canon G1X for Emit.
Emit is nine and the G1X is a robust, fun to use little fixed lens camera. I had brought it home after purchasing it to test out. I like to be comfortable with all the cameras I sell at my shop.
It has an articulating screen that I prefer to use like one of those old waist level cameras. It also has a larger sensor than most little point and shoot models and to my surprise it doesn’t have much a shutter lag. It’s a perfect camera for a young shooter like Emit; and it feels and looks like a real camera.
After my haircut we headed for the Salmon Arm Warf. I have written about wandering with my camera there. Here is some trivia I just found out: The 440-foot pier actually holds, not only the title of ‘Largest Wooden Wharf in British Columbia and Canada’ but also the title of ‘Largest Wooden Wharf in North America. Isn’t that neat.
Emit and I walked out on the long warf and I let him just run around to take pictures of anything that caught his eye. These modern digital cameras are pretty much fool proof when it comes to exposure and focus. I think all young photographers need is regular photo success to get them interested in the medium of photography.
Emit is around photography all the time. He constantly sees his mother with a camera and when he comes to my house for our weekly evening to watch “Grimm” he sees cameras laying everywhere. (I don’t eat at the table. There is no room – to many cameras)
Emit and I walked along the wooded nature trail that is near the warf. (My favourite place to make pictures when I am there) The last time it was dangerously ice covered, but this time we only had to step over some muddy areas. We zoomed around pointing our cameras, and it didn’t take much coaxing to get that young boy to climb up some trees for my photos.
I think nine is a good age to get into this exciting hobby. I will always have cameras that Jo’s kids can use if they want. They may not be enthusiastic as their mother and I am about photography, but I kind of hope they will want to carry cameras when they are attending exciting events.
Photographer Don Chadwick wrote, “The camera has always been a guide, and it’s allowed me to see things and focus on things that maybe an average person wouldn’t even notice.”
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
John Enman writes a weekly column for the Barriere Star Journal
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