We’re excited to kick off the series Taking Back Summer Fun: Photographer Edition! This series is for photographers looking for a few creative ways to add joy and meaning into your summer. My favorite memories as a kid always included time with family and friends, and that is exactly what we are encouraging you to do this summer too! Up first, we are sharing ideas for putting on an easy photography camp for your kids!

Putting together a photography camp is a great way to spend time together and create a memorable week! You can tailor this for any age group to keep them excited and engaged. I did this a few years ago with my 6 year old daughter, and I set the camp up to basically just to do fun things together and incorporate photography in to that. 

You can make it as educational as you want; however, since my daughter was only 6 at the time, I kept it very minimal and taught her various things as we were playing together. Things like what landscape and macro photos means, and how to take your own self portraits.

We also experimented with different types of cameras (my DSLR, an instant polaroid, and an underwater camera). We didn't go much into all the technical parts of photography and just kept it really FUN.  Here's what we did (Links for everything I used for this are at the bottom!).

Day One - Photo Scavenger Hunt

Pick a fun place close by that your kids can have fun exploring. (We went to the lake by our house because it's 230º in Texas in the summer, so water is necessary.) Make a photo scavenger hunt full of fun things they have to find and silly things they have to do and take photos of.

I included things like: Take a photo of waves going over your feet, you doing a silly jump in the air, a close up photo of a cool rock, a landscape photo, your shadow making a heart with your hands, an animal or insect, etc.! Tailor the list to the location you are going and for their age(s). If you have older kiddos, make it challenging!

 Day Two - Underwater Photos

Hit the pool with your camera in tow! I bought this $30 underwater camera, and it worked great! It takes both photos and video, so we had a lot of fun with it!

Day Three - Make your own backdrop

This was my daughter's favorite part of camp. Prepare to get messy. :) I filled water balloons with acrylic paint by pouring 3/4 paint and 1/4 water into water bottles with a squirt lid. I then filled the balloons with the bottles by putting the balloons over the nozzle.) Hang a white sheet outside against a hard surface (I used this cheap one from Amazon).

Tip: you have to throw the balloons pretty hard to get them to pop on the sheet rather than bouncing on the ground and popping. You could also add thumbtacks to the back of the sheet and throw them at that to make sure they pop. Or skip the balloons all together and just squirt the paint on or add paint+water to water guns! Have fun with it, and let yourself and your kid(s) get super messy. They will have a BLAST.

Day Four - Photoshoot with backdrop

I bought some fun accessories for my daughter and I to take photos in front of our backdrop (like these neon hair extensions and a colorful boa. We did each others make up with bright colors and wore our favorite neon clothes. Then we got in front of our DIY backdrop and took fun self portraits together. To make this suppppper easy, I used the video technique I teach in my Taking Your Own Self Portraits course! We had a silly string war during this as well which made it really fun and made for some super cute pictures together! 

Day Five - Print photos + Make a scrapbook from the week

This was the perfect ending to our week of camp! I had all our photos printed at a local one hour print shop and ordered this fun scrapbook kit which comes with everything you need! It was fun to look back at our week together, and now she has a great memory book to look back on our sweet time together!

SUPPLIES I USED FOR THE WEEK:

Underwater Camera
For $30, I was pretty impressed!

Kids DSLR Lookalike Camera
There's no need to have two cameras, we just already owned this one. if you are looking to buy one for your child, I recommend the underwater one as it's more versatile. My daughter just loves this one because it looks similar to mine!

Instant Poloroid Camera
We already owned this one as well and love to use it for special occasions like this (film ain't cheap, y'all.)

Scrapbook Kit
Great kit for the price! Comes with lots of supplies and will keep my girl busy for days!

Cheap White Bed Sheet

Water Balloons

Neon Hair Extensions
My girl LOVED these for taking our self portraits in front of our DIY backdrop!

Silly String
Cheaper if you can find it in Target's Dollar Spot

Acrylic Paint 
Linked a set; however, I bought neon colors from Hobby Lobby

Feather Boa
Hobby Lobby

Picture Frames + Photo Album
Dollar Tree