26th Feb

As the project is progressing, taking photos has become a routine – a habit.

I am really enjoying the daily ritual -even though it is sometimes challenging or well nigh impossible to fit it round other work commitments. I have even started to wear some tracks in and around the house as I do my daily round. I got to see some of the children’s images on a memory stick and am conscious of the focus being more on the activity than on the images. It’s probably the same for me at this point even though I am very aware of the light and shade and the composition of the photos and have a bit more practice at taking photos.

After talking to Mrs Wilson about it, we are refocusing the children’s attention on HOW they are performing the task. Physically it is difficult for some of them to be still and not have shaky arms as they take their photos and this, combined with the exuberance of being outside, can result in a high proportion of blurry images. Today we slowed them down, got them to think about steadying their images, using something or someone for support -maybe a shoulder or a chair that could be brought outside for use as a support. They learned to listen for the sound that the school cameras make when they are in focus and to review the images and, if necessary, take a second photos in order to get a good image. They are quite good at working in camera groups and supporting each other in other ways -this is just boosting that natural instinct and clarifying the core task once more.

The children have had lots of ideas about what they want to try and record so we are trying to let them have a go at their experiments between now and the end of the project. To this end, some of the children went outside to record birdsong, while others went into the P1 and P2 class to record their PE lesson. Some of the children recorded in the school kitchen and others went to Mrs Slane’s room or Mr Harrison’s room.