My Daughter, the Cinematographer/Producer/Director

As a family, we like to do things together. We like to go to places and try new things. Earlier this summer we went canoing, although we do that every year, that's not new. This time, however, while I was out paddling around with my son, my husband took a new low key approach, a.k.a. benign neglect, and let my daughter take our little digital camera to make a couple of short videos, while he laid on the ground.

Don't our kids need a little freedom to make open ended discoveries of their own? Isn't this one of the reasons some of us are homeschooling?

Here, we see my daughter's first effort. Note the sweep of the camera shots. She has long distance and close up. She pans a car and people walking. She has a great P.O.V. and changes it frequently.

Here's the first one. "Oooo! I Could be a Troll!"

This one might be called, "Hey...Got Some Mud on There...". Note the next to ending shot--classic.

There may be some evidence here of a certain level of casual disregard for the delicate nature of electronic equipment. Perhaps. But, maybe a veneer of mud, a mud filter if you will, is just the thing that those nature shots needed. Did anyone ever think of that?! However, my daughter did choose to scrape the mud off with her finger, so... Sometimes you find what you tried simply won't work. Creativity takes you down many paths.

It's all how you frame it, baby. It's all how you frame it...