This PowerPoint slide show will guide you through the basics of digital photography and using iPhoto.

First Project: Portrait Relay - line up and take turns taking "head and shoulder" portraits of one another, until the last person in line takes the first person's photo.

More Project Ideas and Project Photos

(Use the project photos if you don't have a camera of your own to work with)

ABC Book - Photograph the letters of the alphabet. Make a human alphabet by having 1-3 partners make the shape of each letter with their bodies, or simply take close up ("macro") shots of letters you find in your environment. Come up with an inventive approach or text for the book. (This idea is adapted from the Apple Learning Interchange.)

Acting Out - Make a story by photographing your partners acting out the scenes of a familiar or original story. Make an iPhoto book and add the text.

Book of Patterns - Photograph patterns you find around you, and label them -- e.g. ABAB or AABAAB, etc.

Counting Book - Take photographs of groups of coins or other small objects to illustrate the numbers one to ten. Use the photos to make a counting book. Choose an "angle" -- think up a rhyme for the counting book, show one number in 10 different ways (e.g. 8 pennies, an octagon, a nickel and 3 pennies, etc.)

Feelings Book and Cards - Photograph one another making various expressions - excitment, fear, anger, saddness, etc. Write captions such as "When I ___, I feel ___." Or, combine photographs of scenes (e.g. someone falling) with photographs of feelings (e.g. a close up of someone crying). Make flash cards and use as a matching game. (See also "Feelings from A to Z" at the Apple Learning Interchange.)

How-To Book - show how to do a favorite activity in photographs by taking photos in sequence.

Near and Far - Take close-up, macro shots of an object (or person, with their permission) and then take a distant shot of the same thing. Or take multiple photos of the same object from different, interesting angles. Place the photos together on the same page. Alternative: Take a photo that's so close, it's hard to tell what the object is. Write a clue to go with the close-up, and then photograph the entire object for your answer key.

Seasons - Use these sample photos to make a slide show or book about the four seasons.

Shapes Book - Use our shapes photos (taken by kids) or your own to make a book about shapes. Alternative: Compare 2D and 3D shapes by photographing examples of each.

Social Skills Book - Stage and photograph scenes common to your students' ages. Describe the problem and solicit solutions from your students.

Use ideas based on any of our Sample Activities to come up with your own book idea.

Take One, Take Two - take two or more shots of the same subject (or use our sample photos) to demonstrate good and bad shots - is the person's head cut off? Is it shaky? What's in the frame and what isn't? Did you use a flash? Any weird, distracting stuff in the background? Where is the focal point? Too close? Too far? What makes one photo better than another? Why?

Download sample photos by right-clicking (Win) or control-clicking (Mac) on each photo.

Clip Art ©2005 by K. Haugen, Eugene, OR