This is the last in the series of photography games.  (At least for now because I can’t come up with any more ideas . . .)

The object of this game is that grandma and the grandchildren take a picture of something and then they share it on a blog or e-mail it to the others.  The other people have to guess what object it is or where the picture was taken.

The idea is that it should be rather difficult to identify the object or the place – but not impossible to figure out.  Just difficult enough to be challenging.  As in the other games, grandma should encourage her grandchildren to be clever and creative.

Here’s an example. Let’s say that grandma and the grandchildren live in the same city.  They could take a picture of an interesting angle of the mall, the library, or a local historical monument or statue.  The picture would be of a very familiar place that everybody knows but because of the angle of the picture it is challenging to figure out where the picture was taken.

Or your grandchildren may decide to take a clever picture of an object.  For example, your grandchild could get their father’s wedding ring, stand it on its side on a table and take a macro picture of part of the side of the ring.

If you have a Flickr group or a blog, have everybody post their pictures.  The one who guesses the most pictures correctly gets a prize.

Have fun taking pictures.

(By the way, because of the topics of the last few posts can you guess what Santa brought Grandpa and I for Christmas?)

Have you seen the latest Mission Impossible movie where Tom Cruise crawls out of a window in a super, super, super high hotel and climbs up several stories to another room? And he does it with gloves that have special ‘sticking’ power?

I knew it was just a movie.  I knew that Tom Cruise wouldn’t fall and plunge to the ground because he was the main character and he couldn’t die so early in the movie.  But still, those scenes so high above the ground made my stomach queasy.

This next photography game that you can play with your grandchildren is called Mission 24 – based on the Mission Impossible movies.  You won’t have to climb a building hundreds and hundreds of feet above the ground.

(Thank goodness – or else I wouldn’t play this game.)

Here’s how it works.

Grandma chooses a word and tells her grandchildren.  They have 24 hours to take a picture of something that illustrates the word.  Encourage your grandchildren to be creative and clever.

For example, let’s say that you choose the word ‘five.’ Your grandchildren could take a picture of five buttons, five trees, or five baby kitties.

To be more creative, your grandchild could take a picture of only five stripes on a flag, or five bricks in a brick building, or five stores in a strip mall.  To be clever, they could take a picture of five bare feet or tiles from Scrabble whose points add up to five.

If you have a blog where you and your grandchildren share pictures or a Flickr group, have your grandchildren upload their picture.  If you don’t have one, have them e-mail you their picture.

I just had a thought.  If you play these photography games, you could collect the best pictures and make a photo book through an online site such as Shutterfly.  You could print up copies of the book for everybody who played and give the books as birthday or Christmas gifts.

Have fun taking pictures!

It’s always a challenge to find activities to do with your tween-aged and teen-aged grandchildren.  If they have access to a digital camera — or if they have a cell phone that can take pictures — there are several photo games that you can play with your grandchildren.

Over the next several posts, I’m going to share 4 photography games that you can play with your grandchildren. Be sure to come back to find out what they are.

Before I explain how to play the first game, let me recommend that you (or your grandchild) create a blog where you share your photos.  If you have more than one grandchild playing with you, you don’t have the hassle of sending the pictures back and forth to lots of people.  There’s just one spot to see them.  Each individual uploads their own picture.

So, here we go.  Here’s the first game.

Photo of the Day

Grandma, you select three words and tell them to your grandchildren.  Your grandchildren have seven days to select one word, take a photo that represents the word and post it to the blog. That’s it.  That’s all the rules.  Easy, huh?

The idea behind this is to encourage creativity while having fun taking pictures and sharing them.

For example, let’s say that ’round’ was one of the words. Of course your grandchild could take a picture of a basketball, a wheel on a car, or a door knob.  That would be dandy.  But when encouraged to be more creative, your grandchild might take a picture of a sibling’s mouth while the sibling says the word “oh.”  Or a picture of a slice of an orange.  Or the head of a nail.

Get the idea?  Good!

You can take turns being the person who selects the words.  You can play only one round (a round is a week) or you can do this for a month — or however long your grandchild has interest in the activity.   Whatever suits your situation best.

For a moment, think ahead toward summertime when you might be having a reunion.  Send out the three words to all of your grandchildren.  They take a photo and e-mail it to you.  You print them up.  Then, at the reunion, display the photos and have the cousins guess who took the pictures.  The one who got the most correct answers gets a prize.

Hope you have fun taking pictures!

I love bubbles. I love making all sorts of gizmos for bubble wands. I love experimenting with bubble solutions. Our grandson has a little bubble blowing machine. I was so enchanted with it I had to purchase one for myself — to share with my grand chickabiddies, of course.

Imagine my delight when I saw some of these bubble pictures on Flickr.

Click here to see lots more gorgeous and interesting photos of bubbles.

This got my grandma brain a-thinkin’.

Spend a wonderful afternoon with an older grandchild taking pictures of bubbles! First, look at the pictures on Flickr to give you some ideas of what is possible. Talk with your grandchild to determine what you want to do. Decide a place to take your pictures and then go out and have lots of fun.

Your results will vary depending on the age of the grandchild and depending on the camera.

But, sure as shootin’ you’ll have a great time taking pictures.

Have you ever tried photographing bubbles before? How successful were you?