When you hit the halfway point in summer, it can be hard to find interesting activities to keep your kids entertained, as well as keeping yourself sane. If you’re into photography, this can be a great time to delve into kid’s photography with a fun summer challenge. So, what should you do?

Kid’s Photography Challenge #1: Playground Series

Have a playground nearby? You’re all set. You can aim for a series of photos at a single playground, or hit a few parks and take a photo on the same piece of equipment (like the top of the slide).

Kid’s Photography Challenge #2: Fashion Show

Kids love to dress up, so why not indulge them while you take some fun photos. Wait for a nice day, hang up a white sheet for a background. Put together a few outfits of bright colors, grab some props, and you’re good to go.

Kid’s Photography Challenge #3: Funny Faces

Likely your kids have a few great faces in their repertoire, so you might as well take advantage. Let them break out their best moves and you can practice your children’s portraits.

Kid’s Photography Challenge #4: Shapes/Colors

Sometimes there are too many “things” to focus on that you can’t decide what to photograph. So it can help to have a challenge that cuts back on the extraneous. So pick something – a color, a shape, a location, etc. and stick with it.

Kid’s Photography Challenge #5: Hobbies

What do your kids like to do? Why not capture them? Take a few photos of your kids in the midst of their favourite activities.

Kid’s Photography Challenge #6: Everyday Favourites

What’s the favourite time of your day? Your kids? Why not capture some of these moments? It could be bathtime, bedtime, Sunday mornings, going to the market, or just hanging out in the background.

Kid’s Photography Challenge #7: Sleepy Time

After a long day of tearing around, your kids will (hopefully) crash. Why not grab a camera and capture their peaceful faces? This might take a bit of planning – you’ll need some light to work with and a longer shutter speed, but unless they’re restless sleepers you should be good to go.

Kid’s Photography Challenge #8: Black and White

With the range of rules that you try to incorporate to make great portraits of your kids, cutting out color can help you focus on the rest of them. Remember that you’ll want to look for contrast between your child and their surroundings.

Kid’s Photography Challenge #9: A-Z (or 1-10)

This challenge can take a little more time – which you might have on your hands for the rest of the summer. Find a way to represent the alphabet in photos, or the numbers one to ten. It could be something that starts with a letter (or represents the number), holding up fingers, making the letter, etc. Use your imagination!

Kid’s Photography Challenge #10: Scavenger Hunt

Here’s one that’s fun to do with your kids – print up a list of things to find and give your kids each a camera or camera phone. Bring a telephoto lens and capture your kids engrossed in the hunt.

Hopefully, this helps you discover a few ideas to combine a photography challenge with kid’s photography, so you can get great photos, have fun, and enjoy summer.