Photography as a High School Elective

High school planning is an important part of a homeschool parent’s job.  We are not only our child’s parent, but teacher and guidance counselor too!

When planning for a well rounded high school education, you of course need to cover core subjects such as math, English, history, and science, but those alone are not enough.  High school is a time for your child to explore their interests, to find something they are good at and passionate about.  High school electives are where these aspects come into the picture!

Our first homeschool high school year is just a few weeks away now. I have been spending time putting all of our curriculum choices together. After starting with a large list of Possible High School Electives, we narrowed the field to just a few electives, one of them is photography.

Photography as a High School Elective

Photography was one of the multiple choices on our list based on my child’s goals and interests.  Photography is something my children have seen me engage in, learn and grow in, make money doing, and be passionate about.  Therefore, I wasn’t overly surprised that my teenage daughter wanted to participate and learn herself.

Even though I have some photography experience, I still feel it is necessary to pull information and expertise from outside sources.  Doing this will give me a framework to work within, and will give me the confidence to know I am not jumping about or forgetting some important piece! 

Resources for Basic Photography & Digital Camera Concepts

This thought led me to compile a list of possible resources for use throughout the course that I have named, Digital Photography Basics.  It will cover both the workings of the camera itself, as well as basic photography skills.

• Amanda Bennett Unit Study – Digital Photography  Learn about the basic elements of composition and other important aspects of taking a good picture.
• Jessica Sprague.com offers a variety of online classes and workshops both in digital photography as well as in photo editing.
• Digital Photography School is a community of photographers of all experience levels who come together to learn, share and grow in their understanding of photography.
• Living Locurto has tons of photography tutorials and more.
• MCP Actions MCP Actions provides interactive online training classes and free Photoshop video tutorials.
• There are also some great magazines like Outdoor Photographer and Professional Photographer to help inspire as well as to keep you and your budding photographer up on what is new in photography.
• Outschool has many online photography classes for kids of all ages.

Photography is a skill that I have learned throughout the years, and something I enjoy very much. Now I can take so much of that and pass it along to my teen daughter.

I have found so many great resources to pick and choose from, many of which are on my Photography Pinterest board.

** This post was originally published in August of 2013

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