Tattooist by Selina Ferguson

A couple of years ago when I decided to regulate my backup DSLR to no longer used status, instead of selling it or putting it on a shelf to gather dust, I gave it to my wife (then girlfriend). She would often join me when I was out photographing something but would sometimes have nothing to do. I set the camera to shoot RAW + JPG, gave her a couple of quick pointers and let her play around with it. As it turns out, she has a great eye for photography. She displays an intuitive knowledge of composition and a knack with finding good angles, framing and subjects. Earlier this year, we were in Malaysia at the very busy and chaotic Thaipusam festival and she just decided to switch the camera to M and experiment with the different settings. It didn’t take her long to work out how to adjust everything to get a pretty accurate exposure.

If photography is your passion, giving your family members an opportunity to join you can make for some fun. Naturally if your wife/husband/child shows no interest, then don’t force it upon them. When there is interest though, offer encouragement. You may be nurturing a future talent without realizing it.

You don’t have to go in depth with instruction and assistance. A little help to get them started is often all that’s required. Of course, some newly-minted photographs will get the photography bug straight away, so be prepared to answer any and all questions, sometimes multiple times.

I’m going to let the pictures do the talking here. These images were all shot by my wife over the past couple of weeks, at the Worldwide Photowalk and at a recent tattoo convention.

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