Calum's Camera

Calum (13) has been interested in photography for quite a few years now, and so last summer, just before the school holidays started, he and I went halfers on a slightly fancier camera than the point and shoot one that he had. 
Firstly we spent a couple of months reading reviews of different bridge cameras to see which one we thought was best for us. When we finally settled on one, I agreed that if he was able to save up half the cost of the camera I would pay the other half and then the camera could be shared between the two of us.
Several months later, and it's still on my to-do list to learn how to use the different settings on it other than the fantastic auto scene recognition settings! It's also fair to say that Calum has used it a lot more than I have, but that's also in part due to the fact that I use my phone to take most of my photos - it has such a great camera and I love the simplicity of it auto uploading them all online for me.
I have, however, been meaning to share some of the amazing photos that Calum has taken with our/his new camera for some time now. It's hard to narrow down which ones to share though, so I thought for now I'd stick with a few he took in the autumn.
The first ones are from our holiday beside Loch Awe in October. He's captured the tranquillity and unspoilt nature of the loch quite perfectly in these.

Every morning while we were on holiday, before we had breakfast, he would head off for a walk to the loch-side with his camera to photograph the loch but especially to get a shot of the ducks. He has taken SO many photos of ducks and birds since he got the camera, but these are a couple of the best.

He also managed to get a couple of really great close-ups of Fraser (2). The first one has Ally (6) in the background too. They were watching something on a DVD and didn't know he was photographing them.

I love how he has captured Fraser's serious face. And how it shows off his enviable eyelashes, little button nose and chubby cheeks.

Finally, for now, here are a few fun shots from Bonfire Night, when he was trying out some of the night time settings while his brothers and cousins made pictures with sparklers.

Next step with that setting is to try writing words with the sparklers, but I don't think there will be any sparklers in the shops until next autumn!
I know I'm a little biased but aren't they great photos? He's thinking of entering the one of the duck face (the proper kind of duck face, not the annoying kind that bombards social media) in a competition.
My dad is a big fan of photography so he better watch his step as there is a new kid aiming to take over as the official family photographer!