Go on a photography nature hunt

Planning this activity

• Choose an appropriate outdoor area such as outside your meeting place, a nature reserve, woodland area, riverside, canal, or park. If you’re going to meet at a location other than at your usual meeting place, make sure parents and carers know exactly where you’ll be, what people may need to bring, the day, the location, and what time to drop off and collect everyone.  
• Make sure everyone knows to come dressed for the weather. Don’t forget to check the forecast and be prepared for it to change.  
• It’s important to check the sunset times, making sure that you’ll have sufficient light throughout the activity. It’s best to run this activity on lighter evenings, such as in summer. 
• Remember to have suitable supervision, an InTouch process in place and activity consent forms. It’s important to make sure that anyone with medication, including an inhaler, brings it with them and gives it to a volunteer, too. 
• Make sure the area you visit is accessible for everyone, choosing a suitable place for drop off and collection. You may need to think about avoiding steps or steep gradients or including frequent breaks. 
• Make sure you have printed copies of 'seeing through different eyes' activity sheet and the 'outdoor photography tips' sheet, with enough for each group or person to have a copy. 
• You may want to run this activity over two weeks, with one week to take the photos and another week to make the collage.

Introducing the space

1. Everyone should head out to the outdoor space or meet at the chosen venue.
2. Explain the boundaries of the playing area and where the no-go zones are.
3. Tell people how they can use the space respectfully, without disturbing the wildlife or other people enjoying the site if you're in a public space.  Remind people to be calm and quiet, so you don’t disturb wildlife, and not picking any flowers or plants. They should handle wildlife gently, take litter home and put things back where they were found to make sure wildlife isn’t harmed or damaged.
4. Tell everyone where adults will be around the site and what people should do if anyone in their team needs help. This should include setting memorable spot where an adult will stay at all times.
5. Explain the signal to stop play and how long the activity will go on for. A long blast on a whistle works well as a signal to stop the activity.
6. If playing in a public space, young people should be paired up so no young person is left alone and they should run or move together.

Run the activity

Talk about the activity

1. Everyone should head out to the outdoor space or meet at the chosen venue.
2. Everyone should think about the place they’re visiting. Ask everyone to suggest one plant or animal they expect to see. 
3. Split everyone into small groups. Each group should have a responsible adult with them, always following the Yellow Card.
4. Give each group a device for taking photographs, if they don’t already have one that’s suitable for the activity.
5. Give each group a copy copies of the ‘seeing through different eyes’ and ‘outdoor photography tips’ activity sheets, as well as a device to take photos on, a clipboard and a pen or pencil.
6. Explain that the aim of the activity is for people to take photos of anything they find or see from the sheet. They can also take photos of anything else they find interesting. They could look out for the animals or plants that they predicted they would see earlier. Everyone is welcome to sketch things they see on the back of their sheets if they wish, too.
7. Remind people to experiment with the photos and get creative. They should look at things through different perspectives, such as getting very close to some shots (a ‘beetle-eye’ view) or looking down from above (a ‘birds-eye’ view).
8. Explain that if people are struggling to think of a new perspective, try putting yourself in the shoes of an animal or plant that lives in a certain place. Imagine how that animal or plant sees the world and try to copy that view when taking the photograph.

Taking the photos

1. When everyone is ready, groups should head off to try to complete the activity sheet. Each group needs to be accompanied by an adult. Depending on the group’s age, the adult should hold onto the device for taking photos when it’s not being used. 
2. The adult or leader in each group should make sure that everyone stays within the limits of the area you’re visiting. These should’ve been set when planning the trip and agreed with everyone before setting out. If wildlife or objects are outside these limits, either take a long distance photograph or use the zoom feature on the picture-taking device to get a closer look.
3. Give everyone a set amount of time, such as 20 or 30 minutes, to walk around and complete their activity sheets.
4. When this time has passed, everyone should return to the meeting spot.
5. Groups should show each other the photos they’ve taken and any sketches they’ve made. Make sure to make a note of people’s favourite photos. 

Creating a collage

1. On another week, have printed copies of everyone’s favourite photos. You may need to ask parents and carers to send copies of the photos for you to print if they were taken on young people’s personal devices. Remember to follow our digital safeguarding advice.
2. People should use scissors and glue to stick their photos and sketches to make an individual collage or group montage. If you’re making a group montage, everyone should decide where their individual images look best.
3. When the collages or montage are finished, you could display somewhere where everyone can see it as a reminder or create an art gallery to invite parents and carers to. You could call it ‘Wildlife from different perspectives’ or similar.