The camera is a tool for engagement before it is a tool for documentation. Take the shot, then show the kid. A camper who feels seen has a better day, and a parent who sees that has a better summer. Every photo in this guide works toward both.
This guide is still open. Through the end of August it can be
extended with sections built around what your media team actually runs into. Email
noah@abba-photo.com with what is missing and it gets added
to this page. After August it freezes as it stands.
Quick reference
200 usable photos a day is the floor. 300 is a strong day.
Faces first. A variety of perspectives.
Sort as you go: keepers up, trash out, follow-ups flagged to a director.
The climbing tower and the barn every day. The chadar and the flagpole for faces. Shabbat and Havdalah on the 50.
Lenses: 18-135 default, 50mm f/1.8 for faces and low light, 70-300 for daylight reach.
01 · The daily job
200 a day
Two hundred usable photos is the floor, three hundred is a strong day. Usable means sharp, lit, and alive: a photo a parent could screenshot and text to grandma.
You shoot.
You sort: keepers, trash, and flags for follow-up.
Flag anything an adult should see, a visible injury, sunburn, or bandage, to a director the same day. It does not go in the set.
Last night's evening program goes into the next day's set.
Families check every night, so the day's keepers go out the same day.
01a · Before photos go out
The review pass
Who is missing? Every camper appears at least twice a week. When you review a set, name who is not in it and plan how you will find them tomorrow.
The first five photos set the tone of the whole album for a parent. Choose them.
Scan the background: trash cans, water-bottle clutter, another group doing something that reads unsafe, a disembodied hand over a shoulder.
Faces read as they will be read: a concentrating kid can look upset at thumbnail size. When in doubt, hold it back.
Clothing on correctly, gestures checked, casts and bandages stay out of the set (and get flagged, per section 01).
This review discipline follows the Camp Ramah in California
photography manual (Cooper & Polsky, 2020), shared through JCamp180.
02 · What we're after
Faces, moments, care
Faces first
Parents scan every photo for one thing: their kid. A gorgeous shot of the valley with nobody in it is a postcard. A clear, happy face is the product.
A variety of perspectives
Wide and tight. High and low. Horizontal and vertical. Posed and candid. The day's set should feel like a day at camp.
The camera is camper care
Thirty seconds at the back of the camera, showing a kid their photo, tells them somebody sees them. Pull kids together for a shot and you have built a moment. You are camp, holding a camera.
Getting the pose, and the smile
Engage kids where they are, with what they are doing, during a pause in the program. While they are waiting for a turn on the climbing tower, for instance. Introduce yourself, and before one or more of the group heads off, ask to get a photo. You do this once with every kid and they will pose for you. They will mirror your expression. Shoot joyfully.
03 · Where the photos are
Work the three windows
Every morning, look at the program schedule and make a short list of what you will shoot and when. Pick things that are active, and pick spaces that are easy for you to photograph. Faces and energy from the activity, good light and room to move from the space. Plan around both.
The climbing tower and the barn · every day
These are the two places where a camper's face does something you cannot pose: concentration, then relief. Both also have built-in waiting, which is where the portraits are.
Shoot the climber, then turn around and shoot the belayer and the kids watching from the ground. The reaction is often the better frame.
On the 70-300: a climber high on the wall, isolated against rock or sky.
On the 50mm: two kids working out a problem together, or a hand on a rope. That shot is perfect every time.
At the barn, kids with the horses and the goats. Animals give shy campers something to do with their hands, and their faces open up.
The chadar and the flagpole · several times a day
The whole camp passes through the chadar ochel, and gathers at the flags. Every face at camp, more than once a day. The easiest place all week to get faces.
Shoot wide for the gathering, then go tight on small groups.
Kids being silly, doing bits. Catch it. More than one kid in frame beats a solo shot.
The walk to and from the farm and the flags: a moving group coming toward you is one of the strongest frames available, and it happens on a schedule.
Shabbat, Havdalah, and evening programs · the 50 comes out
Kabbalat Shabbat: whites, low sun, the whole camp in one place. Shoot the singing.
Havdalah is candlelight and faces. No flash, ever. This is the 50 at f/1.8 and ISO 1600.
Take the stage-from-the-audience shot once. The better photos face the other way.
Anticipate the laugh. The reaction is coming; be aimed at faces when it lands.
At the campfire, shoot across the circle so you get faces lit from below rather than backs of heads.
04 · Making good frames
The frame, and the sharpness
Make the frame
Get close, then take three steps closer. Fill the frame with people.
Shoot at their eye level. Kneel for younger campers; looking down at kids flattens every photo.
Clean up the background. Step left or right to lose the trash can, the golf cart, the stack of folding chairs.
Zoom with your feet before you zoom with the lens.
Make it sharp
Wipe the lens first. A smudged lens ruins more photos than anything else at camp.
Focus on the face: put the focus point on a kid's eye, half-press to lock, then shoot.
Put light on faces. Have subjects face the light, and never shoot with the sun or a bright window directly behind them.
Two hands on the camera. Hold the shutter for a burst when there is action.
Choosing your focus point
Left on its own, the camera picks a focus point for you, and it usually picks whatever is nearest: a shoulder, a railing, the kid in front of the kid you wanted. Take the choice back:
Set the center point and keep it there. Press the AF-point button at the top right corner on the back, then use the arrows or dial to select the single center point. On these cameras the center point is the most accurate one; make it your home.
Then use the move: focus, hold, recompose. Put the center point on the face (the eye when you are close), half-press until it beeps, KEEP holding the half-press, and swing the frame to the composition you want. Press through. Sharp face, good frame, every time.
Wide zoomed-out scenes forgive; tight and low-light frames do not. On the 50mm opened up, focus is inches deep: it must be the eye, and lean back to recompose rather than stepping, or you will walk out of your own focus.
Running kids: keep the point on them, hold a burst, and take the sharp one. Volume beats perfection on action.
Mountain light is harder than it looks
At this elevation the midday sun is fierce and the shade is deep, so a single frame can hold blown foreheads and black eye sockets at the same time. Two habits fix most of it: put campers at the edge of shade rather than in full sun, and shoot the hours either side of the middle of the day whenever the schedule lets you. When you must shoot at noon, turn kids so the light is across their faces rather than straight down on them.
05 · The Rebel kit
Your cameras and lenses
The bodies are Canon Rebels. Two modes cover most of what you will shoot.
No-flash auto · start here
Turn the mode dial to the lightning bolt with a slash through it, Flash Off.
Full auto, flash locked off. Frame, half-press the shutter to focus, press the rest of the way to shoot.
Indoors and in shade the camera slows the shutter to gather light. Plant your elbows against your body, hold still, and take two of everything.
Av mode · aperture priority, when you want control
Turn the mode dial to Av. You pick the aperture, the camera picks the shutter.
Spin the dial behind the shutter button to change the f-number.
Low f-number (f/3.5 to f/5.6): one or two people, blurred background, more light. Portraits.
Higher f-number (f/8): groups and activity shots, more of the scene in focus.
ISO: 100 to 200 in sun, 400 in shade, 800 to 1600 indoors.
Watch the shutter in the viewfinder. If it drops below 60 (1/60 of a second), raise the ISO until it climbs back. Below 60, handheld shots blur.
Make the 50 f/1.8 shine · Av and P
The 50 is the best glass in the bag for faces and for anything lit by indoor light alone. Two ways to get the most out of it:
In Av: set f/1.8 to f/2.8 for one or two faces. The background melts and the wide opening buys you shutter speed where there is little light. Keep the shutter at or above 1/60, raise ISO if it drops. This is your evening-program and chadar setting.
In P (program): the camera picks aperture and shutter, you grab and go. On the fast 50 it leans the aperture open in low light and keeps the shutter usable, so it is the fastest way to a sharp indoor face when there is no time to think. Set ISO to 800 to 1600 indoors and let P do the rest.
The exposure triangle · why a photo is bright or dark
Three settings control the light. Move one and you trade against the others.
Aperture, the f-number. Low (f/1.8) means a big opening, lots of light, a blurred background. High (f/8) means a small opening, less light, more of the scene in focus.
Shutter speed. Fast (1/500) freezes a kid mid-jump but needs more light. Slow (1/60) gathers light but blurs motion. Below 1/60 handheld, even still subjects go soft.
ISO. Low (100) is clean and needs bright light. High (1600) shoots in the dark but adds grain. Raise it only as far as you need to keep the shutter fast enough.
The working rule: in daylight, low ISO, let aperture and shutter do the work. As the light drops, raise ISO first, then open the aperture, keep the shutter at or above 1/60. A grainy sharp photo is a keeper; a clean blurry one is trash.
Which lens, when
18-135the default
Stays on the camera and covers more of the day than any other lens in the bag. Wide at 18 for the chadar, the cabins, and a whole activity in one frame. At 100 to 135 it reaches far enough for a face across a circle or a group coming up the road, so you will change lenses less often than you expect. Its weakness is low light: indoors and after sunset it runs out of aperture, so raise the ISO or switch to the 50.
50mm f/1.8faces & low light
The portrait lens. It frames tighter than you expect, so step back. Open at f/1.8 to f/2.8, the background melts and you gain shutter where there is little light. Use it for portraits, golden hour, evening programs, and performance faces without flash. It is also the lens for anything lit by firelight or indoor light alone: the chadar, the campfire, and Havdalah, low and warm with no flash.
70-300daylight reach
A climber high on the tower. The far end of the field. A group of campers walking toward you down the valley. Faces in a crowd, outdoors. Candids from far enough away that nobody performs for the camera. Keep the shutter at or above the zoom number, faster is better: at 300mm aim for 1/500 and raise the ISO to get there. It struggles indoors, so leave it in the bag at night.