Do you love to take photos of food, people, nature, and everything in between? In this episode of the Growin' Up podcast for kids, our guest, Marcus Enno, joins us all the way from the beautiful island of Tasmania. As a kid, Marcus enjoyed taking photos of Australia's bush and mountains. Today, he's a cycling photographer who travels the world taking professional photographs of cyclists. Join us as our host Emily Calanderelli discovers what kids can do now to become photographers when they're all grown up.
Discover fun activities and songs that will teach your child all about collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication in the Lingokids app! 💙
Do you love to take photos of food, people, nature, and everything in between? In this episode of the Growin' Up podcast for kids, our guest, Marcus Enno, joins us all the way from the beautiful island of Tasmania. As a kid, Marcus enjoyed taking photos of Australia's bush and mountains. Today, he's a cycling photographer who travels the world taking professional photographs of cyclists. Join us as our host Emily Calanderelli discovers what kids can do now to become photographers when they're all grown up.
Discover fun activities and songs that will teach your child all about collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication in the Lingokids app! 💙
Speaker: Lingokids.
Speaker: When I grow up, I want to be a photographer.
Emily Calandrelli: What does being a photographer mean to you?
Speaker: They take pictures of animals.
Speaker: Yes, and pictures of fancy stuff.
Emily: Are you ready to make photography your superpower?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Emily: Last episode we met Dr. Gabby Wild, a vet who makes saving endangered species fashionable. Today, we'll explore how to make saving memories a dream job. Do you believe a picture is worth 1000 words? If you've dreamed of being a photographer, you won't want to miss this episode. First, let's take a glance down memory lane.
Speaker: Growing up.
Speaker: Growing up.
Speaker: Thanks for joining me in my favorite antique shop. Today, we're in search of old photographs. Perhaps in this old trunk.
Speaker: There's a little scrapbook.
Emily: Maybe it has some old photos.
Speaker: It's a little dusty.
Speaker: Bingo, photos. Apparently someone's family history.
Speaker: Wow, old tiny black and white photos.
Emily: Aren't they cool? This wedding photo has a date below it. Let's see, 1942. It's fun to see how people dress back then. Whoa, look at this one, a farmhouse. The writing below says it's from this town. There aren't farms here now. Photos tell the story of how people and places change.
Speaker: Look, soldiers.
Emily: I bet this is from World War II.
Speaker: Someone carried a camera in a war?
Emily: I guess they shot photos, not enemies. Some photographers also take risks to bring news to the public.
Speaker: Photographers are like storytellers.
Emily: You better believe it. Just look around. Photos are everywhere. Billboards, magazines, menus, bus stops, store windows, websites, and social media. Humans are motivated by images, and there's a photographer behind each one.
Speaker: Hey, what kind of photo is that?
Emily: It was made with a Polaroid instant camera. When the photo pops out, it takes a few minutes for the color image to appear. That man with the long hair is making a peace sign. On the bottom, it says 1967, California Summer of Love.
Speaker: Is he a hippie?
Emily: I guess he was. I bet he's bald now. Oh, I've got a joke. Why did the camera get bad grades in school?
Speaker: Why?
Emily: It couldn't focus?
Speaker: Emily, do photographers still use cameras today? Everyone I know uses a smartphone.
Emily: Most professionals still use cameras either with film that's developed using chemicals in a dark room or with a digital camera that stores images on a memory card. Using a camera takes some knowledge and skill. With smartphones, everyone can take a good photo.
Speaker: Let's take one now.
Emily: Sure, let me grab my phone. Okay, get closer. Let's do a selfie. On the count of three say, Lingokids. One, two, three.
Speaker: Lingokids.
Speaker: How did it turn out?
Speaker: A little dark.
Emily: No problem. I'll brighten it up using a filter. That's better. Nowadays, we snap photos of everything. Food, pets, fashion, anything we find interesting. If you were a photographer, what would you focus on?
Speaker: I'd take silly photos of people.
Speaker: I'd take action shots.
Emily: Then you're both in luck.
Speaker: Really, why?
Emily: Any minute now a crazy parade of bicycles will pass by here. It's called Critical Mass. Cyclists take to the streets to promote bicycling as a way to get around instead of cars. In some cities, hundreds of bicyclists gather. Sometimes people wear funny costumes and decorate their bikes.
Speaker: Cool.
Emily: Look, there are people outside with their smartphones ready. Let's get out there.
Speaker: Here they come.
Speaker: Whoa, there are so many bikes. Take some photos.
Emily: Oh, I got a great photo of that girl on the rainbow bike, and the unicycle. Here's my phone. Give it a try.
Speaker: Okay, I'll take one of that guy doing a wheelie.
Emily: Keep your hands steady.
Speaker: I want to take one of the kids with the funny helmets.
Emily: Go for it. Hey, see that guy with a gigantic camera over by that van. He looks like a pro. Are you ready to meet a real photographer?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: His van has a sign that says Beardy McBeard. Is that his name?
Emily: I don't know. Let's find out. Hi there, are you Beardy? I'm with Lingokids and we want to find out what it takes to be a photographer. Can we ask some questions?
Marcus Enno: Sure.
Speaker: Is Beardy a real name?
Marcus: No, it's my handle on Instagram. My real name is Marcus Enno.
Speaker: [chuckles] I thought so. Okay, I have a question about why you were called Beardy Mcbeard, and I guess it's to do with your beard.
Marcus: Yes, it's a bit of a funny one. When I came up with the name it was actually for a cycling training program. I decided I'd make a name that if people saw me out on the road they'd be like, "Oh, maybe that's that guy." I thought, "Oh, I'll call myself Beardy McBeard." I type the name in and it stuck. People just started calling me Beardy. I've got a beard for life now.
Emily: Oh, okay, Marcus. First off, what kind of photographer are you?
Marcus: I'm a cycling photographer. I photograph people on bikes, riding bikes around-- mainly road bikes. I'm lucky enough to go to some really amazing bike races like the Tour de France. I've been to Italy to photograph the Giro d'Italia. Sometimes I even get to go on the back of a motorbike, and sometimes I photograph just regular people riding bikes for fun in events.
Emily: Great. What would you say are three things all photographers need?
Marcus: First and foremost you need a camera, and second of all you need to know how to use it. The third thing you need is you need a subject. You need to choose what you got to take your photographs of.
Emily: Very cool. Maybe you can give us some tips at the end on how our listeners can start learning these. We also received some excellent questions from our Lingokids listeners.
Speaker: Marcus, how'd you become a photographer?
Marcus: I always liked photography. My dad gave me a camera when I was quite young, and I practiced with that. I did a photography class at school, and I spent lots of time in-- it was only film photography in those days, and you go into a dark room and process your roll of film in chemicals and come out and see what you'd taken. It's not like today where you just snap a photo on your phone or a camera and you can see it instantly. It was a very magical process going from pressing the button to processing and getting an image. I decided that I was going to go and study.
Speaker: How old were you when you took your first photo?
Marcus: I don't remember the exact moment. I remember many fond moments of sharing a camera with my father and taking photographs together. We'd often go into the mountains and take photographs on our yearly Easter holiday. We did a big camping trip around Australia, and we did a lot of photography together. I learned a lot of my early skills from him.
Speaker: Marcus, how do you decide what to photograph?
Marcus: It is a difficult idea. What do you photograph? What do you point your camera? I guess it comes down to what really interests you, is it nature? Do you want to go out and photograph beautiful trees, or closeups of bugs on leaves, and things like that? Maybe you're interested in cars, and you want to go and photograph all shiny cars. The beauty of photography is that you can focus it on whatever interests you have, and you can make it exactly that sort of profession.
Speaker: Why do you photograph cycling?
Marcus: It was my other passion, and somehow I managed to combine the two things. When I wasn't at work taking photographs at the photography studio, I was out riding my bike. Somehow I decided if I could combine the two things it would be like all the things that I love to do on my day off, and the things I like to do were combined into one. Was I even really going to work? It was like a hobby.
Speaker: It's a worker hobby.
Marcus: Absolutely.
Speaker: Marcus, Emily said the billboards and magazines also use photos. Did you have photos that became famous?
Marcus: I took a photograph at the Giro d'Italia which is the tour of Italy. The photo promoted the race for the next year. They chose my image to promote this to millions of people. They loved the photo so much they even used it for the front of these quite renowned sticker books where you collect the stickers of the riders and stick them in.
Speaker: That is so exciting.
Marcus: It's a very exciting thing to see your photographs used like that. You've got all these memories attached to that image when you took it. Maybe it was somewhere in the mountains in France and you press the button. To see the final work, yes, that's a very proud moment for me when I see my work up like that.
Speaker: Marcus, why is your camera so huge, and it looks heavy too?
Marcus: Yes, the cameras we have are quite heavy. We use long lenses to photograph all the actions, especially on the finish lines where the riders are coming to towards you at over 60 kilometers an hour. We most often carry two cameras with us at all times that way you can have different lenses on each one, and you don't miss a moment of the action. Equipment is a big part of what we do and you need to look after it.
Speaker: What is the hardest part about being a photographer?
Marcus: There's a lot of hard things about it. People see the photos and they see the glamorous side, but there's a lot of hard work like race chasing. You're in and out of photo rooms every day for three weeks and you fly. I live in Hobart, Tasmania, and I fly to the other side of the world to photograph these races. There's a lot of time away from your family, and your pets, and your garden, and things like that.
Speaker: Tasmania sounds like a very far-away place.
Emily: Thanks for sharing with us.
[music]
Marcus, most kids don't have cameras and might be too young to own a smartphone. What can kids do now while they're still growing up to become a photographer?
Marcus: Photography a lot of it's about framing and about deciding that you see a lot through your eyes, and as a photographer, you just capture just a small part of that. I think one of the really simple techniques that you use early on as a photographer is just to make two pieces of cardboard like the letter L, and then with these two letter L pieces you put them together and you make a little frame. You can look through that frame and you can make your own photographs in your eye, and you can think about all the wonderful images that you could make.
Emily: Fantastic. Let's start with the interest you two described earlier, people being silly and action shots. Marcus and I will jump in the air and you can each take a photo using my phone. Here, let me set it up for you.
Speaker: Okay, I'll crouch down and you two jump on the count of three. One, two, three, jump. Got it. Wow, it looks like you're really high up in the air.
Speaker: My turn. This time make a silly face too. Ready? One, two, three, jump.
Emily: Let's see. Ha, I love it. Hilarious. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Growin’ Up podcast. Even if you never plan to be a professional photographer, taking photos will provide you with a lifetime of fantastic memories. Tune in next time when we meet a real artist.
Speaker: To live a full interactive learning adventure, check out our Lingokids App.
Speaker: With tons of games-
Speaker: And activities for endless fun.
Speaker: It's so fun to learn what you can be growing up, growing up. Come and join us, come everyone, so we can learn while having lots of fun, because it's so fun to learn what you can be. Yes, it's so fun to learn what you can be growing up, growing up, growing up.
Speaker: Lingokids.
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