Summer camp is a magical time where lifelong memories are made. The joy and youthfulness of camp time create a treasure trove of moments that make for fantastic imagery. Capturing these special moments on camera allows your families to relive the magic for years. Let’s explore the top five summer camp moments worth dedicating your time and photographic skills to capturing.
Campers Reuniting with Friends
After counting down the days until camp, the excitement campers feel when reunited with their camp friends is palpable. Being prepared early on check-in day to document the energy and excitement as campers arrive and old friends unite is key to capturing priceless moments. Position yourself to capture the initial reactions of campers scouring the crowds for their friends. Photographing the pure joy of reuniting after months apart is a magical thing.
Look for moments like campers spotting their best camp friend across the way. Or a group of delighted friends gathering in a massive group hug, thrilled to reunite for another summer. Capture the laughter, inside jokes, and camp-inspired handshakes as friends catch up and share stories.
Sharing these priceless moments via WaldoCamps will delight your moms and dads as they often have these photos delivered to their phones before they even get home. The AI-driven app will automatically match and tag your campers and deliver to mom and dad in the form of a text or app alert. As the camp photographer or director, the facial recognition-powered dashboard will also allow you to see who has been photographed and helps you quickly find the right photos when you want to post a photo on social, update the website, or create slideshows.
Campers Stepping Outside Their Comfort Zone
Summer camps nurture campers physically, socially, and emotionally. An essential part of that growth comes from campers testing their skills and bravery by stepping outside their comfort zones.
Document campers during those moments when they dig deep to find the courage to try something new. Capture the nervousness of getting into a canoe for the first time and the anxious yet excited face as they are about to partake in some adventure activities. Try to showcase the full range of emotions as campers push past self-doubt.
After trying these activities, be ready to photograph the exhilaration, confidence, and pride campers radiate. These moments of facing fears, developing grit, and gaining confidence are compelling to document.
The custom tagging feature of WaldoCamp allows you to tag these photos with relevant keywords and features powerful AND / OR search to filter and find photos for marketing.
Camp Traditions
Summer camps are built on time-honored traditions that campers and staff look forward to year after year. When photographing beloved camp traditions, try to capture the entire experience from beginning to end. For example, at the opening campfire, photograph campers anxiously finding seats next to friends, singing arm in arm, and the crackling fire lit against the night sky. Or, during Carnival Day, document the campers transforming the grounds with colorful decorations and booths in the morning to the costumed campers and high-energy activities later that afternoon.
Silly Candid Moments
While you want to document all the formal, picture-perfect moments, don’t forget to capture the silly. These silly, unscripted moments showcase the real camp personalities and the fun spirit of the camp. These hilarious, natural moments often become the most treasured photos for campers.
Watch for campers having a dance-off by the campfire or a cabin group playing an epic prank on their counselor. Catch every silly face or goofy dance during the camp for some fantastic behind-the-scenes moments.
Closing Campfire
The closing campfire ceremony is a poignant camp tradition as the summer winds down. Campers reflect on how they’ve grown, share favorite memories, perform meaningful skits, make commitments for the future, and say emotional goodbyes as their community disperses until next year.
During the closing campfire, leverage side lighting from the fire glow to capture the tears, laughs, and reflective moments between campers and counselors. Document the entire ceremony, from campers excitedly arriving to the intimate conversations as the summer comes to a close.
Summer camp is fleeting, and capturing and organizing those magical moments is important. Use this guide to be prepared to document the top meaningful camp moments.
Get The Full Marketing Value From Your Photos
Taking these priceless pics and delivering them to your families quickly and easily, with an AI-powered platform is just where the value begins when taking advantage of a full content marketing platform like WaldoCamps. In today’s social media-driven world, these photos are arguably a camp’s second most valuable assets, beyond their families.
The WaldoCamps platform allows your camp to automatically brand filter your photos on upload and include a hashtag. This is important as when parents post these photos to social, which will happen much more frequently when delivered via text alert immediately following upload, all of their followers on social will see your camp’s brand and the amazing time their friend’s child is having at camp. Invariably, your camp families are connected on social with other families with camp-age children.
WaldoCamps also allows parents to send their camper a postcard featuring a camp photo, or a photo from home, along with a note. These are camp-branded cards and make for great memorabilia after camp. For the camp admin, WaldoCamps extends this unique direct mail feature, called WaldoGrams for Businesses, allowing camps to easily send personalized birthday (and other holiday) cards to campers featuring a photo of that camper from last season.
Lastly, WaldoCamps’ AI and advanced tagging features allow for building automated slideshows that feature the best photos of each camper. This is great for closing days, roadshows, and other online marketing.
In summary, in a world where content is king, getting the full value from your camp’s content is two-pronged. It starts with capturing the right moments, with a quality camera and a skilled photographer and then leveraging a state-of-the-art content management platform like WaldoCamps to maximize the value of the photos captured.
