Inspired by the original Kids Were Here project, for this exercise we’re going to give our families a break from being our subjects.

Instead we are going to focus on and document the little treasures that our children leave behind. Without any humans in the frame, these images will show the evidence that kids were once there.

It is easy to find evidence that kids were here throughout your home on any given day. Whether you have babies, toddlers, tweens, teens, or adult children, when you pause and look for it, you’ll see their evidence everywhere!

Look for their toys, books, clothes, drawings, schoolwork and messes. To help you grow and push you creatively, look for and try to include beautiful lighting, interesting compositions and settings where possible.

You could simply just walk around and capture your kid’s things and the end result will be a bunch of images of your kids’ things, which would be fine. But if you want the images to have more meaning and to have memories attached to them, think about the story behind your kids’ things before you press the shutter.

Why is it important to you? What does this thing you are about to capture mean? Perhaps it’s a favourite toy your child carries everywhere, the inside out dirty clothes they always leave behind on their bedroom floor, the half eaten apple you see on a daily basis, the text books open on the table from when you child was studying for their exams, or the new driver’s license from the day they passed their test.

Remember it’s not about the things at all, but rather about the stories they tell!

ONE OF MY STORIES:

I made the above image when my son was three. At the time I thought it was a funny kids were here image and one of the many random places we found cars around the house. Looking back at it now, it means SO much more to me than just a funny image. One image of a detail fills me with memories I never want to forget. ⁣

My son was OBSESSED with cars from a very young age. ‘Car’ was his first real word, we watched Cars on repeat (he could recite the entire movie!), we had cars birthday parties, he knew all the makes and models of cars and liked to point them out to us everywhere we went, we read car books, we went to car shows, we had car bedding and we bought more toy cars than I could ever count!⁣

My son is 12 now, and although he still likes cars it’s not to the same extent as his interests have expanded quite a bit! This one funny image now floods me full of memories and is incredibly special to me as both a photographer and a mother.

I would love to see your kids were here images and hear the stories behind them, so if you share any be sure to tag me on IG @jennyrusbyphotography so I can send you some love.

Jenny is a natural light, lifestyle and documentary photographer and specialised newborn photographer, maternity photographer and family photographer. She services all areas of Victoria, including inner Melbourne suburbs such as Richmond, Northcote, Fitzroy, Collingwood, Malvern East, South Melbourne, Elwood, as well as outer south eastern subrubs, bayside areas such as Morntington, Sorrento and Red Hill. She also services the west of Melbourne and will travel to Geelong on request.