TARZANA : Youngsters Get Pro’s Advice on Photography

Bruce Fier is making little shooters out of students from Wilbur Avenue Elementary School in Tarzana.

But these first- and second-graders aren’t packing toy guns. They are armed with cameras and are learning the art of photography.

Fier is a professional photographer and a parent of a Wilbur student who is teaching a series of photography workshops at the school.

The children’s first assignment was to take pictures during their spring break using disposable cameras donated for the project by Eastman Kodak.

Last week, Fier took three of the students to Travel Town in Griffith Park, where he coached the kids on how to take a picture.

As Christina Murphy, 7, Aaron Gottlieb, 6, and Fier’s son Zack, 6, stared intently through the lenses, Fier taught them how they needed to have the sun behind them to properly light the picture and demonstrated how they can either hold the camera horizontally or vertically, depending on the shot.

On Monday, Fier met with the whole class to present them with the children’s photographs taken during spring vacation.

Kimberly Galindo, 8, was especially proud of the picture she had taken of her dog. “That’s Titi!” she proclaimed, with a big smile.

Joshua Stern, 7, chose to do a series of photographs of his action figures. His favorite shot, he said, depicted a scene in which one of his G.I. Joes is doing the splits while another figurine hangs from his foot and a Power Ranger is starting a fight.

The important lessons in photography that Carrie Ann Dumont, 7, said she learned were that: “The item that you’re taking a picture of has to stay still,” and “the background can’t move either.”

The children will next be putting together a picture book using their favorite photographs, Fier said.