A box of chalk turns a grey pavement into a canvas. Children draw houses, rainbows, roads and long hopscotch grids, and then play on them until the chalk is worn to nothing. It is a lovely, low-effort subject for photographs, because the drawings are colourful, the children are absorbed and the whole scene is so simple. You only need to look at it from the right angle, and to be quick before the rain arrives.
Look down, then step back
Start with a photograph from above. Stand at the edge of the drawing and point the phone straight down, keeping it level, so that the hopscotch grid or the picture fills the frame. Colours look best on a dry, overcast day, when there is no glare on the ground. If the sun is strong, stand so that your own shadow does not fall across the drawing and darken it.
Then add the child. A pair of trainers in mid-hop, a hand reaching to draw a line, a child lying on the pavement with chalk in their fist. Crouch down to their level and take a picture from the side, so that the drawing stretches into the distance behind them. Take several pictures while they play. You will find that the most natural ones are those in which the child is not looking at you at all.
Take a wide picture as well. Step back, or find a garden wall or a low step to stand on, and photograph the whole pavement with the chalk marks and the children on it. This picture shows how big the project was. It may include chalk rainbows, a crooked house, a road for toy cars and a name written in wobbly letters. In a few years these details will make everyone smile.
Chalk washes away, which is part of the charm, so the photograph is the only way to keep the drawing. Ask the child to explain what they drew, and write a line about it on the back of a print. Keep to quiet pavements, watch out for cyclists and neighbours passing by, and wipe the chalk from small hands before they touch the phone. That keeps the screen clean and the pictures clear.
