We recently found out about a Gap photo contest for kids. By that, I mean that the photos are of kids, not taken by kids. We briefly considered the the fact that our kids are, indeed, the cutest children on the face of the earth, but realized that it may not be fair to the rest of the contestants if we entered. After a brief debate, we read about the prizes which include a trip to San Francisco for a Gap photo shoot and $5000 to spend at Gap. We decided to enter.

I grabbed one of my work cameras (a Canon Mark II) and we scurried the kids out to the lake. I had never shot the Mark, and quickly realized that it was definitely a camera for professionals. I couldn’t find any button or knob that said “auto”. Nonetheless, after some trial and error, I found some settings that worked. Here are some of our favs. (We apologize in advance to anyone who had hopes of winning this contest.)