Long Island summer camps using facial recognition to give parents a look inside their kids' day in photos

Genevieve Philogene backs up against the tree trunk, unable to force herself to step off the platform.

On the ground, fellow campers at Coleman Country Day Camp in Merrick cheer "Genny! Genny!" to motivate the 7-year-old to zip line for the first time over the pond filled with other campers in boats. Genevieve is determined to do it, and a counselor gently nudges her back to help her inch off, her initial scream turning to a smile as she flies.

Below, Jasmine Ramlowtan is taking photographs. She also shoots the subsequent elated celebration with Genevieve, triumphantly smiling, surrounded by her congratulatory campmates.

Those photos are just a few of the hundreds that Ramlowtan, 20, a college student from Merrick, captures during each eight-hour camp session. Ramlowtan is one of four photographers employed full-time by Coleman to use professional cameras to take photos of campers at swim, at horseback riding, during off-campus trips. Photography director James Ribar culls through the photos at the end of each camp day and typically posts between 700 to 800 on a private, password protected app called Coleman Town that's only available to camp parents. On special event days, such as a recent visit by basketball icon Shaquille O’Neal, the camp posted 1,500 photos, says Ross Coleman, owner/director of Coleman Country Day Camp and president of the Long Island Camps and Private Schools association, commonly known as LICAPS.

Parents can search for their child’s photos using facial recognition; typically, by the time the kids are arriving home on the camp bus, parents can view that day’s photographs, Coleman says. "We have a system in place that we’re covering every group every day. We try to get every child captured in a photo at least several times a week," he says.

PERK PARENTS EXPECT

Coleman isn’t the only camp on Long Island with a photo staff. At Pierce Country Day Camp in Roslyn, owner/director Will Pierce employs a staff of five photographers, and Pierce says the camp routinely posts 3,000 photographs throughout the camp day on a password-protected app called Campanion. That app alerts parents on their smartphones in real time when a photo of their child is posted.

And it’s not just the more high-end camps that offer this — more affordable camps such as Camps ‘R’ Us, with seven locations in Nassau and three in Suffolk, also use the Campanion app to post daily. Camps ‘R’ Us employs a staff of five photographers who rotate between locations. "We’re trying to feed the appetite. They’re always asking for more," Jason Turnier, an owner and managing director of Camps ‘R’ Us, says of camp parents.

This summer, Camps ‘R’ Us also launched a program in which campers who are interested in taking photos are given a digital camera called Camp Snap for an activity period so they can shoot from their perspectives. "It allows them to help capture those memories together," Turnier says. "Whenever they’re snapping photos, they get included in photo albums that get posted."

Daily photos have become a perk that parents expect, the directors say. "Parents very much want to see their child, and they want to see their child happy," Coleman says. It used to be camps would post 20 to 30 photos that just showed the narrative of a camp day, he says. "It’s changed over time and exponentially of late," he says. This year, Coleman also added an album section focusing solely on counselors who want to share photos of themselves on the job on their social media sites.

It's not surprising that this has become a camp trend as the technology has become available, says Jess Michaels, director of communications for the American Camp Association of New York and New Jersey. "Parents are very connected to their children these days. They want to see what their kid is doing during the day," she says. Camps across the country also have staff photographers, according to the American Camp Association.

‘DOPAMINE TO THE BRAIN’

Pierce says he gets why parents love the photographs — his daughter, Brooke, 9, is away at Pierce Camp Birchmont sleepaway camp in New Hampshire, which also has a photo staff. "When I see a picture of her sailing, it's dopamine right to the brain," Pierce says. "It’s a really fascinating thing."

That split-second glimpse can be wonderful for parents, directors say — for instance, Genevieve overcoming her fears. "This is a moment that you’re not privy to," Coleman says. "These are the moments that camp is all about."

When Genevieve's family sees the photograph, she’ll likely explain how she was "a little bit scared," how her feet dropping off the platform "felt weird" and how she plans to do it again, she says.

Genevieve’s mother, Lauren Philogene, 35, an assistant principal, says she loved seeing the zip line photos, especially the one of Genevieve surrounded by fellow campers. "Capturing that support and her joy ... it was a beautiful moment to see," she says.

Says parent Annie Rodriguez, 47, a teacher from Merrick who has two sons, Jaden, 14, and Derek, 11, at Coleman: "We look forward to seeing those pictures. There’s a piece of you that is having fun with them when you see those photos." She says it helps parents feel that their money for camp is well-spent.

It also gives parents an entree into a conversation with their children about what they did at camp that day, directors say. "Especially if you have a kid who goes home, and you ask, ‘What did you do at camp today?’ And you get the classic ‘Nothing,’" Pierce says. You can say, ‘I saw you had archery.’ "

But because of the facial recognition, sometimes a day’s glimpse can be of their child in the background of a photograph, perhaps when another child is up at bat. Then, a parent might call camp and say, “ ‘Why is my child sitting on the side? Why aren’t they engaged?’ When in reality, that was just a split second of an eight-hour day," Coleman says. Parents now want to see their child on as many camp days as possible, and some will be disappointed if they don’t, directors say.

However, the camp directors say the service is a "net positive."

CANDID CAMERA

Pierce photographer Erica Burns, 42, of Massapequa Park, says being a camp photographer is one of the most demanding camp jobs. She is back and forth across the campgrounds all day, and she’s up and down trying to shoot at the level of younger kids to capture them in action.

Will the daily camp photos become videos, become livestreaming?

"Are they going to want a drone hovering over the camp focused on their child? Probably," Pierce jokes of camp parents. He notes there are day care centers that have cameras running but emphatically says, "We have no plans to livestream camp."

However, never say never.

"I’m sure if you asked my uncle 20 years ago, ‘Will we ever do camp photography?’ he would have said, ‘Absolutely not,’" says Pierce, who is the fourth generation running the family-owned camp. "But the world changes and you have to adapt."

By Beth Whitehouse

beth.whitehouse@newsday.comBethWhitehouse1

Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.