Why My Family Keeps Watching Jordan Matter (And What We Learned Trying His Photo Challenges at Home)

 

On the screen, a guy in a backyard was tossing a gymnast into a perfect mid-air split while a camera clicked away. I expected to be bored in two minutes. Forty minutes later, I was still on the couch, asking my nephew to queue up the next one.

That's how I fell into the Jordan Matter rabbit hole. This post covers why his content works, what you can borrow from it, and what happened when we tried a few photo challenges at home with a phone and a lot of enthusiasm.

Who Is Jordan Matter, Quickly

Jordan Matter is a photographer who got known for his Dancers Among Us project, where professional dancers pose mid-move in ordinary places like streets, kitchens, and subway platforms. It started as a photo book and turned into something bigger once he moved to YouTube.

His channel now mixes gymnastics, acrobatics, trick shots, and playful challenges, often with his daughter Salish and a rotating cast of athletes and dancers. The tone is upbeat and silly, and it works for both kids and adults.

• Known For: Dancers Among Us, fast-paced photo challenges
• Channel Highlights: Gymnastics, acrobatics, family-friendly fun
• Target Audience: Kids, teens, and parents alike

I'm not a professional photographer. I'm a regular person with a phone and a mild obsession with figuring out why some content feels good to watch. This is what I noticed.

Why It Works When So Much Kids' Content Doesn't

Plenty of "family-friendly" videos are loud, chaotic, and honestly exhausting. His videos feel different, for three reasons.

• There's always a visible skill: Someone is actually doing a handstand, a flip, or a tricky pose. You can see the effort, so it feels earned rather than staged.
• Low stakes, light mood: The stakes are small and the mood is light. Nobody's being humiliated. The worst outcome is usually a missed pose or a laugh.
• Photography as storytelling: The photography is part of the story. Instead of just watching a stunt, you see the final photo and can spot how the framing, timing, and background made it work. That's the part that made me want to try things myself.

Our First Attempt at a "Photo Challenge" (It Went Badly)

After a week of watching, my cousin's kids and I decided to recreate the vibe in the backyard. I assumed it would be easy: pose, click, done.

It was not.

Our first photos were blurry, badly framed, and weirdly dark. One had a garden hose sticking out of someone's head. The kids were laughing too hard to hold any pose, and I was shouting "hold still!" like a frustrated drill sergeant.

How We Actually Got Better Photos (Step by Step)

You don't need a fancy camera. We used two phones and a free afternoon.

1. Pick a simple theme: Don't try to copy a complicated stunt. We chose "jump shots," where everyone leaps and we capture them mid-air. It's simple, safe on grass, and looks fun.
2. Find good light: Our early photos were dark because we shot under a tree at noon. We moved to open shade near the house, with bright light but no harsh shadows. Early evening is even better.
3. Turn on burst mode: On most phones you can hold the shutter button to fire off a rapid series of shots. For jump photos, this was a game changer. We'd take 30 frames and pick the best two.
4. Get low: Shooting from knee height made jumps look much higher and more dramatic. This one tip improved our photos more than anything else.
5. Clean up the background: Check behind your subject before you shoot. We moved the hose, a trash can, and a laundry rack that kept sneaking into frames.
6. Edit lightly: I use Snapseed and Lightroom Mobile, both free. I bump the brightness a little, add some contrast, and crop. That's it. Heavy filters make everything look fake.
7. Let the kids see the results right away: This kept them excited. Showing the best shot on the screen turned "I'm bored" into "Can we do another one?"

The Mistakes I Made (So You Don't Have To)

We stuck to jumps, simple poses, and balancing shots. If your kids want to learn real gymnastics, a local gym class with a qualified coach is a much better path than a backyard experiment inspired by a video.

• Shooting in the middle of the day: Bright overhead sun creates ugly shadows under eyes and chins. Wait for softer light.
• Overdirecting: I kept telling the kids exactly how to stand, and the photos looked stiff. The best shots came when I said, "Just jump however you want." Real laughter beats a perfect pose.
• Forgetting about the surroundings: We nearly shot a jump photo next to a patio step. Always check the ground before anyone leaps.
• Deleting too early: Some photos that looked bad on the small phone screen turned out great once I opened them on a laptop. Wait before you delete.

Ideas You Can Try With Your Own Family

Here are a few challenges inspired by the style of his videos, all low-risk:

None of these need equipment, and all of them work for ages from about five to adult.

A Quick Note for Parents

If your kids watch a lot of YouTube, a few settings help:

• Use Google Family Link or YouTube's supervised experiences to control what they see.
• Watch a few videos with them first. I found that talking about what they saw ("Do you think that's safe to try?") worked better than just banning things.
• Remind them that videos are edited. What looks easy often took many tries, professional training, or safety equipment off-camera.

I like that this content gets kids moving and creating instead of just scrolling, but it still deserves a bit of supervision, like anything online.

What I Took Away From All This

I started out just watching someone's videos, and I ended up spending a few weekends outside with kids, taking silly photos and laughing at terrible ones.

That's what stuck with me. Jordan Matter's content doesn't just entertain. It makes you want to get up and make something, even if your version has a garden hose in the frame.

So try one challenge this weekend. Keep it simple, keep it safe, and let the kids be goofy. Your first photos might be rough, but by the fifth or sixth, you'll probably find one that makes everyone say, "Wait, that actually looks cool."

That's the moment that makes it worth it.