When Samantha Girard sees something she likes, she does something not every six-year-old does.

She takes a picture of it.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" said Donna Girard, Samantha's grandmother, as she pointed at pictures of lush green landscapes. "They don't look like something a little kid her age would take."

Samantha, who will enter first grade at Minot Forest in September, loves art, and says she would like to be an artist when she grows up.

Photography "is like art," Samantha explained, and "I like to do art."

Samantha knows all types of tricks that enhance the portfolio of any budding photographer.

She gets down on the ground to get the better angle. She turns her camera in different directions to compose the shot.

"So help me, I do not know how the child does it," said Girard.

Samantha has come a long way since the Fisher Price camera she owned as a "young" child of three years old.

She started playing with her grandmother's Panasonic Lumix when she was four. Her mother noticed her interest and gave five-year-old Samantha a digital point-and-shoot for Christmas.

Now Samantha takes the camera with her on outings with family. Sometimes she is just bringing it along. Other times, her grandmother takes her on photo shoots at the Lyman Reserve in Wareham and other photogenic spots.

"Nobody says to her, 'Take a picture of this!' She just decides what she wants to take a picture of," Girard said.

Samantha submitted pictures of the Lyman Reserve to the Barnstable County Fair in July.

The five- to seven-year-old "Clover Bud" division was non-competitive, so her yellow and green ribbons acknowledge a job well done, not first or second place.

As far as Samantha is concerned, however, she's winning awards at the age of six.

"She thinks she's won because she got a ribbon," said Girard.

Samantha's artistic side goes beyond just pictures, however. She also loves to draw. She wants to learn to sew, but is using her junior weaving loom for the time being. One of her creations, a pot and pan holder, now hangs on the wall of her great-grandmother's house in Florida.

Samantha also has an intellectual bent. She likes 300 piece puzzles, said Girard. While in preschool, she was known to complete her brother Nathan's homework. Nathan is a year older than Samantha.

Still, Samantha isn't all number 2 pencils and photo shoots. She likes to play sports and absolutely adores Justin Beiber, Girard said.

Samantha's photos now hang in a frame on the walls of her parents' house. When she turns eight years old, said Girard, she will be able to compete in the Barnstable County Fair to win monetary prizes of $15 to $50.

And it looks like the young Samantha is up to the competition. When Girard asks her granddaughter if she would like to enter her photos in a competition, she says, "Yeah, Nana, let's."