Children can become interested in photography at a very early age.  When on a family vacation and upon seeing parents and other members of their family taking pictures they, as kids usually do, insist on taking photos as well.

Young Photographer

Naturally there can be concerns about letting kids loose with an expensive camera. If you are the proud owner of a digital SLR, you might want to wait until your child is older.

Of course, you can make sure that the camera loop-strap is securely attached to their wrist, that they understand they should not touch the lens, and generally supervise them closely unitl you feel confident they can go off and take pictures on their own.

However, the best thing is to find a cheaper model just for them. For instance, an inexpensive option would be a Sony Cybershot. This is an example of a point-and-shoot affair with automatic focus and a good-sized digital display.  Another alternative would be to get one of those a cheap disposable cameras.

Kids can really exploit one of the advantages that a digital camera has over film. They can take as many photos as they wish and you can always delete the ones you don’t want to keep.

Uninhibited and enthusiastic, they can snap away and produce the kind of candid shots you wouldn’t take otherwise.

The key to making this fun and rewarding is to allow them to explore photography while at the same time providing adequate supervision to ensure that nothing goes awry.

Afterwards, it is always enjoyable to spend some time with them, review the photos they’ve taken, and find out which ones are their favorites and why.