With soft light, low sun and a rich colour palette to play with, autumn is a great time of year to introduce your kids to photography – guest blogger Joe Bond offers advice on how to go about it. 

Keith Levit, The Canadian Press, Press Association Images

Birds sing. Fish swim. Kids play… right? That’s why photography is a great activity for kids. It’s playful because it’s experimental by nature – you can learn an awful lot just by trying different things. Whether shooting from upon high, or crouching down in the long grass – entrusting kids with options and getting them to think about what interests them makes photography fun, and quite grown-up.

While you can now buy durable digital cameras specifically designed for kids, with robust rubber shells and bright coloured buttons, they tend to sacrifice on photo quality and are only about ten or twenty pounds on average cheaper than a compact digital camera. There’s no reason to keep your camera out of reach of your kids if they’re being supervised, although you might want to attach the cheaper lens to your SLR camera if you’ve got one.

What’s great about digital cameras is that you can hold your child’s attention by attaching the device to your regular or internet TV screen and look at the pictures together. Having such instant feedback is great for learning photography skills super quick – and carrying on the experiment.

Alternatively, you could always buy a cheap disposable camera for them to start with. Remember them? You don’t have to worry if they break, and there’s still all the excitement of getting the roll developed. With a limited amount of photos, they demand a little more thought as to what goes into each one.

When it comes to what to shoot, there’s plenty of fun to be had playing with perspective and shadows. These are concepts which are familiar to adults but can be new discoveries for children. Cutting out a frame from some cardboard can encourage your youngsters to think about photos before they take them, and to experiment with different angles and types of composition.

Photography is a great activity to get them out and about: for once the digital revolution doesn’t have to be about sitting inside staring at a TV screen, but can involve a walk in the park or a trip further afield. Then when you’re back home, you can pick your favourite photos and add borders and effects to them with free online tools such as PhotoFactory and Picknik – letting them get hands-on with your PC, Mac or iPad 2 and in the process learning even more creative technological skills.

What happens when you give your camera to the little ones?

This post is sponsored by www.johnlewis.com, which sells a wide range of digital cameras.