A simple Portrait of a child, but a Portrait with a challenging story
Photographing Children with Autism
Unfortunately, this is a story very close to my heart. One of our children suffers from Aspergers Syndrome, a condition on the Autistic Spectrum, so when a phone call came in from this particular anxious mother I could very easily put myself in her shoes.
This lady had been brought one of our Gift Vouchers, to enjoy a photoshoot of her family. But out of concern as to how her son would cope due to his Autism, and with fear of being embarrassed if he didn’t behave she wanted to called in to discuss it first. I reassured her of my personal experience with our son, along with other children we have photographed, and explained that I totally understood that it may be a difficult shoot but that she certainly shouldn’t feel embarrassed if it didn’t go well.
On the day of the shoot it didn’t go well, as you can see below. Infact being completely honest it didn’t really even start. We had taken a few shots, but the sound of the lights flashing – not the light itself but the sound of it flashing (they make a little pop sound) was really scaring him, as you can see in the pictures of him clutching his ears, I stopped straight away but as mum feared he went into his own little melt down. He calmed a little but latched onto one of our bar stools at our make up bar, again when mum moved him off the stool his melt down rapidly brought the shoot to a crashing halt. Continue reading “A small victory against Autism” »
