Naperville Senior Photographer, Chicago Autism Photographer

This should be titled “The Session that Almost Wasn’t”.  LOL  This Naperville senior is a handsome, funny, and all around awesome guy.  He also has Autism.  When I talked with his mother about the session, we agreed on a wooded area and to hope he was in a good mood that day.  He tends to get tired and not as agreeable in the late day, so she pulled him out of school after lunch, so we could have our session on a beautiful day.  When they arrived, they were staying by the car for awhile, so I walked over.  He was refusing to get out of the car because he was mad that he was going to miss his very favorite thing – Anime Club.  I leaned over and asked what his favorite movie was.  “Don’t ask me any questions!” he replied.  So I turned to his mom who gave me the “what do we do?” look, and I started talking about any Anime movie I could think of to her, so he could at least overhear me.  Eventually, his mom convinced him that if he allowed me to take some pictures, she would call his teacher, etc.  He instantly got out of the car, but he did NOT want me asking him anything or really talking to him.  He wanted me to just take the pictures so he could leave. LOL  I explained that I could go really fast if he was able to do what I say and give me good smiles.

“You mean like this?” he asked.  And he gave me a killer smile.  “Yes, just like that!”  And so we cruised.  He did exactly what I said and allowed me to physically get him into position, as that seems to always be more difficult for people on the Autism spectrum. I couldn’t get over his great fake smile.  He still didn’t want me really talking to him, though.

 

 

You would never know that he was uncomfortable and wanting me to simply hurry up, would you?

 

 

 

 

 

I always love working with children who have Autism spectrum disorders.  They are very near and dear to my heart.  I’m so glad we were able to have such a great session together.  And at the very end, when I told him he was all done, I said, “You STILL haven’t told me your favorite movie!”  And he laughed loud and hard that I still wanted to know.  🙂