Picture Perfect #autism

If you have a child with special needs or a Sensory Processing Disorder, then you probably know how hard it can be to have posed portraits taken of them.

While I love my DSLR and capturing candid shots of Jackson at play, I’ll admit that occasionally it’s nice to have slightly more formal photos of him as well. You know, just to mix things up.

But it isn’t an easy thing to get him to sit for portraits. Not at all. Jackson is constantly moving…and while he is totally used to me being the Mamarazzi and sticking a camera in his face every 5 seconds, the game totally changes when you add a stranger into the mix.

Despite all this, I recently took J into a local photo studio (I had a Groupon, yay!) and hoped for the best.

His photo session was in the evening and by the time we arrived to the studio J was already a bit fussy. I admit, I almost thought about just giving up and going home…I didn’t want to upset J and it seemed like he just wasn’t in the mood.

The studio already knew Jackson was special needs (I let  them know when I booked the appointment) and the sweet photographer assured me upon our arrival that he was prepared to do whatever he needed to do to ensure we got a few great shots.

I felt encouraged by this and so for that one hour session the photographer (I’m a little sad I didn’t get his name now) and I jumped around, broke a sweat, and wore ourselves plum out making silly faces to try and get Jackson to smile.

And it was SO. VERY. WORTH. IT.

A picture really is worth a thousand words. And I know I’ll cherish these forever.

I cannot say enough for how patient and kind and fun our photographer was to Jackson in order to get  these shots.

I’ll also say that I’m really beginning to appreciate the importance of patience and understanding with Jackson. He teaches me more about why it’s worth it to take things slow… almost every day.

Gosh, I’m just so smitten with this kid! *heart swells*