Portrait with autistic child

mikeplow1961

mikeplow1961

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A neighbour has asked me to do some portrait shots of her children. I vaguely know the youngest two and that she has an elder son but didn't know till the other day that he is autistic. I'm not too concerned as she's coming round with them but just wondered of any other TPers had had experience of this and if there's anything I should be aware of to either make sure I do or make sure I don't. I'm probably worrying a bit over nothing but I'd like it to go well for her.
 
when our little had menanjitus sorry if spelt wrong there waa a good chance once he recoved he would be autistic and there is still a chance he is

he puts thing's in a line and keep repeating which is a sign of autism any way our child is no diffrent from the next child and to be honest he is clever considering he has very bad brain damage due to the menanjitus

dont treat the child diffrently be positive as if it was another child that didnt have autism , parents will appreciate that more

there is so much with autism that people dont realise how little can cause a child to be autistic
examplees blow
bad behaiour
short attention span

to the other end where language is a problem

have a read here

dont be scared we wouldnt know any diffrence if we had not been told about it
 
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The word autism is dropping out of use and being replaced with autism spectrum disorder. For a really good reason. Autism runs a range from things you would never notice (most science graduates score highly on tests for autism...) right up to sitting in the corner rocking all day.

I've worked with kids with milder levels of ASD (aspergers and similar) without even knowing. I've also worked with far more challenging children.

Sit back, watch, take your time. See what you can do and what you can get. Also be very aware of your kit - some children simply cannot understand what they can and can't safely do.

Take what you can, don't draw it out too long and spend time interacting rather than just shooting (actually, that's basically how to photograph 2 year olds....).

I remember one child I worked with. It was 15 minutes of hard hard work and not a little fear (for me). In the end I had 2 really IMO poor shots showing his face with a smile. I thought about deleting them. I'm glad I didn't. He was about 5 and his parents had no other shots of him smiling ever. Not even their own.
 
As ALex said, it depends whereabouts on the Autistic spectrum the lad is. The only thing you really need to be aware of is that if he decides he's not interested, all your usual coaxing a child strategies will be completely useless. At this point you're at the mercy of the Mum's handling of the child.

This will vary from her being completely unable to control the situation (and behaving worse than him) to her being completely calm and rational and delivering you a happy kid.
 
one thing i learnt with our lad find something he likes our's love mickey mouse and football

we took a mickey mouse with us to a shoot my wife set up for family portrait i helped the photographer by having little bits ready and knew hwo to deal with my son luckily he had a fotoball so got some of him with the football

jsut find out what the child likes will make it so much easier
 
Thanks guys, this lad is about 12 I think. Bizarre really. we've lived next door to them for several years and I've never even seen him, not even in the garden. His mum has said he also has mild tourettes and ADD so I'll try and keep it brief if he seems uncomfortable or upset.

I'm only just venturing into shooting kids other than my own in recent weeks and have done a range from around 2 to 13 so far and the 13 year old was the most difficult as he was very self conscious and no matter how much I tried to engage with him re his hobbies, likes, etc he had pretty much the same expression in every photo. His mum loved them but I felt they didn't really capture any personality.
 
mikeplow1961 said:
Thanks guys, this lad is about 12 I think. Bizarre really. we've lived next door to them for several years and I've never even seen him, not even in the garden. His mum has said he also has mild tourettes and ADD so I'll try and keep it brief if he seems uncomfortable or upset.

I'm only just venturing into shooting kids other than my own in recent weeks and have done a range from around 2 to 13 so far and the 13 year old was the most difficult as he was very self conscious and no matter how much I tried to engage with him re his hobbies, likes, etc he had pretty much the same expression in every photo. His mum loved them but I felt they didn't really capture any personality.
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I work with children and kids with Austism depending where on the spectrum they are can need alot of planning, e.g some children need to be told there daily plan first thing in the morning and if it changes it can cause alot of distress. If he's high up on the spectrum there's a chance he has a routine he likes and having his photos taken which isn't in his normal routine is most probably told to him a few days before so he knows its coming.

Best bet is to talk to his parents, and you might have to explain everything your doing, to him.

There very bright children

Good luck and let us know how you get on
 
Only thing I can offer is ask about Flash's will the child get upset or will it cause issues.
 
having shot a few children, there are a few things i found helpful. first off some really dont like making eye contact, so if you manage it, be ready to take the image. secondly, they wont behave at all like others have said, they are independent and do what they want to so be prepaired. make sure there isnt anything around that they can hurt themselves on (but this should be with all children anyway!)

most importantly, dont treat them any differently to any other child. So many times i have been told before oh you wont get a picture of him, or he wont smile etc...if the shoot isnt working, tell them to come back another day dont pressure them. its taken three times to get this little fella to look at me, i even got a high 5 as he left, which maybe the highlight of my year so far!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...8704022.-2207520000.1361805070&type=3&theater
 
Mr Bump said:
Only thing I can offer is ask about Flash's will the child get upset or will it cause issues.
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Maybe. Maybe not. I've had children (and particularly children with autism) absolutely fascinated by the flash. Some see it and run screaming from the room. Or maybe that's me.
 
Well, it was an experience. Poor lad found being in a strange house a bit unsettling. His mum had told him that he was coming and that he only had to have as many pics taken as he was happy with. Unfortunately he decided that two was the number he was happy with. I did manage to get half a dozen shots of him but he was clearly not open to having more and wanted to go and sit with his mum. He didn't like looking at the camera but i managed to get four shots of him with eye contact and one of them is quite nice so his mum will at least have one.

After shooting his sister and brother we attempted doing the three of them and the mum but that was pretty much a nightmare. He wasn't at all happy, didn't like his little brother having to sit close to him and it was quickly aborted after ten shots, not one of which had all four making eye contact. The Mum was a bit upset as she really wanted one of the four of them but by that point he wanted out of the house. He did quite well I thought even doing what he did.

I'm hoping I can swap a couple of heads and make her a decent pic of all of them. Fingers crossed.
 
Well done - it is quite a challenge. Having a 13 yr old with ASD ( as well as a hell of a lot of other issues) I can honestly say that I get more pleasure getting a half decent picture of him than anything else. The key I have found is time, patience and inventivness. What also can help is spending a bit of time with the family first without a camera so that they get used to you being around.

As others have said all with ASD are different. In Williams case he is far happier with his headphones on to block out the world, hence I have more photos like this that anything else. At the end of the day though thst William and his personality which to me is what a portrait should capture.



Wills by Don't like to be Bored, on Flickr
 
Having read this thread I think you did a pretty good job. My experience of aspergers is that making eye contact is very hard for the sufferer. Only suggestion is clone out the text stuff on the sweatshirt. It's incomplete and at the edge.
 
Just seen this. VERY nice :)

Watch the retouch on the eyes though..... ;)
 
The photo is of Nick's son, not Mike's image ;)

Great photo Nick

Glad you got through it without too many dramas Mike :thumbs:
 
Late to discussion but very interested as my 3 nephews have ASD all at different points on the spectrum and the eldest has Aspergers too.

My sister asked me to do a family portrait some years ago and it proved a nightmare and followed a similar path each time we tried.

So for the pros and amateurs here a big well done for getting even one or two good or perfect pictures.

I finally got the one picture that had it all - mum dad the kids!!! Took 5 years and the intervention of my son who was a few years older than his eldest cousin.

He would always be fussing them and organising things for them. Never got weary tired or upset with them. Playing football whenver and taking them surfing with boogie boards.

Hcame to me one day and asked to borrow my old olympus compact digital. He did not just start takibg pictures of the kids but on a visit to the New Forest he started taking general pictures of the ponies trees etc. Next was the kids wanted to have ago.

After a year of this the boys individuall had a go and enjoyed seeing the results on both the pc and printed frommy Selphy.

Upshot is they started to ignore me carrying my Pentax MX with my 200mm prime. I chose film as I could limit the number of shots, the MX is a small SLR relatively inconspicuous and so rather than "machine gun" the camera I could sit and shoot candid shots of the boys doing their own thing. I never had the camera everytime we or they visited so it was not an imposition.

So another 18 months on my sister had some interesting pictures of hr boys.

The breakthrough came when my son asked the eldest cousin to take some pictures of him and the youngest brother. Still with the ageing Olympus.

The unexpected happened when al the boys decided they wanted a picture with my son and I was asked to take the picture. With the Olympus only.

My then Canon 300D with the battery grip with the kit lens was too much for them!

Got the shot and they held eye contact for about 3 minutes so got 6 decent shots.

Sis was gobsmacked.

She got the pictures even the "school" photograpker couldn't.

My sonalso finally got the picture with the parents and boys.

I got it with a 400D on a tripod with a family front room sofa shot.

I set the camera and subjects up and posed them. The boys were not engaging nor looking but a brainwave. I pretended that the camera was playing up and called my son to check. Handed him the remote and walked away.

He called tbem all to smile, and in the blink of an eye they all engaged and he went for and got the picture. He got a few more and then the boys had a punch up!

I think that for some the "autistic" label can cause a shift in mindset and it can be difficult for them to undrstand how wide ranging this disability is. With 3 brothers (my nephews) I have witnessed some horrific reactions from people who should kow better but the fact is the title covers so many different resultant behaviours that you could spend an hour remonstrating and still only scratch the surface.

In response to the cooment re the intelligence on those deemed "autistic" I agree. The eldest boy is going to university in the autumn to study brain chemistry and research. He got 3 A level Grade A passes ast year (a year early) and chose to stay on to complete 2 more A levels in Mathematics and English. He still has his emotional issues but is focussedon his studies.

Patience with the autistic is the best way. Having my nephews is special and yes I am now very patient.

You can get that picture eventually but it is their 'gift' not yours!
 
mikeplow1961 said:
Thanks. The mum was thrilled just to have a photo of all of them at last.

Yeah, that's Nick's son, not my shot. Great photo too IMO.

Incidentally, caught you on TV last week Nick. Hope all is still going well for you all.
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Thanks Mike - for once he wanted his picture taken. Yep all is well here thanks.

Really pleased that the mum liked them - makes it all worth while :thumbs:
 
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