Capturing photos of our kids

It's the end of the school year.  The obligatory school photograph has been ordered.  But honestly our kids never look great in them.  The staging of photos is not something that works well with either of our autistic boys and as they are growing I'm aware that if we are going to record their history in photographic evidence, we can't rely on posed shots at school or necessarily on holiday either.

Like so many things, our autistic kids need something that works around them.  When we are out on holiday we find that we are either looking out for them or that they don't really fancy the idea of waiting while we take photos.

Some of our best shots of them are 'on the hoof' when we manage to grab a photo in a time of quiet. I'd be lost without Chatbooks!  This basically means photos actually get printed so we can look at them.  The proliferation of photos and storage means I've got files all over the place and this at least means I get to see some of them!

But on flicking through the Chatbooks I often notice I'm missing.  I'm taking the photos.  So we've tried to also organise a photographer to capture our family too.  When they were very young we went for a few photo shoots at studios and discovered that these didn't really work.  The place was unfamiliar and the brights lights distracting.  David would often hide behind the back ground screens instead of sitting in front.

We found the best thing was to look for a photographer who could work around us.  We looked for a local photographer online.  There's plenty places to look; websites, facebook or Bidvine can help find local family portrait photographers and compare their ratings too.  We found Claire through an online recommendation.  Claire was local to us, seemed to be relaxed, and interested in helping us work around the family's needs.

Claire came to our home and met the family before simply joining us on a walk in our local park - where our family frequents.

This gave our kids a few minutes to adjust and understand that Claire was coming with us.  It made a huge difference to have the shoot run on our terms.  I've got some beautiful shots of the family that I can not only Chatbook, but put on the wall as well.

Our family may be a little different, but I want to capture every moment too.  And like so many things, it's just about working around what we need and... boom... there's a gorgeous photo.   Thanks to Claire Ansell for allowing us to share the beautiful shots of our family included here.

How do you manage to keep up with photos of the family?

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Claire took photos of our family last year in Bushy Park.  We paid for her services but are so delighted with the result we are happy to include her shots and link to her Facebook page above.  A little change in her working made a huge difference to us.  Thank you.