Megan Drane of Firefly Nights Photography is here to tell us about a particularly special photography specialty. Her work with photographing children with special needs has been featured on Chicago’s ABC News,autismpodcast.org, has been published with Celebrate Differences, and will be published in the international magazine, Autism File. Thank you, Megan, for the priceless work you do and for sharing your thoughts and beautiful images here!
1) Tell us about yourself and your journey as a photographer.
After the birth of my first child, five and a half years ago, I found myself taking a million pictures and quickly being disappointed with the images of my point and shoot. I dug out my old film Pentax and had to dig out the memories of photography classes taken…a long time ago. I joined some online photography forums and learned a lot, including PhotoShop. But almost three years ago, my best friend asked me to take pictures of her newborn. That was the very first time I took a picture for someone else, and that started everything. She sent the pictures to all of her friends, who then started calling me, and I was slowly pushed into photography as a business. It was not until last year that I decided to focus on photography as a career choice and put everything I have into making my business a success.
Last fall I started focusing on special needs children, though I still photograph all babies and young children, but I was recognized by Chicago’s ABC news for my special needs work. That then led to being asked to be the photographer for a special needs calendar, and things continue to progress, with an image being published in an international magazine in October.
I am still growing and learning, which is one of the reasons I love this industry. With art, there is always more to learn, always more to try. And by photographing only babies and young children, there is always the element of surprise and the unknown, as you can’t fully predict anything with a toddler.
2) How did you discover your passion for photographing children with special needs?
In March of 2009, my son was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, a high functioning form of Autism. We had always considered him “smart and quirky”, but now we understood why his eyes darted everywhere but at us when we talked to him, much less tried to get him to look at the camera with any semblance of a normal expression. With autism, you get thrown into the world of sensory processing disorders, as well. My personal life was separate from my professional one at first as I drowned in the information and diagnosis. A few months after the diagnosis, I was photographing a client, and we were chatting about our children since they were about the same age. When I mentioned his recent diagnosis, she commented that her sister’s son was autistic and that they had not been able to get a family picture taken since he was a baby.
I had not considered integrating my personal experience with my professional until it dawned on me that I do offer something unique. I do not have a studio, instead traveling to my clients’ homes or on location. This, alone, is a big relief for many parents with special needs children. Being able to keep them in a familiar environment and providing as little disruption to their routines as possible allows for the greatest chance of success.
Word spread quickly, and I worked at it, to be known as Chicago’s special needs photographer, covering mental, physical, and behavioral disabilities.
3) What are some of the joys that come with photographing children with special needs?
Probably the best thing is being able to give parents something they have never had – custom pictures of quality that shows their child as THEY see them, with natural smiles and expressions. As parents, we see our children’s joy and gorgeous smile and mischievous eyes, but photographs don’t always show the world what we see. Being able to show the world those intimate expressions is a wonderful thing. I also love feeling their relief at the end of the session. Most of these families have not had good experiences in the past. Photographers were not patient with their children, rushed them, judged them, and didn’t know how to work with them, so that is the expectation, the fear that they have. I love seeing the gratitude in the parents faces for being patient with their child. And from the kids, my goal is always to leave them thinking the session was fun, so that they want to do it again.
Specifically with autism, the BEST thing I can ever give is the rare full eye contact with the child engaged with the camera. It is a difficult thing to accomplish, but priceless for those families.
Another thing that parents have come back and said to me is that they love seeing the positive comments on my blog about their children. In a community of photographers, we know the importance of blogs in terms of SEO and whatnot, but leaving nice comments on photographers’ work is also a little ego boost for the parents, too. Hearing that their daughter is beautiful when she has a disorder that makes the beauty harder to see is a gift to the heart.
4) What are some of the potential challenges that could arise? What tips do you have?
For those who photograph subjects with special needs who do not have personal experience, the biggest challenge and main thing I would like to point out is that you must be patient, and you must be flexible. I recently had a photographer comment about lighting on a picture, and I sort of laughed. If you are someone who relies completely on your set up, on needing a subject to look this direction and stay still, then don’t bother with special needs children. Pass them on to someone who can work with them. A lot of these children are more difficult to direct than the average child, and if you push too much, it is easy to hit a wall with them or get them angry. This means a lot of improvisation on my part. I have to do a lot of moving with them.
Another major and obvious challenge with autistic subjects is eye contact and engagement. My number one tip to photographers is to know what the child is really interested in. Have the parents have something handy – if the child is really into Thomas the Train, I place the train on top of my lens. Eye contact is easier to achieve if you aren’t trying to get the child to look directly at you or the camera. Place something on the lens (skittles, smarties, lens pet, toy).
Another common challenge that is easy to overlook and ruin any trust between you and the child is when there are sensory issues. If you know you are going to be photographing a special needs child, you need to ask if there are any sensory issues, which to the outsider would present as behavioral issues in response to stimuli that we do not understand. You need to know if you can touch a child, if the sound of the shutter is going to be too loud, etc.
5) What specific resources would you recommend?
In the categories of cognitive, physical, and behavioral disabilities, the hardest to work with are behavioral issues (which stem from a multitude of reasons). Understanding sensory processing disorders is probably the key point for an outsider, as it is foreign to most people. If you want to take the time to educate yourself, I highly recommend the book The Out of Sync Child. Heck, Google “sensory processing disorder” and just learn about how the input gets misinterpreted and then pushed out as a behavior.
The best training would be to spend time with special needs children. If you have a friend with one, spend some time talking with your friend and interacting with the child just to learn and see first hand what it is like. If there is a special needs photographer in your area, contact them, see if you can shadow a session. I’m thinking of offering workshops just for this purpose, to give training in the three areas of disabilities with live models to show how to work with them, and how no matter how much you know, the unexpected will happen. LOL
6) What else would you like our readers to know?
Photographing special needs children isn’t for everyone, just like wedding photography isn’t for anyone. I don’t have the lenses needed, nor the experience to do a good job with a wedding. If you aren’t extremely patient and flexible in your approach with sessions, then don’t bother with special needs photography. Parents have enough experiences with people who judge or just show their displeasure with their children, photography doesn’t need to be another one. If you don’t have the personal experience, seek training or research to help give you the experience you need to put these families at ease and give them the quality of work you do with your other sessions.
All parents should be able to get beautiful portraits of their children.
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