Author Archives: Melody

The Everyday Portrait ~ Photographing Children [with Special Needs]

Today’s guest post is by the lovely and passionately inspiring Tracey Clark, photographer, writer, mom and founder of Shutter Sisters. When Melody asked me to share a few tips for photographing children I couldn’t refuse. I love to share thoughts, ideas and lots and lots of photos. Although taking great pix of our children is…

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Photographing Children [with Special Needs] ~ Those Eyes

We are drawn to one another’s eyes, and this is never more evident than when we look into a child’s bright and shiny eyes. We fall into those eyes. When photographing children [people] it is most often the eyes we seek because the emotion they depict is pure. In close-up portrait photography we are forgiving…

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Photographing Children [with Special Needs] ~ Just Keep Clicking, Clicking

How do you expect to get that perfect shot if you don’t click, click and click some more? Any [honest] professional photographer will tell you that in order to get that one perfect shot, she snaps hundreds of photos. Really. And that on occasion she walks away from a shoot without capturing the image she…

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Photographing Children ~ Seeing Light

Look at light and admire its beauty. Close your eyes, and then look again: what you saw is no longer there; and what you will see later is not yet. ~~Leonardo da Vinci Do you often look at photos and feel the emotion, the energy, the mood? You ask yourself…how do they do that? How…

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Photographing Children [with Special Needs] ~ Preface

Our column, Photographing Children [with special needs], is suppose to begin May 26. Let’s call this post the preface. Do you remember that as a child playing was your life? In the mind of a child nothing is more important than play and having fun. Remember that. It will serve you well when photographing children…

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Photographing Children [with Special Needs]

You are a parent with an adorable kid [kids] and a digital camera in your hands. You are capturing every waking, and often sleeping, moment possible…yet the images captured are not exactly as envisioned at the moment of click. If you are the parent of a child [children] with special needs, you understand there are…

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Because We All Need One

Raise your hand if you are a parent of multiple children each with multiple special needs for which there are no medications, therapies, treatments or surgeries to control the bazillion issues pushing the entire family closer to the edge… …because I’m feeling whiny…like a complete flop…utterly exhausted… …and alone. Whether you are a parent of…

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Blind Photographers

Think you can’t take good photos? Stop your whining…you have absolutely no excuse. Blind Photographers is a blog and photo archive of work by…yes…photographers who have visual challenges, including complete blindness. The BlindSighted Project allows members of Blind Photographers to explore challenges related to our eyesight, challenges that affect our image-making process. This project is…

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Request Permission to Abandon Ship

Although he lives with Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, Mac is very verbal…actually eloquent in speech. However, he rarely verbalizes his thoughts and prefers drawing pictures to empty his mind. It is easy to see his mind at work as he sits and stares out a window, deep thoughts traversing his extremely bright mind…but I’m not often…

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A Shadow the Length of a Lifetime

“Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime.” ~Herbert Ward My younger three sons were blessed gifts of adoption. They were abused as infants and their special needs are a lifetime shadow. I was an abused child. Please, don’t turn away from reading. Child abuse is a topic of utmost importance with each…

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