the session doesn't start when you show up it starts the moment a family reaches out and this is where most of us lose them without ever knowing it happened a booking form that asks any special needs we should know about in the same breath as do you have a parking preference tells a parent everything they need to know about whether you actually get it or whether they're about to explain their kid like a liability waiver I stopped asking for a diagnosis a long time ago I don't need one and asking for one is exactly the clinical distance that keeps this audience bracing before they've even said yes what I ask instead is what does your kid need to feel okay in a new place, is there anything hard for them, is there a stim I might see that I should just let happen without reacting to it you're not collecting a file you're building the first ounce of trust and for a parent who's spent years being handed a list of what their kid can't do a photographer who asks what their kid needs instead is already rare enough to remember what's on your intake form right now, and be honest, would it make a bracing parent exhale or brace harder

if you're reading this you probably already know the session I'm talking about, the kid who wouldn't look at the lens, the meltdown that ate the whole timeline, the parent apologizing the whole drive home for a kid who never did anything wrong to begin with I built this because I lived it from the other side first, sixteen years as a mom to a neurodivergent kid before I ever picked up a camera, so when I say I already get it I am not being generous with the phrase the full guide is live in the classroom right now, what to ask before a session even starts, what to actually do when it falls apart instead of pushing through it, real scenarios you will actually run into, a toolkit of what to carry and when, how to talk to a parent so they exhale instead of brace it is seven dollars while this group is brand new because I want it in as many hands as possible before anything else changes so say hi below, tell me the session that sent you looking for something like this, I read every comment and whatever it is I probably already get it this is the start of something I have wanted to build for a long time and I am glad you are here for the beginning of it