People Santa portraits at a special needs school

[Chris Summers]

Every year our photo club does the pictures at a local school for children and adults with special needs as they visit with Santa who is also one of our club members. Our usual member who does the pictures came down with Covid so I volunteered. It really was a fun event, the adults and children have a dance going on in one room with lots of food and then they can come into our room for pictures with Father Christmas. It is so rewarding to see the expressions, most want to give Santa a big hug. Some brought hand written lists, one woman proudly told Santa she typed hers on her computer. Many got out their phones to show Santa their lists. The requests for Christmas ran the gamut from "a real horse" or a "car" to "lots of jewelry" and a lot of Nintendo games. We were there for 2 hours and then headed home, I spent a few hours editing around 200 images we will upload to a site for the families to download.

 

[Bryan Conner]

These are excellent. Most importantly, you did a wonderful thing for these people that they will be extremely proud of and they will cherish their pictures for the rest of their lives. When I lived in the states, I did some volunteer photo shoots similar to this every time I was asked and the satisfaction and overall experience I got from it was priceless.

Doing things like this is what life is all about.

 

[AntonLargiader]

A buddy of mine did a shoot like that yesterday, and it was very well received. Parents loved the pics, the organizers wer thrilled, etc. In a hobby where it's so easy to demand perfection of ourselves, it was really easy to see that perfection was definitely going to be the enemy of the good if he didn't just DO IT. I think his biggest takeaway was that he needs a backdrop and probably two lights (instead of just one) for next year, but that's just he (and I) being way pickier than the parents were.

 

[Tim Mayo]

Wonderful photos Chris and what a lovely way to bring a smile to their faces at Christmas. It sounds like Santa is going to be very busy this year!

 

[Arbarthisti]

What a wonderful gesture, well done Chris.