Kids Love Buttons
December 7, 2009 § 3 Comments
One of the most fun and challenging parts of my new job is photographing infants. I used to only work with cancer, and few children, so shooting toddlers with less serious conditions is a very positive experience. Even though the kids themselves are not always that positive (photo credit).
We take photos of all the kids that go through surgery for craniosynostosis, a condition where one or several of the sutures in an infant’s skull fuses too early. This restricts the growth of the brain in that direction, forcing it to expand in other directions, resulting in an abnormal skull shape.
They fix this by surgically separating the fused sutures or reshaping the skull. This often requires several operations, and the kids are photographed at each step to document the progress. This is, however, often the last stop after a long day of tests and by the time they reach our studio, they’re usually very tired. So it becomes our task to make them last a few more minutes.
Two kids popped in today. The first was pretty straightforward. His mom swiveled an office chair while I snapped the pictures – head front, left and right profile.
The other little fellow was a bit more challenging. He was whining and refused to sit on his mother’s lap, trying to slide down all the time. After a few useless photos I asked him if he was tired and bored. “No,” his mother said. “I think he just wants to run around and push all the buttons.” And true, the studio is full of all sorts of gadgets with buttons. “No wonder,” I said. “Pushing these buttons is the most fun thing I know too!”.
I put down my camera and started rummaging through a cupboard in the corner. I found what I was looking for, and handed the little boy a broken Broncolor FCM-2 light meter (photo credit). He looked up at me with big eyes and stayed silent and calm for the entire session. The photos I got were text-book material.
The Broncolor FCM-2 or "Pacifier 5000", as I like to call it.
The Sterile Eye 
That’s the universal secret of how to suceed in bringing kids into public spaces — find something that catches their minds. They’ll be happy, you’ll be happy, people around you will be happy. Pure win-win-win.
[…] The Sterile Eye has the button, and he uses it as a “Child Distraction Device” to get the perfect photograph. I wonder how you code that for […]
[…] day, and all I could think of when I saw the Red Queen with her larger than normal head was those kids with craniosynostosis.” (photo […]