Leu Gardens in Orlando is a wonderful place for family photos, especially for inquisitive littles. There’s so much to see!

While I mostly do weddings, once in a while, people find my work photographing kiddos and families and hire me to work with them. I’m so glad this family found me because they were just the most wonderful! These kids were so chill, so great to communicate with, and so beautiful.

Everyone in this family is some kind of neurodivergent and, being ADHD and autistic myself along with my autistic son and daughter with a rare disease, I’m pretty set up to be cool with fellow neuro-spicy individuals! One of the ways this can manifest is evident in a mistake I made where I was too vague about what I wanted to see happening during this session. I adjusted my request and got exactly what I was hoping for.

These relaxed kids is all a testament to their parents—when kids have zero chill, you can guarantee that their parents are neurotic. Sometimes the only way I can pull off the kind of work people hire me for is to ask to have some time alone with the kids. Parents’ energy can make or break a family session so I was grateful that Eric & Jennifer were so very cool and easy to work with.

When it comes to toddlers, you have to go with their flow. They aren’t going to go along with our plans so I always prioritize their mood, their interest, their vibes. Toddlers are defiant little people and can’t be ordered around. An easy trick I use is, if they don’t want to be involved, I’ll start having fun with everyone else. 99% of the time, they’ll get FOMO and come insert themselves without being asked.

For this photo above, I got dad to hold Shira up to look at the flowers. I then whispered to mom to stand behind dad and got the two older kiddos to sneak in and—boom—you have a family photo with a toddler who said “NO!”

We adventured around Leu Gardens for an hour talking, playing, and taking these photos.