Mom Stages Epic T-Rex Photo Shoot for Autistic Son Who Hates Posing for Pictures

If you are a parent of a kid with special needs, you know how amazing those little humans are. They may sometimes require a bit more hands-on work, but they tend to teach you so many important life lessons along the way.

Samantha Bishop, a mom and the photographer behind Raoming Magnolias Photography, knows this to be true. She shared the story of her son, Levi, who has autism and hates taking pictures because he doesn’t like making eye contact or smiling on command. Instead of forcing her son into awkward poses to capture uncomfortable pictures, she decided to use his personality to his advantage. And it resulted in an awesome T-Rex-inspired photo shoot.

“I’ve raised Levi alone, since he was 6 months old. We have faced struggle after struggle. I was 18 when I had him and not prepared for anything life was about to throw at me,” Bishop explains.

Once Levi started school, she began to notice a few red flags.

“He struggled in a classroom, had extreme emotional outbursts and was regressing on a regular basis… I fought for diagnosis, for therapy, for a healthy school setting,” she recounts.

“Eventually psychologists stepped in and got the ball rolling. We tried several different schools, and their answers were always to limit his day. He wasn’t allowed to attend school or activities like other children, and still is very limited by the school system,” Bishop says.

It was a tough pill for Bishop to swallow. “For years I struggled with his diagnosis, I resented it. I prayed for a normal day, a normal life.”

Like most parents, the woman wanted nothing more than to capture precious memories of her son through pictures. But this was never an easy battle to win.

“I fell for the pressure of having an ‘Insta-perfect’ life, and posting adorable photos of my child smiling happily and looking at the camera. It took coaxing, bribery, dancing like a fool and a whole lot of bathroom jokes. It was exhausting,” she admits.

Recently, Bishop hit a low point, and was struggling to juggle both of their lives. And right on cue, her son stepped in and made her do a 180.

“As I was sitting there an emotional wreck, tears flooding my face, he sat down beside me, put his arms around me and told me it was all okay. He told me I was still a good person, a good mother,” she candidly shares.

This marked an important turning point for the mother. “That’s when I realized all he needed was to just be accepted and celebrated for who he is. To say I’m not writing this without sobbing would be a lie,” she says. “I had put so much energy into resenting what the doctors told me, that I never stopped to just love the brilliant, hilarious little human that was in front of me. And so came the need for me to show just how amazing he really is in the only way I knew how. Photography.”

With that, the incredible photo shoot with Levi and his BFF cousin was born.

“This is him in his element. There are no forced smiles, no bribery, no pretend happiness. This is the goofy, hilarious, kindhearted boy I was given,” Bishop proudly states. “Because of his special needs, he has a near photographic memory, he is as blunt as they come, he can build anything and he is hilarious and brilliant. And so I choose to celebrate his ‘labels’ and teach him to use them to his advantage rather than see them as an obstacle.”