Damnit, Kid, I Said Smile!

I love my daughters. A lot.

But they're teenagers. Mo is sixteen, Em seventeen, they're in high school. Mo has autism, which I suppose some people would take as a license to not take a social cue like Dad aiming a camera at you and saying, 'Smile!' as a reason to look up and smile. Not me, this was a social skill she used to have, she gave it up of her own free will.

Em is, on the whole, the harder to understand. She's a drama kid, does choir, most of her pursuits require a bit of the ham.

So I show up to Renn Fest with Mo to hear Em singing with the Madrigals and right off the bat we find them. Outside the ticket gate, as luck would have it. I crept up beside the stage to get a shot, but there wasn't much to be had. When they got off stage, I followed Em's track and shot a couple dozen exposures but I could not get that kid to smile.

Here are the best I got.

Speaking of Mo, there's maybe more to it than teenager-ness because while she wasn't having it, her friend threw an arm around Mo and flashed a winning smile. Her friend is roughly the same age, so either my kids are mutants or this other kid wouldn't smile if it was her dad pointing the camera.