Illustration

"To Vaccinate, or NOT?"

The decision whether to vaccinate a child or not, is not an easy decision. Parents are apprehensive to give vaccines to their children, because they don't want to see them hurt. There are a lot of negative literature and comments about vaccines. Everywhere you look, someone is saying something bad about vaccines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend that children be fully vaccinated by the age of two. Once vaccinated, these children will be protected against fourteen different diseases, some of them life threatening especially to infants and small children. This should be a no brainer. If you have the chance to protect your child against fourteen diseases and potentially even death, you should do it.

Child vaccination is a very touchy subject, and a very difficult one to photograph. There is a lot of emotion involved with vaccinating a child. I have worked as a nurse at a pediatric office for almost eighteen years. I have given my fair share of vaccines. It is not an easy task. It is hard to see a child crying, and sometimes a mother. I know the decision is not an easy one, but I've seen both sides. The pain a mother and child have to go through when a child is hospitalized for a disease that could have been prevented is a lot more severe than the pain of getting the vaccine. 

In considering how to approach the composition for my photograph I wanted to make sure that it was obvious that it was in a Dr.'s office. I wanted to make sure that the baby, nurse, and mother could all be seen. Lighting in an office can be somewhat of a challenge. I chose the largest room available and made sure that there was as much light coming in as possible. I used my Canon 50mm Prime Lens. By using this lens I was able to shoot at F1.8, and create a shallow depth of field.

Physical: In planning this photograph, I knew that I wanted to shoot this at a Doctors office. I planned on using a specific room at the office that has extra space at the end of the exam table. This enabled me to position myself to include everything that I wanted to.

Psychological: I wanted to create a feeling of security, showing that everything is going to be okay. I didn't instruct the mom or the nurse in how to react to what was happening. I wanted everything that was happening to be natural.

Social: I have worked as a pediatric nurse for almost 18 years, and prior to that I worked as an EMT-I for an ambulance service for approximately 8 years. I felt that because of my knowledge with vaccines, this would be a great illustration topic. This is a photograph of a 4 month old receiving his vaccinations. At first the mom was a little nervous in allowing me to photograph this situation (which is completely understandable). 

Cultural: The cultural aspect in this photograph is easy to relate to because of the human emotion in touch. I could not have hoped for a more perfect image of the baby reaching up and grabbing the nurses hand. This in its self shows the value of of what is happening here. We also can see the nurse responding to the baby's touch. Although we understand what is happening in this image, there is no tension being created. The mother even though blurred in the background is also responding by holding onto her baby's foot and watching him.

Temporal: I was hoping to create the sense that vaccines are given quick, and the administration only lasts a few seconds. I positioned myself so that I was able to see the watch that the nurse was wearing, in hopes to indicate "time" is important in several different aspects. I was also am hoping to portray that in the end that everything is okay.