Shy kid and senior portraits?

I just started doing photography professionally and today I had a consult with a 17 year old boy that is having senior pictures taken this Saturday. He was painfully shy. His mother had to answer most of his questions for him, and she says she won't be able to come with him to the session. How do I get him to open up around me so his nervousness doesn't come across in his photos?

i think you should talk to him and make him feel as comfortable as possible. take it slowly with him.

yikes....this makes your job so much harder doesn't it! I just had this some experience with a couple i did maternity pics with. I would try to just say some funny things to get his "real" smile to come out.

Every time I would say "smile guys, come on! :-)" they would put on this fake smile. Later on during the shoot, when the husband would say something kinda funny like, "okay, are we almost done yet?" the wife would have a genuine, real smile and i would CLICK away! That smile was so much better than the fake smile they were giving me on most the shots.

I would say take as little pics in the beginning as you can and try to save most of them for the end of the shoot when he is more comfortable.

That being said though, since he is so shy, I am sure everyone how knows him, knows he is very shy, so having pictures portraying this "shyness" wouldn't be out of context since that is the "real" him. On the other hand, I am sure those same people would probably love to see him laughing and having fun, like they get to as well, but if that isn't possible, I am sure they would be happy with the shy pics took, since as you said, he is shy, and that is how they have always known him. :-)

Good luck!

Being "painfully shy" is actually an anxiety disorder. (with this little information I can only suspect selective mutism...see selectivemutism.org for some education on this disorder) Perhaps without his mother he will be a bit more relaxed, if not work to relax him. Give praise, make jokes and let him know it is not necessary for him to respond verbally to you by saying something like "there's no need for you to answer me, I'll just talk a lot." Once the burden of having to speak to you is gone and some praise is given for what he does or how he looks, he just might open up with some expressions.