Every time CaVon Raynor tried to take a photograph, the bee slipped away.

The buzzing insect was the hardest thing the 15-year-old had ever attempted to capture. He kept at it.

He finally got what he wanted: the bee was hanging mid-air, with just a hint of its beating wings.

The image is now part of the Mindframe PhotoVoice exhibition at the Bermuda Society of Arts.

“It was just so exciting to see my photo up on the wall,” said CaVon, a student at Saltus Grammar School. “It just felt so good. I actually have three photos in the exhibition.”

Mindframe PhotoVoice includes work from clients of Child and Adolescent Services, such as CaVon; the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute, the Extended Care Unit and rest homes.

The aim is to highlight the creativity in everyone, regardless of life’s challenges.

CaVon has had some challenges, including having high-functioning autism diagnosed when he was 11.

His mother, Claire-Ann Raynor, suspected there was something different about him.

“He started reading at 2,” she said. “At 18 months he drew a scene from the Lion King movie on his Magna Doodle. He hadn’t seen the movie in months.”

Sketching on paper was a way of life for the toddler. As he grew older he struggled to socialise with other children and did not understand the difference between sarcasm and jokes.

“Every day I learn things about myself and the ways that I think,” CaVon said. “I am still trying to adjust to it.”

Since last year he has also been adjusting to the loss of his father, Carl.

“I thought I had moved past it, but a year later I was still dealing with sudden waves of anguish and anger,” he said.

Art, including music and drawing, helped him to cope.

“They are a release for me,” he said. “I get into a zone when I’m listening to music or drawing.

“I’m just focused on my art and I’m not really thinking about anything else. I don’t really like coming out of the zone very much.”

He started using a camera when he was little. Someone handed him one at a church function and told him to take photos.

“I’d never taken photos with a manual camera but I figured it out pretty quick,” he said. “People were surprised.” He loves night photography and is often outside shooting the moon or the stars.

“The strangest thing I’ve done to get a shot is probably balance on some rocks to take pictures of fish in the ocean at night,” he said.

“You shine a light on the water, the fish come and you take the picture. It was hard balancing on the rocks in the dark though.”

His loves scuba diving and sailing and his dream is to one day have an underwater camera.

“The ocean is my natural environment,” he said. “I am PADI-certified to the junior level and I am working on my advanced certification. If I had an underwater camera, I don’t think I would ever come out of the water.”

This is the ninth year of the Mindframe PhotoVoice exhibit. It features drawings, paintings, creative writing, photography and jewellery by more than 80 people.

Organised by MWI art therapist Reilly Ingham and occupational therapists Akilah Lapsley-Dyer and Moffat Makomo, the show runs until October 20. You can see CaVon’s artwork on Facebook: CaVon Raynor’s Art.