Proud to be a member of this Organization...

A few months ago I was watching the evening news when they had a story about a Non-Profit organization based in Colorado named: N.I.L.M.D.T.S. which stands for: Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. The Mission of the organization is to introduce bereavement photography to parents suffering the loss of a baby and to help them in their healing journey. NILMDTS also educates other professional photographers to supply this valuable service to families facing the untimely death of a child.

The Goal of the organization is to provide parents experiencing an early infant loss with the gift of portraiture and DVD recordings. To create sensitive images that will last a lifetime, rather than memories that will fade over time. We believe the beautiful images of their precious babies serve as an important step in the healing process.

At a family's request, myself or another NILMDTS-affiliated photographer will come to your hospital or Hospice location and conduct a sensitive portrait session. The parents will then be provided with an archival DVD or CD that can be used to print portraits of their cherished baby. The organization is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and there are no fees for this service.

Being a father of two myself, I cannot even fathom the loss of a child at birth or otherwise. I do have relatives and friends who have faced this difficult loss prior to the inception of the organization. I have only recently become an affiliate photographer and Coordinator for my area, and thus have yet to be called for a session. I truly do not know how I am going to handle the situation because I know it will be extremely difficult but I promise to approach it as I do with all of my portrait sessions and create the very best images that I can. This organization is growing at a huge rate and the goal is to be able to provide this service throughout the country and at every hospital. I am truly proud to be a member and have another opportunity to "give back" for all of my own blessings.

What my kids have been up to...

I promised everyone that I would not only add client images to my blog, but also pictures of my children, wife and at times even myself. Yikes!! The old adage is definitely true in that the kids grow up so fast and right before your eyes, so for all of you who are contemplating having professional portraits done of your children and/or family, I have to say: schedule it now. Be it with me or another photographer. Obviously I would prefer you schedule it with me, but just get it done. You don't want to look back at this time in your child's life and say "I wish I had done some professional portraits". The sessions are fun and relaxed and the kids get to run around, goof off and get tired which makes for a nice long nap and break for you after the session! Here are a couple of images from a session at Kennesaw Mountain.

Then of course as I like to do, we went home and did a session with studio lighting. And just because my kids have a professional photographer for a parent doesn't mean that they are totally comfortable with or used to having their pictures taken. They do really seem to get excited to have their portraits done, yet as parents know, excitement generally means misbehaving. But we always have fun and in the end it is totally worth it. I hope everyone agrees.

Been real tardy...

Hi folks, I'm finally back to bloggin' and PROMISE to stay on top of this and keep it up to date. Its been a hectic two months since I last wrote. I'll add some portraits that are long overdue and as I said continually update the blog with more pictures on a regular basis. I'll start with a few images from a wonderful client who's lovely daughter celebrated her first birthday not too long ago. We did a brief indoor session and then went to a local park before she ran out of gas. Turns out she (Sophia) had been running a fever, but you would never know it by the pictures or by her attitude which was constantly upbeat. Her Mom had asked for a rich, classic blackbackground so that we could do some fine art black and white portraits and we really captured her incredible personality.

Although she cried when her mom was wanting to change outfits, this is one of my favorite images because it is real. In wanting to always remember the different traits and emotions of my own children (which you will see shortly), I know that they are not always happy, so...


At the park she was soooo good. She had just recently started walking, but you would have never known it as she was doing really great and doing everything I and her fantastic parents asked of her. And again, she was doing all of this with a fever and some pretty toasty temperatures!