St John’s Maternity Photographer

Pregnancy and childbirth is a beautiful, miraculous time for a family. It is filled with excitement and anticipation. It is a time of celebration.

But there are times where things do not go exactly as expected and a newborn won’t be coming home from the hospital. For families overcome by grief and pain, the idea of photographing their baby may not immediately occur to them. That’s where NILMDTS offers their support.

The Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep mission statement is to introduce remembrance photography to parents suffering the loss of an infant with the gift of professional portraiture. The foundation, in cooperation with the health care team, connects the bereaved family with a local professional photographer. Once contacted, a photographer visits the family at the hospital or hospice, and conducts a personal private portrait session. The images are then retouched, and gifted to the family in the form of digital files, which can be shared amongst extended family and friends, and produced into prints.

While taken in the saddest of circumstances, these images will become a part of the healing process. The child was here. They were beautiful. And they were loved. The child has changed the lives of their family, although they may not have been here long. They have left a legacy, and will be part of their family’s history forever.

This remembrance photography is done purely on a volunteer basis. Over 12,000 photographers in over 40 countries donate their talents and their time at no cost to the family. I am extremely proud to have been accepted into this network of affiliated photographers, and will be providing this very worthwhile service as the only volunteer in the Newfoundland region.

There is no doubt in my mind that this will be an unspeakably difficult thing to do. But I am also very conscious of the fact that these will likely be the most powerful images I ever create. The significance of these images is not lost on me. While I am not looking forward to receiving that first phone call, I am honoured to have an ability to help a family in their darkest hour.

NBC’s Today Show featured a segment a few years ago, that followed a family and their photographer through this very difficult journey. It is heartbreaking, but incredibly touching.

NILMDTS does take charitable donations to assist with their mission. Donations provide the organization the ability to ensure public awareness of the service, training and education of its volunteer photographers, a wonderful office staff that answers the phones all day and are a support line for those volunteer photographers when they need any sort of information and assistance, and also provides possibly the largest supportive community for grieving parents through discussion forums on their website.

For more information, you can visit NILMDTS by following:
http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/

Crystal is originally from Newfoundland, but was brought to Calgary by her fiancee Rick. Here, she met Carmen. Sharing a love of children, they became the best of friends while working together in a daycare center.
Crystal has now moved back to St John’s, but they are still inseparable. Although there have been visits between them, it’s completely clear to me that it’s not enough for either of them.With the right employment opportunity, Carmen expressed that she would love to move here, both because of the beauty that is Newfoundland, but also so she could be closer to her best friend.

Crystal and Rick are expecting their first child in August. Carmen decided to do something sweet, personal, and perfect for her.

I could have printed out something quick and easy. Heck, Staples carries little booklets of  ’Gift Certificates,’ that you just fill out with a regular old ballpoint.
This friendship, and this new-mother-to-be, deserved something much more personal.
So I (and John when I got frustrated and teary when it wasn’t turning out the way I wanted!) crafted this over a few hours on Sunday evening.

(I actually stuck my fingers together while gluing on the flags. Totally worth EVERY effort!)

I can’t imagine a more perfect gift for a new mother. A baby can only wear so many clothes, play with so many toys. But they don’t stay babies very long. Infants grow so quickly. Having beautiful images to reflect on later are priceless. Carmen knows how fast children grow, so she started searching for maternity and baby photographers in Newfoundland. I am so honoured she chose me.

John is too wonderful to me – he helped me with the printer settings, with the glue, with the string, and with the address stickers sticking. (Dear Scrapbookers, you have my utmost respect!) He is so crafty. I can set things up to look incredible in an image – but for the life of me, I can’t cut, glue, tape, or fold. But he could see how important this was for me, and knew exactly how to interpret what I was saying, and brought it to life! I am thrilled and so proud of how the gift certificate came out.

When it’s redeemed, I’ll simply write on the back of it, and then Crystal can keep it for a special memento if she’d like. It’s perfect.

What a beautiful surprise this will be. I only wish I could see Crystal’s face when she opens the envelope.
I know this is only one small memory from the long and solid friendship you both share, but I am so touched to be a part of it.

Rick, Crystal, I can’t wait to meet you both, and your new baby boy, in August!

xoxo!

Jennifer

A blog post is way overdue! We’ve been so busy with weddings – we were double booked for all of August, and what a way to end the summer! Every minute of it was incredible!

There are many wedding posts to come, but for now, here’s a quick BabyBump session that I did with the lovely Rebecca and Craig! What a beautiful day we had to work with for our sunset session.

Even so, the sun wasn’t glowing as much as Becca was!

If you saw last weeks post, you saw only some of the beautiful shots from the wedding of Mark and Tina from July 2010, posted in celebration of their first anniversary!

If you thought the bride glowed that day, you may want to turn down the brightness of your computer screen!

9 months after their wedding day, the happy newlyweds invited me back to their home to shoot some BabyBump pictures! These are only a small few of the awesome images we came back with!

Last Sunday I was invited to a baby shower for beautiful Mommy-to-be Connie, who is simply glowing.

I had so much fun – so many tiny baby clothes – so much pink!

Baby Jillian Erica isn’t due for another month, but there’s so much love waiting for her!