Oct
26
2015
Lydia is everything I never knew I wanted! She loves to cuddle with her siblings and absolutely lights up when her brother comes in the room. Her biggest smiles come when you need them the most. Her smiles start in her toes and work all the way up to her gorgeous face. If you are holding her, you can feel her body tighten up starting at her feet and then when it reaches her face, there’s that smile! It’s a full body effort for those smiles.
I wish that people wouldn’t ask about her delays. With Down Syndrome, it’s not a question of “if” there will be a delay, but “how much” of a delay will there be. Every child, typical or not, will experience delays in some areas. You wouldn’t ask a typical child’s mom how delayed they are in certain areas, so why ask about Lydia’s delays?
Yes I breastfed even when the doctors at the hospital told me that Lydia wouldn’t be able to. It took her 9 weeks to learn how, but she DID learn how. Yes, she has a heart condition. There is a very small hole between the top two chambers of her heart, but it is so small that her cardiologist won’t see her back for 2 years. I also really dislike the well child check up questions the nurse asks. I always have to say no to most of the questions. I know that she will hit those milestones that they are asking about, its just a monthly reminder that she’s a little behind her typical peers.
Down Syndrome is not as scary as what you have read in books. You have to remember that your child is a child first! A child with Down Syndrome is still a child and will need the same love that a child without Down Syndrome needs! There will be some challenges, but there will be great rewards at the end of those challenges!
I hate the saying, “God only gives special babies to special parents.” That’s simply not true. If it were, 92% of all prenatally diagnosed cases of Down Syndrome wouldn’t be aborted. What I want people to think when they see Lydia is, “Wow, what a cutie!”
Just love us. Love all of us. Don’t love Lydia more than any of my other kids. Don’t love her any less. Don’t love her because she has Down Syndrome, love her because she is Lydia.
Also, I want people to learn the language. The R word is not welcome and should be erased from vocabularies! She has Down Syndrome, sometimes called Trisomy 21. Those are the two accepted ways to refer to her diagnosis.
I’m a huge advocate of people first language. Lydia is a child with Down Syndrome, she is not a Down’s baby. She is not Downs. My biggest pet peeve is when people say, “She doesn’t look Downs.” My response to that is, “Well, I am holding her up and not down.” She is a baby, and like all babies, they all have different features.
Oct
19
2015I’ve always been more of a storyteller than a photographer.
I remember walking the neighborhood looking for stories with my Kodak Advantix film camera around 13. I took a picture of a chicken. It was walking down a side street in my very urban neighborhood in North Myrtle Beach. There were flood waters everywhere after Hurricane Floyd. There was this chicken out of place and in a giant neighborhood lake.
I had to tell it’s story.
And the kiddos I babysat running around wild in the neighborhood in complete joy.
My sister, my friends, they all became subjects behind my camera. Subjects who shared vulnerability and a story with me.
Even in the years between the high school dream of becoming a photographer. Even in the reality that I had no place in art school, the majoring in outdoor leadership, the tall blond guy I married, and the babies that followed, I couldn’t put my camera down. I told the story of our outdoor leadership class. I photographed my friend’s children’s birthday parties. I cried when within a few weeks of each other, I broke my camera and found out I was pregnant. I squealed delight again when my husband bought my first DSLR and I didn’t even know the journey I would take with that camera.
I never want to just capture a moment. I want to create perspective (Look how tiny!), overwhelm a viewer with emotion, (I can’t believe our baby ever fit in our arms that way), and tell stories with images (We waited so long for this. We love her so much.).
The story of the people I work with is the reason for picking up the lens. To be trusted with a story, even a tiny part of the whole, changes everything. Changes me. Every time. It is history (His-story) being played in wonder right before my very eyes.
This post is the beginning of a larger story that I was chosen to tell.
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A month ago, I met Amanda. She had contacted me regarding a session for her 9 month old. I was just slightly out of the budget she had planned, but I knew I would be doing a set of Baby Mini Sessions in just a bit. I promised to keep Amanda in the loop. She was the first to book.
Amanda marched in my studio reminding me so much of myself a couple years back. She was herding two year old Parker, holding Lydia on her hip, and carrying a little one in a car seat. Her smile showed both exhaustion and excitement.
Two year olds are wild cards on the best day, so I started the session trying to capture some memories with Parker before she got a little too curious. But curiosity wasn’t Parker’s issue (distrust was), so I moved to photographing Lydia very quickly to encourage Parker to see I wasn’t very scary.
Lydia was pretty much a little ham. Gorgeous. Eager. Happy to be dressed and photographed. She was just like every other baby whose story I try to tell.
Yet Lydia’s story included therapy 4 days a week, a mama who dreamed of the best in Lydia so much that she cares for someone else’s baby to help make her dreams for Lydia come true, and the reality of living with an extra chromosome.
Yet this same story was filled with so much love that Lydia vibrates with joy as she smiles.
I knew that with the onset of ultrasound and genetic testing many babies with Down Syndrome like Lydia are often aborted. Amanda and Lydia’s story began opening my eyes to the bigger story that needed to be shared.
There is always more joy than you could imagine holding a child with Down Syndrome than having empty arms.
Amanda made a way for me to document more of these stories and helped me to share them with you. For the rest of October, I’ll be telling these stories with my limited perspective and my 35mm lens.
Oct
07
2015I will never forget this Greenville SC Newborn Photography Session. Local friend and photographer Amy Bowman of Portraits by Amy Lynn and I did a model call to work on a few of our newborn poses. Plus it’s just fun to hang out with a colleague!
Jeanette responded to our need for models with precious chunky baby boy Stellan. I was helping Amy learn parent posing and standing on a ladder shooting down to show my favorite angle. Amy was shooting away at my side and Jeanette just started dying of laughter!
We asked her what was going on and she said “I feel like a movie star with all these cameras in my face!” Her laugh makes her look like a movie star!
Stellan was so deliciously chunky that he had this sweet eye ridge chub wrinkle (what do you even call this?!). I loved it! He was so sleepy and perfect as Amy helped me fine tune this sweet little pose.
Stellan and Jeanette, thank you so much for being willing to help Amy and I grow and perfect our craft. Your laughter and your willingness helped us to grow so much!
Interested in booking your own newborn session to capture sweet memories and feel like a movie star? Start the process by contacting me here.
Sep
29
2015
Meet Baby Cora who came to my studio for natural newborn baby girl pictures in Greenville SC.
Cora was nearly a month old. This is a little older that I typically photograph newborns (7-15 days), but even so we captured some really beautiful imagery. If your baby is already past the usual age range for newborns, contact me anyhow. If I can squeeze you in my shooting schedule, we can still try for beautiful newborn style images up to about 6 weeks of age.
Because Cora was older, she had definite opinions about posing. Of course she loved being in her parents hands most so we spent some time with mom and dad while waiting for her to fall asleep.
All babies let me know when a position is uncomfortable for them. I always back off when they make their preferences clear. What Cora liked most was to be on her back. So for most of the session we kept her nice and cozy on her back.
She did let me do my favorite tummy pose. I get this pose with 98% of babies under 6 weeks who come into the studio if I am patient enough (a pacifier helps immensely with the “older” newborn).
Interested in having your family photographed with your new baby? Contact me in your second trimester as my calendar often books very fast!
Sep
23
2015I wanted to create something really special for my Heirloom Session clients.
This beautiful walnut memory box filled to the brim with goodies makes my heart sing.
I hope you’ll adore it too.
