Evangeline Grace

On the subject of Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep and parents who will be having a rough time this Thanksgiving, I wanted so much to share these images captured just last week of tiny, adorable Evangeline Grace for her grieving parents, S and R. She arrived much, much too early, at 20 weeks, suffering from Trisomy 18. There is so, so much love evident in these photographs. Her sorrowing parents just sent me this email:

I meant to e-mail you and let you know that we received the dvd. The photos are absolutely beautiful! It was such a relief to receive them because the photos we took with our own camera in the hospital are very dark and it is very difficult to make out Evangeline in them. When we saw the photos you took it brought such relief to me that I will be able to see her forever now. The NILMDTS organization and you are such a godsend. I don't think most people realize how important it is to capture these special "angel babies' on film for the parents to be able to look upon them and spend special moments thinking about their babies. We are forever grateful to you and the NILMDTS organization for making our situation just a little bit easier. My husband I are were commenting earlier how it takes a really special and caring person to do what you do and to be so kind with a warm heart and warm words; we can never thank you enough. You are a true inspiration. ...We would love to share with others the photos of Evangeline.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,

S and R

Please, as always, feel free to leave a comment below about this or any other blog entry.

Before Canada's Thanksgiving holiday arrives this coming weekend, I wanted (again) to mention the great organization Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. Jane Photo has volunteered for them for about two and a half years, and it has been my honour to be with many families as they go through an early infant loss. There are several Vancouver area photographers--and we can always use more as the service gets more and more known in our area. I am one of Vancouver's Area Coordinators, along with Gael Noel from Noel Photography; we organize things for the area, and help to arrange photographers for families.

A few weeks ago, Mary Frances Hill, a reporter for the Vancouver Sun, approached us to write an article, and it appeared on the front page. What wonderful coverage. They featured a little tyke I photographed for the organization earlier this year whose name was Noah Neufeld. Though his prognosis was dire, Noah was born alive and quite alert, as you can see from the featured photographs here. We were all pretty happy and celebratory that evening in the hospital, then saddened when Noah died 28 days later.

I know for a fact that this incredible family has helped Noah touch many, many more families as they have told their story again and again.

As families celebrate Thanksgiving this weekend, please take an extra second to give thanks for your kiddos, and to remember the families who have lost theirs this year. Our thoughts and hearts are with them.

You can find NILMDTS at .

The Vancouver Sun story, without its photos, appears at

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

This is little Noah Neufeld who was born in February of this year, and lived for 28 days.


The photographers who volunteer for the organization Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep are always gratified with press coverage. I know it's our dream that no family losing a baby will have to go without professional photographs of their little guy or gal, and media coverage really expands the number of families who know of our services. We always hope that someone may remember seeing something about us that will help at just the right moment.

Two of the families I photographed for this year--and who have suffered impossible losses with dignity and strength--were kind enough to share their stories with Tom MacMillan writing for Victoria's Times Colonist. Please feel free to register at the paper and read the story. Several of my photos appear--even one attributed to one of my colleagues.

http://digital.timescolonist.com/epaper/viewer.aspx The article appears on page 25 of today's paper.

Welcome, welcome Noah Jonathan!

Noah's parents waited a very long time to welcome him into the world. Noah was diagnosed with a condition called Trisomy 13 way back in early October. His folks weren't sure whether his mom would be able to maintain her pregnancy, or not, or whether, in fact, they'd be able to meet little Noah when he arrived. His mom had quite a bit of false labour over the last week or so, and then on Friday she decided it was getting a little worse, and she called her husband to come home from work. They raced to the hospital to discover she was already 8 cm dilated, and little Noah popped out a couple quick hours later. Although his mom hadn't gone quite to term, he was still a hefty 6 lbs 8 oz. Everyone was over the moon to meet such a thriving baby boy, and thrilled that he's so well word has it the family is able to go home with Noah today.

The grannies and grampas were at the hospital to say hello and fall heads over heels in love with their new grandchild.

It was an honour and a true pleasure to be with Noah Jonathan as he said hello to this new world, and I'm so pleased to have been able to capture his sweet first moments.

If you want to see more, there is a slideshow on my portrait site on the page called NILMDTS. I photographed Noah for this great organization, based in Colorado. Please do let people know about them. For those in need, we volunteer photographers are all around the lower Mainland, and in fact dotted through all of Canada, and you can find a list of us on their site at

I also photographed Noah's mom's maternity, so if you're keen to see a few snaps from that shoot, scroll down to December 2007.

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

Early last week, I photographed a sad and poignant session for the important organization where I volunteer. I know I've mentioned Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep on the blog before, but I think it's worth mentioning again, especially because the word about us has not spread very widely in these parts.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep provides local volunteer photographers who will come to the hospital to do infant bereavement photography for families who are losing, or have lost, their babies. Most photographers offer not only the shoot gratis, but a slideshow set to music on DVD and a second DVD of high-resolution images. Last week I photographed a baby born early to a wonderfully warm and brave couple. Above is one of the beautiful photographs commemorating their young son.