Cool Thing #1 for 2009; help my favourite charity

I am so excited to announce Cool Stuff #1 for 2009!! I will be participating in the National Charity Model Search to select “North America’s Cutest Kid” and to raise funds for charity.

We’re looking for cute children ages 18 months to 14 years old to model for a portrait that will then be entered into the contest.

Models Search Special:
$100 entrance fee, which includes up to a 60 minute model session and one image submitted to the competition. As a thanks for participating, I am also waiving my minimum purchase for these sessions. FYI, all shoots must occur in 2009, so I can't use any of last year's cuties!

Finalists will be determined by online votes. Anyone may vote. Each vote is $1 (US), and all proceeds from votes benefit the non-profit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, an organization which I am not only a member of, but for which I serve as one of Vancouver's Area Coordinators. To learn more about NILMDTS you can find their website at www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org.

Grand prize national winner will be determined from the 50 city finalists. Vancouver is participating in the Seattle finals. Winners selected by photography and modeling industry experts.

If your child is selected the national winner, you’ll receive many prizes, including a Canon PowerShot G10 digital camera. How cool is that? And boy, do I know some cute kids who could seriously be America’s Cutest, from right here in Vancouver! Super cool prizes here!

If you’re interested in entering your child(ren), please email the studio at info@janephoto.ca. Please let all your friends know, too. Shooting has to finish up by March 15. For more information about the contest, go online to www.sandypucmodels.com.

I wanted--once again--to bring everyone's attention to the organization I vounteer for, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. This US organization supplies volunteer photographers to families experiencing an infant death, and has been featured in the Vancouver Sun and Macleans magazine this fall. I have written a brief article for Urban Baby and Toddler, a BC publication, for their winter issue. As well, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep will be profiled on Newsworld TV the evening of Dec 8.

I want everyone to speak of this wonderful organization, if you could, with one friend, and ask that your friend do the same with one of their friends. There are so very many BC parents experiencing infant loss, and I long for the day when each and every one of them will know about, and utilize if they wish, NILMDTS services. Professional photographers, volunteer all, provide sensitive in-hospital sessions and then provide a CD of images free of charge. As always, folks can find out more at: www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org.

I shot three new babies for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep this week, and one maternity for this lovely woman featured below, T, and her sweet loving husband, M. They lost their son, Jos, last Thursday, and I know they miss him more than words can ever express.

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.

Sweet, sweet baby

I have been meaning to introduce folks to little Christa, who was born with a medical condition incompatible with life in mid-March. She was a wee little peanut, about a pound or so, and so lovely and dear. I was fortunate to be able to memorialize her through the organization I volunteer with, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.

Though I am incredibly saddened by the babies who are losing their lives, the parents surprise and move me too. They are so stalwart, so brave, and I am always incredibly humbled by how they face their ordeals. It is an honour to be with them at so poignant a moment, and I hope that the photographs we create together comfort them in the hard days ahead.

I never realized, until I began to work with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, just how many of our local families endure the loss of a baby.

To all of them, I send a wish for peace and healing.

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.

In the Early Whispering Hours

In the early hours of Christmas night, when snow fell softly across the city, Angel was born to her loving, longing and brave mama. Although the studio is closed for the holidays, I felt it was important to be there with Angel's mother as Angel joined and left their family.

I made photographs of beautiful little Angel for the organization Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, a non-profit foundation dedicated to creating infant bereavement photography. I was honoured to be with Angel's family at this difficult time in their lives. Angel was so wanted, and well loved, and will be sorely missed.

I have taken the following text from the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep website, where the sentiments are expressed more eloquently than I could possibly tender them:

Pregnancy and birth are miraculous journeys. This amazing time of life is full of mystery, anticipation, joy, hope, and wonder. Feeling the powerful energy of birth and new life, watching as a new family is born unto each other. These things humble and amaze. These are the things that we celebrate when a baby is born.


But there is another aspect of pregnancy and birth. There is an unexpected place in this journey where some families may find themselves. When a baby dies, a world is turned upside down. There is confusion, sadness, fear, and uncertainty that cannot be explained. There is sorrow where there should have been joy. During this time, it might be impossible for families to know what they might need in order to heal in the future.

This is the place where the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation gently provides a helping hand and a healing heart. For families overcome by grief and pain, the idea of photographing their baby may not immediately occur to them. Offering gentle and beautiful photography services in a compassionate and sensitive manner is the heart of this organization. The soft, gentle heirloom photographs of these beautiful babies are an important part of the healing process. They allow families to honor and cherish their babies, and share the spirits of their lives.

A sad time for M and J

A couple I'll call M and J contacted me recently through the auspices of Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, for whom I shoot remembrance photography, in hopes that I'd be able to photography their newborn when he sallies forth into the world sometime in the next month. Little N has been diagnosed with the chromosomal abnormality Trisomy 13. I quote from the website livingwithtrisomy13.org:

Also called Trisomy 13 Syndrome, having a third (extra) number 13 chromosome, occurs about 1 in 5,000 live births. Trisomy 13 children have multiple abnormalities. Some include heart defects, brain defects, cleft lip, cleft palate. The most severe are visual abnormalities, omphalocele, proboscis and holoprosencephaly. Because of the many abnormalities, we believe all of these children are survivors if they reach their mothers arms. They are true miracles of life. Many only survive outside their mothers womb a few short minutes, hours or days. While others can go home and survive months. Sadly, many of the children with Trisomy13 (Patau Syndrome) do not reach their first birthday.

At 29 weeks along, M and J know they are having a son. They have an older boy, D, who is just the sweetest little guy ever. When they visited my studio on a frigid evening recently for a few maternity photographs, even though it was bedtime little D managed to be nothing but engaging for the whole hour and a half. Quite an accomplishment, I'd say, and I'm so pleased he's able to be involved with his tiny brother's life. Even if he's too young to remember all this, he'll have these photographs.

All during the session, M was feeling, and seeing big strong kicks. Little N is definitely a fighter.

I wish M and J days of peace ahead. I am honoured to be in their lives.

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.

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

Started by co-founders Sandy "Sam" Puck and Cheryl Haggard, the US non-profit organization Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep provides photography for infant bereavement sessions. We photographers volunteer our services in order that parents might remember their new little sweethearts through fine art photography long into the future.

If you know of families needing the services of a NILMDTS photographer, or of a hospital where you'd like to see the program start up, please pass along the web site link, where local photographers are listed, or if the need is for someone in Burnaby or Vancouver, have them leave a message for me at 604-435-9581.

From the NILMDTS website:

"Pregnancy and Birth is a miraculous journey. This amazing time of life is full of mystery, anticipation, joy, hope, and wonder. Feeling the powerful energy of birth and new life, watching as a new family is born unto each other. These things humble and amaze. These are the things that we celebrate when a baby is born

But there is another aspect of pregnancy and birth. There is an unexpected place in this journey where some families may find themselves. When a baby dies, a world is turned upside down. There is confusion, sadness, fear, and uncertainty that cannot be explained. There is sorrow where there should have been joy. During this time, it might be impossible for families to know what they might need in order to heal in the future.

This is the place where NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP gently provides a helping hand and a healing heart. NOW offers a vital service to our community. For families overcome by grief and pain, the idea of photographing their baby may not immediately occur to them. Offering gentle and beautiful photography in a compassionate and sensitive manner is the heart of this organization. The soft, gentle heirloom photographs of these beautiful babies are an important part of the healing process. They allow families to honor and cherish their babies, and share the spirits of their lives."