Julia’s Blogfest

In late April I photographed a beautiful 17 year old named Allison from outside of Baltimore, MD on behalf of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  Last fall a local photographer sent out an email to a group of us asking if anyone wanted to volunteer for this project.  I offered up my services and was contacted by Make A Wish to discuss the request and needs of Allison’s WISH.  Her “wish”  is to go on a Hollywood audition  as she is very involved in her school’s theatre group and as such, needed a portfolio for casting agents.  Her audition is still TBD but should happen sometime this summer or fall.   The good news is Allison’s diagnosis is not life-threatening but it’s very rare called Swyer Syndrome which was accompanied by cancer.  She lost all her hair last fall following chemo but it’s growing back….and curly!  Apparently, it wasn’t before!  In thinking thru what was needed, I asked another photographer for a local make-up artist that could help us make Allison look great in front of the lens.  I was put in touch with Kevan Palmer of MakeUpByKevan who did an amazing job bringing out Allison’s gorgeous eyes and perfect skin.  Thank you Kevan!  I really appreciate you donating your time and talent!

Allison was giggling most of the session.

and the 3 of us!  such a fun day.

I want to thank everyone who came in for and contributed to my Headshot Session promotion a couple weeks ago.  I have tallied up the total and I was able to raise $500!!!  I am thrilled!  I specifically selected Food for the Poor’s Haiti Relief efforts.   Donations will be used to rebuild homes and schools!

I say this all the time but I AM GRATEFUL.   Grateful for a good, balanced, healthy life and 2 precious boys….a loving husband, amazing mother and great family.  Everyday when I go to sleep I pray that I will continue to be blessed by these gifts because without them, I am not happy and without happiness, I aspire to be nothing.  As in Corinthians I, ” and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” Corinthians 13

One of the most difficult portrait/NILMDTS sessions I did was in January.  The Lum family’s 4th child passed after turning 1 having suffered heart problems from birth.  While NILMDTS does not normally photograph children  (instead, focusing our services on families of newborns who have not had an opportunity to have professional photos done) I accepted this challenge and am so glad I was with them on that day in January for some of the most profound 90 minutes of my life to date.  Many of you know me as a very “feeling” person — there is no emotion that I don’t really know.  And while these sessions are heartbreaking beyond description I try to understand the deeper meaning they bring forth and how it affects me/us on this plane of existence.  How boring would it be go thru life feeling static and fixed?  The high moments are super high and the lows, incredibly low for me and the in-between equally meaningful in their own way.  Meeting the Lum’s has and will forever change me.  I saw in them something that transcends this earth.  I felt so helpless there as they cradled their baby girl after being taken off life support.  How can a parent lose a child and continue on?  I don’t get it and hope I never do.  They have no choice.  I am learning thru my NILMDTS families just how precious our lives are.  Seize the moment.

I subscribe to their www.carepages.com site to follow how they’re doing.  Today Samantha’s mom posted a very healing tribute to their daughter and I had to share this.  I was moved to tears and I’m sorry if this is hard to read but we MUST reflect.  It’s called namesinthesand.blogspot.com — started by 2 parents in Perth, Australia who lost their little boy in 2007 and started that less than a year ago.  The mom felt called to acknowledge other families who have lost by writing the names of those children in sand on a beautiful beach near where she lives – click here to read about it – you must it’s an amazing story.  Here’s the first few lines…

To Write Their Names In The Sand” began in the early hours of August 19th 2008. In her sleep on that cold winter’s morning, Carly dreamed of her son Christian for the first time since he was born sound asleep on January 26th 2007.

Carly dreamed that she was walking along the beach when up ahead of her she saw three children playing together. They were laughing and really enjoying their time under the sun. When she got closer to them they ran away up into the sand dunes. When Carly reached the point where the children were playing she saw that they had written their names in the sand. The children’s names were Noah, Bella and Christian. Carly had dreamed of her son. Even though she did not realize it was him until he was gone she felt overwhelmed with love. Christian was there, he was healthy, whole and happy playing on Heaven’s beach with his two little friends that left this Earth only a short time before he did. …..

Families can request to have their child’s name written in the sand, a photograph will be taken and then sent to the family.  Samantha’s name was written in sand as one of the more recent children that has moved on.  It’s so beautiful.

With permission, here is one of my photos of the Lum’s with Samantha.  Her breathing was labored at this point and she passed the next morning.  It was an honor for me to be with them having NEVER met them before this day.  How lucky I am.   I also want to thank my friend Amy Fazackerley who donated this blanket with her name embroidered — her business is The Monogrammed Monkey.  I asked her the night before to do this.  This is not part of our services and I don’t know what called me to do this but I think the unusual circumstance prompted me.

God Bless Samantha and her family.  Thank you to the Lum’s for allowing me to be there that day, trusting me and my camera to help mark this difficult milestone in your lives.

This week has been great b/c I have received a couple nice moments of recognition.  The first one is from Weddingwire.com where I have a listing (along with MANY other wedding photographers and vendors).  It’s a great rating-based system whereby previous clients can rate one’s work and comment on it as well.  I love this feature and it’s worked well for me.  Here is the press release and I want to sincerely thank my brides who took the time to write something as it makes a HUGE difference.  And I hope those of you I will be working with in 2009, will remember to do this.

In its inaugural year, the Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and honors vendors from the WeddingWire Network that demonstrate excellent quality of service, responsiveness, professionalism, value of cost and flexibility. This year’s recipients represent the top 3% of WeddingWire’s vendor community, which includes over 100,000 wedding vendors from across the US. That means Julia MacInnis Photography is one of the very best wedding photographers.

Unlike other awards in which winners are selected by the company, the Bride’s Choice Awards are determined exclusively by recent newlyweds through surveys and reviews.

“We are excited to launch this annual award program to honor high-performing vendors based solely on the experiences of our WeddingWire community,” according to Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “This year’s recipients have set the bar high, exhibiting excellent service and expertise in the wedding industry.”

FInally, most of you know about my involvement with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.  My charity of choice.  As a volunteer photographer and area coordinator, I photograph many stillborn infants for families who have lost.  I also work to recruit new volunteer photographers, talk “up” the charity, present at hospitals about our services, call key staff people to remind them to use us, train photographers how we do what we do, and I also serve on the charity’s Membership Application Committee reviewing new applicants weekly.  I am ever more convicted about the service we provide and I sware that every volutneer I connect with is an AMAZING photographer and human being.  I feel blessed to have this gig and feel tremendously fulfilled by it.  On Sunday morning, my husband woke me up at 7am and threw his laptop into my face which showed a page on the chairty’s website that had my photo under “Volunteer of the Month”.  I was trying hard to pry my eyes open (for one, I have a clincal problem called DRY EYE so I literally could NOT open them!)  to see this HUGE photo of my face with title.  I was blown away.  He was so proud of himself for being ‘in’ on it.  They select one volunteer each month out of, what’s up to, 7,000 photographers worldwide.  Talk about humbling.  So that was really gratifying and just cool b/c while I do NOT do this work for the recognition, it’s certainly nice to know others are watching.

Click here to see the little write-up (*blushing*)

Finally, speaking of the charity, this week Newsweek Magazine published an article on the charity.  My co-area coordinator, Marirosa Anderson, was featured in this article.  Please take a look.

I love this idea!  I heard about this months ago but had forgotten about it until I heard a promo on the Today Show last week.  So many people have all the material things they need and we sometimes struggle with finding the right gift for them.  We all know money is NEVER wasted on charity.  This time of the year I love giving to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital “thanks and giving” campaign.  But I also just purchased a gift card for Jackson’s piano teacher from sixdegrees.org.  Here you can purchase an electronic or actual gift card (in any amount) and let the recipient donate to more than 1 million charities online (including Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep!) and this way you BOTH make a difference.  How brilliant is this concept?!  Moreover, if there is a crisis relief underway — i.e. the Earthquake in China, Hurricane Katrina, etc, one can also designate their dollars that way.  There is an added $5 charge for processing so that the amount you are giving is 100% donated.

In addition, you can create a profile for yourself with a listing of your favorites.

Happy giving!!