My name is Fiona Lumsdaine.
I?m a passionate fine art portrait, wedding, corporate and event photographer living in Sydney Australia. You can find me at www.lumsdainephotography.com.
I?m also the NSW representative for Heartfelt.
This article is not for everyone. There is great emotion and devastating loss. You will be introduced to a family in their darkest moments. You will meet their stillborn baby boy.
If you can bear it, please read this article. Please talk about Heartfelt (and Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep in countries other than Australia) so that we don?t continue to hear ?Oh how I wish I had known that you existed!?.
It?s an important topic.
And, if you are a professional photographer, please think about whether you?ve got what it takes to be a volunteer Heartfelt or NILMDTS photographer. If you are in Australia and think that you would like to join the Heartfelt team of compassionate and skilled photographers, please apply on our website, www.heartfelt.org.au.
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The email comes through? ?There is a session at XXXX Hospital for a still born baby boy. I spoke to his father today and they would like the session in the next day or so and he is expecting a call from the photographer that can help them out.?
The next day I?m on my way to the hospital. My Think Tank is prepped (as a Heartfelt photographer, you always have your batteries fully charged and CF cards formatted and read to go) and I?m telling myself that I?m good to go.
I arrive on the ward and am directed to the Mum?s room. I knock on the door and wait to be invited in.
This is possibly the most difficult moment that we experience as Heartfelt photographers. We are walking into the most intimate and harrowing moments of a strangers? life. We don?t know them, and they don?t know us. We don?t know how they are coping with their grief. We usually don?t know any details at all about their baby or child.. other than their medical situation or prognosis.
Some parents greet us with relief and gratitude. Others are barely aware that we?re there. Some are desperate to talk to us? a person outside the system but there to support and help them. And others are terrified to speak at all, lest they break down and can?t find a way to hold it together.
I?m invited into the room and introduce myself to Mum, Dad and their 5 year old daughter. We?re all waiting for their baby boy to be brought into the room from the mortuary.
I get my gear ready? the room is big enough for me to use my 85mm f/1.4, and so I pop it onto my D3S and put my 35mm f/2 on to my D700. I have my 50 f/1.4 ready to swap out with my 85mm. I would use my 24-70mm but it?s back-focusing a tad and I can?t risk missing a single frame. There is no do-over.
The daughter is shy. She doesn?t like having her photograph taken and Mum is worried that she won?t be able to have a photograph of her two children together. I kneel by the daughter and ask her to look through my viewfinder. I ask her what she sees. I show her how to press the shutter, and we spend a minute or so together as she takes photographs of me.
Mum touches my shoulder and mouths ?thank you?. She sits by her daughter, and I capture them laughing together.. hugging each other.
Dad is lying on the bed. Barely talking.
Mum asks me why I?m a Heartfelt photographer and I tell her that I know what it is to experience loss. In those few words, we establish a trust. She knows that I understand, and I know that she knows that I understand.
I ask her if there are any specific photographs that she would like taken, and she explains that there are a few family traditions that she?d like to uphold. And that other than that she would simply like a record of their precious time with their baby boy.
Baby is brought into the room and I begin shooting in earnest. My primary role is to record this moment in this family?s history. To provide the only photographs that they will ever have of their time with their first born son. To prove that he did exist. To keep his memory alive and with them in a tangible way.
Mum is howling. Dad is silent. Daughter is hiding in a corner painting with a family friend.
Tears are streaming down my cheeks, but I hardly notice them as I move around following the light and the emotion.
I realise that I?m short of breath. I have almost stopped breathing, as if in respect for the depth of emotion in front of me. I struggle to slow my breathing back to normal.
Daughter eagerly and gently helps her parents bathe her brother. She sits with him on the bed and kisses his forehead. She watches her Mum and Dad holding each other and leans into them and places her hands on their arms.
Immediate family come and go, and I shoot them all. I ask Mum if she?d like me to leave them alone for a while, but she tells me that she doesn?t want me to miss a single moment, and so I stay.
After what seems like 15 minutes, but is really an hour and a half, I tell them that I will leave them alone with their precious boy, and pack my gear up.
We hug. We cry. I explain the Heartfelt process and make my goodbyes.
This is the next hardest part of being a Heartfelt photographer. I make my way into the corridor and gulp back my tears. I try to regulate my breathing and tell myself that I can cry once I?ve made it to my car.
And when I have made it to my car, I let it all out. The unjustice. The grief. The cruelty. The heartache. It comes POURING out of me? loudly. And then I call my state rep and debrief as I drive home.
Home, to my healthy and alive children.
*Mum wrote and sent an amazing letter to the President of Heartfelt, Gavin Blue, after our session. She has given her permission for me to share it here with you. She has also written a very profound and moving blog post describing her experience of having a Heartfelt photographer turn up in her most devastating moment. That can be found here
We offer complimentary individual or family portrait sessions for families who meet the Heartfelt criteria. Families who have suffered a still birth (over 22 weeks gestation), have a critically ill premature baby (under 28 weeks), families with ill infants in NICU, as well as babies and children with serious and terminal illnesses are able to access Heartfelt services.
Participating photographers will come to your hospital or your home at a time convenient to you, and will help capture cherished photographic memories. After your session, a photographer will provide your family with a full set of prints (approximately 20 however some circumstances may not permit a variety of images). The photographer will also supply a disc of high resolution images for the family. There will be no charge for this service or for those prints.
If you would like to discuss this further, enquire about joining Heartfelt, or know anyone who is in need of our services, please contact your Heartfelt State Rep on 1800 583 768 (Australian Number).
For more information, please visit the following sites:
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Using Photography to Make a Heartfelt Difference
I?m a passionate fine art portrait, wedding, corporate and event photographer living in Sydney Australia. You can find me at www.lumsdainephotography.com.
I?m also the NSW representative for Heartfelt.
I?m going to share with you a story of one of my Heartfelt sessions.
This article is not for everyone. There is great emotion and devastating loss. You will be introduced to a family in their darkest moments. You will meet their stillborn baby boy.
If you can bear it, please read this article. Please talk about Heartfelt (and Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep in countries other than Australia) so that we don?t continue to hear ?Oh how I wish I had known that you existed!?.
It?s an important topic.
And, if you are a professional photographer, please think about whether you?ve got what it takes to be a volunteer Heartfelt or NILMDTS photographer. If you are in Australia and think that you would like to join the Heartfelt team of compassionate and skilled photographers, please apply on our website, www.heartfelt.org.au.
———–
The email comes through? ?There is a session at XXXX Hospital for a still born baby boy. I spoke to his father today and they would like the session in the next day or so and he is expecting a call from the photographer that can help them out.?
The next day I?m on my way to the hospital. My Think Tank is prepped (as a Heartfelt photographer, you always have your batteries fully charged and CF cards formatted and read to go) and I?m telling myself that I?m good to go.
I arrive on the ward and am directed to the Mum?s room. I knock on the door and wait to be invited in.
This is possibly the most difficult moment that we experience as Heartfelt photographers. We are walking into the most intimate and harrowing moments of a strangers? life. We don?t know them, and they don?t know us. We don?t know how they are coping with their grief. We usually don?t know any details at all about their baby or child.. other than their medical situation or prognosis.
Some parents greet us with relief and gratitude. Others are barely aware that we?re there. Some are desperate to talk to us? a person outside the system but there to support and help them. And others are terrified to speak at all, lest they break down and can?t find a way to hold it together.
I?m invited into the room and introduce myself to Mum, Dad and their 5 year old daughter. We?re all waiting for their baby boy to be brought into the room from the mortuary.
I get my gear ready? the room is big enough for me to use my 85mm f/1.4, and so I pop it onto my D3S and put my 35mm f/2 on to my D700. I have my 50 f/1.4 ready to swap out with my 85mm. I would use my 24-70mm but it?s back-focusing a tad and I can?t risk missing a single frame. There is no do-over.
The daughter is shy. She doesn?t like having her photograph taken and Mum is worried that she won?t be able to have a photograph of her two children together. I kneel by the daughter and ask her to look through my viewfinder. I ask her what she sees. I show her how to press the shutter, and we spend a minute or so together as she takes photographs of me.
Mum touches my shoulder and mouths ?thank you?. She sits by her daughter, and I capture them laughing together.. hugging each other.
Dad is lying on the bed. Barely talking.
Mum asks me why I?m a Heartfelt photographer and I tell her that I know what it is to experience loss. In those few words, we establish a trust. She knows that I understand, and I know that she knows that I understand.
I ask her if there are any specific photographs that she would like taken, and she explains that there are a few family traditions that she?d like to uphold. And that other than that she would simply like a record of their precious time with their baby boy.
Baby is brought into the room and I begin shooting in earnest. My primary role is to record this moment in this family?s history. To provide the only photographs that they will ever have of their time with their first born son. To prove that he did exist. To keep his memory alive and with them in a tangible way.
Mum is howling. Dad is silent. Daughter is hiding in a corner painting with a family friend.
Tears are streaming down my cheeks, but I hardly notice them as I move around following the light and the emotion.
I realise that I?m short of breath. I have almost stopped breathing, as if in respect for the depth of emotion in front of me. I struggle to slow my breathing back to normal.
Daughter eagerly and gently helps her parents bathe her brother. She sits with him on the bed and kisses his forehead. She watches her Mum and Dad holding each other and leans into them and places her hands on their arms.
Immediate family come and go, and I shoot them all. I ask Mum if she?d like me to leave them alone for a while, but she tells me that she doesn?t want me to miss a single moment, and so I stay.
After what seems like 15 minutes, but is really an hour and a half, I tell them that I will leave them alone with their precious boy, and pack my gear up.
We hug. We cry. I explain the Heartfelt process and make my goodbyes.
This is the next hardest part of being a Heartfelt photographer. I make my way into the corridor and gulp back my tears. I try to regulate my breathing and tell myself that I can cry once I?ve made it to my car.
And when I have made it to my car, I let it all out. The unjustice. The grief. The cruelty. The heartache. It comes POURING out of me? loudly. And then I call my state rep and debrief as I drive home.
Home, to my healthy and alive children.
*Mum wrote and sent an amazing letter to the President of Heartfelt, Gavin Blue, after our session. She has given her permission for me to share it here with you. She has also written a very profound and moving blog post describing her experience of having a Heartfelt photographer turn up in her most devastating moment. That can be found here
If you know of any family who would benefit from our services, please do not hesitate to call us on 1800 583 768 (Australian Number). State reps and individual photographers are also listed on our website. We understand that time is crucial in some cases, which is why we are able to take your call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We offer complimentary individual or family portrait sessions for families who meet the Heartfelt criteria. Families who have suffered a still birth (over 22 weeks gestation), have a critically ill premature baby (under 28 weeks), families with ill infants in NICU, as well as babies and children with serious and terminal illnesses are able to access Heartfelt services.
Participating photographers will come to your hospital or your home at a time convenient to you, and will help capture cherished photographic memories. After your session, a photographer will provide your family with a full set of prints (approximately 20 however some circumstances may not permit a variety of images). The photographer will also supply a disc of high resolution images for the family. There will be no charge for this service or for those prints.
If you would like to discuss this further, enquire about joining Heartfelt, or know anyone who is in need of our services, please contact your Heartfelt State Rep on 1800 583 768 (Australian Number).
For more information, please visit the following sites:
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Using Photography to Make a Heartfelt Difference
