Bay Area Photographer: December In My Corner of the World
I hope these past 12 months have been fun for you getting to know me and my family a little bit more.
December for us is about the holidays. When I grew up, we didn’t celebrate Christmas. Living in a communist country, in a family and friends that didn’t embrace religion, for us it was about celebrating New Years. There was still a jolly Santa figure (although his name was loosely translated as Grandpa Frost) that delivered gifts to the wee bits of the land. In our family today, although we still aren’t practicing in any religion, we do celebrate Christmas.
I’ve been on a mission NOT to lie to my kids about Santa Claus. I can go on about this for awhile actually, but I’ll spare you. I’ve told them the real story of St. Nicholas, but in trying to be sensitive to all the other pre-school kids that do believe, I tell our boys that people dress up like Santa, and gift, to celebrate his spirit. And you know what? Our kids don’t buy it. After ALL the talk of Santa at school, my story gets a big fat “Yeah, whatever! Can his reindeer really fly?” follow-ups. I’m not embracing this, but without a desire to crush their little spirits, I kinda let it go. At least in a few years, when the Santa myth wears off, I can claim I had to doing in misleading them 🙂
Ok, fine. Maybe I mislead them a little. My friend M had a Santa and Cookies party and we went. G couldn’t talk to the guy, but stood by him (and photo bombed a bunch of other family pictures), just to be close by.
Our Christmas day was quiet, and private, and perfect. My dad visited, and it was great to have him. I hope your celebrations were just as fun.
Happy Holidays everyone!
With the year coming to a close, this has been my last entry into my monthly Blog Circle project with Clickin Moms. Continue this circle of photographer friends by visiting my New York friend, Mikki Skinner. See my past circle entries, too and stroll down memory lane of the past twelve months now 🙂
Palo Alto, CA Photographer: Show the love
Jennifer (JLK) is six years old. She has a laugh that makes you giggle, tantrums on par for her age, a maternal instinct that puts mine to shame… and cancer. On her sixth birthday Jennifer was diagnosed with a rare, very aggressive, but incurable form of pediatric brain tumor, known as DIPG (Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma).
Libby is her mama. She is funny, stubborn and has mad mommy skills that also put mine shame 🙂 Libby is also my friend.
You’ve seen Libby and Jennifer over the years in my photographs. I’ve been thrilled to document Libby’s growing bellies and babies welcomed into their home. It means a ton to me that she trusts me enough to ask me to document this part of her life too: one of Jennifer’s radiation treatments. As much as I love telling stories through photographs, I never thought this was a story I would tell, and I wanted to do it justice. On the drive to the hospital I had one mantra: let me show the love. “Please, let me show the love!” was all I kept saying to myself, because that is what this family has so, SO much of. I hope you see that too.
Our morning started meeting up in the lobby. I got my access badge, and we proceeded to the elevator bay and then the waiting room for radiation. Jennifer got weighed and had her temperature taken. For every radiation appointment, a family member comes to snuggle her baby sister, C, while Libby helps Jennifer in the recovery room. This person is lovingly referred to as “The Snuggler”. Today The Snuggler was Jennifer’s godmother, and Libby’s best friend. She did her job perfectly, keeping baby C cozy and warm.
Libby and Jennifer have a routine as they head into the radiation room: they jump over the colored tiles on the floor. Watching them do this left me unprepared for the medical room I suddenly found myself in. This room hit me. And it hit me hard. Libby didn’t see this, but this is where my tears came. As the anesthesia kicked in, Libby held Jennifer tight, telling her what she should dream about in the (hopefully) short time she would be asleep. She held her close, and Jennifer’s eyes weighed heavy and closed. With a kiss, Libby laid her down, with the help of the doctors, and we walked out.
Unfortunately that day’s radiation was not quick, and it did not go smoothly. Every day is different. Every day in unknown. On that day, Jennifer had developed an aspiration pneumonia and had a difficult time breathing. Her radiation took over an hour. Because it was so long, when Libby went to recovery, Jennifer was still asleep. She asked for her mommy and hugged her tight, almost as if Libby was her lovey. Jennifer needed Libby’s body pressed up against her.
Over time she woke up more and more; drank some juice, and they left…. until the next day.
If their story touches you, please follow it on Libby’s blog: https://unravelpediatriccancer.org/blog/. As you think of your loved ones, please, keep Jennifer and her family in your thoughts and hearts wishing them continuous strength. If you have the means to help financially, please donate as any medical trials Jennifer may be eligible for will not be covered by insurance. You can do so through their site directly or participate through any fundraiser noted there. As Libby says, there HAS to be a first person cured. Jennifer can be that first.
Consider also that pediatric brain cancer remains one of the most under-funded area of research. If you would like to make a dent in that, please consider also donating to Unravel Pediatric cancer which raises funds for innovative research into pediatric cancer.
Update: Jennifer Lynn Kranz passed away the early morning of February 12th 2014. She was taken too soon! Her family made an incredible contribution to cancer research, by donating her tumors to Lucile Packard. I have no doubt that her life will bring life to others.
Thank you for looking!
(see the video)
(see some of the images)
Belmont, CA Child & Family Photographer: The caretaker
Meet R! She is the director for Footsteps at Nesbit Puma Cubs pre-school in Belmont. Our two monkeys have been under her watchful eye since they were wee bits, and we have received more support than you can imagine from her and the Footsteps pre-school staff. Her caretaking duties don’t end at the end of the work-day: R goes home to two wily boys of her own and a loving husband that was diagnosed with MS. She’s a self-less hero and I feel thrilled to be able to photograph her family.
Mountain View, CA Mini Session Photographer: Can you say fall?
I love fall. Love it! Seeing the vibrant colors over foliage just makes me happy. We don’t get enough of that in the Bay Area, so getting even few opportunities to photograph around it gets me excited. We finally had enough cold days to turn some trees and bushes red and yellow. As I walked up to our session and saw the big tree turned red I was so, so thrilled. Plus C came in with a red sweater. It was meant to be, I tell you. I loved everything from our session that morning. So much so you probably saw me post (on Facebook) a photo from the back of my camera that same morning. Can’t get any more unadulterated image than that, huh 🙂
Bay Area Photographer: November In My Corner of the World
When our oldest turned three we celebrated with a family trip to Disneyland. Well, the month of November greets us with a birthday for a little dude, who this year is now three as well. So guess where we went? And guess what pictures I’m sharing with you of my November? Yep – house of mouse 🙂 I look back on our trip in a much different light than actually being there. A bit like being in labor I suppose. It felt a lot more fun in retrospect. But boy was it memorable. What made it memorable you say? Lesse: 1) my husband brought an unwanted guest on our trip: the stomach flu. He fell to the germ our first afternoon at the park and was out for the count for the rest of the day and next. But hey, I made it a whole day in the park with two kids, by myself, with all my hair in place and no one was “accidentally” lost. There were no healthy meals to be had that day – let’s be honest. I needed to make it through the day and was willing to do whatever it took, down to popcorn as an acceptable food choice for lunch; 2) our oldest fell in love with the arcade room at our hotel. So much so that he could care less about actual Disneyland, and I had to bribe him with a quarter for each ride he got on. That’s right – most parents bribe their kids to behave with the promise of rides. I had to convince him to ride with a promise of money. I’m owning it though with no shame. At $260 a ticket he was gonna ride and love it, dang it!!! Luckily he actually enjoyed the physical rides… but only enough to last until he had to get in line for the next one.
Still, like I said – I look back on it fondly, and am looking forward to the next trip. Next summer, maybe?
This is my latest entry into my monthly Blog Circle project. Continue this circle of photographer friends by visiting my friend, Ardelle Neubert. See my past circle entries, too.