les527
01-23-2005, 10:11 PM
For those of you in the Indianapolis area, I thought I'd share a recommendation for a local photographer who has experience working with special needs children. Her name is J.J. Kaplan, and her website is www.colormyworldstudio.com. She's expensive, but she's well worth it.
My son, Sam, was born in April of 2003, and he spent the first four months of his life in the NICU. He came home with us, and I wanted to have a family portrait taken, but I was afraid. You name it; I was afraid of it. Afraid that the photographer would be scared of my baby because he has many seizures; afraid that the photographer wouldn't be patient; afraid that my son would pick up germs from other children who had been there previously; afraid that he would get over-stimulated; afraid that he would stop breathing during the session. I was even afraid to call and talk to a photographer because I was afraid that they would say that they wouldn't be comfortable taking the pictures. I was more afraid that something would happen to him, and I'd never have portraits of him at all.
Someone at our church discovered that we only had snapshots and NICU polaroids of Sam, and they contacted a professional photographer who also attends our church. They hooked us up with her, and we had a WONDERFUL session with her. She has an in-home studio, so we just took him to her house. She was excited to meet Sam, and her 6 year old daughter was also there for the session, and her daughter fell in love with Sam when I let her hold him after the session was finished.
The pictures were absolutely gorgeous, and next to Sam, those portraits are my most prized possession.
The photographer was so touched by her experience with Sam that she recently volunteered to take portraits of all of the special needs individuals in our church for an upcoming Special Needs Awareness Day at our church. Her portraits of the special needs individuals will be on display that day and will be included in a slideshow presentation for the church.
She said that she has enjoyed working with the special needs families so much, and she was so glad that she could help to make a stressful situation less stressful. She has taken pictures of children with Downs, Autism, seizure disorders, trachs, monitors, etc. Her heart is open to special needs, and I thought I'd pass along her name and web address to anyone who might have some of those same fears that I had yet wanted to have portraits that would capture a moment in time.
Leslie Harley,
Indianapolis, IN
mom to Sam (21 months)
My son, Sam, was born in April of 2003, and he spent the first four months of his life in the NICU. He came home with us, and I wanted to have a family portrait taken, but I was afraid. You name it; I was afraid of it. Afraid that the photographer would be scared of my baby because he has many seizures; afraid that the photographer wouldn't be patient; afraid that my son would pick up germs from other children who had been there previously; afraid that he would get over-stimulated; afraid that he would stop breathing during the session. I was even afraid to call and talk to a photographer because I was afraid that they would say that they wouldn't be comfortable taking the pictures. I was more afraid that something would happen to him, and I'd never have portraits of him at all.
Someone at our church discovered that we only had snapshots and NICU polaroids of Sam, and they contacted a professional photographer who also attends our church. They hooked us up with her, and we had a WONDERFUL session with her. She has an in-home studio, so we just took him to her house. She was excited to meet Sam, and her 6 year old daughter was also there for the session, and her daughter fell in love with Sam when I let her hold him after the session was finished.
The pictures were absolutely gorgeous, and next to Sam, those portraits are my most prized possession.
The photographer was so touched by her experience with Sam that she recently volunteered to take portraits of all of the special needs individuals in our church for an upcoming Special Needs Awareness Day at our church. Her portraits of the special needs individuals will be on display that day and will be included in a slideshow presentation for the church.
She said that she has enjoyed working with the special needs families so much, and she was so glad that she could help to make a stressful situation less stressful. She has taken pictures of children with Downs, Autism, seizure disorders, trachs, monitors, etc. Her heart is open to special needs, and I thought I'd pass along her name and web address to anyone who might have some of those same fears that I had yet wanted to have portraits that would capture a moment in time.
Leslie Harley,
Indianapolis, IN
mom to Sam (21 months)