CHKD NICU (Round 1) | Tidewater Childeren's Photography

Through an old co-worker I was connected to the NICU Family Advisory Council at CHKD. They wanted to have pictures taken showing some of the kids that were in the NICU and where they are one, two and three years later.

This was coming together in November and my wife being pregnant with twins, I thought it was a great opportunity to give back to this great organization. We setup five families to be photographed. I love showcasing my subjects personalities in my photos so I really wanted to do two things with this project. First to showcase these happy kids, in meaningful places. Second to show visitors some of the great attractions in Tidewater.

First up was Joey, an energetic two year old that had me chasing him around the Railroad Museum of Virginia. This is the image they decided to use for the NICU.

Here is my other favorite from the shoot.

Next it was Charlie, the three year old baseball player. I arranged for us to get on the field at Harbor Park one morning. It was a little chilly but charlie was so excited to be there it excited all of us. As soon as he stepped behind the plate he was ready to take some pitches from his dad. I absolutely love this image.

The image we decided on was one of him running in the outfield.

The Tides even used it to promote their count down to opening day.

Before we left I snapped a couple of the whole family.

Sandbridge was my next session with Hayden. He is also a sporty kid with a love for football. I had a great time chasing him around the beach near the fishing pier.

I shot Noah at the Virginia Aquarium, in front of the Sea Turtles. Turtles are his favorite, and mean a lot to his family. This was technically the toughest session so far, as the area is dark and it was hard to get sharp focus, but I was able to pull it off with a lot of determination. I also had to be careful of where my light was because I didn't want to see it's reflection in the glass. I am glad that I was able to work around the difficulties that I encountered and walk away with this great shot.

My last session for this set was Milan, a sweet 2 year old with Trisomy 18. I met with her and her father at the Children's Museum of Virgina and we had a blast. Her dad is a goofball and he had her smiling the whole time!

I currently have 3 scheduled for this month and one for next month. I love meeting these amazing kids and their awesome families. This is an ongoing project where we hope to incorporate more of the amazing locations Tidewater has to offer at various seasons.