CHKD Photography Update | Tidewater Childrens Photographer Giving Back

Here is an update with more of my images for the CHKD NICU Family Advisory Council. I have been very lucky to be part of this project that has allowed me to meet and photograph so many amazing families.

Ava
We arranged to get into the beautifully restored Historic Hampton Carousel right next to the Virginia Air & Space Museum in Downtown Hampton. Ava was a perfect model and as soon as I took these pictures I was in love with them.

Brielle
I met Brielle and her mom at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk because she loves the animals at the zoo. Brielle uses sign language to communicate and taught me a couple signs along the way. She is a very smart and happy girl and I had a great time spending the morning with her at the zoo.

Matthew
Matthew and his dad are avid golfers that live in Williamsburg. So what better place than Kingsmill for Matthew's Portrait.

GG
Gabriella (GG) loves to dace so I asked the Little Theater of Norfolk if we could use their stage for her pictures. They agreed and it just so happened that the stage already had the perfect setup for a little princess!

Chase & Sawyer - CHKD NICU | Tidewater Children's Photographer | Giving Back

I have two more images to share from my work with CHKD's NICU. First is Chase, a curious boy that I photographed at the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. We had something in mind and since this was his first time getting pictures taken (other than his parents) we decided to walk around and let him get used to me being there and taking pictures of him.

We went into their Sports Zone and played with Soccer balls and got him on a roll, his mom was having a ball making him laugh until he fell over! We wanted to get some good shots in front of the NASCAR exhibit, since he was warmed up we moved over there, but by then he had lost all interest in the Cars and wanted to go back and play with the balls. So after a few unsuccessful attempts we went back to the Sports Zone where Chase continued to ham it up for me.

Next is Sawyer, he was a little star as soon as my camera came out he knew what to do. His mom said she had never seen him act like that. They love to fish and we felt it was only right to get some pictures of him on his family's boat at Long Bay Pointe Marina.

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.