Thursday, April 26, 2007

Soul Work

I'm not big on telling the world what sort of charitable and good things I'm up to because I think it's corny and distracts from the real issue, the cause, but I'm going to shout out about this because maybe someone reading this Christonicle will know someone who can benefit from the work of this foundation or has something to give (Benjamins) to keep the foundation going.

So, I'm now a volunteer firefighter, uhm... I mean volunteer photographer for Soulumination www.soulumination.org, which was founded by an amazing photog lady named Lynette Johnson. Soulumination provides professional portraits for families with children afflicted with life-threatening illnesses or ill parents at the end of their life.

I had my first shoot this past week and I was pretty nervous and wondering what I would walk into. Sometimes the shoots can be in hospital rooms but I was lucky, this one was at the people's home.
How did it go? It was great. We all had fun and I felt honored to be able to use my talent to create a lasting snapshot of a family which might be minus one member way too soon.

I can't show you the photos because of privacy issues and because the images are the property of the family and Souluminations. In the near future, I do imagine that this family's bio and their photos will be up on the Soulumination website or on Lynette's blog. Stay tuned.

Why did I do this? Because I can. And really, what's not great about making beautiful portraits of people who really want them? I've preserved something for them, something no doctor or god can, a tangible bit of life that will live as long as the photo paper does. And that my friends, is pretty dang cool.

4 comments:

Lindsay said...

That is wonderful, I've never heard of such a group. How rewarding.

Bringing Up Ben said...

What a great thing to do. I wish I had some sort of discernible talent to donate.

Unknown said...

Wow that's very cool - I actually didn't know you were into photography. Interestingly enough so am I. We should chat! - Actually we should hang out since I haven't seen you or the baby since you guys returned.

-Leon

Unknown said...

Its really touching what you do well done. Although you probably dont need me to tell you that.