Flashes Of Hope

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Flashes of Hope at Victory Junction Gang Camp | Part 1

August 12, 2009 – 9:36 am

I had the opportunity once again to visit the Victory Junction Gang Camp in Randleman , NC in June (check out this amazing place here: www.victoryjunction.org). Victory Junction is a free-of-charge, year-round camp for children with chronic medical conditions and their families. Per the norm I loaded up the van early that morning in a torrential downpour and arrived at a wet and chilly camp so we once again could not use all of the amazing grounds for our photos. When we arrive the group of photographers argue over discuss who’s going to shoot where (remember last time my highly artistic shots in front of a cinder block wall?) and I jumped on a building shaped like a giant race car. No block wall for me, inside we had access to tires, gas cans, engines, and a race care just waiting to be used in the background. I don’t use much in the way of props in my everyday photography but come on, there are race car drivers here. We’re going over the top!

Little did I know that as I began shooting also about four feet behind me the kids would begin pit crew-ing. Every kid would come through and use pneumatic tools to remove tires from a car over and over and over and over and over…(and over) again. Ever been in the back of a Jiffy Lube during business hours? It was like that, times 1000 so it was just a little on the L O U D side. But if you ask my kids, I can shout, and I did to direct 30 kids through their portraits. THIRTY KIDS! This was all before lunch so when we wrapped I had the most amazingly exhausting time imaginable.

My voice was gone and my back hurt but as usual, I was the one blessed by meeting all of these strong, brave beautiful children. Most fighting for their life. I can handle a little backache for these guys.

Thirty kids equals hundreds of proofs to process and prepare and for a one man processing show (me) it takes many many hours to get them ready to go. The parents of these kids will be receiving prints courtesy of Flashes of Hope (www.flashesofhope.org) and just like the camp itself, they will be receiving these portraits as a gift. There is just no better thing.

I coudn’t possibly share 30 beautiful faces in one blog post so I will break it down into three posts. Enjoy the first 10 amazing children I met that day and if you think about it, say a prayer for them and Victory Junction Gang Camp as well. Miracles are very real there.

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Flashes of Hope at Victory Junction Gang Camp

April 7, 2009 – 4:04 pm

A few weekends ago I had the opportunity to photograph family day at Victory Junction Gang Camp in Randleman, NC with Flashes of Hope. I can not begin to describe Victory Junction Gang Camp in any way that will do it justice. Their mission statement describes it well: “Victory Junction Gang enriches the lives of children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses by providing life-changing camping experiences that are exciting, fun, and empowering, in a safe and medically-sound environment”. And boy do they ever - we were absolutely amazed by every aspect of this place from the staff to the facilities to the grounds that were beautifully decorated. We left bright and early (well actually it was very dark and early) and you can imagine the excitement a group of photographers would have getting to spend a day shooting in a place like this. Everywhere you look is a bright, colorful, fun design - really it’s a photographer’s dreamland! I wish I had some photos of the grounds to share with you to give you an idea of what I mean…but I don’t. Why? Well because it rained like Noah himself would be making an appearance. It was dark as night and the rain came down heavily all.day.long. We shlepped our gear through the rain and mud into the few indoor spots large enough to house us and made it work. So yes, I shot family sessions in…a gym. Against a lime green cinder block wall on a metal gym bench. Right, so you can see what I mean by “make it work”. But it DID work and the perpetual game of kickball going on right behind us kept us going all day long. Here is a small peek into our day!

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February 4, 2009 – 11:32 pm

I am back in town and we survived a week at Disney with alternating strep throat and stomach bugs - oh yeah! But it was warm, and if you have to be sick I guess it’s better to be sick in sunny Florida! It was a great getaway with the fam and despite the challenges we did have a great time.

But back to the topic at hand - finally sharing some images from my January day at UNC Children’s Hospital with Flashes of Hope. A little about Flashes of Hope: (from their website) Flashes of Hope is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating uplifting portraits of children fighting cancer and other life threatening illnesses. The portraits, taken by award-winning photographers, help children feel better about their changing appearance by celebrating it. For families of terminally ill children, it’s especially important to have a portrait that preserves forever the beauty, grace and dignity of their child.

I was honored to work with these amazing grown ups and precious kids. I wish I could share every single photo from the day, but please enjoy this small portion of the beautiful faces and sweet spirits of the day. I was blessed to meet each one.