I recently had the pleasure of shooting Christina and Shea’s engagement portraits in Gastown, it was our practice round before shooting their big day!  Christina and Shea are high school sweethearts and it is quite fitting on a day like today (as the Canucks head into round four of playoffs with the L.A. Kings) their first date was watching a Canucks game!  After 8 years of dating, Shea came home one day and told Christina he wanted to take her shopping, of course, as any girl would, Christina said YES!  When they got to the mall, Christina didn’t know that she would be saying yes to something else by the end of the day. When they got to the mall, Shea took Christina straight to the jewelry store, held her tight and said: “Pick whatever ring you want, I love you and want to spend the rest of our lives together”.  All Christina could think about was “FINALLY!”

Thank you both for such a great Sunday afternoon in Gastown!

Happy Groundhog day everyone, I am hoping with this effort, we will accomplish 2 very important things, first of all, to raise awareness of an uncommonly known condition, and secondly, to perhaps raise money for the childrens hospital-to help children with conditions such as these. On this day in 2003 a very special little girl was born into our family. Her name is Emma. At the age of 19 months she was diagnosed with a condition called “retinoblastoma”. To simplify, Retinoblastoma is a rapidly developing cancer that develops in the cells of retina, the light-detecting tissue of the eye. Signs of this include: The pupil may appear white or have white spots. A white glow in the eye is often seen in photographs taken with a flash. Instead of the typical “red eye” from the flash, the pupil may appear white or distorted.

During the course of Emma’s treatment because of the retinoblastoma, Emma had to have her eye removed, and replaced with a glass eye. Thankfully she has made an amazing recovery, blessing us with the amazing girl she is today. Today is her birthday and with knowing how many children go through the childrens hospital, though I am sure my contribution is small, I would like to try and make a small difference. From February 2nd until the 16th Dawn Stenzel Photography will donate 40% of any bookings for children photography sessions to the Childrens Hospital in Vancouver, where Emma was a patient. As a thank you for booking, we will include more high resolution digital files in these packages which is a money saver for anyone purchasing them. You do not neccesarily have to have your session during this time, just as long as you book! We often do not know the importance of these institutions until we need them, I really hope any of you will never need it! Here is Emma’s story in her moms words:

“I noticed something was up with her eye as early as 18m old. No one else saw what I saw- even a doctor at 19months. When I changed her diaper, I would lay her down on the ground, and her right eye would reflect back- kinda like a cat’s eye does when a light reflects off of it. She was officially diagnosed just short of 23 months old, and the inoculation took place the next day.
We spent 2 nights at children’s, and then went home. There really wasn’t time for any programs, or help for us. The Canadian cancer association paid us a visit before we were discharged from the hospital, to make sure we were coping, and to give us support if we needed it. Honestly, we did it alone those few months after her surgery. Just now, are we are thankful to use one of the services available from the cancer society. Camp Goodtimes.
Because Emma was so resilient, we felt we didn’t want to use those other agencies, as we didn’t want to take away from another child or family that could use these services more.
Every three months, for the first year we had to go back to children’s, for check ups to her good eye, then every 6 months until she was 4. Now we go back to the specialist once a year-in office. We were admitted to the day procedure area of the hospital, where the staff is awesome, but definitely rushed, as they see so many kids in a day. If I can say anything, it’s that that is the area of children’s that needs a bit more funding. The toys are old, and the waiting area needs some updating. I can see why they don’t put more funding into it, as these kids are just there for a few hours at a time. Where as the overnight wards, some kids are there for weeks or months at a time.”

Thank you all for taking the time to read this post and please pass it along to anyone who may want to book and Childrens portrait session. We look forward to helping out more kids like Emma!
Sincerely,
Dawn Stenzel
Director of Photography
www.dawnstenzel.com
photography@dawnstenzel.com

After all of my anxiety of “blogging”  Here we are getting started and perhaps I will use this opportunity to introduce DSP!

Dawn Stenzel Photography is consistently stylish and reflective of you and your loved ones throughout your journeys in life.