Flashes of Hope :: a night at the Bon Securs St. Francis Cancer Center

A couple months back I was contacted by a group called Flashes of Hope and they asked if I’d be willing to shoot some portraits of children with cancer and they’d take care of scheduling, printing, etc. Thankfully, they asked me for some local makeup artists’ names and I got to work with my insanely talented friend Latia Curtis (stylin’ below). Our group for this shoot was 15 -30 years of age.

As I was waiting to to load in, I recieved a phone call from a young photographer in my area named Chrissy Harper. We’d never met but she was calling to ask me about joining the SC Chapter of ASMP as an associate member (I sit on out state’s board). I talked with her about what she shoots and what her goals were. We started talking about assisting and I told her that it was unfortunate that we had not talked sooner because I had a voulnteer thing I could’ve used her help with and it would give us a good opportunity to get to know one another. “When is it?” she asked. “In about twenty minutes” I laughingly replied. She texted me shortly after, “I’ll see you soon.” She showed up and I had an assistant. Boom! So, how rad is that? And, to boot, she did a great job. We had some amped up kids to wrangle and she jumped right in! That’s her sitting in for a quick lighting test. We loaded in to the hospital at 2 PM yesterday and made the last photograph around 8 PM I think. Everyone involved was really awesome. Here’s another cool thing; our two local competing hospitals, Greenville Hospital System and Bon Securs St. Francis Hospital System, gasp….. worked together to make all this happen! Very cool on both parties. The staff I worked with from both hospitals were awesome.

Photographer Nerds who’ve been following along lately :: I rented the Fuji XT-1 so that I could tether on this job to Adobe Lightroom. Everything was shot on the original Fujifilm 56 f/1.2 lens.

I got to meet a lot of cool people yesterday and I had a blast working with them all. I did connect with one individual more than any other. His name was Andre and he had a little girl just a few years younger than mine. He had a lovely wife and you could tell Andre was a great dad and husband. He kept looking for stray hairs for his wife and straightening his daughters outfit. And his little girl just melted my heart. He told me a little about his situation with cancer and the struggles he’s endured. As it turns out he’s also a musician so we hit it off. He’s really into hiphop and he’s a rapper so we did a couple promo type shots for him as well. He hugged me when we were through and just thanked me over and over. It was really the only time I almost lost it which is a miracle as anyone who knows me knows that I can be a real faucet face. 

Here’s to you Dre! Keep getting stronger buddy. Can’t wait to see those dreads coming back in long again!

We had a great evening and I’m so thankful to be able to use the talents God has blessed this whole team of people with to brighten some folks’ night who could use a lift and hopefully give them some photographs that will forever capture the spirit of the individuals and their families.  

Selfie for proof of a great time! Cheers!