Belinda Olsen Photography » Utah Wedding & Portrait Photographer | Logan, Utah | 435-881-2184

A few weeks ago I was on Twitter and saw a call for help from a photographer in Salt Lake, Kelli Bramble.  I jumped at the opportunity to be her assistant at Camp Hobe, a camp for children who are being treated for cancer and their siblings.  We went in through an organization called, Flashes of Hope.  Their mission is to provide families with beautiful portraits celebrating their children and to help each child feel comfortable with their changing bodies.

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It was a heartbreaking and humbling experience to see how children persevere through a really difficult time while still enjoying life.   Kelli and I chose to think that everyone there was a sibling and no one was sick.  Unfortunately I know that wasn’t true.  One of the hardest things for me was to listen to was a 5 and 6 year old little boy and girl talk to each other  about how many rounds of chemo and radiation they had gone through and their experience.

I was reminded how powerful photography is!  Our second day of camp we photographed children that were too young to stay overnight. We also photographed children too sick to be away from their families and medicines overnight.  We had several parents that came and supported their children while at camp.  Every parent that I chatted with teared up talking about their love for their children.  Each parent expressed their appreciation for the photographs and remembering this time in their lives.  Photographs definitely appreciate with time!

Here is an iPhone photo of all the volunteers and volunteer photographers from the first day  we visited camp.

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It was a great opportunity to meet so many great photographers!  Thank you Darryl Dobson, Nick Sokoloff, Pepper NixLeah MillerKelli Bramble and Logan Walker for such a memorable day.

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I knew for about a week before Father’s Day that I wanted to do a tribute post to our dad’s.  I put out the call for pictures.  Sadly, it was really hard to find photographs of us with our dad’s.  Especially as little kidlets.  I hope that you chuckle with me at these pictures.  I sure did!  (I have no idea why I was sticking out my tongue in the middle picture.  My mom insists that was the best photograph of me from that session.  Be nice, it was the 80’s and I was four or five)

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As I was looking for our pictures I found a card that I made for my dad in primary.  It was colored on the lyrics of the following primary song.  The words are cheesy but seeing that made me smile.


My daddy is my fav’rite pal, And I help him every day.
It’s plain to see I want to be like him in every way.
He teaches me that honesty is best in all I do.
I’m very glad that he’s my dad, and I know he loves me too.
-Words by Carol Graff Gun


Craig and I sure do love all the dad’s in our life!

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  • AngryGardner - Love picture of my dad. I am also struck by the family resemblance between Craig and Luke. FYI I loved chair don’t know why 🙂ReplyCancel

Welcome to my new blogsite! I’m excited to have a new look that is more representative of my personality, my personal and photography style and better suited for you, my friends and photography clients! Things definitely aren’t perfect on the site. Things will be changing and improving. I have been working toward this change for the last several months. I never thought that it would take this long. I have found excuse after excuse to wait on launching this new site because it wasn’t perfect. Yesterday I was looking at one of my {many} favorite blogs, Small Town Lovin and I stumbled across this post which I absolutely fell in love with . . . because I relate.


I was intensely inspired by the quote that she chose to lead her post with:


Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

-Mark Victor Hansen


Now she wasn’t really talking about my blog or my photography. . . but she was!  So friends, here it is!  You will continue to see new changes and improvements.  I’m getting started today on this and a few other aspects of my life and not waiting for the ‘one days’ that we so often say will bring us happiness/prosperity/comfort.

 


There were a few other great things that were referenced in the Small Town Lovin blog post and the Infinite Learners blog post she referenced.  If you follow the link to the Infinite Learners blog post it will take you to a great blog, Happiness Project.  If you have a few minutes, I highly recommend following this blog train with their references!


Make today a great day!

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  • Chelsea - Yeah! Don’t wait! I’m so glad you’ve decided to make this happen! =) Yay Belinda!!!ReplyCancel

  • AngryGardner - YEAH!! It is about time 🙂ReplyCancel

  • AngryGardner - So I am just testing something.ReplyCancel

  • kristin brown - yay! i love it! and i love that quote.ReplyCancel

  • kk - ~thank you for the link love and i am so glad that you are a reader! it is always good to know someone is out there:)

    congrats on your new blog~ it is so wonderful and pretty! {as is your photography} i think websites are constant fun because you can constantly update ~ way to go!!!ReplyCancel

  • Cindy Steel - Wow! Belinda, it looks so great! I love everything! Beautiful!ReplyCancel

Meet Carrie. Carrie and I worked at Macey’s together for years. We had a lot of fun talking to each other every day. We would chat about recipes, our families, supporting our husbands through school and upcoming family plans. I was really excited for Carrie when she announced that she was pregnant. It was a lot of fun last year photographing her daughter’s newborn portraits.


One of my favorite things about being a family photographer is capturing the relationships within a family. Carrie and JR have been married for years and still act like a newly wed couple. They both especially really love one thing: their beautiful daughter, Austin.


I absolutely love this image and a special bond between Carrie & Austin, it is one of my  favorites!

 

 

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There were so many wonderful photographs made during my recent session with the Powell family that I wanted to do a second post featuring only Miss Austin. Photographing a one year old is always fun! I love the watching them as they start walking and love exploring.

 


When I asked Carrie and JR if there was anything special they wanted photographed with Austin I was really excited when they brought this rocking horse. Austin became extremely focused on rocking back and forth. She became really calm and focused.



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I love this beautiful little girl’s radiant eyes! I was excited when we were out and about in the north part of Cache Valley and I realized how much Austin’s blue eyes ‘popped’ in comparison to the green landscape around. This is one great thing I about being in Cache Valley!
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