ashleyLNL

The ways we help others has definitely been inspired by my own journey as well as other people I hear stories from... I have asked questions in different subreddits to find out what has really helped people and talked to the people we are serving.

There are a few main ways we support people in grief. One is directly showing up for the free portrait session. It’s often a time of acceptance and beautiful emotions come out with the ones they love. Our desire is to celebrate life with people while they have it so we try to create meaningful experiences when we can.

Next, we deliver a beautiful hand-crafted eco leather photo album (think wedding heirloom quality). This book not only preserves memories but gives loved ones a space to grieve once their loved one dies. The book holds space for people without fear, judgement, or expectation that you often find elsewhere.

We also follow up with people and do our best to continue relationships to let people know they are loved and remembered. We send out holiday photo ornaments and unexpected gifts.

We are growing to support the greater community in grief by adding empathy cards, portrait session gift certificates (that you can send to people who you think might want a session), adding to our resources page, and have a few other things rolling out in 2018.

Thank you for your question and feel free to message me with ideas if you have any on how we can better love and support people in grief!

I can totally understand your skepticism as charities have done an awful job with transparency. My salary is $35,000 per year and my part time Director of Operations is currently making $10,000. We are hoping to give her a raise soon because we want her to be able to better support her family. If you define admin fees, I am happy to get specific with those too if you’re wanting more.

I know there’s no way for you to know that I am a genuine person who truly just wants to help other people going through the worst time of their lives, but I invite you to come to our Spring event on March 1 in Atlanta to get to know us. It will be held at the King Plow Arts Center and I would love to talk with you in person and allow you to hear from the people who have been through our services. You can sign up for our newsletter and get an invite via email or send me your personal address and I can mail you one.

We provide a photographer retreat for every volunteer photographer before they start serving with us. It’s a weekend where we focus on self-care, empathy, grief, and special photography needs when entering into these sensitive situations.

We want every photographer to be equipped and able to enter into the lives of the people we are serving with compassion, love, and understanding. No judgement. No fear. No expectations. The training weekend allows the photographers to build community with each other, talk openly about their fears or experiences, and learn what they need to know to be their best possible self and photographer no matter the situation.

Thank you for your thoughtful questions! We have had cases where the person dies before we can photograph them and it’s heartbreaking.

We do our best to schedule the sessions based on the severity of the cases, but sometimes there’s just no way to know.

We try to photograph as many people as we can. This is our first year doing a second photo session for a family - the reason I am in NYC. We are thrilled when the person we photograph is doing well and is up for another session a year or two later. If we have the means to do it, we absolutely will.

Where did you get this number? We have different amounts for travel sessions and for local sessions. Obviously local sessions are much cheaper.