Cheryl Haggard Talks About NILMDTS and Capturing Love

Note: I posted this yesterday, but didn't have the images to go with it, which further add to the story and help in understanding how your images can help the healing process of families caught in the tragedy of losing a child. My apologies for those of you seeing it a second time.

                                                        Each life, no matter how brief, deserves to be honored."
                                                                                         Cheryl Haggard

I'll start this guest post right off by saying I need your help...I'd love to get every professional photographer in this industry (Yeah, that's my wish list - it's a pretty lofty goal) to watch this video. But you might be surprised at the range of reasons why...

• First and foremost, is the topic. It's NOT about photographing death, but love. 
• Second, it's by Cheryl Haggard, the co-founder of Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. 
• Third, it's about what may well be the most recognized photo-centric non-profit in our industry. So, whether you have interest in being directly involved isn't as important as at least understanding what NILMDTS is all about. 
  
• Fourth, the whole idea of Photographers Ignite is to be concise. It's twenty slides in five minutes. Each slide is only up for 15 seconds and the speaker has no control over them, except in the original creation of the presentation. It teaches you to be to the point and tests a presenter's passion and understanding of their topic.

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In terms of my own passion and understanding of NILMDTS, I'm one of several Ambassadors and I couldn't be more proud to be a part of this amazing team. I've gone from originally thinking the idea of photographing a baby who's about to die as morbid, to understanding the importance of, as Cheryl puts it in the video, capturing love. Without question, it's the most powerful emotional challenge a photographer can go through, but as each NILMDTS artist has shared here on the SCU site, being involved has created an incredible journey of growth, perception and understanding, helping make each one of them better people and artists.

To find out how you can be part of this amazing organization, just click the word love in the banner above and you'll be on their website and volunteer page. Thanks for joining me in this post...now, help me spread the word and let's get more people to hear what Cheryl has to say!