How It Began
When my daughter was born, I made a point to capture every moment of her life, and I blogged my way through her first years. When her little brother arrived, the number of pictures I took doubled, but the quality didn’t!
In December 2008, we learned that our nephew would be born with a rare and very serious congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). We were devastated by the news, and I began to read everything I could about this condition. As his arrival approached, I realized there was a lot of sadness surrounding the HLHS babies whose stories I followed, and I felt I needed something different that would help keep me busy and keep me from worrying. I also wanted to make sure I would be able to capture every moment of his life from the beginning, whether or not my sister wanted me to! And so, I picked up my camera, switched it to manual mode, asked a lot of questions to those who knew more than me (you know who you are!), and began learning as much as possible about how to use my camera and how to take better pictures.
Since then, I haven’t stopped reading, learning or practicing photography, and I’ve learned to cherish every moment I capture. I know I certainly cherish the 5 1/2 weeks of Ben’s life I was able to capture. However, if I took 1,000 pictures of Ben during that time, I wish I’d taken a million more. We had great hope that we’d have a lifetime of memories with him, but God had another plan. It is now my hope to capture every moment and milestone of my life and my kids’ lives, all the while remembering that it was this sweet little heart baby that allowed me to find a passion I didn’t know I had! God bless the little miracle in our lives for now and always!
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Laura Boeker of Five Petals Photography is a professional family photographer specializing in maternity, newborn, baby, child and family photography. Five Petals Photography has been creating beautiful images for families since 2009.
Five Petals Photography serves the St. Louis and Greater St Louis areas including, but not limited to, Glendale, Kirkwood, Webster, Warson Woods, Rock Hill, Des Peres, Chesterfield, Creve Couer, Ladue, University City, St. Louis City, Saint Charles, St. Peters, Maryland Heights, Mo., and Belleville, O'Fallon, Edwardsville, Shiloh, Columbia and Millstadt, Ill.