This was Help Portrait Vancouver’s sixth year returning to the Child Life Department at BC Children’s Hospital. It was probably the busiest we’ve ever seen it. The makeup and hair team were working non-stop in transforming patients, mothers and even grandmas with marvelous makeovers for their family portraits. The photo and editing team were kept busy as well turning out memorable portraits and prints for the families to take away.

We even got to take part in a little baby girl’s first birthday and were also able to provide another group a family portrait for their son’s third birthday. Although we set up a studio in one of the rooms inside the Child Life Department not all patients are able to leave their rooms for various reasons. For these instances we bring the hair and makeup artists as well as the studio to them. Our hair and makeup artist goes in first followed by the photographers with our cameras and lights to provide portraits for the patients and their families. On one particular room visit we met a vibrant young girl with a passion for contemporary dance and she even struck a few dance poses for us during her session. She was extremely pleased with her photos as were all the other families who received their prints from us that day.

We are thankful again for this opportunity to bring a bit of joy to the families and to the Help Portrait Vancouver volunteers and Child Life Department staff for making this possible.

As usual the staff at the Child Life Department were jumping with joy to see us back.