this month sees the magazine cover debut of my adorable and chubby niece, willamina. i got an assignment to photograph harvey karp, a pediatrician and author of the “happiest baby” series of books and DVDs. it’s all about the five S’s, people. (swaddling, side/stomach positioning, shushing, swinging and sucking) harvey teaches parents how to calm crying babies, which in turn calms frazzled parents.

we wanted a baby for the shoot, but harvey’s own son was 27 years old. that wasn’t exactly the right visual, obviously. luckily having recently become an uncle i was able to provide a baby, and spend some quality time with my niece as well. my sister-in-law (see below) got a free instructional DVD, too.

many years ago when i was working for greg heisler i remember seeing a time magazine cover up on the wall of the studio. he had photographed his own daughter for it and that always struck me as a really great thing. this isn’t quite the same, but it’s a start. hopefully there will be many more in the future.

below are the layouts used in the magazine (i tease my brother that willa looks like kuato from total recall in that cover picture, all scrunched up and wrinkled!) as a bonus there’s willa with her mother in a test shot, and with her charming and talented uncle, as well (thanks to paul). as an extra special bonus, a short video of corporal bennett singing a cowboy lullaby about pooping. you’re welcome, internet.

i’m very pleased to be a part of collect.give, a wonderful site launched by the incomparable kevin miyazaki. collect.give is a place where photographers offer small editions of small prints (letter size or less) for a low price and donate the proceeds to a charity of their choice. as of the first of march the site has raised over $5000 for various non-profit organizations. i’m offering a print from my series of burned book pages, with the money going to support camp del corazon. prints could be yours for the low, low price of just $40.

thanks for including me, kevin!

you can see others from the series here.

home from the conference in florida - a success, i think - and scrambling through a busy week. another busy week to follow after this one. there’s much to update here but i’ve been distracted by offline things, scheduling shoots and logistical matters. soon, though, i promise. in the meantime, this was the view in the aisle across from my seat flying back to orlando. in a layover in the phoenix airport i got to partake of the pleasures of a tamale burrito (a tamale inside of a burrito? mexico’s answer to the turducken) which, aside from being rather starchy, wasn’t half bad. there are certainly worse things to eat in airports.

anyway, my sincerest thanks to everyone at the children’s hospital of philadelphia who made my experience at the conference so pleasant. i gave the final plenary talk on the final night of the conference to a really big room. kinda nerve wracking, but it seemed well received. (thanks gil, tina and natasha! and thanks to the good folks at it’s my heart for letting me commandeer the table next to them to sell and sign books.)

this week i’m headed off to orlando to the cardiology 2010 conference. i’ll be speaking and signing books there saturday night (2.13.10) at the disney contemporary resort. if you’re in the neighborhood please stop by and say hello!

as part of my presentation to the conference i made this short film. this conference is mostly a medical one, with 26 of us (out of 900 attendees) being classified as “miscellaneous.” a long while ago i met a CHD researcher who told me that one thing doctors and scientists often miss out on is information on the emotional lives of their patients. given that, i wanted to show how some of the subjects from the book are doing now, as young adults out in the world. they’re dealing with the same things we all have to contend with - school, the future, family, love, fear. and they’re all a whole lot more interesting than listening to me speak!

my recommendation: watch it HERE, full screen, in HD for best results.

ron bloom married sandy, his high school sweetheart, and made his fortune in real estate. in 1988 sandy died after a long battle with cancer. some time later ron met lois, and they married. lois had also lost close family to cancer, and now they’ve both given a substantial philanthropic endowment to cancer research at cedars-sinai medical center. for people in a position to give in such considerable ways, funding research is a wonderful thing. thanks, ron.

my baby niece’s first visit to pasadena on the occasion of milo’s birthday. willa’s already been on her first magazine cover (more on that in a future post), and i’m sure she’ll be in many pictures still to come.

at some point yesterday, stuck in traffic driving home from visiting mario and ali, i realized that i’ve been photographing them off an on for ten years. that’s a whole decade. i tried to think of who else - aside from maybe my family - i had spent that many years photographing. there aren’t many people. certainly not in the same way. i met them both when they were eight years old. i’m amazed they’re not sick of me and my cameras and my stupid questions by now.

when i got to mario’s house he had the hearts book out on the coffee table in the living room. he said he likes to show it to the girls he brings home. apparently that works for him. glad to be of service, mario. i try to be helpful.

anyway, yeah. ten years. and the last real picture of 2009, and of this decade. seems fitting to me. thanks, guys. for everything.

photo by sydney taylor

back in september i got an email from sydney. sydney is 15 years old, a congenital heart patient, like me. unlike me, sydney had her first pacemaker implanted when she was only 15 hours old (i was eight (years)). she said, “I am saving money to buy your book because it is the most incredible thing I have ever seen!! . . . when I get my hands on a copy I will carry it around with me everywhere and show everyone!!!”

i told sydney i’d send her an autographed copy of the book if she promised to tell me what she thought of it, and send me a picture of the book in her house. the review arrived a couple weeks ago, the picture arrived last week. thanks, sydney. merry christmas.