What is Magic Hour?

In order to understand us, you have to meet two of our friends: Ted and Daphne.

Our first Magic Hour recipient came to us five years before the non-profit ever saw the light. Ted was a church member and he’d been sick with an unknown ailment for almost a year. One day, we got a call from his daughter who offered to sell her car in order to make payments on a family portrait session, as Ted had finally been diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. We told her to keep her car and showed up the next day for a short, sweet session featuring Ted, his wife, his children, his grandchild, his own father and his dog, Happy. It was the same as any other session we had done, yet vastly different. We left talking about the difference between capturing beautiful moments in people’s lives and capturing an actual beautiful life...forever.

Ted passed away ten days later, and his faithful dog Happy followed in less than a month. While at the memorial, we saw our images everywhere. Of all the images in the whole of Ted’s life, the family chose ours to represent their lives and their love. That session changed the power of a camera in our minds forever...but we had no idea what to do with that information.

In January of 2012, Alysa found herself at the bedside of her adopted little sister Daphne. She’d been fighting a brain tumor for over three years and until recently, the tumor was thought to be benign. Now it was a glioblastoma and this time, she wasn’t going to be able to go home. She was 23, a gymnast and a singer and she loved the color yellow. Yellow flowers were delivered and the whole gang painted their fingernails gold in tribute to Daphne’s favorite team, the 49ers, who were in the final playoff game vying for the Superbowl. In her last two weeks, we started a Facebook page for her and a fund to aid in medical and transportation expenses. And while it was easy to find givers, it was NOT easy to find photos of Daphne for her page. The family had a small handful of mobile phone pictures, but not only was there no portraits of Daphne in the thick of her battle. Alan was horrified to find that there were no pictures of himself with Daphne in existence. This was simply not acceptable. This thought process reminded us of our experience with Ted and what those images still mean to his family today and...voila! Why can’t WE offer this experience to people like Daphne? Why can’t we make it available everywhere to cancer warriors and survivors everywhere regardless of their financial situation? Why can’t we utilize the same giving spirit that Daphne’s friends exhibited to allow people to offer this service to other warriors?

The answer was Magic Hour Foundation, named specifically after the yellow light that highlights the morning and evening of everyday. Our prayer is that with the passing of each new day, we will be able to capture the beauty and triumph of a couple more courageous people...and that Ted and Daphne’s light will go on glowing.