Meet Jace
This post is overdue. So overdue that Jace, who you’ll meet momentarily, is almost three months old at this point. I swear there’s nothing like having children to measure time. There’s no denying how quickly the months pass when you look at how a baby grows.
I’ve mentioned before that I joined a local BNI network chapter and have been blessed to be hired by some of the other members of the group to photograph them and their families. Dr. Ryan Lawlor is an upper cervical chiropractor who works mainly out of San Francisco but attends our Marin chapter Network 54. And I’m SO glad he does. I’ve had a chance to get to know Ryan on a more personal level over the last few months and he’s such a nice guy. Seriously nice. When I had the pleasure of meeting his family to photograph them it was a super sweet time. His wife is beautiful and kind-hearted and their older boy Jack is just a hoot! You’ll see from his pictures that he has the cutest personality. Funny and quirky and nice and yet he has a serious side too. Kind of like his dad. đ
I don’t typically do “studio” shoots. I did enough of those in and just out of college. But, when photographing a newborn, sometimes I set up our great room as an ‘in house’ studio. I can keep the temperature nice and cozy and hopefully take some shots of the baby while they’re sleeping. It was a beautiful day that morning and during a little down time I was able to take Ryan and Jack out into our backyard for a few naturally lit photographs. My favorite.
Here are some of my favorites from the shoot and an introduction to Jace…
and Jack…
Before I go I thought I would tell you a little bit about what Ryan does since it’s such a specialized technique. He’s a chiropractor, but he doesn’t do any popping, cracking or heavy manipulation. He works specifically with the upper cervical bones in the neck. Just two bones in fact. The ones that are at the exact place where your brain stem meets your spinal cord. I took Mason to a colleague of Ryan’s before meeting Ryan through BNI. A different upper cervical chiropractor in Mill Valley. I had wanted to take Mason for an adjustment for years because he was super stressed in the birth canal for HOURS. That’s a whole different story but basically I had always wondered if Mason’s alignment was “off” from the experience. One of the symptoms that I was curious about was that it would take Mason a really long time to fall asleep at night. I mean really long. So long that Matt and I would wonder how on earth we could survive the minutes that dragged in to hours on a nightly basis.
After one treatment, seriously, Mason fell asleep within ten minutes of putting him to bed. Maybe even five. Honest! The upper cervical adjustment was a life saver for us. I was sold on the practice right then and there. Ryan’s own personal story of how he came to upper cervical chiropractics is interesting as well. He was a migraine sufferer for many, many years. Nothing seemed to give him any relief. I know I’m chopping his story way down so if you ever do go to see him, you should ask him about it. It’s worth hearing. Basically, his migraine suffering became pretty debilitating over the years. His wife finally said that they had to do something about it because it was interfering with their happiness as a newly married couple. After trying a variety of healing modalities he wound up at an upper cervical chiropractor’s office who adjusted him and yes, you guessed it, resolved the migraine issue. How life changing is that?! So life changing that Ryan decided to go back to school to study it for himself so that he could give back for what he had received. Pretty cool isn’t it?
If you or someone you know has either tried a bunch of different healing techniques for anything from migraines to sleep issues to food allergies, TMJ or more, this may be what works for you. Since the brain stem is the connection for filtering all of the information the body receives from the brain, the connection needs to be clear. With a 3D scan taken of your skull and upper cervical bones, Dr. Lawlor can tell you right away if anything is being pinched or compressed.
I really can’t say enough about Ryan or what he does and I wish him tons of success with his business and his life. He’s one of those people who you just want to do well because he’s such a nice person and coming from the heart in everything that he does. I can say that I’m looking forward to the next time I get to photograph his family. That one year birthday is going to be here before we know it!
