Help-Portrait

[lculpin]

Anybody else here taking part?

[Rodger]

Yessir!!! It's actually my senior project. I'm connecting with some women's shelters and such. Food drives and clothing drives to accompany the free portraits! I'm in Pittsburgh, I'm interested as to where you are?


I just noticed that you also posted in the thread I started awhile ago Good stuff! I can't wait!!


http://community.the-digital-picture.com/forums/p/2001/15632.aspx#15632

[lculpin]

lol I totally forgot about that other thread :P


I'm up in Vancouver, BC. We're looking at doing one location downtown and then another at the Children's Hospital. How's your organization of the whole thing going? We're having trouble getting things locked down :S

[Rodger]

Same here.. November will be crunch time for me, setting up drop boxes around my school and such. I'll most likely be the only one shooting, as the people I know currently do not have portable studio setups. Although that's subject to change haha.


Mine wont be in the actual city, but rather in the suburb I live in.

[Rodger]

lculpin, how did your event go!?


If anyone else participated in Help_Portrait, please tell!





I set up at a Christmas party for a local Women's Shelter. I shot about 15 mothers and their children total. I'd love to post some behind the scenes video, but I can't due to the fact that the women are taking refuge at the shelter from abusive relationships. One mother told me through poorly held back tears, that she had never had a professional portrait of her son. I think it's so cool that just a photograph can make someone feel so special. I absolutely cannot wait to get the prints from Adorama and deliver them! (not trying to praise and hail my glorious name, just letting everyone know how something as small as a free 8x10 and 3 hours of my Saturday made a difference in 15 families this year )


If you couldn't participate this year, then do it next year! It's such an amazing experience!


check out all the videos!

[peety3]

I took part in the San Antonio event. About 10 folks took photos of about 70 people in various family combinations. I think my two cameras took about 300-350 shots on one backdrop; no idea how many the other camera took in front of my other backdrop. Local paper had a story at http://bit.ly/55BvYO - not exactly accurate reporting, but good enough. Glad I took part, wish we had more planning ahead of time, but very rewarding nonetheless.


We had one person as "dispatcher", sending families to one of two "studios" and writing down names. At my "studio", an assistant would pose the families, I'd start shooting on a 24-105/4, and the assistant would pick up a 70-200 and get close-ups. When done, the assistant would take the memory cards to the importer, who would write down the family's name and pile the cards on the name. As fast as she could, she'd import the images and make the memory cards available for return to the respective photographers. In the end, I think we should have had a dedicated importer per "studio"; given enough resources, a mini-LAN with one import station and one editing/proofing station per "studio" would have been much better. So, in a near-perfect world, one manager (handling behind-the-scenes documentary shooting), one dispatcher (more if >3 studios), and then per-studio a photographer, an assistant, a runner, an importer, and a proofer/editor.

[Rodger]

Very cool peety3!


I would have loved to participate in something as large scale as that. I think I may have an opportunity within the next month to do Help_Portrait shoots for a ministry of teenage mothers. If that works out, I'm thinking of shooting tethered and having a friend(s) keep names and do the editing real quick in LR. It's so cool to hear all the stories!