HELP PORTRAIT Dayton was a great success on Dec. 4th, 2010

HELP PORTRAIT was started by Jeremy Cowart. You can see the history of this idea here: http://help-portrait.com/

HELP PORTRAIT Dayton on Dec. 4th 2010 is the second year that a HELP PORTRAIT event has been organized for the Dayton area. Leight Caraccioli was instrumental in organizing the event this year which was focused on helping families of deployed, deploying or just military families in the Dayton area. Connections with Wright Patt Airforce base made it clear that we would have good numbers of recipients of our gift. We had planned to have 3 “studios” made up of 2 photographers, a helper and smile getter, and someone to man the computer and printer. When we heard that there were over 50 families already scheduled to come to the event we were all very excited. When we heard that there were close to 100 families signed up (no sign-up was required) two more “studios” were activated for the event.

Who is the “Our” in “Our gift” ?. We have a Dayton page where planning, volunteering, and organization occurred here: http://community.help-portrait.com/group/daytonoh By the end of Saturday December 4th, we had 58 members to this page. There were many more volunteers involved. Now, the purpose of this event was to give the gift, not promote our photography or sell something. All the photographers and volunteers did a fantastic job of serving and giving to the families that came. There were cosmetologists for hair and make-up for those who wanted a little sprucing up, there were refreshments, there was a childs story teller who entertained kids while prints were being waited for and there were many photographers. Some of the photographers brought their backdrops, printers, and computers and each “studio” had two photographers for the morning and two for the afternoon.

If you would like to participate in the 2011 event, please join the page listed above. In addition there is a facebook group for Dayton: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=203807469223

Photographers discuss and prepare before families started to arrive for their sessions.

There were many volunteers in addition to the photographers that particpated in the HELP PORTRAIT Dayton event including those who helped at the welcome desk, greeters, runners, cosmetologists, smile getters and computer editor station operators. People volunteers their printers, background stands, lights, and computers to be able to provide prints to the families on the spot. Local businesses provide shirts for the volunteers, restaurants were prepared to provide refreshments and lunch and so on.

You can see several of the “studios” which were ready for the families. This is a quick gathering and Leigh gave a little pep talk to the morning crew before the families started arriving.

Morning crew of volunteers and photographers for the HELP PORTRAIT Dayton event.

Afternoon volunteers and photographers for the HELP PORTRAIT Dayton event on Dec. 4th, 2010

Here is a short video interview with one of the recipients of our gift:

When you look at Jim Crotty’s video listed below, you will see this lovely lady and her children being photographed. If the imbedded file does not work correctly, here is the link to this short video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0DhiEE-sXs&feature=player_embedded

Here is another Youtube about the event put together by Jim Crotty.

88 familes photographed for a total of 293 people served by 37 volunteers and 23 photographers.

HELP PORTRAIT is an international event. Here are reports from HELP PORTRAIT events occurring all over the world: http://help-portrait.com/2010/12/story-live-feed/

We’d be delighted to have you join us as a volunteer for HELP PORTRAIT Dayton 2011. We have discussed the idea of having another deployed military oriented HELP PORTRAIT event and possibly another going on at the same time directed toward a low income inner city neighborhood. You certainly do NOT have to be a photographer in order to help with a HELP PORTRAIT event. Also, if you are not in the Dayton area, there may be a HELP PORTRAIT in your area. If not, consider starting a page and see what happens. This event was put together in a matter of 3-4 weeks because of a late start.

HELP PORTRAIT Dayton was fun and a great learning experience for all involved

December 19th was the date for HELP PORTRAIT Dayton. As this was the first time for Dayton and the rest of the country, we had no idea of how many people might show up. Would we be completely overwhelmed? Would there be people waiting out the doors or would we be very slow. As it turned out, we were very slow until after 12 noon. So after three backdrops and light set-ups were in place, and tested we sat about for a while wondering what to do.

After about an hour, we just started to play. First we took a group shot with someone’s fisheye lens:

This is everyone that was there at the time including helpers, photographers, make-up and friends.

I took some more portraits for fun trying out the light set-up and thinking about what I would need to set up the same sort of portrait lighting set up in my country barn studio in the future. We had a white seamless paper background and two black backgrounds. At about noon people started coming in for portrait sessions. First one family, then a couple more and then several more. We all had great fun creating and GIVING the portraits away with no payment expected whatsoever.  One father grabbed Jordan Begley as he was about the leave, “Hey, I want to thank you folks for doing this, this is our first family portrait….we’ve never had one and this means a lot.”  Jordan came over and shared his conversation with me saying that the oldest boy in the family was 9 and he was so surprised and touched by the conversation.

Well as it turned out we had about, I think 50+ people representing 6-8 different families and since we were by no means swamped, we were able to come up with variations and sub-group portraits of each family. But, the originator of this event suggested that we not publish actual families from the event to respect their privacy.

The following images are portraits of photographers and friends helping at the event before actual families started showing up. The beginnings of some good friendships were started and everyone helped everyone else try out various lighting set-ups and learn more about photography together. Some of us were outside of our comfort zones and it was a great experience for all. THANKS everyone who helped and for all the sharing of knowledge at the event.

HELP PORTRAIT initiated by Nashville-based photographer Jeremy Cowart

I was reading my recent issue of Professional Photographer magazine and on the last page they have a new thing called “good works” where they tell about photographers that are giving back to those in need. The reason that I am posting this here is to pass along the idea to my many photographer friends who may read this blog. I was able to look up Dayton and there are about 4-5 people discussing ideas for Dayton already. I joined that group and I will see if I can participate in what they are planning. If not, my wife Patty suggested that she could find some people pretty easily through her connections as a teacher.

Here is the concept quoted from the first paragraph of the last page of Professional Photography Magazine Nov. 2009:

“Help Portrait has a simple premise–just connect. On December 12, photographers will grab their cameras, photograph people who cannot afford a portrait session, print the images, and deliver the prints to the subjects free of charge. That’s it. Pick a population. Take pictures. Give away the images.”

Here are a couple of links to the Help Portraits web site and some example videos that I found inspiring. This is not about making an event to promote any one photographer and it is not limited to professional photographers. Anyone who enjoys photography can participate in the project. In fact in the one video they show make-up artists and others helping in the project. Watch the videos and consider if you would like to participate.

http://help-portrait.com/#/about

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3BFwgf1f2I&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9tu1XrBn3A

It’s easy to join the NING website to begin to connect with others in your area that are interested in this project. I was able to search for Dayton and found this discussion group already going.

http://community.help-portrait.com/group/daytonoh

Update: The group for Dayton is also now a GROUP on Facebook. If you want to help in any way visit the group page here:

Help-Portrait Dayton on Facebook