Help-Portrait

This is a pretty cool concept. I might have to investigate what I can do for 2010's events..... Anybody else see the positives in this effort?

Austin's event is 12/04/2010 at the Sheraton Hotel, downtown.

www.help-portrait.com

What an outstanding idea!

interesting. I'm in the process of developing a plan to offer a basic, free family portrait (8x10), offering them at the local park one Saturday a month, as a service to the community. I've got the cost down to almost nothing, other than the time.

Gary-
Would that be a tripod/camera and a reflector on a stand or two? You're not dragging lights and a backdrop around are you?

Ever since ST_Scott's class, I've been somewhat intrigued by the thought of trying to take a portrait, but I don't have a clue on really how to pull it off. Lighting or natural (Macktruckturner seems to have the market cornered on au-natural'), colors, backgrounds, clothes choices, tight or loose crops, appendages like hands and elbows. The list just goes on not to mention the "just how in the heck to you pose them" questions.

M38A1 said:

Gary-
Would that be a tripod/camera and a reflector on a stand or two? You're not dragging lights and a backdrop around are you?

Ever since ST_Scott's class, I've been somewhat intrigued by the thought of trying to take a portrait, but I don't have a clue on really how to pull it off. Lighting or natural (Macktruckturner seems to have the market cornered on au-natural'), colors, backgrounds, clothes choices, tight or loose crops, appendages like hands and elbows. The list just goes on not to mention the "just how in the heck to you pose them" questions.

Click to expand...

Probably a camera, tripod, off camera flash and maybe a reflector (white foam board). This will be impromptu portraits, nothing on the quality level of Mactruckturner, but I hope to improve. I had a small poster designed, but the Help-Portrait concept might be a better way to go. Mine was a very simple version of what they're talking about. I am going to use short run posters and gang the shots. I can get 4/poster, so the cost would be $0.50/ea plus shipping at an end cost of about $1/ea.

Yep...I hear about this last year, just never got around to actually doing it.

Well, this is one week from today. Anyone planning on attending one of them?

Here's the Austin scoop:
http://helpportraitaustin.org/

I'm already committed for Dec 4th so I'm out.

You could always take a class at a local community college.
TexTom

Not exactly help-portrait, but I've donated free portraits for a single mom's shelter here for Christmas (and beyond). The plan is to do free portraits once a quarter for the new mom's and their kids as they come through the program. It's a long term, self-help program where they help the mom develop a marketable job skill so they can be come self-sustaining.

M38A1 said:

Gary-
Would that be a tripod/camera and a reflector on a stand or two? You're not dragging lights and a backdrop around are you?

Ever since ST_Scott's class, I've been somewhat intrigued by the thought of trying to take a portrait, but I don't have a clue on really how to pull it off. Lighting or natural (Macktruckturner seems to have the market cornered on au-natural'), colors, backgrounds, clothes choices, tight or loose crops, appendages like hands and elbows. The list just goes on not to mention the "just how in the heck to you pose them" questions.

Click to expand...

Tracker said:

Probably a camera, tripod, off camera flash and maybe a reflector (white foam board). This will be impromptu portraits, nothing on the quality level of Mactruckturner, but I hope to improve. I had a small poster designed, but the Help-Portrait concept might be a better way to go. Mine was a very simple version of what they're talking about. I am going to use short run posters and gang the shots. I can get 4/poster, so the cost would be $0.50/ea plus shipping at an end cost of about $1/ea.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the compliments guys. Really I just get lucky sometimes.

I like the concept. A friend of mine (Josh Brewster, in Austin) actually did something similar to this a while back and found it very rewarding. He was just walking around near UT and came across a homeless man who for whatever reason struck up a friendly conversation. Josh took his photo, and brought it back to him a few days later. Said the guy really appreciated it.

report back. I made up a a nice poster with a couple of sample photos of families I've shot and setup at the park at the end of my block. People just had a hard time believing I wasn't some perv, I guess. I got the, "Well, we'll think about it." response. I was offering an 8x10 totally free. I was pretty discouraged, actually, by people's level of distrust, although I also understand everybody being cautious when it comes to their kids. I also offered it to an older lady walking her dog and a man with his older teenage son shooting hoops. Again, strike-out. Guess I need to work on my warm and fuzzy guy appearance/demeanor some more.

The help-portrait.com concept helps legitimize it as an "event". If I was doing it as part of some festival, it would probably work there, e.g. a balloon festival or church carnival, etc.

That was always the hardest part of the "business" side of my photography (I just shoot for fun now, eventually I'll take my website down). I'm apparently not very good at the friendly approach. I've actually ended up shooting a few people who shot me down on approach later on after they had a chance to Google me.

One thing I didn't try was hand out my photography business cards. The challenge was I was trying to avoid making it look like some business come-on, so I didn't give out my cards. Probably would have helped people feel a little more at ease. oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.