Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bob Foss on September 20, 2009 at 1:27pm

I am located in Cohoes, but willing to drive to any local community for this program

I am a photographer but have not done a lot of portrait work. I am confident that I can.

I am sort of falling into the planning part -- ok -- I am definitely involved with the planning

Permalink Reply by Brittany Dodson on September 20, 2009 at 7:37pm

I am in the Rotterdam part of Schenectady, but am willing to drive to other parts of the Capital District.

I am a photographer, and though I've never done portrait work, I love capturing photos of people.

I haven't had any experience in planning an event like this, but I would be willing to help out if I can.

Permalink Reply by Mahimatt on September 20, 2009 at 8:03pm

I am a photographer. Schenectady but happy to travel for a good cause!
I am up for helping out also not a portrait photog but can get the job for sure!
Happy to help planning. Sounds like a great project and I am thrilled about the possibility of being involved.

Permalink Reply by Deb Regimbald on September 20, 2009 at 8:27pm

I am in Schenectady and currently have transportation "issues" so need to stay focused around the Schenectady venue.

I would like to follow up with the YWCA here in Schenectady and canvass for their interest in hosting a program. I think they are a central point of outreach for all kinds of programs to low income families in this area.

I love to photograph but have no formal training in portrait photography but could probably do it in a pinch. I can help with planning, coordinating volunteers, scheduling, anything that needs to be done etc.

This is very exciting. Thanks for helping to get this off the ground Bob.

Permalink Reply by Jon Winslow on September 22, 2009 at 4:57am

I am in Scotia and work in Troy. That gives me a lot of room to help out. I would be happy to participate in Troy, Albany, Scotia, Amsterdam, Schenectady or further west.

Permalink Reply by Denise Robinson on September 22, 2009 at 8:19am

I live in Albany and can travel to Troy or Schenectady easily.

I can offer to take photos but I am not experienced in portraits, although I'm ready to learn.

I am willing to lend a hand in almost any capacity that will bring ou closer to the goal. I don't mind being involved with the planning.

Denise

Permalink Reply by Kerrie Wolf on September 30, 2009 at 10:08am

I live in Schenectady...am willing to go where this is happening because I think it's a fantastic cause.

My skill--make up. I can also recruit other Mary Kay consultants to do makeup. I have at least one interested already and she's the only one I've talked to so far.

I'm happy to help with planning.

Oh, and I'm on the Board of Directors at the YWCA in Schenectady...Deb, have you already contacted them?

Permalink Reply by Dennis Hays on September 30, 2009 at 10:10am

I apologize for being so late in responding directly...

First, I'm willing to be a photographer in any of the areas needed. As Bob may know, I have done portraits, both formal and environmental.

If it's feasible, I can set up a workshop (I recommend some Library) where we can go through some lighting and posing basics. I had suggested this at one of the Capital area meeting groups, but nothing came of it.

I see, from the comments, where there are a few volunteers, but not with real experience doing portraits...

Best,

Dennis

Permalink Reply by Jason Lehr on September 30, 2009 at 1:54pm

I missed yesterday's meeting, but i'm interested in being involved with this.

I live in Scotia, and i am willing to travel around the area to take part in this.
I have no real portrait experience, but would like to lend my general experience in photography.
I don't mind being part of the planning process.

Permalink Reply by Bob Foss on September 30, 2009 at 2:20pm

Thanks Dennis. We may consider this but right now our thinking is that each "team" (and the number of tems is unknown at this time) should be headed by an experienced portrait photographer. Right now we have four, including you, and I expect we will get many more once our plans are a bit more well grounded. For those of us (like me) who have no real experience, I am thinking we will be working more as assistants to the experienced folks and taking some "documentary " photos of the event itself.

Hope you can make the meeting next week and get your thoughts on this on the table! It was a good meeting. There were strong opinions expressed but on most issues we seemed to reach a point of agreement.

Bob

Dennis Hays said:

I apologize for being so late in responding directly...

First, I'm willing to be a photographer in any of the areas needed. As Bob may know, I have done portraits, both formal and environmental.

If it's feasible, I can set up a workshop (I recommend some Library) where we can go through some lighting and posing basics. I had suggested this at one of the Capital area meeting groups, but nothing came of it.

I see, from the comments, where there are a few volunteers, but not with real experience doing portraits...

Best,

Dennis

Permalink Reply by Cynthia Smith on September 30, 2009 at 11:06pm

Judging from what people said at the meeting, I think I probably have more time than most anyone else to really contribute to planning and overall event coordination. I might be the only one of us who is currently completely unemployed. (and also has no family to care for)

I would also like to take on responsibility for my own selfish purposes.. as I try to find my way to a new career, this will give me the opportunity to take Project Coordination skills I used in my last job and put them to use in a completely different industry and type of activity. This might help me both in figuring out what type of fields I can go into that could use someone in that kind of role, as well as determine how to market those skills beyond just the industry I was previously working in.

I originally wanted to participate because I like doing Portrait work, and was interested in taking pictures. But one of the things I realized in the meeting was that the lead photographers need to be able to get quality images with a higher ratio of keepers to rejects than I currently do, and in a smaller time frame. As I mentioned last night.. I can take some beautiful portraits, but about 10% of my shots are keepers and it takes me a couple of hours, and even the keepers need editing work that I do not do quickly at my current post-processing skill level. That won't work in what we are planning.

So I think I would be more useful to the group in a project coordination role both in the planning stages and on the day of the event. Being the "glue" (my nickname in my last job) or the person who keeps info flowing and all the plates spinning can be very time consuming and Bob has said he can't guarantee his consistent availability to be our leader. Something that I CAN commit to is Time. I also have Stage Management experience of running a "show" which may be very handy the day of the event.

So I think I should leave the camera work to those with more experience (if things are slow, I can always take time to learn from the pro's who are taking the lead) and use my OTHER abilities for this project. I think it will be a learning experience for all of us no matter what role we take on, and once we get rolling, we will have photographers galore.

I may regret this on the day itself, and be wishing I was behind a camera (and of course, I'll have it with me!) but I think I will be more useful doing other stuff.

See you all Monday at 7pm at the Photocenter for meeting #2.

Permalink Reply by Bob Foss on October 1, 2009 at 12:57pm

I have said from the start that I got this ball rolling because I didn't see anyone else doing it. I am not a great organizer of anything and do face unexpected work requirements that may impact my ability to lead this group. So I am happy to stand down from the leadership role and appreciate that Cynthia, with time on her hands, may be a good choice. I would like to maintain my role here of coordinating our web site (it is in my name after all) and, as a founding member of the local group, maintain some inside role with planning as well.

Seems to me that organizationally we have several issues:

Agreement on where. Teri's email opened a door I thought we closed. Are we or are we not going to focus on a single, community based venue? Let's shoot for NO LATER THAN the end of October to have firmly established where we will do this event. And that means a locked down agreement with the venue owners.

Agreement on What. I think there are two viewpoints still on this matter. Should anyone with a camera be encouraged to be a photographer for this event? Or should we use the expertise of our most experienced volunteers? This seems to be still an unresolved question.

Agreement on when? I think we stuck with the December 12th date, but in retrospect there was discussion of earlier dates as well. Are we going to support more than one day of shooting?

Funding? We spoke specifically about the cost of final printing and production and Katy agreed to help with that. But we have other financial needs. We will need food (it is a holiday event, so a spread of nice things would be great); we will need to produce flyers, announcements, etc.; we may need to rent equipment; etc. and it won't take long to imagine many other cost centers in this process. Should we do some basic fundraising for this event?

Rights in Photos? I think we agreed in principle that the goal is to "give" the photo. But sincere concern was raised about asking a photographer to relinquish their rights to how that photo is used. We also acknowledged that we would not be getting "releases" from the 'customers,' but thought the idea of approaching them after the fact and asking for their permission for use would be acceptable.

See all of you next Monday!

Bob

Cynthia Smith said:

Judging from what people said at the meeting, I think I probably have more time than most anyone else to really contribute to planning and overall event coordination. I might be the only one of us who is currently completely unemployed. (and also has no family to care for)

I would also like to take on responsibility for my own selfish purposes.. as I try to find my way to a new career, this will give me the opportunity to take Project Coordination skills I used in my last job and put them to use in a completely different industry and type of activity. This might help me both in figuring out what type of fields I can go into that could use someone in that kind of role, as well as determine how to market those skills beyond just the industry I was previously working in.

I originally wanted to participate because I like doing Portrait work, and was interested in taking pictures. But one of the things I realized in the meeting was that the lead photographers need to be able to get quality images with a higher ratio of keepers to rejects than I currently do, and in a smaller time frame. As I mentioned last night.. I can take some beautiful portraits, but about 10% of my shots are keepers and it takes me a couple of hours, and even the keepers need editing work that I do not do quickly at my current post-processing skill level. That won't work in what we are planning.

So I think I would be more useful to the group in a project coordination role both in the planning stages and on the day of the event. Being the "glue" (my nickname in my last job) or the person who keeps info flowing and all the plates spinning can be very time consuming and Bob has said he can't guarantee his consistent availability to be our leader. Something that I CAN commit to is Time. I also have Stage Management experience of running a "show" which may be very handy the day of the event.

So I think I should leave the camera work to those with more experience (if things are slow, I can always take time to learn from the pro's who are taking the lead) and use my OTHER abilities for this project. I think it will be a learning experience for all of us no matter what role we take on, and once we get rolling, we will have photographers galore.

I may regret this on the day itself, and be wishing I was behind a camera (and of course, I'll have it with me!) but I think I will be more useful doing other stuff.

See you all Monday at 7pm at the Photocenter for meeting #2.

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