Hello Everyone,

I wanted to thank you all for volunteering for this event. We really want this to be a great opportunity for everyone to share what they love with their community and as well a great way to show those less fortunate in our community that they are worth something, especially in this trying time. The only way we can keep ourselves up is by giving each other support. You are really making a difference in somebody’s life, including yours, by being part of this event.

First off, I wanted to inform you of the dates of the events:

Dress for Success – Fort Myers will be December 3rd
Cafe of Life – Bonita Springs will be December 10th
Nations Association – Fort Myers will be December 10th.

We also wanted to make it aware that participation for more than one event is welcomed!

Portrait Photographers
I wanted to narrow down what kind of setups can be done in each location.

• Bonita Springs event is outside at Depot Park. So ambient lighting photographers, or photographers who have portable setups (i.e. speedlights, shoot thru umbrellas, or battery packs) this would be the place for you. The Bonita event is small, we’re expecting close to around 60 families. The event is scheduled to been in the afternoon. If you’re interested in Bonita, please contact Megan Taylor atmeganmarietaylor@gmail.com
• Fort Myers – Dress for Success we are working on booking a location within Bell Tower Shops or the Crown Royal Plaza. This will be more studio shooting. We will be giving headshots, as well as family portraits to any of the ladies that do bring their family. We’re expecting anywhere from possibly 60 – 150 individuals (not including families). The setup will probably me something like half headshot photographers – half family portrait photographers. I don’t see any problems with using speedlights shoot thru for any of the headshots, so some of our speedlight photographers, if you possess lightstands and umbrellas, you can do this for sure. I know some photographers spoke of having some extra backdrops, and I also have quite a few rolls of seamless paper we can share around. Anyone interested in Fort Myers, can contact me, Melissa, atmelissa@helpportrait-swfl.com.
• Nations Association is a mixed area. Outside and inside portraits can be done. So everyone can participate in this whether you’re ambient or studio. We will have two buildings that mini studios can be setup in. One building for sure can house 4 studio setups and the other maybe 2-3. Nations is expecting anywhere from 75-150 familes. For Nations, please contact Natalie Everett at natalie@helpportrait-swfl.com.

I also wanted to make sure that you all portrait photographers are aware of the rules for this event.

1. These photos can NOT be used for your portfolio.  But we can share photos with the subjects story ONLY if permission is granted by the subject. Releases will be available. Stories can be shared here, on your personal blog, the official Help-Portrait site, etc as long as it abides by release rules (don’t portray the subject in a bad light, and remember these photos are to create a sense of worth so be careful with how you present them). You can find out more here: http://help-portrait.com/2011/10/the-future-of-help-portrait-2

2. We are not here to try and one up anyone else. This is an event about bringing our community together.

3. Yes, this event is open to all photographers of any level. But yes, we would appreciate it be photographers who can capture those smiling photos of a family and make them feel special. This isn’t about gear, or technically amazing photographs. This is about making people feel like they are worth something. These are individuals who may have never even have had a picture of themselves taken or even seen a picture of themselves before.

4. Most importantly, have fun!

Documenters

We need two documenters per site. Please check with event leaders for each event if you haven’t already.

Volunteers/Photo Assistants/Greeters

Regular volunteers your jobs are just as important as the photographers. You will be the glue that keeps the events together. You will spend slightly more time with our families and individuals, making sure they are where they are supposed to be, helping guide them, helping our photographers with any assistance they need (whether it be help posing the family, holding reflectors, moving lights, or translating for some of the non-English speaking families), and just making sure any issue that may arise is being attended to and aware to the group leader.

At our Nations location, having bilingual volunteers were essential as a lot of our families spoke only Spanish. Our Bonita location will probably be the same. This goes out to anyone actually looking to get involved; photographer, volunteer, make-up artists; etc.

Make-Up Artists/Hairstylists

We’ve had only one make-up artists sign-up. We have contacted some of the schools in the area and are still waiting on replies. So if you know anyone, please let them know about this event. We’re not looking for extreme make-overs. Simple make-up and hair, maybe a little clean up of the face, as some of the individuals that we will be photographing may have not had a bath (especially Nations and Bonita locations). We want to make these folks feel special. So please, please, please, let anyone you know who thinks they can be of some service in this area know that we are in need of them. Even if it’s donations of excess make-up that someone may have, make-up applicators, hair brushes, and combs. Anything helps.

Printing

Printing is going to be individual to the area you are working within. We are working on possibly doing on-site printing at Nations and Dress for Success. So if you guys have printers, please let us know. If we feel like it’s a possibility, we will further look for ink cartridge and photo paper donations. With that we will be needing individuals who will be in charge of the printing area and packaging the photos, and making sure they get either to the photographer who photographed the family, so you both can present it to the family or individual. We’re looking to do one 8×10 main family shots, and possibly four 5×7 individuals. At Dress for Success event, we will probably be doing 5×8 or 6×9 headshots and 8×10 family shots.

For Everyone

T-shirts. If you were part of Help-Portrait last year, you can use your t-shirts again. But we are asking that everyone head over to http://help-portrait.rede-commerce.com/ and buy one of the shirts. If anyone has any issues, or can’t buy one, please email your group leader, or you can email me at melissa@helpportrait-swfl.com and we’ll figure something out. But we’re really hoping that everyone can pick up their own shirts. Shirts from last year are on sale for $10. Please check it out.

Donations

We have been setup on Donor Tools as an official site! So if anyone asks about making donations (they are tax deductible) please direct them to our donation page .

Donations work as a reimbursement. We get people to donate, we buy all the materials we need depending on how much we have in donations, and afterwards we send in a reimbursement letter with all receipts pertaining to things bought for the event (i.e. food, drinks, photo paper, printer ink, printers, etc.). This does not include you buying photo equipment. PLEASE KEEP ALL YOUR RECEIPTS PERTAINING TO HELP-PORTRAIT MATERIALS.

Really want to thank you again for signing up for this event and wanting to make a difference in your community.

Anyone still interested, please sign-up and get in touch with the event leaders