Tampa People Rocked It!

What an absolutely incredible job the Tampa teams did. The day was a complete success. The Tampa groups took over 175 portraits

The Tampa General Team reported a GREAT day. It was emotionally trying at times as they worked with some terminal patients and their families, but what an awesome opportunity and service!

A word from Team Leader Chuck Levin;
In a nutshell, the event was a great success. We took photos of all types of patients. One was done in a special room, the others in the conference room they set aside for us. Some were dying and these will be the last and perhaps only photos of the children who were in trouble.

We did about 14 shots, printed and framed them. Jim Moorehead was superb as director of the technical part. Larry Moore helped him. Others worked with me on the photoshop and printer. We had about 6 people there. In addition, the makeup artist (Lindsay) was wonderful. She had to leave early but did a great job in making everyone she worked on feel special.


Here's a blurb from Team Leader Dr Sheehan at Operation PAR
It was awesome in my humble opinion. 5 MUAs prepared 70 women and 30 children for their photos. The models were delighted and very appreciative of the opportunity. 7 stations with various combinations of backgrounds and light set ups each manned with 2 photogs snapped away to produce some spectacular and moving images. They were passed to Scott Kelby, Matt kosklowski, Brad Moore and RC (of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals) who edited the images expertly and quickly (surprising huh?) on 3 new iMacs with Photoshop to polish the final product before printing on the donated Epson printers the 8x10 portrait as well as a sheet with one 4x6 and 4 2x3s. Turn around from entering the building to leaving with their photos was about 2 hrs. Most all the models and photographers were moved by the interactions occurring in this project which we look forward to repeating next year.......I am also indebted to Kelby mediagroup for their very professional involvement. Our other photographers were truly inspirational. We were lucky to have such an awesome team.


The Children's Home team reports having a blast working with the kids and staff. They took over 50 portraits and are using the services or Adoramapix. I saw some of the images and they were just awesome. They report taking individual pictures and portraits of siblings, some of whom had never had a picture taken together.

Since The VA did not work out I was able to get in with a migrant group and took 6 portraits. I would have loved to have taken more, but it was last minute. It was pretty cool as I set everything up in my car and printed right out of my trunk

Some lessons I learned;
1) Start early if you are dealing with beauracracy
2) Let your teams do their thing. It all works better without micromanagement (I knew that)
3) Remain flexible and mindful of the mission. 1 shot of 1 person in need beats the heck out of 100 missed opportunities because someone did not return my phone call.
4) Tampa Bay Area photographers, MUA's, and NAPP/Kelby Media people ROCK! No really... they do!
5) Photography is a common language that people seem to understand.

As this will probably be my last correspondence with all of you about the project, I just gotta say thank you, thank you, thank you. We did an incredible service for our community, it sounds like everybody had fun, and I know that some of you were very touched by having these folks pass through your lives.

Have a safe, happy, and photogenic holiday, and a very properous new year.
Please continue your support of the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts! (FMoPA.org) We need you more than ever!

KEEP HITTING THAT SHUTTER BUTTON!

Chip