Word of Mouth

The Dog at 200mm

Word has definitely travelled fast and Erica and I are now shooting an informal engagement session tomorrow afternoon for some simple portraits for a newspaper (as the couple will get a full session with their wedding photographer, but want a quick, nice picture or two right now). People have been talking up our work and there are some more prospects on the horizon.

On a different note, I remember reading about Help-Portrait on Zach Arias’ blog. I found it to be a good idea but didn’t have a good idea to execute against. My buddy Ryan posted a thing on the work photography newsgroup about it and a genius idea hit me.

The idea is this: a lot of families lost pretty much everything in the flood 2 years ago and shooting family portraits for them near Christmas Time could give them something to help keep them positive that things will work out while they rebuild or move to a new house. My friends and I have the gear needed, just no location (preferably on the South side of town near the affected area to minimize travel for these families), or money to make prints for the families.

If anyone in the Cedar Rapids area want to donate a large room with a tall ceiling or money for prints, let me know. If you want to help organize and market, let me know too. This seems like a big undertaking for a few advanced amateur photographers who have very busy schedules with day jobs as engineers.

So how does word of mouth relate to my Help-Portrait idea? Myself and who ever helps organize will have to use it to promote the event (December 12 – the international date set by the campaign organizers).

I have a feeling that this would be a cool thing for the community and I hope it pans out.