Photographers, lets volunteer this Holiday season

Today is Thanksgiving. A time when a lot of people do soul searching, look back at the year that practically has gone by and think of all the things they should be thankful for. That may be enjoying good health, having a job, having a roof over one's head, or food at the table. Sadly, everyone is not that lucky. There are many folks out there for whom each day is a battle. A struggle to feed their children, to find shelter at night, or to find any kind of job. For those unlucky ones, it is sometimes hard, or practically impossible to see light at the end of the tunnel.

But there are ways for those altruistic folks out there to give something back to the community. Go to San Diego Magazine for a listing of charitable opportunities and events in the area. But since my specialty is photography I will go over a couple options we have, as photographers, to volunteer our time and talent to help out others in need.

Help-Portrait
This year, on December 12, photographers around the world will be leveraging their skills to give a glimmer of hope to those going through rough times. Portrait shots will be taken of those who are out of a job, homeless, or in any way going through a difficult situation. The idea here is to just bring a smile to their faces, make them feel like they're stars, and in the process give them hope. Check out this YouTube video that shows what that sort of event looks like. If you have a camera (you don't have to be a pro) think about maybe volunteering some of your time. Check out the San Diego Group page for details about time and location.

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS)
This organization administers a network of almost 7,000 volunteer photographers in the U.S. and other countries. Professional portraiture services are provided at no cost to parents grieving the loss of a child. If you are interested in volunteering your time and talent for this worthy cause join the NILMDTS network.  

So visit the sites above and see if that's something you'd like to do; or find other ways to offer a helping hand. There's always someone in need who will truly appreciates your support. Have a great Thanksgiving.

NILMDTS photo shoot

Today I shadowed another photographer on a NILMDTS shoot. The tiny subject was a 3-week-old girl diagnosed with trisomy 13, which is a genetic disorder that affects 1 out of 10,000 newborns. In addition to displaying several of the many simptoms associated with this disease, like cleft lip or palate, and mental retardation, many of the babies affected by this disorder also suffer from congenital heart disease. And sadly, 80% of children with trisomy 13 die during the first month.

I was there as an observer, since this was the first case I was involved in, but also as an interpreter, being that the parents only spoke Spanish. The photographer did her job very professionally as I watched (she's already done several of these sessions), and everything proceeded so smoothly that I sometimes forgot what made this child so special. If you had walked in during the session you would have thought it was just another newborn portrait session, with the parents posing and holding their baby so proudly. But then, I would remember again that this child will be leaving this world soon. As I write this, and ponder about the whole thing, I can't help but think that by the time those proud parents receive their picture CD in the mail (about two weeks) that little girl will probably be gone.

The baby was fast asleep in her rocker, where the last pictures had been taken. "You look at my little girl and you don't really see anything wrong with her, but God knows why he does things", her dad said to me as we were getting ready to leave. What do you say to that?

My temp home studio

I've always been more of a mobile kinda photographer. On weddings and other events obviously I'm going to be shooting on location, but with portrait photography you either shoot in a studio setting or at a location agreed with the client. For the latter my philosophy is that my mobile studio is comprised of whatever fits in the trunk of my car. And since I always like to be prepared I always carry at least one camera, lens and flash and some basic accessories in the trunk. A tripod, light stand, umbrella and collapsible reflector completes the portable lighting setup. You never know when the need to do a quick shoot will arise.

Still, I've always wanted to try out shooting in a studio just for the heck of it. Not that I will be spending a lot of time in a studio in the near future, but I always like to keep my options open. So a couple weeks ago I purchased a backdrop stand, visited a friend of mine who's in the textile business, and freeloaded on several types of cloth to use as backdrops. It's nice having friends, right?

This weekend I finally had some time to setup the stand, put some backdrops on it and start shooting. The cool thing about this type of photography is that you have control over pretty much everything. Background, lighting quality and direction, etc. On location there are some things you provide, like extra lighting. Some things are there that you may choose to use as part of your shoot, like a cool brick wall full of graffiti. And mother nature calls the shots on pretty much everything else, like how much time you have before that nice setting sun disappears.

So there's pros and cons for both studio and on location photography. But like I always tell other photographers, try out everything you can, at least once. You may be surprised. For years, I was more of an available light photographer, using flash only at parties and other events. But when I tried using off-camera flash with umbrellas and other light modifiers on location, trying to replicate the studio look out on the street, I was hooked.

So just for the fun of it, I will setup my temporary "studio" in my living room every so often, and post the results to my blog.

Above, a picture I took of my youngest kid. I wanted to give it a vintage look so I played around with some textures and colors that I added to the original image.  Main lighting provided by Nikon SB800 through umbrella to camera left. Sun light through window at camera right used as fill.

 

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Last month I was reading Vital Signs, the Professional Photographers Association newsletter, when I came upon an article prompting member photographers to volunteer some of their time for a foundation called “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (NILMDTS).” Up until that point I had no idea such an organization, or service, existed.

Before I proceed with this post, I should first pose this question. What would you do if you knew your soon to be born baby would not live more than a few hours or days? Or put another way, fast forward ten years after this unfortunate event. How would you remember the day your baby was born? The first time you held him. The few days he spent on this earth surrounded by all who loved him.

Difficult questions indeed. But you can probably put each person into one of two distinct groups, depending on what they answer. One group would be those who consider the experience too painful, and thus would want to move on and not ponder on the memory of the child lost. The second group would be composed of those who, having dealt with the pain, accept the loss, but cherish the short time they spent with their baby. They lovingly remember that their little girl had her father’s eyes and her mother’s hands.

But given the option, would you want to have professional-quality pictures taken of your baby the time she was with you? A valid argument would be that as you get older, and your memory starts to fade, pictures would be the only thing you would still have. A faithful representation of your baby’s dark hair, his tiny little feet and hands. Would that be something you would like to look at many years from now?

The way I see it, no matter how painful the loss, you can’t deny that your baby existed, even if it was for 24 hours. We like to keep pictures and other objects that remind us of our loved ones who have passed away. Does it really matter if they lived seventy-two years or seventy-two hours? They lived. We spent time with them.

So this is the option the NILMDTS foundation gives to parents who have been told that their baby will die shortly after birth. At an appropriate time, parents are made aware that this service is available, at no cost to them. If the parents decide they want the service a volunteer photographer in the area is notified. Parents and photographer meet to get to know each other, discuss tentative date of birth and other details, etc. This means that in most cases, depending on when the baby’s ailment is detected, coordination between photographer and parents will commence months before the baby is born. As the date gets nearer the photographer goes into standby mode, knowing that at any given moment he could get the call to rush to the hospital. Depending on the baby’s condition the photographer might only have a couple of hours to get to the hospital and complete the shoot. In some cases there is no alternative but to do the job shortly after the baby has passed away.

Being the parent of three healthy boys I have to admit that I’m very lucky. My wife did have a miscarriage before again getting pregnant and having our third child. It was early in the pregnancy, but it was still painful, so I can only imagine the pain of those parents who know months in advance that they will lose the child. Holding your baby knowing she will be with you for only a few days must be a terrible experience.

After reading that newsletter I thought I should give a little something back to those parents who are not as lucky as me and my wife. Still, I had doubts about how I would react upon putting myself into that sort of situation. Having to walk into a hospital room full of grieving people, looking at that baby who hasn’t got long to live, or has already passed away, and proceed to do my job in a professional manner.

After a couple days I just decided to let destiny run its course. Knowing that there is a process where each applicant is considered and either accepted or rejected based on various factors, I pretty much decided that if I’m meant to do that kind of volunteer work, it will happen, so I filled out the application.

Last Monday I got an e-mail from the NILMDTS foundation stating that after reviewing my application they had decided to accept me as an affiliate photographer. There’s still some formalities that I need to take care of before officially getting on their photographer directory, but I should be done in a couple days. They stated that to fully complete the induction process I need to either do my first shoot or accompany one of their affiliate photographers on a shoot as an observer within the next six weeks. That “ultimatum” made it sound very official, and it got me a little nervous at first. But after a while I decided that yes it’s going to be a challenge, but it’s something I need to do.

Above, a picture of our third child, little Arturo, when he was 4 weeks old. He is now a healthy two year old boy.                

Challenge Walk MS 2009

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society had a fundraising event this past weekend (09/11 - 09/13).

Participants walked 50 miles, Friday through Sunday, from Carlsbad to downtown San Diego, in an effort to raise $1,200,000 and find a cure for MS.

I volunteered as a photographer to document the last 10 miles on Sunday. The day's walk began at Ventura Cove/West Mission Bay and ended at Pantoja Park in Downtown San Diego. I spent half a day, from 8:00 AM to 1:30PM, driving down the route, stopping at every rest station, and taking a bunch of pictures.

Although I drove between each rest stop, there were a couple times where I just couldn't find a parking spot close to the rest stations, specially in downtown SD, so there was some inevitable walking involved, and by the time the event finished my feet were pretty sore. It was until the next day that I discovered that I had a blister on my right foot. Jeez.

I can only imagine how the Challenge Walk participants felt after finishing those 50 miles that Sunday. Way to go guys and gals!

Worldwide Photo Walk

A very interesting event took place on Saturday July 18th. 32,000 photographers in 900 cities hit the streets, camera in hand, and took pictures of anything and everything. To learn more about this event go to http://worldwidephotowalk.com .

I went out with several other Tijuana photographers and took my share of pictures. The one above was not staged. I found the bottle just sitting there on the window ledge, snake image behind it. I looked at it and that common question came to mind, "What's your poison?"

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon

A couple weeks ago I made a quick trip to Monterrey, Mexico to visit a very good friend who fell ill. Sadly, he passed away the day before my scheduled trip back to my hometown (Tijuana). In a way I'm really glad I was able to see him one last time, but saying goodbye forever is not something I can do easily, especially to someone I was very close to.

I lived in Monterrey for almost two years, made very good friends, got a new set of relatives ( I got married while living there) and absolutely fell in love with the city. Monterrey is a perfect blend of old and new. Old colonial architecture suddenly changes to the newest, trendiest shopping malls and business complexes.

I was there for about three days during this last trip, but I was only able to set aside about three hours one morning to walk around downtown Monterrey, carrying my camera, hunting for images.

The image above is of a home in downtown Monterrey. This is typical of the old colonial style where the front door is flush with the very narrow sidewalk. Not very practical by today's standards, but I love that type of architecture. Even with the extreme heat (Monterrey is terribly warm during summer) I enjoyed walking around taking pictures.