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Help Portrait



There was a moment where I stopped. I inhaled the sights and sounds and I exhaled a smile...And I reveled in the feeling of being extremely blessed. Although many (myself included) would call it a cliche, I don't take those moments for granted because the sheer memory of those pauses are often the extra push of strength that pulls me through some intense and stressful times.

I whispered in my heart,

"This is one of so many reasons why I love
photography!"


I was standing in the Dream Center in Peoria, working as a volunteer with Help Portrait. If you have the time, you should go to the link by clicking here and watching the two videos. In a nutshell, on 12-12-09, photographers and volunteers all around the world took a day to photograph homeless people, single parent families, and low income families, for the purpose of providing them with a nice, portrait image of themselves. They would come in, get their hair and make up done, and in Peoria, we had 2 photographers (Vicki Taufer with V Gallery and Josh Blick with Bruer Photography) photograph them. Between Vicki and Josh, they had about 100 sessions in 6 hours.

I was working as Vicki's assistant. I have a feeling that they were being nice and trying to find a job for me to do so they let me squeak toys, walk people from place to place, blow a fan, take some behind-the-scense pictures...and I loved every minute of it! I was honored to be Vicki's assistant as I'm always awe-struck by great photographers. I had recently been to the workshop that she and Jed (Vicki's husband and editing extraordinaire) run, so I had seen her shoot a session before. However, I was amazed this day, how she was able to make every single person that she shot feel like they were special, beautiful, confident, and unique. She really has a gift and a LOT of talent.

I could go on about each person, but I have to mention Jed because he retouched every single picture they ordered and let me just say, that was A LOT of work!!! He's got some mad editing skills, and when I'd have a free moment, I'd sit by him and just watch. If you don't read his blog, it's worth checking out. He's such an honest writer and I love his thought process. I've been a stalker for quite some time, so it's fun to actually now call him and Vicki friends.

Here are a few pictures I took on my camera before my battery died and I had to switch to another camera. These pictures are only of the first 5 minutes or so of the event since I don't have the images I took on the other camera...

The Production Team (that's not what they were called, but I wasn't sure what else to call them), discussing workflow.
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Hair and Makeup Team hard at work making everyone look fabulous! The makeup artist on the very left in the black t-shirt is Josh's (photographer) wife, Robbyn.
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Another shot of hair and make-up.
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Vicki, probably discussing some last minute details.
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Jed, looking "chill" as always!
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The last picture I got before my battery died. :(
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4 comments:

Jami said...

That is the coolest thing! I can't wait to watch MORE of those videos! Thanks for sharing Tam!

Heidi said...

Very neat Tam. I am glad you got to be a part of it all.

Pam said...

How neat. Will you be able to post more pictures from the day? I'd love to see more.

Tami said...

Jami...I'm glad you watched the videos! It was a lot of fun!

Heidi...I agree, I feel so lucky that I got to be a part!

Aunt Pam...I was just thinking of you today! Miss you!!! I don't know if I'll have more pictures 'cause I gave back the card with the pictures on it to Josh Blick 'cause I was using his camera. They may send out pictures...not sure! If so, I'll definitely post them!

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