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.

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.

Another shot of hair and make-up.






Vicki, probably discussing some last minute details.

Jed, looking "chill" as always!

The last picture I got before my battery died. :(