Saturday, December 12, 2009

Help Portrait In The News



[CLICK THE LOGO TO SEE NEWS CLIP]

This blog is different than any other I've posted before. This is officially the first entry that does not include a photograph that I've taken. But, this is something that is on my heart and I want to talk about it.

Today I loaded up my camera gear and went down to RocketTown (a music venue in Nashville) to do my part in "Help-Portrait." The project was created by one of my favorite photographers, Jeremy Cowart. He had an idea: Why not take a day and do free portraits of people that were less fortunate than others.

His idea went global. Initial reports say 7,000 photographers in 55 different countries volunteered their energy to this cause today. At our location, we had about 25 photographers that set up about 10 sets to shoot on. I had the pleasure to work alongside other Nashville photographers such as Michael Gomez, Jeremy Cowart, Sheri O'Neal, Wee Sing and Jason Miller, amongst many, many others.

We ended up shooting several hundred different people's portraits and printed and framed them. We also offered everyone a good meal and something to drink. All of this, of course, was free of charge.

Several media outlets came to cover the event, including CNN, Nashville Channel 5 and Nashville Channel 2. If you click the "Help-Portrait" logo above, it will take you to a video that ran on Saturday's evening edition on Channel 5. I feel really honored because the clip includes some footage of me posing a lovely young girl that dropped by to have her picture made.

Today heavily impacted my life. It made me truly realize the importance of helping others. And now my heart overflows with love and I plan on sharing that by helping others. To Help is Love, and Love is what Life is all about.