Giving Back Update

Good Morning everyone.

I am sure so many of you have already reached out to your community, thinking about something that you could do in giving back to the community.

Yes it is a great way to help a company that might not have the skills or even the budget to raise funds for their cause. They might just be starting out or the work they do might not be as glamorous or exciting as everyone would like them to be.

The reason we give back is first and foremost to help a cause that we believe in. Don't ask a company with the sole intention of you been the only beneficiary. How can you use your craft to better help the company that you are photographing increase their presence in the market place? How can you make their lives better? Are you able to raise additional funds for the business?

If you can help them answer just one of those questions then I am sure you are making a difference.

Now, if you have not found something to contribute to then may I suggest you send a message or post through Facebook. I sent such a post through Facebook just over a month ago and a client I just photographed forwarded the post to someone that they knew and that is how I found my first charity organization.

A director from the Schwartz Organization  sent me an email and wanted to know if I was available to photograph one of their gala evening presentations.

Well, if this is the first time that you are giving back to the community it might be the ideal way to see how everything works with regards to giving back. I asked them what they required? They wanted a few photographs of all the people attending and that is all that they required. It was a simple yet easy way to get myself some exposure.

Now the important question you need to ask when you are doing something for the community. The question is not "How can I benefit from something like this?" The question you need to ask is ,

"Is their a way I can leverage your event to let people know about me as a photographer?" You can always phrase the words a little better. (I know I am not the best with words.) But by asking this question you are ensuring that you get something from doing some photographs for the event.

The response that I got was, "There are going to be about 350 gift basket for all those that donated to the organization and you can add your promotional cards to that basket." That is just what I wanted. I got to add one of my professionally made postcards with some of my best photographs on it, into a gift basket of some of the more generous donors in the community.

I was getting access to a marketing list that is not often available to a local photographer. Don't you think that that is worth 2 hours of your time?

So, I recommend you try Facebook or any other form of social networking to find some contacts. You will never know what will come from it. It is a great place to start and the important part of this exercise is making contacts. You are building your database of contacts for the future.

So have fun out there and don't worry too much about find the perfect charity or organization, but rather find an organization where you know you can make the most impact no matter what it is.

Happy shooting and we will speak again soon.

Denzil

Giving Back - Videos

Good morning everyone.

This week we will continue in the theme of giving back. We want to build a great portfolio for community charity work so what can be better than giving back to the local community.

To add some great features and additional work to your resume', why not add some video to your work. The industry is starting to demand that photographers also add some video to their packages. This might be a really opportunity to improve upon your video skills.

Here is a short video on how to set your WB for your DSLR camera.

and this video as well..

They are easy to follow and getting your WB correct in camera will be a breeze.

If you have a few different cameras than were mentioned in the videos then you can also check out this link for additional camera WB settings.

Last week we had a online video training speaking about some of the sites you can visit to find out how you can contribute to the community.

Here are two of those links.

Volunteer Match

Shutter Mission

Have a great Wednesday and I will speak to you again next week.

Denzil

Giving Back to the Community

A Happy Wednesday morning to everyone.

This morning I want to talk about some interesting things that we will be having in the coming months. Well, why so early you would say? The reason is that normally it takes some organizing and we would like everyone to contribute if possible.

In August to are going to dedicate the entire month to "Giving Back to the Community" series. This is the pre-planning stages and we would like you to think about all the opportunities that you might be able to give back to the community.

Now, it has to be considered in conjunction with running your own business. How would you be able to benefit and sustain a project like this on a yearly basis? How are you going to cover your costs or maybe pick up residual income if you pay for your time and prints by donating your time?

To get you going in the right direction I am going to mention a few things that you may want to consider. There are thousands of businesses around the country that make a living by giving back to the community.

One example is building a package for a Charity Auction. You may give away a portrait package, that may cost you $250. Contact all the charities in your area and find out if you can contribute to their cause.

So how does this work?

1. Get some marketing material. Banner, postcards, flyers and pamphlets that tell people about your business. (You cost should not be more than $150) WHCC
2. At the auction you can have a vendor table and tell people about what you contributed to the auction.
3. Now, make sure to get a signup sheet or even use your IPad or mobile phone to capture Name and Emails. A good way to do this is use Chimpmail. Chimpadeedoo is an app that integrates with your IPad and mobile phone to capture email addresses so that you can build your marketing list. 
4. Remember that the goal of all your charity work is to build a community where people get to know who you are and what you can contribute. 
5. Always make sure that you have some marketing or promotional material that you can give away so that you can get the referral business and you may just be called back the following year or from other businesses that see what contribution you make to the community.

Anther great way to find ways to give back to the community is by joining PPA.com Besides being a great resource for photographers, they also have a yearly plan of charity work and giving back to the community.

One charitable project that I always do each year is the Operation Smile project. You can work directly with the organization or as I did, I went to my local dentist and we discussed how this charity giving opportunity could benefit both of us.

1. We did a family portrait month. 
2. Great smiles for a mini-shoot where 50% of the sitting fee goes to the charity and you get customers to pay for your print.
3. The dentist gets the foot traffic and you may even get to use the dentist mailing list to send out information about the charity event. 

There are so many ways that we can give back to the community. A celebration of smiles mini session in your local hospital or clinic. A shoot your pet session at the local veterinary clinic if you love photographing animals. Giving back to the troops is also a personal favorite of mine.

We would love to know what you have planned? So get out there and start thinking about what impact you are going to be taking on your your community! Send your tweets to @dgephotos or please just leave me a comment on what you have planned. 

We look forward to seeing your projects and now is the time to start planning. 

I know it is early, but my dentist Photographs for smiles took almost 2 months of pre-planning to get a great day organized.

Have a great day and we will speak again next week.

Denzil

Photographer's Best Friend: tips for successful dog photography

Way back in my introductory post, I mentioned one of my favorite subjects: dogs. Animals in general offer images of playfulness, gentleness, and unguarded enthusiasm that is hard to find in humans! For me, shooting dogs (with a camera!) is a way to give back by helping showcase adoptable dogs for a local rescue. It is also a blast to incorporate animal companions in family images. There are a few things to keep in mind that make a huge difference in capturing successful images of dogs in any situation.

1. Make ridiculous sounds. If you want to get that cock-eyed, inquisitive head tilt with eyes looking at the lens, you're probably going to have to make a fool of yourself. The sounds I make vary from a high-pitched trilling to a rather spot-on duck quack, if I do say so myself. Whistling, smooching, and yelping have all come in handy.

Patrick's portrait for Peace for Pits, Inc. dog rescue.

2. Bribe, bribe, bribe. Few things get a dog's attention like a tasty treat or squeaky toy. Bring a few along or have the handler do so and hold them behind your head to get a great portrait.

3. Shoot in shutter priority. While manual mode is my go-to in most situations, a fast-moving dog in mixed lighting calls for continuous focus and shutter priority to keep those eyes in sharp focus! Just be sure to recalibrate your settings when going from dark to light or vice versa.

4. Get low. Once you've got that perfect portrait, get down at the dog's level, or even lower, for a more playful perspective.

Patrick, taken while flat on the grass!

Have any tips for mastering a dog (or other furry friend) session? Leave a comment or head over to the Google+ community page to share!

-Friday Ambassador