On December 12, 2009, volunteer photographers and other volunteers got together to donate time and materials to create family portraits for people that otherwise wouldn't be able to have them. I wrote it up here.

Although I cannot post pictures of the actual participants, I can post photos of the other photographers and assistants as I describe the event.

I arrived (second... not first, like usual) and helped another photographer set up this large gray sweep. A "sweep" is a huge (usually cloth) background that goes from ceiling to floor. It has plenty of material on the floor in order to create the "seamless" look, and this particular one was probably about 12 feet wide. The junior photographer I brought with me, Jenny, obligingly stood on the newly erected gray sweep and patiently waited while we pointed various lights at her in order to dispel as many shadows as possible.

This background is actually so large that in the end, we took our group shot in front of it, and it was posted by another photographer here. All thirteen of us-including the really helpful kid!-managed to cram ourselves into the shot.

We had three backgrounds erected. There was the gray sweep, the black sweep, and a really nifty foldy gray-splatty pop up. It ended up being an odd team effort, with three photographers at each station. Two of us would switch back and forth between shooting the families, and the third photographer would peer over our shoulders and help us decide if the shots looked good or not.

I was at the black sweep with Jack (pictured here) and Bill. This shot here is of Jack letting me test the flash power on his head. We were using a speedlight and it had this really cool remote firing device on it. Of course, the first shot I took of Jack made him look like he'd been nuked... this is after I set my aperture to 6.7.

The black sweep was interesting in that we didn't put chairs in front. The gray sweep had a couch (it's in the group shot) and the gray-splatty background had a rocking chair. That meant that people in wheelchairs were led over to our spot.

I discovered instantly that if one person is in a wheelchair, the other people in the photo should NOT be standing if it can be helped. The difference in heights would be extremely obvious, and, it creates a big gap between the person standing behind or near the wheelchair.

I also was using a regular portrait lens (my 28-70mm f2.8L) and while that's great for one person, it doesn't work well for more than two. Mostly, though, I was shooting two people close together and so it worked great. The couple of times I shot a group of four I had to back up so far I nearly fell over the people behind me.

I also was the lucky person who got to shoot Leroy.

Leroy was the cat.

Leroy did not want to be in the pictures.

The gentleman that had Leroy in his pictures loved the "your cat is being strangled" photos anyway. He had his best friend in the pictures with him, and they were both trying to get Leroy to look at the camera.

As you can see, Leroy was not cooperating. :) The picture I eventually chose to print was the shot with the cat being kissed on the head. It was the cutest.

Each person got about three or four photos taken of them (with the exception of The Leroy Incident, and I took nine). Then, we took our memory cards out, walked over to the (totally amazingly cool) Selphy photo printers, and instantly printed out 4x6 prints!

As you might wonder... no... we could NOT edit the photos at that point. The Selphy photo printers would print out the file exactly as it was. Occasionally we'd have to go to the computer and crop a picture because an edge was showing, but mostly it was Shoot it RIGHT because that's what you're PRINTING!!

I did go home and have a good look at the photos I took, and here is one of me.. well, looking. The photo is of an adorable older lady that was wearing bobble-reindeer antlers on her head. She was posing with one of the staffers at the retirement home. Because of confidentiality I can't directly post the photos here. I've been debating whether the photo I'm looking at here or the "strangle-the-cat" photo is my favorite of the day.

(all photos can be viewed full size by right-clicking on them.)

**Update: There has been an official press release about the event HERE**

Barry and Justyna have been together for nearly seven years, but they delight in each other's company and it shows.

We met in downtown Washington, D.C., with the intention of utilizing the monuments as background. Originally, Justyna thought of the Jefferson Monument, but eventually we stayed in the National Mall area because Jefferson is "way way WAY over there."

The first photo above was taken while sitting in a black wrought iron park bench outside the Smithsonian Castle. It's an honest to goodness castle made out of red brick, and has a fantastic garden with winding paths and droopy trees, which make great backgrounds!

The idea was to make sure the photos didn't "look like vacation shots," which I took to mean not taking those types of photos where you smile for the camera whilst standing in front of a landmark. Sure, no problem :)

This particular photo is probably one of my favorites. I was standing at the back of the World War II Memorial, in front of a waterfall, and they went to the upper level where the waterfall was pouring from.

Voila! Barry and Justyna in front of the Lincoln Monument, with the Reflecting Pool behind them, and the waterfall pool in front of them.

There were actually a million and one tourists at this location, and I stood in my place for about ten minutes, camera ready, and went 'click' every time the space was clear.

They just kept cuddling, or kissing each other on the head, and dancing around in general.

Directly to the right of them was a very large, very fat pug. It watched them the entire time.

Quite a few people noticed the pose they were doing and as soon as we vacated our spot, a whole bunch of tourists ran over to that same spot and started posing themselves!

Fortunately the day was not too hot, not cold, not too sunny, and was actually overcast (perfect!). We were going to do it the weekend before, but it was raining. We could have done something different (such as indoors) but we really wanted this to be outside with those uber famous landmarks in the photos looking cool.

Speaking of cool, you find the most interesting things in DC.

While we were walking from the Smithsonian Castle gardens to the Reflecting Pool, we walked by a building that was shut down. There was a great big sign on the door, saying "building closed" and a large, ornate, wrought iron fence in the entry way.

I noticed it wasn't locked or chained, and so I pushed it near the decorative bricks, and Justyna grabbed a hold of it and gave Barry her best "you can't get me back here" expression. Barry laughed at her- the best expression you can get :)

They kept smiling and laughing the entire time, enjoying every moment, goofing off together as they teased each other about being a model. The best part of a photo moment is when everyone is having such a fantastic time, true laughter erupts and it just can't helped... and then they'll beam at each other and you've got photo magic!

What's better than a smiling baby? A baby that coos, smiles, laughs, and is adorable for two hours straight, that's what!

On a perfect Saturday in July, I set all my gear out and plopped on the ground to take pictures of a highly agreeable ten month old. She didn't mind changing her clothes four times, she didn't mind her mother and father jingling toys at her the entire time, she danced to the baby music when we played it, and she didn't try to eat the grass outside. What more can you ask for?

Well for one thing, you can ask for a cheery baby that crawls towards you and thinks the flash going off in her face is hilarious!

Some babies are not so thrilled when a stranger shows up and points a loud clicking weird thing in their face that doesn't look like their mom's camera. With a big lens on it, my camera doesn't look like what an average camera does.

I was using my 28-70mm f/2.8L lens with a great big hood on it, and a Gary Fong puffer on my flash. Therefore, it looks weird, and it's heavy.

I was completely flat on the floor, and I had two small bowl type lamps with diffusers on them so as not to nuke out the lights. I deliberately backlit the photo and cranked my two diffused lights up all the way.

For variety of location, I took one of her fuzzy blankets and tucked it up next to the window. We opened the main shades, leaving the filmy ones, and gave her a fat pillow to bang on.

The result was pretty funny. Mostly, she was laughing, but she would put her hands in front of her face. Then at one point - voila - she clapped her hands a few times, put them next to her cheek, and did what I call "the angel pose." Seriously? That's cute!

Of course, babies are notorious for causing problems. This little girl didn't, actually... no crying, no fussing, generally looking at me or one of her parents (her dad, apparently, does great 'faces' and she kept yelling da-da at him).

But of course, there is the usual "trying to escape"... the"looking INTO the cookie container"...  and "staring at the flower instead of beaming a smile"shots.....

The weather outside was PERFECT. A nice, slightly overcast day, and she was happy as a clam to plop on the blanket and stare at us. I got nifty grass stains on my jeans but I don't really care, since the outside shots were definitely my favorite!

Overall, I took four hundred and forty photos in about two hours. I deleted a few for blurriness, movement, or eyes closed, and ended up with 416 that I poked through to pick out these as the best ones. At least, these are MY favorites!  Personally, this last one looks like one that I'd blow up to 20x30 and hang on the wall :)

The first time I saw Emily I thought she might sprout translucent wings and flit off into the sunlight, sparkling like some sort of magic butterfly. Very pixielike, I thought, and was absolutely thrilled to be photographing such a beautiful, photogenic woman.

It was so easy to take good photos of her, I barely had to try.

There are three major challenges to shooting portraiture in someone's house:

Lighting...
Props...
Backgrounds...

...and of course, a nervous model. Emily said she has never professionally modeled before, but she should. I barely retouched any of these photos- I cropped a couple of them, and removed an outlet off of the wall behind her. But basically, they are just as you see them- light, shadows, laughing, and all.

For lighting I positioned her fluffy chair across from a window. Fortunately, the day was overcast and so there wasn't a danger of crazy overblown sunlight bleaching poor Emily into a white blob. I shoved all her furniture over to the other side of the room, and pointed a small bowl light at her. With a bounce flash pointed up at the ceiling, I snapped away.

During the one hour shoot, she changed her clothes four times, if you count her putting on a jacket at the end. During the setup for the "looking up at Dawn" shot, I stood on a kitchen chair as she positioned herself in the seat, and I'm going to say that it's probably one of my more favorite shots, even though I hadn't yet moved the table out of the way, and she's moving.

Props, of course, are a problem. By props I mean furniture or things that are going to end up showing, like other furniture, plants, or the family cat.

This photo, with her looking backwards at me, has her bookshelf and footrest showing, but I don't find them distracting. I think it looks like she's about to tell you all about her favorite recipe in a magazine!

It's probably one of the best ones in the group, because you can clearly see the line of her chin, the graceful curve of her arm, and she was laughing at me so her smile is completely natural and her eyes are absolutely twinkling with merriment. Either I'm extremely witty, or, Emily is just a really happy person. I was just thrilled with how easy it was to talk with her and get her to laugh.

The last issue, backgrounds, can be absolute murder. One particular shot, with Emily draped across the chair, required me to move everything in the house practically into the other room. A bit of cropping, a bunch of "I really don't want an radiator in this shot" gimping, and voila- ready for a night on the town!

I wasn't actually certain on how this photo was going to look, because putting someone's entire body into a photo can be a challenge. You've got to be sure they're comfortable with where they have their hands placed, how their legs look, and that they're actually having as much fun as you are... otherwise, there is no photo magic!

Many people are very uncertain of how they really look in front of a camera, and it's an understandable issue. But with Emily, I think she did fantastically well, and I'm extremely pleased with my finished shots!