Occasional Moments of Brilliance

Photography that is always great, and occasionally brilliant.

Posts tagged ‘Chicago’

A Picture is Worth

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“The last time we had our pictures taken was maybe ten years ago” say the parents of two children aged 11 and 14. I pondered this as I arranged and posed them. Each year growing up, my parents would update the 8×10 school portrait of my brothers and me hanging on the wall in the family room. This family on the other hand had no recent portraits of their teenaged children. Last weekend I volunteered for a great event called Help-Portrait. It’s an organization founded by celebrity photographer Mark Cowart. Their first international event took place in 2009 and has now spread to 60 countries. Here’s a quote from their website “Help-Portrait is a community of photographers coming together across the world to use their photography skills to give back to their local community.”

This year’s event put on by the Carol Stream Illinois chapter was coordinated by Mark Lane, graphic designer at Tyndale House Publishers. On Friday evening there was an opportunity for Tyndale employees and their families to get some portraits done for a small donation that helped recoup costs for the event. The next day, over the course of six hours, 71 families showed up at the Wheaton Ministry center. That means 680 people were given professional portraits that they normally couldn’t afford. It was a busy day as I along with 3 other photographers captured memories for each of them. There was also a café set up so that they could relax as they waited for their appointment, and look for frames afterwards.

This was a fun event for a good cause. For more information, or to get involved yourself, check out the Help-Portrait website here: http://help-portrait.com/.

Technology Entertainment Design

When I first entered the auditorium at Grounds for Hope Café for the TEDxNaperville event, it took me back to my first experience with TED. I was living in Seoul and stopped in to see my friend Jeffrey who lived in my building. After chatting for a few minutes he put on Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk about education and the role of creativity in it. I was riveted. When it ended less than 20 minutes later, I hoped it was just a commercial break.

This was my first time attending a TED event, and I was there as a volunteer. As the auditorium began to fill with speakers, musicians, dancers, teachers and learners I quickly jumped in and got involved. I spent most of the afternoon doing backstage production, liaising with the speakers and coordinating with other volunteers. I stayed busy in between presentations, but while they were going on, I was able to focus on all of them, and be inspired by most.

Wes Douglas of Maddock Douglas was scribing visual notes to go along with each. These boards were on display during intermissions as reminders of key points of each message and as kick-starters for conversation.

All in all it was a very cool, inspirational, educational and motivational afternoon and I look forward to being involved next year. Volunteering was a great way to network with speakers, guests and other volunteers. In addition, I was able to use my own presentation and production skills to support this amazing event.

Check out their homepage at www.tedxnaperville.com.

Revolutionary Times

The sound of the cannon was surprisingly loud. I’ve been to the range a few times. I had listened to the warning over the PA system. Yet I was still stunned by the boom of the 3 and 5 lbs cannon. My camera was ready and focused for the first volley but I was so shaken that I didn’t shoot a single frame.

After camping out in 18th conditions for a few days, the red coats squared off against the colonists on the green at Cantigny. The combatants seemed filled with genuine enjoyment as they engaged each other on the field. They were equally enthusiastic later as they conversed with visitors in the temporary village. Participants repaired clothing and gear, read period books, wrote letters and cooked over open flames. All the while doing demonstrations and answering questions.

It took me a moment to adjust to the feel and flow of reenacted 1700’s style warfare. The split second pause between trigger pull and the weapon firing as musket flint struck steel in particular was challenging. In addition, it was difficult to  avoid distracting background elements in the battle images.