"Help-Portrait" Day, December 10th 2011 - Take A Photo Of Someone In Need

It's always nice to give back, and I just came across this opportunity via an email from Photojojo.com about "Help-Portrait" Day, which falls on December 10th this year.

According to Help-Portrait's website, this is not about adding to your portfolio or making money by selling the portraits, it's about giving back to the community in need.  Taking a portrait of some needy individual or family and then gifting them with the photograph is the ultimate aim of the project.

They are looking for amateur and pro-photographers, volunteers and makeup artists.  Their website has all the information you need, including lists of groups that have already formed, all over the world. Or if there is no group in your immediate area they encourage you to create one yourself. Photojojo also has information and suggestions on how to get involved with this very worthy project.

There are so many worthy groups and organizations that would so appreciate having their members' photo taken-  for free.

Help-Portraits Mission Statement

Founded by Celebrity Photographer Jeremy Cowart, Help-Portrait is a community of photographers coming together across the world to use their photography skills to give back to their local community.


In December, photographers around the world will be grabbing their cameras, finding people in need and taking their picture. When the prints are ready, the photographs get delivered.

Yep. It really is that easy.

This is about GIVING the pictures, not taking them. These portraits are not for your portfolio, website, or for sale. Money isn’t involved here. This holiday season, you have the chance to give a family something they may have never had before—a portrait together.

Our mission? Our mission at Help-Portrait is simply to equip and mobilize you, the photography community. We want to make sure you have all the information that you need to successful participate in Help-Portrait on 10 December 2011. We want to help you find other people in your area that are wanting to be part of Help-Portrait or have already begun to plan the event. We want you to have the opportunity to give.

The best place to connect with other photographers, download important documents, and read up on some useful Help-Portrait planning tips is our COMMUNITY SITE.

Just in case you haven’t seen it, here is our video explaining the idea of Help-Portrait.

And an intro video for more info:

Photodough and Big Trigger, The Groupon For Photographers' Needs

Group discount sites like Groupon, Living Social and a slew of others have been supplying consumers with some very tasty deals. Every once in a while some of those sites included a few offers that photographers might find useful.  Now there are several sites specifically targeting photographers that have surfaced.  I  haven't used either so I can't vouch for whether it's worth joining or not, but I figure it can't hurt.

Big Trigger has offered everything from flash websites/plus photo cart for a little over $100.00 to $62.00 for a 20x30 gallery wrapped canvas.  It looks like they started off in August 2011 and are trying to get more people signed up so they can offer bigger and better deals.

Photo Dough has been in existence since March 2011, and has offered everything from template deals to a 12x12 photo album (including design service but not shipping) for $38.00, to $99 for a 24x36 Metal Mural (including mounting hardware and free shipping.)

It's actually a great way to try a company out, especially the labs, before investing in the full price.

The Incredible Water Droplet Photography Of Heinz Maier

Amazing photos by German amateur photographer Heinz Maier, who captures water droplets with high speed photography. During the day he works in a factory and plays with his art at night.  He's apparently only been at it for a year, but his beautiful macro photos certainly demonstrate that sometimes talent and ingenuity trumps experience. 

Most look like colorful, decorative blown glass. Just beautiful. The burgeoning, global recognition of his art is well deserved.

More of his work on Flickr.

Happy Thanksgiving 2011

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!  May it be filled good friends, family and good food.  Remember to take stock of all the things you are grateful for.

With love and many blessings.
Jess

Pricing Art- Andreas Gursky's "Rhein II" Sells For $4.3 million

German photographer Andreas Gursky, born in 1955, garners millions for his work.  He received $2.4 million for  "99 Cent",   a digitally maniplated photograph of a 99 cent discount store.  And his Rhein 11 (see above), created in 1999, was recently auctioned off at Christie's for a whopping  $4,338,500. Also digitally manipulated, it now holds the record for the highest selling photograph in history.  Granted it's huge, at 73 x 143in , and mounted on Plexiglas (as are most of his works) but many seem to think it falls into the "I could have done that" category.

So what makes someone's artwork worth millions while others struggle to sell for a paltry sum? That's a question most artists struggle with on a daily basis.  For those of us who sell on sites like Etsy, Artfire and the myriad of other websites out there, trying to stay competitive influences how much we sell our product for.  When you have photographers selling their 8 x10 prints for under $20.00,  prices have to be adjusted if one wants to sell.  But most people have no clue how to price their work,  and seem to be happy simply breaking even.  They fail to realize that when it comes to 'art' not only do you have to factor in your costs (and there are plenty) you have to take into the account the actual value of the work.  That, of course, is subjective, but if don't value our own work, you can't expect anyone else to.

With everything in life, you rise to the level of your feelings of self worth.  Gursky obviously felt his work had value, and that's why it now sells for millions.

The Hidden Beauty Of Pollination- by filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg

The photography in this is incredible. From filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg's film "Wings of Life".

When Photoshopping Goes Too far: UK Bans Lancome Julia Roberts Ad

The Julia Robert's photo for  L'Oreal's Lancome ad is beautiful in its own right. Flawless radiant skin, a great airbrushing and photoshop job, but it's not real.  Julia's aging face has flaws, as do all of ours over a certain age, and if an ad is going to tout an anti-ageing product, then you better dang well be sure that there is some truth in advertising.   As a result, Britain has banned both the Lancome ad and a Christy Turlington ad for Maybelline's "The Erasor", a product that claims to cover up flaws. 

Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson believes the ads are misleading, and rightfully so. If you are creating art, well then photoshop and airbrush away; but when you are advertising a product that can never achieve the same results as your edited photo, then that's just plain deception.  There is a place for minor digital manipulation, as in stray hairs, shadows or blemishes that the subject might not normally have, but  crows feet, or dark circles under the eyes? Nope. If the product claims to rid you of them (and it's highly doubtful it can), then there is no place for major editing.

According to the Guardian UK, to demonstrate what 'The Erasor' foundation can do the Maybelline ad featured certain parts of Christy's face covered with the product and the rest not covered. L'Oreal even admitted that the photo had been

 "....digitally retouched to lighten the skin, clean up makeup, reduce dark shadows and shading around the eyes, smooth the lips and darken the eyebrows". However, it claimed there were still signs of ageing, such as crow's feet, and that the image "accurately illustrated" the achievable results.

If I am going to pay good money for a product, I want to make sure that it does what it claims, since my skin isn't going to be 'lightened' and touched up in other ways.  I realize products work differently on different people, but if they have to touch up the image of a beautiful model, than how am I going to fare?

The company, which provided the ASA with pictures of both women "on the red carpet" to show that they were naturally beautiful, admitted that digital post-production techniques had been used on Roberts but maintained that the changes were not "directly relevant" and that the ad was an "aspirational picture".

Aspirational?  For whom? 

Good for Swinson. I think we're all tired of aspiring to stick thin, wrinkle-free models when, in truth, those wrinkles and that fat have been photoshopped out and off, by some very talented artists. 




Source:  GuardianUK