Recently Fireleaf Design was a part of something amazing. An event that touched thousands of lives all over the world. Just one day, photographers, designers and other volunteers share their talent with those in need. An event known as Help Portrait. Announced on Scott Kelby’s blog last year by photographer Jeremy Cowart, Help Portrait is based on a simple idea — make portraits of people in need and give them the prints. The idea may be simple but the impact is astounding.
Myself, The Photoshop Guys from Kelby Media, David Rogers, Erik Valind and more than thirty other volunteers joined Dr. Michael Sheehan at Operation PAR in Clearwater, FL. Operation PAR is a residential addiction treatment center that does something very unique. It allows women in treatment to live with their children. A truly special program that promotes recovery and helps keep families together.
It’s Friday night, December 3rd, 7:00 p.m and we’ve gathered to construct five studio setups, six retouching stations and three Epson 3880 printers. The following day we were to have more than fifty women and their children here. Each would visit hair and make-up and then head to the studio setups where some amazing Tampa Bay area photographers would be capturing their portraits. Here’s RC Concepcion and Dr. Michael Sheehan to walk you through everything and tell you a little more about Operation PAR.
Thank you to Kelby Media Group and their awesome staff for creating this video.
Saturday, December 4th, 7:30 a.m. everyone is back after a restless night. Bagels and coffee in hand we started our day remembering why we’re here — it’s their day. The women living at Operation PAR. In the next seven hours, ten photographers and five retouchers will shoot, post and print hundreds of portraits. Then at 3:00 p.m. there is something special planned — the portraits will be delivered by Santa himself.
As I walk among the flashing lights and organized chaos, I hear stories of troubled pasts looking to brighter futures and heartfelt expressions of gratitude from both the women and the volunteers. It seems everyone is happy to be here today.
9:00 a.m. the images start to arrive at the retouching station. Matt Kloskowski, Corey Barker, Brad Moore, David Rogers and myself were set with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop ready to go. It seems as fast as we could get the images sent to print we had more ready for post. With three Epson 3880′s running at max capacity we were determined to get the images done. Fortunately we had the help of Matt’s two sons, who worked to trim and package each set of portraits. At 2:45 we still had some work ahead of us.
By 4:30 p.m. the final images are coming off the printers. Although the retouching crew may have missed Santa, we got to experience the delivery in a different way. We walked the last group of images to a part of the facility known as The Village, this is the home of all the women and children we met today. As we entered The Village we were greeted with friendly wave’s and smiley thank you’s. An experience I’ll not soon forget.
Help Portrait is an amazing thing. It’s not charity, it’s sharing your talents with the people that appreciate it the most. Special thanks to Dr. Michael Sheehan for bringing this event to Operation PAR, to Kelby Media Group, Tampa Bay Strobist & Photoshop Collective and an amazing group of volunteers making this event such a wonderful success.
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