Yesterday was a seriously amazing day. The Flagstaff Help Portrait group photographed nearly 120 people over the course of 8 hours. Most of the crew showed up at 7:30am, and we didn't leave until nearly 8:00pm. It was a great day of laughing, crying, photographing and photoshopping.
Blogger is too stupid to auto-resize the YouTube video, so here's a link: VIDEO
I put this video together this morning with some of the best photos we took of ourselves, and of the people who showed up to be photographed.
The stories we heard from participants were simply phenomenal. One family lost their home to a flood in Tennessee. They are stranded in Flagstaff and stopped by with their kids to get photographed. Many of the families we photographed yesterday had never had any kind of formal portrait done. Their gratitude was overwhelming, and passing out images to each group quickly became a highly coveted privilege among the volunteers.
We learned a lot this year about what works well and what doesn't. Out of nearly 40 groups, we only had two screw-ups that involved re-printing or re-sending images. That being said, we had only one printer working at a time, so the wait time from getting photographed to receiving the print was between 20 and 40 minutes nearly all day. Occasionally it was longer.
Next year, I hope to have two printers working, four computer techs, and six photographers. Plus a whole host of other volunteers. I'm also planning on getting a few BIG banners printed, because we heard from many participants that finding the event was difficult. On several occasions, volunteers had to guide in participants via cell phone.
I have to shout out to all the volunteers who made everything possible. The photographers, computer gurus, runners, meeters and greeters, print cutters and stuffers. I couldn't have done it without the people that came and made this event what it was. THANK YOU ALL!
