I am writing today to ask if you would be willing to partner with me and the photographers in Baton Rouge this holiday season on a project called Help-Portrait.

Help-Portrait is an international movement in which photographers and makeup/hair artists around the world, using their time, equipment and expertise will give back to those who are less fortunate. What does that look like? It looks like photographers taking pictures. And then giving those pictures back to the families.

I wanted to personally invite you to actively participate in an event that is sure to make a positive impact on the Baton Rouge area Saturday, December 12, 2009.
Through the Baton Rouge Help-Portrait event, photographers will be donating professional portraits to those who cannot afford them. The recipients of these photos will be our city’s homeless, single moms and their kids, the sick, elderly in nursing homes, hungry, poor, etc. You get the point, to those who are truly in need.

Help-Portrait is a movement that was started by Nashville portrait photographer Jeremy Cowart this summer to give back to the community by donating photography services to those in need. It has spread throughout the world like wildfire. We’ve started a Baton Rouge group today so please get the word out to anyone you know in Baton Rouge who could help. The locations are to be determined, but we’ve got the ball rolling with some different photographers and local companies who want to be involved.

Help-Portrait, just to give you an idea, currently has around 3000 photographers involved in over 260 different locations, including more than 40 different countries. So you would be partnering with a worldwide initiative to see many underprivileged families receive a family portrait this year.

None of the photographers or volunteers involved are being paid or making money off these photographs. None of the pictures taken will be used on personal websites or portfolios. The goal is simply to find people in need and take their picture in order to give the picture back.

So what are we going to be giving? Help-Portrait would like to give a small package of prints to each person or family that shows up including a couple 4x6s, a 5×7 and a set of 8 wallets or an 8×10 photograph. We are still working out logistics about how many photos and how they’ll be delivered.

How can you help? For starters, join the Baton Rouge Help-Portrait group by clicking here.
We’ll need help in these areas:

-Photographers – Obviously
-Hair & Makeup artists- We want to make these people not only look their best but make them feel like a star!
-Videographers- We’ll need at least one at each location to document the event for www.hope-portrait.com website.
-Printing team- People will need to run back and forth to one-hour labs periodically, in addition to man printers on-location
-Assistants – lighting grips, backdrops, printing at one-hour lab, setting up and tearing down gear
-Location(s) – Still haven’t found out where we’ll be holding the event, but it’ll be at multiple locations
-Planning- We need help figuring out locations and logistics.
-Loan us Equipment- digital cameras, lighting with diffusers (hot lights and strobes), light stands, backdrops, desktop photo-quality printers and paper and ink
-Transportation- To get the people without cars to the locations
-Food- We want to feed everyone who comes to the event. Try to bring a few canned goods to donate to those who are hungry.
-Post Processing – We’ll be doing some immediate retouching and color-correction using laptops to let people see results immediately
-Ambassador – Get the word out any way you can. Blog, facebook, twitter, myspace, email, etc.

This movement will be massive and it’s all for the best cause of all – to give HOPE to our community this Christmas season instead of more useless gifts. It’s not for our own glory. This is an experience that we hope will continue well beyond this one day. We want to create a presence of love and hope for the people in the photos that is much greater than the photo itself.
Visit www.help-portrait.com to learn about it, and join the Baton Rouge Help-Portrait group if you’re interested in participating.
For more info, see the videos on the Help-Portrait website. I hope you can help in some way. Together, let’s make this holiday season one of selfless love.

Thank you in advance for partnering with us.

Resource videos:

Help-Portrait Promo Video

Help-Portrait Intro Video

Test event in Nashville on October 9, 2009