12-03-2009 Free Portrait Project

dychui

The Free Portrait Project is a relatively simple idea. I go to nearby parks and put up a big display of my artwork, under which it says "Free Portraits: Bored Photographer New Camera, Just ask!". Anybody who wants free portraits taken of themselves or of their kids can participate. And everything is 100% pro bono.



I honestly didn't expect to get such a strong participation. The concept itself seemed good, but it depended a lot on the faith and goodwill of my participants.

Luckily, right away the kids were drawn to the huge display of my artwork (see upper-righthand corner shot)! They were super curious about what was going on and were happy to jump in front of my camera .



This boy and his mother (I believe the boy was named Dalton) were fantastic! The lollipop was a necessary prop to get the little guy to slow down enough for me to take a portrait!



The boy in the upper-left hand corner was a real ham. He had the funniest expressions in all of the shots! And I loved the matching colors of the girls in the upper-righthand corner.



Overall, it was really fun and I hope to do it again! It's nice doing paid shoots, but I also love giving back to the community .

All shots done with Canon 1DS MK II and either 50MM F1.4 or 35mm F2. This was near sunset, almost no light!

Thanks for looking,

Daniel Chui

nicki2414

love the idea and very cute... just out of curiosity... do you give prints? cd? do you have them sign a model release so you can use the pics for promotions?

gregmartin

Brilliant idea for promoting your business. Well done. Not only that, you've got some excellent shots in this. Great work

dychui

nicki2414 wrote:

love the idea and very cute... just out of curiosity... do you give prints? cd? do you have them sign a model release so you can use the pics for promotions?

Hi Nick!

The plan is that any parent that contacts me will get a DVD with all of the full-sized photos from that date. I will also give them access to the online gallery where I showcase the work from that day, which hopefully they can share with their friends and family.

With regards to the model release, this is actually a very important point that I haven't really fleshed out yet. I suppose that I will have to insist on the signing of a model release before releasing the photos . But if the parents aren't willing I'm cool with not using their images on business cards, etc.

Thanks for commenting!

- Daniel Chui

dychui

gregmartin wrote:

Brilliant idea for promoting your business. Well done. Not only that, you've got some excellent shots in this. Great work

Hey Greg! Thanks so much; more than anything it was just really fun. People were so warm and receptive. Obviously I don't expect all days to go like this, but it's nice not having to approach parents and just let them come to me. If things are slow and nobody is biting, I always have my camera settings to adjust obsessively

jethibod

This is an excellent idea! I've just recently offered free sessions to my circle; they get shots of their families, and I get (much-needed) practice with portraiture - win-win! A couple of friends are expecting, so to make their session a little more special, I printed off a few photos for them and put them in an album. Everyone else just receives a DVD of their set.

Nice shots Daniel! Kids are fun to shoot, huh?

Joe Dukovac

I've done something similar to this also. My wife's church has helped us out when we first moved to Montreal, and I thought I'd do something nice in return. I have offered to take family portraits of all the members of her church and then create a church family album of sorts. They have missionaries out in other parts of the world and offered to send them a soft cover book of the family album to each of them (I think there are about 3 or 4).

Also, last weekend was their talent show and there was a visual arts area, so I setup a table, my laptop hooked up to a projector and ran a slideshow the whole night. I also had some printed work (metallic prints from Bay Photos, thank you smugmug), as well as some others. I laid out my business cards on the table in case anyone wanted some work done, and managed to get a few new clients out of the deal.

Joe

dychui

jethibod wrote:

This is an excellent idea! I've just recently offered free sessions to my circle; they get shots of their families, and I get (much-needed) practice with portraiture - win-win! A couple of friends are expecting, so to make their session a little more special, I printed off a few photos for them and put them in an album. Everyone else just receives a DVD of their set.

Nice shots Daniel! Kids are fun to shoot, huh?

Hey Jethibod , that's awesome what you are doing for your friends! I definitely love taking photos of kids, and I think it's very gratifying that complete strangers are coming up and entrusting me with photographing their kids based on a couple of examples of my work. I'll be doing part two on Sunday and we'll see if we have any decent turnout from the little ones!

dychui

Joe Dukovac wrote:

I've done something similar to this also. My wife's church has helped us out when we first moved to Montreal, and I thought I'd do something nice in return. I have offered to take family portraits of all the members of her church and then create a church family album of sorts. They have missionaries out in other parts of the world and offered to send them a soft cover book of the family album to each of them (I think there are about 3 or 4).

Also, last weekend was their talent show and there was a visual arts area, so I setup a table, my laptop hooked up to a projector and ran a slideshow the whole night. I also had some printed work (metallic prints from Bay Photos, thank you smugmug), as well as some others. I laid out my business cards on the table in case anyone wanted some work done, and managed to get a few new clients out of the deal.

Joe

Hey Joe!

The church is definitely a great place to network for photos. I'm not part of any religious organization but I have a friend whose wedding business is blooming because of his participation in community events based around the church.

That's really cool that you set up a slideshow for the talent show. I need to get some decent business cards. Any ideas on good places to print them? (Also, I suck at graphic design)

rainbow

Well done! It is obvious that the kids are enjoying their side of the camera, too.

So how many people "signed up" for this during the time you were there?

divamum

Wow - this is a great idea! I'm still on the fence as to just how pro I want to go with this photography thing (I seem to be being prodded into it by circumstance, but part of me is still clinging to the idea it's a hobby, at least for now ), but I'd love to do more kid shots like this. You've given me all sorts of ideas!

Joe Dukovac

I did my own business cards. I picked up soem card stock at Staples, the kind that has clean edges, and fired up my Pages application on my Mac, chose a business card style from the templates and replaced the log with my own. That's about it. They are clean, and professional looking. You can also do a google search for business cards and see what there is online. If I am not mistaken, you can also go down to Staples, or Office Depot and they might be able to do something for you in their printing department.

Take Care,
Joe

dychui wrote:

Hey Joe!

The church is definitely a great place to network for photos. I'm not part of any religious organization but I have a friend whose wedding business is blooming because of his participation in community events based around the church.

That's really cool that you set up a slideshow for the talent show. I need to get some decent business cards. Any ideas on good places to print them? (Also, I suck at graphic design)

GregV

dychui wrote:

That's really cool that you set up a slideshow for the talent show. I need to get some decent business cards. Any ideas on good places to print them? (Also, I suck at graphic design)

I use Next day Flyers . Full professional card with full color fronts and even single color rears are $14 per 1000. That is a huge box for CHEAP! I shoot off road races and I think nothing of handing out cards to every racer, crew or whatever. 1 picture sold covers them. You could put a couple of pics on the front with low opacity, and then list different things on the back. "weddings, kids, bar-mitzvahs" etc. And they totally beat do it yourseld ones (no dig on Joe)

dychui

GregV wrote:

I use Next day Flyers . Full professional card with full color fronts and even single color rears are $14 per 1000. That is a huge box for CHEAP! I shoot off road races and I think nothing of handing out cards to every racer, crew or whatever. 1 picture sold covers them. You could put a couple of pics on the front with low opacity, and then list different things on the back. "weddings, kids, bar-mitzvahs" etc. And they totally beat do it yourseld ones (no dig on Joe)

Greg & Joe, thank you so much for the excellent ideas!!! Now to get myself some business cards