Charity photography always pays dividends in the end

During the Autumn half term, I became aware of a childrens playscheme that was running for a week in a local church hall so I volunteered to go along for a day and document the activities. Though I don’t see myself as a specialist charity photographer it seemed like a good opportunity to make some new work, and provide assistance to a local organisation trying to provide for kids at a loose end for a week. Recognising that there was very little for young children in their area to do during the holidays, the organisers put together a playschemes with a number of activities around themes like Respect, Pride in oneself and Creativity.

I was going to be working with children from the ages of 6-14 which in developmental terms is quite a range. You are going to have kids who want to play, and teenagers who want to appear cool, whilst still enjoying a bit of what’s left of their childhood (before it all becomes so serious). This means being able to engage different age groups with what I was doing in order to get the best images for the day. In addition the mixed group of boys and girls would have differing rules of engagement.

Using Digital why it helps to keep the costs down

Most local charitable or voluntary groups do not have a large budget, so they have to be creative or request volunteers to work with them as activity leaders or support workers. As there was no budget for this day’s shoot, I knew that adding the cost of developing and printing film would pressure the already limited finances.

With the cost of digital photo printing coming down all the time, I felt it was safe to assume that someone within the group would be able ot print the images produced on their home printer. With that in mind, I decided to use my Nikon D100 for the day, as this would mean getting quality images in varying light conditions, but with the ease and low cost that digital photography allows.

I had packed 3 Compact Flash cards a 1GB, and two 256MB cards. This I felt would be enough to get a good range of group shots, children doing the activities and close up/portraits of each of the 10 or so kids who had attended that day. I used a 28 - 105 zoom lens. I knew I would be working within the group as it carried on with activities and I felt this lens would give me the range I needed. There is no point in standing on the edge of the hall and using a long zoom to take pictures. The kids will feel as if you are ’snooping’ on them.

It takes only a short while before the children get used to you and feel comfortable about you moving amongst them. They soon become less self concious (in all but extreme cases of shyness) and start to get engrossed in what they are doing. Before long, they ignore you completely.

Why get a professional to photograph the playscheme activities at all, why not just use a point and shoot and do it yourself?

Well, the most obvious reason in my experience is that - as stated previously - the workers will be busy doing activities with the children and maintaining order. This means that the photography is relegated to an after thought. Usually this means that a few ‘snapshots‘ are taken at the end of the day, when the kids are tired and want to go home for their tea, or they’re supercharged from the days activities or the arrival of their parents and won’t stand still long enough for you to get them in the frame.

Photo Documenting your project activities are important for a number of reasons.

1. It’s provides a good record of all the activities and services users throughout the duration of the project
2. It provides evidence to funders that you are doing what you said you would in evaluation meetings or on evaluation reports
3. The images look good on the Annual Report
4. The images can be used to promote your charity or not for profit organisation within the local community, in local newspapers or newletters (provided you have sought permission from anyone within the photograph)

After the shoot

I was able to view the 150 or so images that I recorded on the day when I got home. There were some difficult lighting conditions on the day at some points in the afternoon that made a portion of the images unusable. However as I had carried back up cards with me, I was still able to capture much of the activities and children on the scheme enjoying their interaction, engrossed in their creativity and just plain being kids.

I was able to use Yahoo Photos to give the organisers a glimpse of all the images that I thought were good enough to use that very same night and handed them a CD of over 100 images (with retouching and colour correction) within 2 days. They used many of the images at the special Playscheme Graduation ceremony that took place the following weekend and I am told the kids were thrilled to see pictures of themselves ‘blown up to A3 size’ on the walls as they collected their certificates.

Although I was paid no fee for the day’s shoot, nor for the images themselves, I did receive several referrals for people wanting to take portraits of them and their children over the following weeks.

Related Posts

• Photography at childrens parties
  I found a great article over at the Digital Photography School website about photographing childrens birthday parties. My reason for looking for advice was that I was due to be the 'official' photographer at a friends son's birthday recently and as such wanted to get some tips on how best to approach the day. The party was being held in a local hall and about 20-25 kids were due to attend. I got there early...
• Dispel the myths about documentary photography
  I just finished editing a photography show about a UK gospel choir who this year celebrate 13 years in the music industry. Using the images taken over the years, we were able to build a visual history of the life of the group from 1994 to 2007. Although most of the images were taken, not as documentary, but as a combination of promotional, live event and portrait photographs, along with my co-editor, we found enough...
• PayPerPost Pays you to review blogs
  PerPerPost (PPP), the online service that pays bloggers to add sponsored posts to their blogs has introduced a new income stream for bloggers and the people that visit your site. The idea is particularly beneficial for blog owners, as the process helps to increase links to their site from others in the blogsphere, which in turn creates higher visibility of their site especially in the major search engines. You get paid, they get paid This...
• Linking to relevant photography sites
  There are a number of photography related websites available where one can view, buy, share and upload all types of images. Linking to these sites and getting them in turn to link to my site is going to be an important part of my search engine promotion activities in the coming months. Community sites such as Flickr, Snapfish, Yahoo Photos. The list is large and growing. Like all marketing activities - online and offline -...
• Promoting Portrait Photography
  If you have been reading the posts under search engine promotion, you will know that I am trying to increase the visibility of my portrait photography business. Stirlyn.co.uk does not only contain this blog, but also services that I offer people who require family or individual portrait photography services. People who want to have professional photographs of themselves for gifts to family or friends often hire services of a photographer, go to their studio and...