Taking a break, Extreme tubing

I took a break.
Sort of.
Another friend and I took the long drive to visit another friend in Utah whose family has a place near Bear Lake. Idaho. It’s a family who plays together and works together to make it a wonderful summer weekend getaway from the city for each other.










These folks play hard, so, as getaways go it was that, but not a mini vacation for R&R.












And of course, it was a chance to contribute my pro skills the family’s photo collection. I love it when I’m able to do that!














So, a little wake- boarding, go-carting and, of course, extreme tubing (pulled behind the family’s brand new Wake Setter boat as the brothers leap from tube to tube and back again.)

Buying Locally

The more money you can keep in your local market the better the health of the local market as a whole. That is one of the primary tenets of the Local First Arizona organization of which D'Elia Photographic is a member. I am not perfect and, gulp, yes, I confess, (slap my hand), I do spend money at chains. But I also try to spend locally whenever I can.

I live in Fountain Hills and try to spend my coffee money at Mountain View Coffee when i can and at Euro Pizza Cafe to satisfy Pizza and Pasta cravings when I need a break from a long day editing photos, writing a blog and reaching out to potential clients from the home office.

In a couple weeks, Buy Local week seeks to help its members make the most of the summer and promote commerce with local companies.

Of course, it will probably come as no surprise that my little outfit, D'Elia Photographic, is a member and is one who is happily accepting the Golden Coupon for a 20% discount on services during Buy Local week, June 29-July 5, 2009.

In fact, I am feeling pretty generous to all my friends and potential clients who appreciate a nice image and will honor this coupon for jobs SCHEDULED during this week.

If you mention this blog, I'll lop off another 10% of the final invoice whether a commercial job with all the bells and whistles or a personal portrait shot on your own location. It is a great way to save a few bucks and keep your local businesses sailing along through the summer. This will also apply to any fine art images in my catalogue that you may want to use to soup up your walls.
You may also go to the LFA site to find other locals who are participating in the campaign at http://www.localfirstaz.com/independents-week/golden-coupon.php.

BUY LOCAL!!

Portfolio on Lightstalkers

IN the internet and social networking age it never hurts professionals, especially in my field to have more places for people to find me and see my work. Anything to up the odds of gaining new clients on a more regular basis. The Lightstalkers website is an important tool for photogs who are active in documentary/photojournalism and who are traveling from time to time. Be sure to check it out:
http://www.lightstalkers.org/galleries/slideshow/21035

Also stay tuned to the impending launch of my brand new shiny website which will appear at www.deliaphotographic.com

Kirabu and Calvin

I met Calvin Knight in Kampala, Uganda where we were housemates in 2003 in the Visions in Actions program. Me a photojournalist contributing my skill to the Monitor and some NGO's and Calvin taking his experience as a High School teacher in Canada to design some new education materials for the Education Ministry in in Uganda.
My housemates and I quickly learned that Calvin was a guy who not only searches for more way to make friends out of almost anyone he meets, but hungers to make a difference in which ever way he can for his friends and for the people around him.
At least once a week, (or was it more?) he began running an after-school (after his day-job) activities program for kids in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Kampala, Uganda. He took that to the next step, single-handedly organizing a Kampala Kids Day, to educate and entertain these kids with help from ALL of his friends and the Ndere TroupTheatre. I'm not sure who had more fun the Troup, the friends or the kids, but is was an unforgettable event that truly made a difference to these kids.
Once he returned home to Toronto, after his year-long stay, he found a way to share this experience and make an even greater difference to those kids as well as other kids in Lira, a town in the north that is only now beginning the very long road of recovery from war.

He figured out a way to not only make Kids Day annual, but to start another project to make for a lighter work load to some folks in need in Lira.
He founded Kirabu.

This year, for the month of July, Calvin and his Kirabu crew will descend upon Uganda not only to run some fun programs for kids in Lira and Kampala, but to lend a hand to the reconstruction of the Almond Secondary School in Lira

"The school educates and boards over 400 children each year, many of whom are orphans and all of whom have been affected by war and poverty."

The crew also has the chance to develop an understanding of what the region has been through under 20 years of war which included rebel use of child soldiers.

The program not only makes a difference for the kids but aims to create an ever growing group of people committed to helping improve the lives of others.

It is a true exchange that benefits everyone involved.

Don't forget to make your contribution to visually documenting Kirabu's important work so they can move even more folks to join their effort.

Click on the Paypal button at left and make a contribution today.

We can't get there without your help,

You can find even more info about what Clavin and his crew will be doing in Juy at the site, http://www.kirabocanada.ca/.

Obama's economic stimulous for the freelancer

Like everyone else, we freelancers are getting our share of bumps and bruises. So it never hurts when you can photograph a high profile event with some relatively well-know guy like, um the President shows up in your backyear to shake hands at a graduation.

This time, a hot, sweltering day inside a concrete and steel bowl, that is Sun Devil Stadium made for a long and brutal day waiting for many hours to photograph President Barack Obama as he addressed the graduates of Arizona State University.

About the time Obama took his seat on the stage, the heat had faded from blast furnace intensity to a hair dryer on medium allowing the braincells to begin functioning again.

In spite of what began as some pretty brutal heat for May, this is one of those things that I really do enjoy about my job, the opportunity to photograph some pretty amazing and interesting people in news-making situations.

What I enjoy even more is when there is time to be thorough.

In photographing any event, thoroughness tells a better story. When there is time to pick up your feet to explore multiple perspectives, multiple lenses the collection provides a more complete view of an event. It also means, trying to find windows to see through the clutter, the teleprompters and stage rigging, that obstructed some vantage points and provided distracting photo content in others.

Who doesn't love a challenge?

Obama provided the opportunity to do that exploration by doing more than just delivering a speech and hitting the road. He stayed for most of the event, shaking hands with all of the doctoral candidates who crossed the stage to be recognized for their years of hard work.

You could call Obama's visit a sort of a stimulous package for freelancers. The longer Obama spent at ASU and the more he did to interact with students, the better the collection of images became. The stronger that collection, of course, the more play it will get.

Nothing like a little personal involvement in stimulating the economy.

STREEETCH and help some kids.

It’s the economy, every day. “They” say things are getting tougher.
Seems like what we spend buys less and less.

How cool would it be to stretch some of that green and make a difference to kids at the same time?

How could I possibly do that, Rick?
I am so glad you asked!
(But wait there’s more?)
It’s simple.

Help three small organizations that focus on education and other necessities mostly for kids in Uganda keep their programs running.

Let me explain.

As it is, small orgs must use whatever resources they have available not only in keeping the lights on but in trying to draw donations from a diminishing pool of donors in a increasingly competitive arena.

They draw donor attention through their communications tools, websites and mailers. Powerful photographs help make those tools successful. If the photographs are compelling, they convey the importance and strength of an organization. They motivate donors.

Small organizations, however, often can’t afford to bring an experienced, skilled photographer to their site. Their photographs are taken by staff-members whose expertise lies in education and social work. Those staffers are not trained in finding telling and emotional moments that make powerful photographs from which a viewer cannot look away.

Many of these organizations wish they could have work done by a pro.

With a little help, a little funding, a pro could be put into place without cost to an organization.

Wouldn’t it be even better if there were three or four organizations in the same area in Uganda with a similar need, the photographer is already in place to help out not just one, but several organizations accomplish the same goal?

Three for the price of one?

Just by pure coincidence (!?) atleast four organizations have expressed excitement at the prospect of getting great photographs of and for their programs:

Teach a Child to Fish http://www.teachachildtofish.org

Bega Kwa Bega (Shoulder to Shoulder) http://begakwabegaugandaorphans.org

Uganda Community School Project, Nawantale http://www.nawantale.org

Kirabo (http://www.kirabocanada.ca)

My plan is to spend about two weeks photographing these projects as a volunteer, as well as another five or six days of post production time. Travel expenses for two weeks, which would include, transportation, food and lodging, etc., will range between $3,000 and $3,600 depending upon the cost of the airfare. Departure depends upon how quickly these expenses are raised.

How do we raise them?
It’s really easy.

If enough of you throw in, if we all spread the word through our respective networks, it would only take a 10-spot, or maybe a 20-spot each to get there.

So, send a check to Teach a Child to Fish, the collector of the funds, and send with one of those “forever stamps” (remember the price is going up very soon) to:

Teach A Child to Fish
P.O. Box 491
Downers Grove, IL 60515
Enter in the notations, "NGO photo project."

TCF is 501(c)3 so, donations are deductible.

Once the expenses are covered, the rest of the donated funds will help TCF with their program.

Don't forget, without your help this project will not be able to go forward.

Growing and revisiting

Growing forward is always a good thing. I always tell people, especially when I am talking to a group, that if you stop growing in your photography then you might as well hang it up. What fun is there in a creative endeavor in staying in the same place all the time? Isn't one of the motivations of regularly creating to create something in a little different way than before?Sometimes its the little stuff, like making better use of the infrared triggering system in the Nikon flashes (Canons do this too) when you can't set up the full-blown portable light kit. It made for a better result in this image from a couple weeks ago for a client who was writing about a young man who is interning at the state capitol. One strobe with an Omni Dome on his face and another putting a little highlight on his cheek, thereby separating him a bit more from the background. Some assignments must take place when they must take place. This lighting also allowed me to make the best of that shadowy, unappealing midday light.

That said, it also doesn't hurt to revisit the old days, like when my newspaper work took me to the weekly drama of high school age competitions. I don't miss some aspects of newspaper photography, but, I always enjoyed the fast moving athletics, and kind of miss those assignments. In the grand scheme of things these games might not matter too much, except to these kids, but it was always a fun challenge to pull the best image I could out of each opportunity.

The old skill came in handy for a friend whose son plays volleyball for a Valley school and is about to finish his scholastic athletic career.

Volleyball is tougher than it looks to photograph. That little white ball moves pretty fast and it takes some practice, or some re-oiling of some old skills, to get that timing down to get those frames where the ball is still close enough to the players to matter. Its great to move on to new skills but it can also be a great deal of fun to revisit some that haven't been exercised in a long time.