Famine and Prom

Saturday had a, lot of potential with photographic opportunities. First there was Long Beach Middle School Championship Soccer, which had the potential to make some decent money for me. Second I was asked to photography a young kid during a baseball game, which would have been a paid job. I was asked to take some prom pictures of my nephew by my sister and finally my son was participating in a church youth group famine to raise money and understanding for the hungry.

Before I tell you what I ended up photographing I feel the need to say what I think about family mixing with photography. I'm an active member of a photography forum and have had several discussions about charging family and friends. My opinions and beliefs tend to go against the flow when it comes to charging family and friends. I do sports action photography on the side, but as most photographers, regardless of their speciality, get asked to photograph a wide range areas. I myself have been asked to photograph sports action, senior portraits, various parties, and weddings. Now mind you that I photograph sports action and never claim to shoot the other fields, all though I have done all of these one time or another. The bottom line is since I do have somewhat knowledge of photography I'm often asked by friends and family to take pictures. I've always made it my policy to take pictures of my friends and family for free, as long as I'm available. Most people will disagree with this, but I just can't see charging my sister to take some pictures of my niece's or nephew's. What I do is go out and take the shots, which I will later give to them on a CD / DVD. Other than my time, there is virtually no cost for me to do this. So, do you know what I ended up doing this Saturday.

First I drove to the church and took various shots of them preparing and painting their youth room, from about 9am to 12:30pm, at which point I drove home to prepare a slide show that would be shown during their dinner at 6pm. After spending about 2 hours at home I went back to the church to get some finished shots and then set up my equipment to show the slide show, which was shown by my wife. I couldn't stay for the dinner or the slide show as I had to go to my sister's house to take some shots of my nephew for his prom. The only person on time, besides myself, was my nephew and that's only because he lives there. I ended u.p taking shots of him and then of his date and friends as the arrived. I was there almost 2 hours before I could go home and relax.

People might say I'm stupid to give up two jobs that would bring in money to take the pictures I ended up taking. Me, I say that's what friends and family do. My son spent 30 hours not eating for a cause and it was the least I could do to document this event and share their day with them with pictures. And my nephew, well I love him like a son, and how could I charge my son to take pictures. Well I can't, that's just the way it is for me.

So below you'll find some pictures of the famine and my nephew, enjoy.

The Beginning

The crew after a hard days work. Can you tell that their all starving.

The End

Well after setting up my equipment for the famine slide show it was time to head out to my sister's house to take some prom pictures of my nephew. He is the oldest of all of the kids and will be heading out to college in Arizona this August.

Any hoot, he is going to the prom and my sister wanted some pictures of him, so me being the good brother went to their house and took some pictures, that is once everyone was there. I was able to get some shots of him but everyone else was running behind. Once his date arrived she still needed to get ready and put her game face on and then we had to wait for the limo, which was also running behind. So I took pictures in fazes, a little bit here and a little bit there.

I'm staring to get the proper equipment to take portraits but still need to learn a lot. I recently received my new soft box but still working out the detail on how to use it properly, so for this I used my new Pocket Wizards to shoot my flash off camera. I was pleased with the lack of shadows but really need to learn more on posing.

The Nephew

My nephew and his date

"The Three Amigo's"