ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews / 25 Dec) – Photohobbyists out there, maybe you’d like to make use of your expensive gear and your skills to make other people happy during this Yuletide Season.
Here’s what we did here in Iligan, with the combined photography clubs that we now simply callThe Umbrella– take portraits of poor families right in their own homes. Not just snapshots, but taking the extra effort to get beautiful pictures, bringing the same gear most of us would bring when taking pictures of … um, ahhh … girls in various settings, be it fashion, swimsuit, voyeur, and whathaveyou.
The photo shoot is extra special for residents because it is their first time ever to have a family portrait.
When you bring them the finished product – the blow up prints already framed – and see children embracing the framed pictures, or the toothless smile of the oldies as they stare at the portrait for a long time – I can guarantee you will have a big smile yourself and be glad you participated in this kind of project.
It’s Christmas season, right? Time to share whatever you have, especially to the less fortunate ones; to give to people who do not have the capacity to give something back to you.
The shoot we did last Monday, Dec. 22, was actually our third. The first one was in 2010. Our December 2011 shoot was postponed because of Typhoon Sendong; we pushed through with it during Valentine season in 2012. We failed to do the shoot during the Christmas season of 2012 and 2013.
Our group had other similar endeavors – we volunteered to help document the damage wrought by Sendong in January 2012, and partnered with Gawad Kalinga to document a village for Sendong survivors also in 2012 and in 2013.
In December 2008, we also volunteered to do a photo workshop for autistic children, an experience that taught us a lot.
Wedding photographer Gian Carlo said he was challenged when the call for volunteers showed up in theThe Umbrella’sFacebook page, which dared photographers to help the poor, and not just shoot pretty girls. “It’s Christmas. It’s nice to help in our own little ways,” he said.
“Not all people can afford to have their family portraits taken,” said Al Fritz Ermac, who volunteered in our first ever charity shoot way back in 2010. “This is the kind of picture we’d like hanging on our wall for eternity,” said the former hobbyist who later made a career of shooting sporting events, the Milo athletic events among them.
“The feeling is different when you see those families who are so happy during our charity shoot,” said Jelo Pacaña, who volunteered in the 2010 and February 2012 charity shoots. He has since moved to New York shooting weddings.
Nurse Mac Macapil, who teaches radiologic technology at the Iligan Medical Center College, said he wanted to “make other people happy even with just a simple token.”
Taking beautiful pictures is easy for amateur photographers. They do it all the time. But for those who could not afford to have their pictures taken, moreso in a studio setting, it’s such a big thing.
Eileen Manulat, president of the Gawad Kalinga Rainbow Village in Tambacan, said the families were so happy, even displaying the pictures in the alley after our group of photographers left. “It was perfect Christmas gift for them, especially so because it was given on Christmas eve,” she said. -From
mindanews.com
