Kilts Away!!!

Regular readers will have seen a post recently about fellow photographer Colin Read, who is riding a Harley across the US to raise funds for research into Moebius Syndrome.

Well, Colin and his buddy Iain are off, along with their assortment of kilts. You can keep up with their progress at their blog here: Kilts Across America.

Good luck lads. May the road always rise to meet you - and may your kilts not.

Letting It All Hang Out

So here’s the thing: you’re a photographer and you want to take a boy’s photograph, except you can’t get him to smile. Nobody can. He’s never smiled. And, for now at least, it looks as if he never will.

He suffers from Moebius Syndrome - the absence of the facial nerves allow us to blink and move the eyes laterally and give us the ability to smile.

That’s the predicament of Scottish commercial photographer Colin Read and his son George.

Moebius Syndrome is a very rare condition and at present pretty much nothing is known about its cause, let alone how it can be prevented. Colin, though, has picked up the baton and together with his wife and two other trustees has established the Moebius Research Trust. The trust plans to raise £200,000 to fund groundbreaking research into the cause of the condition.

How?

Colin and chum Iain White are going to ride two Harley Davidson motorcycles across the US next month.

Sounds like a breeze, you say?

Well, you’re pretty close to the truth. They’ll be wearing kilts. And they are going to do the entire 2,913 miles in 10 days.

300 miles a day on a motor bike in kilts.

“Breeze” is not the word.

You do know what a Scotsman wears under his kilt, don’t you?

Can you imagine all that flapping about on the Interstate?

Actually, Colin and Iain are having some kilts tailored for the ocassion. Colin emailed me the other day to say, “We are having them specially designed by Howie Nicholsby. He is responsible for designing kilts for Vin Deisel, Robbie Williams etc. We are having four each from lightweight to heavyweight. There will be pockets, fluorescent strips down the side and, most importantly, Velcro to stop them blowing up in the Arizona wind!!!”

You can hear the relief Stateside, can’t you?

You can find out more about Colin and Iain’s odyssey over at Kilts Across America, along with information about the Moebius Research Trust, its objectives and its fundraising effort.

Charity Starts at Home

This has been an amazing week for me. Not only have we been very busy in the office with pre- and post-production of a number of very interesting projects, we spent a couple of days working on Happy Faces, a national charity initiative organized through the Irish Professional Photographers Association (IPPA), of which I’m a member.

Each year, the association nominates a charity and members raise funds by shooting and selling portraits to the general public (social photographers) or to their corporate client base (commercial photographers). This year, Angels Quest was the beneficiary.

My plan was to approached all of my commercial contacts and spend a day chasing round the city, setting up a simple lighting rig at their offices and shooting quick portraits before moving on to the next location. Minimum fuss for the client, maximum benefit for the charity. Well, I have to say, such was the take-up that a) I had to spread my event over two days and b) I didn’t even get to my last client today.

I am humbled by both the support and by the efforts that some people put in on my behalf in this regard. So, I’m going to make a fuss of a few people, by way of thanks.

I deal with two computer solutions companies here in Cork city FixIT and TSG. FixIT organized a networking event around the portrait sessions at their offices, while TSG offered me a room in their complex and access to the many satellite companies that use their building. Thanks, Arnaud and Sean.

Don, my framer, got me into his studio for a shoot with his children - and then ended up offering me an exhibition space for later in the year.

Mike, whose kind of a private guy (so I won’t name him fully) but big in Cork and international business circles, ordered five portraits and then told me not to even bother turning up to shoot them. (I like to think that this was to spare my schedule rather than a reflection on the quality of my photography).

There were many more individuals, and I can’t list you all here, but nevertheless thank you for your support.

I’ve learned a lot from this year’s Happy Faces. Firstly, Cork folk are a generous crowd, which I kinda already knew. Secondly, I picked up a bunch of tips that will make next year’s event a whopper.

Brian O’Kane (Oak Tree Press) and Arnaud Disant (FixIT)
Happy Faces Day 2008
(c) Roger Overall 2008

Corporate Responsibility

The biggest job I ever did in terms of exposure never earned me a bean. Quite the opposite; it cost me money.

But I knew this from the outset, as the job was for a charity. Every business should try to give something back, either to the community it’s part of or to the greater good as a whole - at least, that’s a belief I hold. I’m not saying this because I’m some sort of saint. In fact, “saint” is not a word people often use when they’re talking about me. “Grumpy” is. Just ask Yestin, my assistant.

To be brutally honest, on a very basic level, giving something back is a purely selfish act. It makes me feel good.

The shoot was for the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP), which champions the rights of the poorest members of Irish society, and took place in 2006. The resulting images were used during the charity’s 2006 and 2007 fundraising campaigns - even making it on to billboards around Cork city.

The brief was to shoot a series of images that showed people being helped by the Society. For one of the images, we chose one of the SVP hostels in Cork and a volunteer was approached to play the part of a homeless man who had found shelter in the hostel. The idea was to give a sense of welcome, warmth and safety to the image - contrasting it in an unspoken way with life on the streets.

This picture ran with the tag:
“Eamonn helped me get off the streets”
and was used widely by SVP in the run up
to Christmas in 2006 and 2007
(c) Roger Overall 2006