The theme is The Giver & The Receiver

I was just going to straight up share the pictures and be done with it.
But readers of the blog have probably noticed the trend to share photo shoots along with commentary and perhaps even a lesson from time to time.

Those interested in the pictures will probably just view the pictures anyway
or maybe they should just skip right to the FULL GALLERY
With an open invitation to use these pictures online to your heart’s content (Assuming they’re of you)
Read the end for more info.

Those wanting to wax philosophical might do so with me in the text of the blog.

I’ll be intertwining some pictures as well.

Read my discourse about giving and receiving and see more pictures after the jump

Last Night, I was invited to take pictures at a church function, which was a Christmas party.
(I was told much earlier but we waited to see what my schedule would end up like until I got back from doing pictures in Hawaii)

There are many reasons to do photography for free … I will share some of the reasons why I chose to do the shoot.

• I was going to go to the event anyway
• It was for a bunch of other single people
• I was asked by a pretty girl
• I usually have more fun with a camera in my hand at events anyway.
• I figured I’d socialize more this way.
• Plus heh! that’s a few hundred more people that would know me and also my photography.
• I’m always up to difficult situations like when I did 50 shoots in one week or 3 weddings in a day. (Experiencing different photographic situations makes you a stronger photographer)
• I had no other shoots scheduled.
• No paid pressure and experiment with more studio stuff.
• Get to know more people since I’m more used to being well known in past areas I’ve lived.

The hope was to set it up as a type of photo booth so they could take pictures of themselves.
What I figured this would do would be to make it fun for them and release me from responsibility for how good they turned out.
Because “hey they took the picture them-self”, If I take them then i feel more obligated to make them look like my usual pictures would look because it’s representing me.

But I switched to taking the pictures… why?

• Deciding I didn’t have any other places to be at the party
• Seeing the length of the line with the slower do-it-yourself method.
• Getting a handle on the tricky lighting setup
• And enjoying the company. (More interaction and socialization)

I grabbed the camera and did them myself.
Which in turn put the pressure back on and I spent the day editing (mainly cropping, since the background was so small)

I ponder now and share…

Before continuing: realize i very much enjoyed the photo event last night and would do it again in a heart-beat and everyone involved seemed to act well their part.
Because it’s not always so smooth and things don’t always work out so well, it made me think.

How some photographers think

Many times for photographers we just hope that our Art is appreciated. That there is reason behind it.
Sometimes it’s the financial reward that motivates,
but I, Like others, sometimes would be willing to do it for “free” because it’s fun for us.
But we are appalled at the same time with the sense of entitlement.

Photography should remain an enjoyable activity, perhaps even one of the most enjoyable things we do in our lives. (As photographers)
We’ll even do it just to see others happy at the end result.
I know i’ve often said when asked what my favorite part about photography – It’s seeing their faces when they see my art.

I know I’m very happy whenever someone is thankful or appreciative and that can be a motivation.

The thin line

But the tricky part is when people try to “pay off” acts of kindness
They attempt to make a payment and act as if they’re even, when they’re not.
When someone thinks that it’s payment enough (unless of course it is payment enough)

If you start entering return of service or payment it should be even or the thought is… it’s just a way of saying thanks.
If not just let it go… let the free service be the gift of the giver.
You can reward and give thanks in any creative way. But don’t make the artist/giver feel like you’ve compensated for the gift unless it’s fair.
If your way of saying thanks is financially then remember to let that person who performed the service know that it’s a thank you… not a payment.

Leave charity in it’s own realm and remember thanks is separate from payment and can be creatively offered in any way.

It’s not about an exchange for us…
When we do events like teach classes for free or do events like “Help-Portrait” or “Now I lay me down to sleep” or organize events,…
Or shoot events like this… it’s not about an exchange of services, it’s about us wanting to do something nice.
If we expect an even exchange we’re being deceptive and setting ourselves up for disappointment.
We welcome thanks in any form but the gift is taken away when it is felt that they’re trying to “pay-off” the act.

Perhaps total compensation is acceptable in certain cases, but let it be fair compensation… because hey offer our services for a living anyway.
But usually that kind of stuff is decided before hand, before it’s done as an act of service.
Is it a business act or an act of friendship.

My pet peeve.

I give discs to people of their pictures and the biggest insult is for someone to offer to reimburse me for my the pictures by paying for the materials (I.e. pay for the disc.)
Seriously  10-20 cents for a disc? That’s not something you reimburse, specially when I own hundreds of discs.
Perhaps you reimburse someone on their travel costs or costs to perform the service but that should not be considered exchange for the service.
Maybe it’s more so in a service industry such as photography where our costs are not often material, but the years of training and super expensive equipment which are not transfered.
I can see more difference if it’s a pilot flying you around for free, that’s not cheap and paying for gas is more understandable. But even still, I’m sure the pilot doesn’t want the individual to believe that paying for the cost is equal to the service he provided giving of their time and expertise.

Free is better than highly devalued

We do it for no-payment and any type of reimbursement when it falls greatly short leaves us with a bad taste in the mouth.
Unless there is an understanding such as… “here’s some reimbursement to what you’ve done, we know what you’ve done is worth so much more than this but accept this as part of our thanks.”

I’d much rather do a photo-shoot for Free than $100 not because the Hundred wouldn’t help me… but because I don’t want to devalue what I’ve done.
An act of service still maintains it’s value and it’s value though different than financially based can be equal or greater.

If I charge $10 for a photo-editing class I’ve now exited the realm of service and now put a low devalued price on what I do.
I wouldn’t mind charging very little much less than value if people recognized it as such.
But I’m not sure it’s easy to separate once payment has been made.

Many times I want to just help someone and do it as a friend and caring person… when a price is attached… it’s now usually in the realm of “business”

We should do things just to help people out… earn “Good Will”

I hope that over my career that I’ve earned much “Good will” for the countless hours of sharing, to me it means so much more than the money i get which comes and goes.

Don’t be mistaken, I might represent some artists… but I don’t represent all.
Not everyone feels the same.
For some It is about business most of the time… and that’s their choice and they shouldn’t be judged unfairly against us that choose other routes… and their life situations might warrant otherwise.

I’m very often against the phrase and mentality attached to “it’s good business” -
I hope we understand that just because something makes us more money it doesn’t make it right.

So last night

So in getting back to last night… they did just fine… they didn’t try to compensate for what I did.
They thanked me a TON, there was an understanding that what I did was nice.
Even if they saw that what I did was probably beneficial for business because I had exposure… but that it wasn’t a payment in and of itself.
I was happy in sharing and they were happy with what I did. That’s it, nothing more was needed.

It was service and sometimes service doesn’t need to be repaid. But should always be appreciated.

For sure you can assume that I want my pictures to be appreciated, used and admired.
I’d love to see them shared and used… I don’t want them to remain on my website never to be seen.
I don’t need financial compensation but I do think social standards dictate that people should be appreciative of an act of service.

And that isn’t limited to the words “Thank You” ?
But like I said for me, seeing someone happy and seeing the art used is a way of offering thanks.
But it should never be contrived… and that’s where it gets tricky. Do I do this because it’s a social standard, so I look good, or because it comes from the thankfulness of the heart.

A word to the server

Yes we want our service to be appreciated.
Yes the disc of images represents hours of hard work and years of training and shouldn’t be compensated at cost with a dime.
But we should realize that sometimes it happens that people don’t understand.
We don’t always know how to offer our thanks.
Sometimes people suck… don’t let that take away from the good thing you’ve done.

Know that sometimes “No good deed goes un-punished” (Ala Ann Torrence)

There is wisdom in doing service and expecting nothing, perhaps the only way to do it.
Let the protocol for the receiver lay on the receiver.
We should not give and then be the police determining who acted morally responsible.

An Example

It was hard when I did my annual charity event to wonder if people felt they were compensating me and paying me an exchange when they gave Donations to a charity.
How is that a compensation to me? I appreciated a solid thanks or when they acted excited, when they showed off their pictures online to all their friends (Even better when they didn’t know I was reading)
It was hard separating in my own mind their charitable contributions and not take them as a reflection of my own worth as a photographer… but that is perhaps my own issue.
Perhaps the way to fix that is to never know how much they’re donating to the charity next time.

Receiver

The recipe for a good thanks is sincerity.
It’s produced from the actual emotion of sincerity.

It’s often best given in any creative manner the heart can determine.
It shouldn’t be contrived just because of social standards but can be appropriate based on social standards, they do help.

It’s Christmas time… a time for gifts/presents

We’ve seen that sometimes the heartfelt gift is the strongest.
We know that the best gift is the time put into the gift.
What better way to show thanks to an act of service than to give our most valuable resource of time.
And perhaps on the same level is Thought.
When the thanks in whatever it’s form says I put thought into you and or your act of service… that is a mighty thanks or a valuable present.

Christmas

Christ gave not expecting compensation. Not expecting to be repaid in money or meals. He didn’t need to secure a place in heaven.
But giving thanks is an important part of our relationship to him.

We can do it in so many ways. But I dare to say going beyond believing in him to believing him and doing what he says is a joy for him and a gift to him he would never turn away.
The giver should never be to haughty to turn away a gift given with an appreciative heart.

Christ accepts any form of thanks as a symbol of our sincerity, words, actions, gifts and that includes our prayers and how we serve others.

So Christmas is practice for us. Giving thanks in sincere and creative ways.
Sometimes spending money is the way but it’s sincerity in our offer that really makes us better, and creativity should be the rule not the exception to the rule.

I share these things not because I understand everything but simply because it’s what’s on the mind.

I welcome response from what others have been thinking.

Perhaps it serves to understand that relationship between the giver and the receiver, both as an act of business and a deed of service.

There is much more to be said.

But this is a photo-blog I don’t claim to be a philosopher by trade, I take the pic-chas

And yet more pictures:

Always start strong and end strong – meaning end with the best looking subject. haha

Again there’s over 400 pictures to share – Check out the full gallery
And in this case anyone at the party has every right to take these pictures from SmugMug gallery and use them all over facebook or wherever online for free.
I ask that you let me know if you make a gallery – I like seeing people’s comments.

I don’t see people needing to print them as often but I’ll lower the rate on printing to 70% off what my cost usually is, as long as I’m not responsible for edits or touch-ups and it doesn’t become a hassle.

Again i urge you to take these pictures (if you were there) and make galleries of you and your friends on facebook to your hearts content.

See All of them here