We met up bright and early on the 4th to get things setup and start off for the much anticipated Help-Portrait Belfast event. The amount of people who ended up coming to volunteer – from photographers to hair and makeup artists to people serving tea and coffee and everything in between – was seriously mind blowing. I love how a group of like-minded people can come together to do something so spectacular – to give back in the simplest of ways. To tell stories by listening to stories. To use our skills to bless others.

I had planned to take photos throughout the day and have them all compiled for a nice visual narrative of the day. But it didn’t really work like that. After each photo I took and had printed for someone, I reformatted my memory card. The photos only exist in the printed form – which says volumes in itself I suppose, because it’s not really about the photos. It’s about the conversations that happened because of the photos. It’s kind of a difficult concept to explain if you haven’t experienced it; it really is a shift in thinking about photography.

I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but I believe we ended up with around 7 photographers, 13 volunteers, 2 hair dressers, and 1 makeup artist. I think the final count of photos taken was around 136 (probably around 60 unique people/families). Everything about the event was pushed up a notch from last year – lots of fresh baked goods, tea, and coffee, Christmas carol sing-a-long for the kiddos, hair and makeup beauty stations for the ladies, photos, and of course, lovely conversation for all.

Even bigger, on the same day, thousands of other people around the world were doing the same thing. Global collaboration in all its selflessness and beauty. I am so excited to have been a part of it, and to meet other amazing folks who gave their time and energy and awesome talent. Check out the Flickr pool for behind the scenes photos from other Help-Portrait events around the globe.

Also, check out Russel Pritchard’s Blog for a lovely, better documented recap of the day. And I definitely recommend joining us if you’d like to be involved next year!

Without further adieu, I will break the rules of blog posting and end with a smiley. Because really, I can’t think of a better way to say it than:

Help-Portrait is :)