Photography can help self esteem

Gift giving is part of our lives. We enjoy giving gifts as much as we enjoy receiving them.

I have found that photography is one of the best gifts you can give. When we get together for events we often like to remember these times with photos.

Pure Fashion's fashion show at St. Thomas More Church in Decatur, GA.

Making the Photo

When you point your camera at someone you are saying you are important. People do not take picture for the most part of things they dislike, rather they point their cameras to those things they cherish most. While we do not announce to everyone with a megaphone that is what we are doing, the act of photographing someone is giving that person importance.

I have been hired to help a client impress their clients by having a professional photographer to take photos of them at an event. Some clients will even create a red carpet and have extra people their popping the flashes on their camera just to help create that environment that those walking on the red carpet are important.

My daughter at her fashion show. She enjoyed learning how to carry herself and how to look her best.

Just taking someone's picture is one of the best ways to give honor, dignity and respect to another person.

When we take pictures we are taking them not just for ourselves, but to share. We want to show our friends and family who we met and what we saw.

Professional makeup artists worked individually with all the Pure Fashion models to teach them how to apply makeup that help to accentuate their beauty without making them look over done.

My daughter is having her makeup done while her friend watches.  

What I liked about this event was everyone was celebrating each other and learning from each other. They all wanted each other to look their best and it wasn't about someone looking better than everyone.

Dressing Up

We take time every morning to go through a ritual to look our best. We learn what looks best on us. We are color coordinating clothing so we look not just out best, but the best for each situation.

Designer works with the models to show them how they can accessorize with her scarfs.

Pure Fashion teaches the model how to carry themselves. They know that the way you look and talk will help your self esteem.  The confidence you project helps to draw people to you.

Our next door neighbor and my daughter's friend is in the program as well.

I tried taking photos of the girls walking the runway with available light, but decided I wanted the best possible light.  I wanted the photos to look their best. If they had taken this much time to pick out outfits and style their hair and put on makeup--I needed to bring my best as well.

I put four Alienbees B1600s with 7" reflector in the corners of the room bouncing off the ceiling.  They at on 1/8 power so I was shooting at ISO 1250.  

One of the most important things to me in a photograph is expression.  Here I feel like I captured the fun everyone was having. 

Sharing the Photographs

Giving people photos after they come to your home for a party is a great way to help them and you remember those good times. People may put your photos even in the most honored spot in the American home--the refrigerator door.

Today I probably share as many photos with my friends and family through Facebook as anywhere else.

For the Pure Fashion event I wanted to share the photos but also make it easy for the parents to order prints or just about anything they like to put their daughter's photos on. I put all the photos in an online gallery.

Here are the photos I shared with the parents.

Once they click on the image and see it larger, they can click on the "+Buy" green button. When they do that this window pops up.

They can see the photo on the left and options. If they click the tab in the top right hand corner they can choose to order products (i.e. coffee mugs, mouse pads, iPad covers, etc) or they can choose download as show below here.

I gave the parents the option to order a small resolution image for use in Social Media (Facebook, Twitter etc) or they could purchase at a higher price the higher resolution image which they can use to make their own prints.

Today I think people want the digital image at least large enough for them to share using their preference for Social Media.

Other Outlets

Since Pure Fashion was hosted by St. Thomas More Church, which is part of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. I have done work in the past for their newspaper The Georgia Bulletin.  I sent an email to the editor and asked if they were interested and they even had a writer already there.

They were very interested in the photos. Now besides having a photos made of each model so they could have a professional photograph from the event to remember it, they were going to be celebrated through the media.

Even if the model's photo isn't used in the publication it elevates the event and makes this a big deal. It helps to improve their self esteem.

You can bless someone's life

One of my good friends started taking pictures and giving them to people. While he was working in Japan his son's played baseball. They spoke almost no Japanese. He would take action photos, team photos and even individuals of each of the boys on the team.

He made prints and found some nice folios to put the photos in to give to each of the parents. He knew in Japanese culture your presentation of a gift was just as important as the gift.

The families had not ever had this done before and the response was overwhelming. Today some of those families have flown from Japan to visit them in the states.

My friend discovered that his hobby of taking photos was a blessing to those he gave the photos.

Want to be a blessing to others and improve their self esteem--take photos and share them.