"Start Something" - Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest & the Nike Bigs

Back in September I was asked to photograph pairs of Nike employees who volunteer as Big Brothers and Big Sisters and their Littles with three goals in mind:

1. Minimum of 6 images for a fundraising breakfast and the kick-off to their "Start Something" campaign.
2. Images also for the Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest chapter to use for their marketing/fundraising campaigns for the next 12 - 36 months.
3. Because the breakfast is being hosted by the Nike Bigs, the photos needed to be edgier/different than the normal candids that are used by BBBS.

 Here's how it went down on Day 1:

• As far as I know everyone involved in this breakfast fundraiser donated their time, experience, location or business services.
• The first shoot day was at Ivey Performance Marketing.
  
  
• We ended shooting 4 pairs of Bigs and Littles on this day and it was a BLAST!
• Huge thanks to the folks at Ivey for opening their doors to us and to allowing me to shoot with their Speedotron strobes  - otherwise there was no way I was going to light this space with my current lighting kit and no rental budget.

The shoot turned out great for the Bigs, the Littles, myself and the other volunteers (Designer, AD, PM, etc.)

The second shoot day happened in a racquetball court in the Bo Jackson Sports Center at the Nike WHQ in Beaverton, Oregon.  A racquetball court certainly beats a conference room if you are ever presented with the option.

We shot just one pair in a quick 15 minute session during their lunch.  Had another great time and was happy to see that the Bigs really are involved with making sure their Littles get some extra attention, do fun things, and are able to let loose and be kids themselves.  Apart from these photoshoots being a great opportunity for me to shoot something I hadn't done before, I really feel good about donating my time and services to such a great organization.  So if you can donate time or money to BBBS, then they can use it and are a great organization.

Here are couple of photos from the racquetball shoot:

Overall a fantastic time, organization, volunteers and kids.

PS: I'm no Chase Jarvis, but these images were inspired by his Seattle 100 project.  I wanted to give these kids and volunteers images that they would normally not have an opportunity to receive. On a micro scale, these Bigs are making an impact equal to the Seattleites Chase documents in his book.  So Chase, thanks for the inspiration, the sharing of knowledge and cjLIVE. 

Urban Boy Scout's 1st Video

This is my first video, shot and edited by yours truly. My very good friend and part-time underwater cinematographer, Mark Oronzio, sending Flying Squirrel - V6 at the Carver Bridge Cliff near Portland, Oregon (they filmed some scenes for the 1st Twilight movie here). Goes to show he works well on land or underwater. Check out his work at Tiger Shark Productions, some of his footage is in the new documentary, A Fall From Freedom.


If you're interested in finding out more about the boulders at the Carver Bridge Cliff, please take a look at the Carver Bouldering Blog.

Tools for Cutting and Other Work

My wife is hosting a hair cutting party - long story - and asked me to do the invite to send to some of her girlfriends. The title for the party is CHOP CHOP SNIP SNIP BUZZ BUZZ. Here's the photo I shot this morning at 6:30 a.m.



Before I started my sabbatical 3 weeks ago, I shot some other fun photos for work. The photo was used for a Wellness Center promotion called Picture Yourself Healthy. I created the photo frames and the faux Polaroid in Illustrator and then rigged a clothesline in my cube at work. As people send in photos of themselves making healthy choices, their photos will be dropped into the blank frames.



A version with some mock-up photos in the frames (I shot everything except the tomato photo):