I Heart Faces: Random Acts of Kindness

This week at I Heart Faces the task is to share an instance of using photography to help someone else with a random act of kindness.  I will share something I have done but really want to talk about projects that are much bigger and better than mine.

I teach at an elementary school and see many children who do not have the opportunity to have many pictures taken. Often, special events are lost because there are no pictures.  I have made photo cards for each child and sometimes helped with pictures for other teachers.  Last year I took lots of pictures of kids at a math fun day.  Kids love seeing pictures of themselves and really love to be able to take them home.  For some people, pictures are a luxury and and the kids do appreciate having them.

The real gem for I Heart Faces is  my friend Torie at Pickle Pie Photograhy.  She is offering a free photo session for families with a loved one in the military who is deployed or stationed far away and want to send updated photos.  This really touched me because I remember one Christmas when we wanted to send pictures to  Iraq to one of ours who was missing the holiday and we had nobody to take the pictures. We were clumsy with the timer and ended up having our neighbor come snap a few. While I’m thankful she did, I would have adored something more to send. I thank Torie for taking the initiative and donating her services. She is precious. (she also doesn’t know I snapped a picture of her from a wedding we did last week. She is GOOD and stays out of all shots. I did find ONE and I had to zoom on that) She is an awesome photographer with a great eye. Please check her out!

I promise I will shut up after this one last mention of good deed doing.  I’ve mentioned here before that we adopted our daughter, Boo. During the process I found out that there is an organization called Celebrating Adoption that lists photographers who are willing to donate a free session to any family within one year of a finalized adoption. We did not participate in that but I considered it. The timing was never right for us but I wish we had done so. Pictures are so important, especially when adopting from foster care. We’ve really only done family pictures once since our adoption (shame on me) and that was when our young neighbor wanted to practice. Thanks Audrey!

If you are a photographer and looking for a place to donate some work, look into one of these. There are military families in need of updated pictures. (I’ve even done some when the loved one comes home for R&R) You can list yourself on the Celebrating Adoption registry.  Or, you can somehow find someone who knows someone who wants pictures but can’t afford them.  After all…

“Happiness depends on what you can give. Not what you can get.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi