Category Archives: Community

Help Portrait is back again for 2010! For those of you who’ve never heard of it, this video will explain. Just note that this video is almost a year old and was made to promote the 2009 first time launch, so just ignore the event date at the end as the date for 2010 has yet to be finalized.

To be a part of the Help Portrait initiative in your community, visit the Help Portrait Community website. If you’re local to Vancouver and are interested in hearing about how it went last year, check out Ian’s blog Help Portrait blog post and to see a couple of short documentaries. And lastly, here’s a link about my own experience from being a part of Help Portrait last year.

A week ago I volunteered my services for an annual event called Relay for Life. It’s a 12 hour cancer fundraiser that took place in cities all across Canada. This is my fourth year being involved in the one in Richmond. I kinda wish I had some inspiring story involving how cancer has affected my life or the life of someone dear to me, but I don’t. Regardless, I still believe in events like these which seek to stop an illness which has caused pain to so many.

Here are some photos:

The first lap begins

Hooray for team spirit!

We had a magician at the event.

Shot of some of the volunteers + the magician.

JC Dance Crew performs at the Relay!

All the participants gather for the luminary ceremony.

Participants as they walk with candles in hand. The candle in the darkness is the universal symbol for hope.

One of the many commemorative luminaries placed around the track.

As photographers, we’re in the fortunate position of being able to emotionally impact people with our images in ways that other people cannot. Think of all the photos you have seen of the homeless and starving people in this world, the birds ravaged by oil in the gulf of Mexico, and the images of any given tragedy or disaster that has made an impact on you. Now I do not advocate that we should say yes to every charitable organization that would ask us to volunteer our services, otherwise we’d starve, but I do believe that when it comes to a cause that we strongly believe in, we should consider putting using our talent for the greater good. I’ll finish here by saying that I’m probably the first person who should live by my words.