It seems that the “Free Business Portraits for the Unemployed” is a great topic of discussion in the Italian media. I found out this morning that yesterday I was featured in a blog about jobs and employment. The article is here: blog.cercalavoro.it.
I have been in some of Italy’s top newspapers and I will be featured in a Italian magazine within the next week or two and now this as well.
I went ahead and used Google Translator to translate yesterday’s blog post into English. It’s not a perfect translation but you can get the point. If any of my readers know Italian and want to have a crack at translating more accurately let me know. In the mean time, click the link to read the English(ish) version (Thank you Google!).
Well, I am still in a cast and I am still doing everything one handed. The advantage I have over last week is moving my fingers is easier so i may be able to get this post typed in in less than a day! Check back at the end and see how I did.
This week I thought we would do some finishing touches on our image of James, popular guy that he is, I am getting tired of looking at him. So this week its Edge Effects! It seems that everyone wants to know how to do the best edge effect. Well that depends on a few things, the image, the look you want and how you wan the image to be seen. All depend on you!
I received a message from a Facebook friend this morning telling me that they saw my Free Portraits for the Unemployed on an Italian web site. You can view that article (and a slide show) here: la Repubblica.it. Here is the English translation:
“Just a photo to beat the crisis? Maybe not, but Michael Albany (look at the website) is convinced it will help to find work. In fact, Michael, a photographer from Pennsylvania, since last summer offers free his professionalism for the unemployed. Inside the crowded job meeting Michael rented a booth and portrays those who need a nice photo to be included on the curriculum and especially on their online profile LinkedIn, the site will soon be finding work in the U.S.. Thus, people who stand in line for a portrait, first passing through the hands of a makeup artist and then in front of the goal of the photographer, without spending a penny for a service that typically costs $ 225. “I can not do anything to help people – explains Michael – I want to do it more often but I have a home. In fact, he is a victim of the crisis. The job shortage is compelled to sell their houses to go forward. Past job meetings in which he participated, on 28 January in Philadelphia, has worked continuously for five hours, photographing 170 people, without taking a break to eat or smoke a cigarette. (di PAOLO RIBICHINI). “Unfortunately I could not please everyone, and so 50 people who were lined up, went away empty-handed. In the future I hope to do this at least every week or every month” (by Paolo Ribichini). Above, Michael Albany”
I get thank you’s from all over the world for offering this service to the unemployed for free. In fact, I just received a thank you from Marta Machesi of Italy while I was writing this. You are more than welcome Marta! If we meet in person, coffee is on me!
Well, it’s Monday and I have another One Handed Photoshop Tutorial for you! I apologize for the length of time it takes to make these. The videos themselves only take a few minutes its the typing the blog post that takes time. I am typing one handed after all. Drat! Now its Tuesday!
Anyway, I got such a positive response from the first 1 Handed tutorial I just had to keep going. That and the fact that I will be one handed for at least 3 more weeks. This time I took the same image and removed a few distractions and cleaned up a little razor rash.
You probably know already that ice is slippery, but did you know it’s sneaky too? It is when its black ice. It was hiding in my driveway last week and it took my feet right out from underneath me. I remember hearing a distinct snap too. Then I realized that snap was my wrist. So here I sit typing a blog post with one hand. The other is in a cast and itching like mad!
I was due to write my weekly post over the weekend but now I can only type so much and its less than half as much when using only one hand. So I got to thinking, what can I do one handed that I can put on my site? 1 Handed Photoshop Tutorials were born!
Below is the first in what I hope will only be a short series of tutorials that can be done quickly and easily, and with only one hand, in Photoshop. This first one is on how to use the High-Pass filter to make your images pop out at the viewer. Click the link to watch the video and take a look!
Well if you haven’t heard yet on January 28th I did Free Business Portraits for the Unemployed again. Each time I set up an event I try to have a different team with me. The idea is that I want let more people know about others and the challenges the unemployed person faces.
This time my team consisted of Theresa Rivers, Sol Levy, Annie Nason, Susan Schroeder and Linda Slodki. All were of great help and you can see us working together in my previous post Joblessness in the LA Times and the video in that post. Linda felt the need to say more about the event so for the first time ever below is a “Guest Blog” entry.
In my last post I told you how we had an amazing turnout for the job fair where I was doing Free Business Portraits for the unemployed. 6400 unemployed people in any on place is an amazing amount of people. So amazing in made the LA Times! Tina Sussman wrote an article titled “A snapshot of joblessness”. In the article you will get a strong sense of the feelings of people that attended the event. I strongly suggest you read the article.
Additionally Scott Lewis of Scott Lewis Images to some photos of the event that are outstanding. In the article you can click on my image on the left column to see them (I’m the bald guy in the purple shirt with a camera in front of my face).
I put together a little video of stills and some video clips so you can see the crowds and perhaps get a feel for what I was trying to do at the event. You can take a look at it below.
It was a humbling day. So many needing just a job. They don’t want handouts, they want a job; a chance to prove they can do the job and do it well.
I also wanted to thank Annie Nason, Sol Levy, Linda Slodki, Theresa Rivers and Susan Schroeder for all their help and a special thank you to Michelle Buckman of Fox 29 in Philadelphia who allowed me to be a part of the event.
Over 6400 people came to the “Jobs Gone Wild” job Fair Thursday January 28th. 6400 unemployed people in one place! Over 200 of them wanted Free Business Portraits. Unfortunately I was only able to get to a little over 170 in the 4.5 hours I had to shoot. I wanted to stay and photograph them all but the facility had to kick me out due to another event schedule just a few hours later.
I arrived at 5:45am to begin setting up and to be interviewed by Michelle Buckman of Fox 29 News in Philadelphia. When I arrived fire alarms were screeching in our ears. After about 20 minutes they stopped temporarily. Then just 1 minute before we were to go live on Fox they went off again! Luckily they were just testing them and we were able to have them turned off in time for us to go on air. The interview is below. (and yes I have a cold)
I took over 550 images that day and I took the time to talk to each person I photographed. My job is not only to snap a portrait but to make people relax for that portrait. I will be blogging about the event again soon. I will have images of the photoshoot, the event and of course the lines too! I will also be adding some of the finished portraits when I get through all of them. Please check back often to learn more about how the event went. I was also interviewed by a reporter, Tina Susman of the LA Times and as soon as I know when that interview will be published I will be sure to add a link to it.
Moving forward I am looking for location hosts. Anyone that has the space where I can continue these events please contact me. I had to turn away over 50 people and I want desperately to help them all. As a location photographer I do not have a studio to use and I need a space that is in Philadelphia for these people. I am open to planning other events outside of the Philadelphia area as well. If you or your company can help, contact me via the Contact Michael page of this site.
If your company is planning layoffs, Free Business Portraits for those being released gives your employees a better chance at landing their next position. Please contact me so we can work together on helping those that need help the most.
Last year I created Free Business Portraits for the Unemployed to give back to my community. I wanted to do something for those around me that had found themselves without a means of paying their bills, wondering how they could ever afford a photo shoot if it is a challenge to put food on the table. I have been there. I know what it’s like to not have the money to pay the bills, to put all the bills in a hat and pull out the one you are going to pay this month. I have been without a home too. I have spent weeks living in my car, sleeping in it or on sofas. I know what it’s like to have nothing and I never want to be there again, ever!
I said to myself one day last summer, “what can I do to give back to all those that helped me? What can I do that will make people feel good and that will help them out of the jam they find themselves in?” What can I don’t have a lot of money, I don’t have a huge house or even a couch the average person can sleep on. I can take pictures and I do that well. I can take peoples portraits and I can help them look their best when recruiters and potential employers look at their resume’ on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. That is something I can do!
