Photography for Social Good - introducing Photographer Volunteer

If you love taking pictures and you're pretty decent at it then we have a project that might interest you.

Photographer Volunteer is a voluntary scheme that aims to connect photographers wishing to use their skills for social good with charities and non profits in need of help with to promoting their work with current and future supporters.

Right now Photographer Volunteers is mainly a UK based project, but with many photographers from around the world registering their interest in volunteering it's quickly starting to spread globally. And with many UK based charities having worldwide projects, if you live outside the UK you can still register your interest and get involved.

If you want to improve your photography by practising or exploring new grounds, this might just be the right opportunity for you. Or maybe, you just feel strong about giving back to your community? Either case, just continue reading!

So why is Photographer Volunteer such an important project? We all know how strong an image can be, how much it can tell and provoke emotion and reaction. Well, in order to continue to have support and gain new donors, charities have the need to show their work in the best possible way. After all, an image speaks a thousand words! Many charities lack of the financial resources to outsource a photographer, let alone employ one full-time!

So, this is where you can be of great help and value and while helping a charity you will be also improving your photography. But don't just take our word for it, here Stacey Harrell tells us why she volunteers:

“Yes, working as a volunteer photographer really got me started and that came about as an extension of the volunteer/advocacy work I was already doing while staying at home raising my kids. Because of that I continue today to give somewhere around 25% of the work I do away. For me the chance to build my portfolio, gain experience working events & with PR firms made it worth the trade-off. During this time my work was also being showcased on websites and in newspapers/magazines.

Within a year of doing this as a volunteer I realized I was on to something and began to focus on making a go of it as a business. That meant I had to start putting limitations on how much pro bono I could continue to do. I started by limiting the amount of time that I was available to do pro bono work.

By Stacey Harrell: No pay check has ever given me that sense of pride in my workNow almost 5 years later I work with 2 organizations for a year giving them access to multiple services. Organizations submit to me a request and I make a selection based on their mission and need. During the year I also give my time/services away to other organizations, but these dates/services are limited.

The pay off for me has been huge. The organizations who came to know me at that time still call on me today and 99% of them had no problem transitioning into paying clients. PR firms know who I am and call on me regularly, but the biggest break came in July when a local society paper needed to replace their event photographer of 25 years; they asked 5 organizations who they would recommend and 3 of them gave my name. I was called in and given the job on the spot. My work is now seen weekly by Austin’s biggest movers & shakers.

I must stressed that giving back and working with NP’s brings so much more than conventional success and money. I’ve met some of the most amazing people in the world through my work and the best feeling I’ve had come from a dad who told me the photo I took of his daughter, who is a paraplegic with a host of other medical issues, managed to capture her the way he sees her…perfect and beautiful in every way. No pay check has ever given me that sense of pride in my work.”

To get involved visit the Photography Volunteer website.