Let Me Take Your Picture for Charity Water

Some of you who know me in real life know that this is turning out to be quite the year of change and transition for me. I turned 40 last December, which means I'm staring down the crazy barrel of 41 in just a few short weeks. (Oh my hell.) I have a lot of different ideas and plans and goals taking shape, as well as a lot of obviously more challenging things to go through on a daily basis, as I wrote about earlier this week.

Speaking of that, I am so grateful to the people who came and read here this week -- for the support, for the feedback and for what felt like a hundred awesome hugs, I swear. Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you, if you are back again. I really didn't know what to do or where to go with a lot of stuff that was in my head, and I'm very happy that I chose to come here. The morning I wrote that post I woke up and I thought, immediately, that I'd said too much and felt too much and I was going to go put that baby back in draft where it belonged. But by the time I did that, Tracey had written me the kindest comment and a person I'd never met had shared a story of great pain in response, so I had to leave it alone. 

And thank God, really. I really believe that the responses deepened my own understanding of what I was writing about. How much I love my family and my friends -- how I'd gone to the edge of disposing of a friendship for absolutely no reason, how I hadn't considered anything good about myself in the context of all I had convinced myself was bad. I got dms and emails and comments telling me things that I don't think people had ever felt they had a place to share. And people, themselves, wrote in response to the post on their own sites. I couldn't believe it. Tracey expanded on her comment and so did Schmutzie and I swear I felt like maybe it made a lot of this worth it? (Although I never want to go through anything like that again, make no mistake.) 

My blog is a virtual place that's given me a lot and I guess that continues to be so. I guess no matter what I think I've got all figured out, life still has the remarkable capacity to surprise me, every day. 

Anyway! In the interest of all of these goals and dreams and new things, and the good people I've had the fortune to meet in my on and now offline travels, I am going to Camp Mighty, which is, oh goodness, next week. Time is getting short. 

I am part of a team for this event that has committed to raising a certain amount of money for a very worthy cause -- Charity Water. Their mission is to bring clean and drinkable water to places around the world where that is not a given. 

Easy cause to support, right? 

Well, as part of my contribution, I need to raise at least $200 to support water conservation efforts in the places where Charity Water is currently working. Here is Eden's list of what some other people are doing. 

There are a few ways I can do this. 

I can take your picture. I have taken the pictures of many people and they didn't hate it. In fact, I think it's kind of fun to have me take your pictures, because I'm sort of a fool for the whole process, especially if you're the type who doesn't like having her picture taken. I really enjoy working with you and making you laugh so you forget you're supposed to hate it. I shoot: 

Grown-ups. (This one doesn't mind having her picture taken at all, but I've still taken some pretty good ones of her, I'll just go ahead and say it.) 

Little people. (This is Meghan. We are buddies. She doesn't have a blog. Yet.) 

Musicians who have no idea what I was doing. I mean, how weird is it that I have a picture of John Taylor's hands in my possession and he has no idea who in the hell I am? 

RELATED: JOHN TAYLOR'S HANDS. I was that close. Yes. I was. 

Not-people who think they are people. (This is my niece. She is very photogenic.) 

I can do a headshot or more casual portrait session anywhere in the DC metro area -- this includes Baltimore, Northern Virginia and pretty much anywhere else I can drive within an hour. I will happily work with pets and children, and also John Taylor, if you can scrounge him up for me again. I'd ask for a $50 donation to the cause for this, and that includes post-processing of your portraits, a cd of all useable images, and three prints. 

I can also send you a picture that is not of yourself, but is instead a print of any image in my collection. I will share a nicely-printed and perhaps even frame-accentuated print in your choice of size, for a donation of $20. (I'd do $15 but I'm eating some printing costs there because I don't bother doing it at home. Because, the agony.) 

Maybe you love San Francisco. 

Or the sun and the ocean. 

Or maybe, baby, you're a firework. (Or a sparkler, like Tarrant and Rebecca.) 

Or more the Lewis Carroll type. I'm sure there are some of you out there. 

I am in the process of trying to put some things on Etsy, but the uploading feature isn't cooperating with me and I really want to get this out there before I leave on a short trip this weekend. So I can provide you with a Flickr gallery that may include something you'd like. (I'm new at selling my stuff, so bear with me. I'm pretty easy to work with, I think.) 

NOTE: Since I wrote this below I've since gotten a clue that there is a direct Charity: Water donation page here. Super easy. 

Other things I can do for you, if photos aren't your thing? Well, we've got this little NaBloPoMo deal going on. If you're doing it and running out of ideas, I'd be happy to write a guest post on yours, also for a $20 donation. Sound cool? I think so. Writing this November is reminding me again how much better this blogging place is when we all hang out and write and read together. If that's something you'd be interested in, let me know and I'll work out a theme with you. 

With whatever I send you, you're guaranteed some surprises in the package -- a mix cd, most likely, or maybe...oh, I don't know. I guess you'll have to give it a shot. 

Sound cool? Great. Drop me a line at lauriesays@gmail.com, and we'll work out the details. 

Comments

[Issa]

I adore that photo of Sarah. It's amazing. I love the ocean one too. I wish I was closer. I'd love for you to take my photo. I don't have any good photos of me. I had asked someone before BH to take my photo, but she was sick at BH so I didn't even bring it up.

[Sarah]

OF COURSE I'm in. You want to come over and shoot The Squad? I'll give you the $50 AND beer.

[ClumberKim]

Hoping you'll get something this weekend we can use on a holiday card. In fact, the only time I won't say, "Get your camera!" is when there's a beer in your hand.

[heirrant]

You have something in your archive I covet...a closeup of lavender roses that's just awesome.

A (signed?) print of that would be worth a sawbuck several times over! Unframed, stuck in a tube, and I'll pay for the shipping too!

What a great charity.

If I were a rockstar, I'd be honored to have to shoot my hands. (And yes, I squeed at the pic.)

I hope your Etsy site starts behaving itself, so I can share linky goodness to my crowd out here.

[Andrea]

Beautiful photos. You are a very talented photographer. Wonderful idea for charity.

[Deb Rox]

I'm down. Emailing!

[Hailey Hopeful]

the oldest girl in these pictures looks just like me!!!!! we have the same teeth also.
i was so freaked out when i saw the picture.