Photos for a Good Cause

The weekend before last, I had a chance to snap photos at our company's First Annual Carwash and BBQ with proceeds going to Relay For Life. Our company has participated in the Eugene/Springfield event for the past 4+ years. RFL is an amazing 24 hour event that brings cancer survivors, family and friends, loved ones and sponsors together to raise money for a cure to cancer. For 24 hours, from noon on Friday to noon on Saturday, members of each sponsoring team walk/run the LCC running track in laps (always one person from each team on the track at all times) as money and awareness is raised. At 10 in the evening, a luminary ceremony is conducted with thousands of candles in remembrance of a loved one. It is a powerful gesture that shows both the impact that cancer has on so many lives and the amount of support that can be garnered from one community to get to the cure. I am proud that my company supports such an important cause.
Throughout the year, our office drums up fundraising ideas. Casual weeks are popular (we are allowed to wear sneakers and jeans instead of business attire for a small donation) as are bake sales. Raffles for homemade items and baskets of goodies are also popular. We have a penny drive every spring that raises several thousand dollars. I think we usually raise $10,000 to $13,000 each year for donation. I imagine donations have waned a little so the carwash/BBQ was something new to try. From 9am to 4pm on one Saturday, we raised $500. Not bad for just one day's work.

I wanted to get more practice in taking photos of people so I offered to come in for a few hours. I’m so sick of taking pictures of flowers and sunsets and such. This event seemed like a great opportunity to gather some fine photos. I’m not afraid to say that I’m proud of what I captured. The supervisors in charge seemed to enjoy my photos and they’re happy to have me cover the RFL event at the end of the month too. Perhaps this is another small step towards paid gigs.









My favorite pictures are of all the kids. I caught them just at the right time- before they got bored of the task at hand. It was early in the day and so they were still horsing around, getting one another soaking wet. And, as you can see, they were mugging it up for the camera too.

I loved capturing this little girl working. She seemed to genuinely enjoy cleaning the cars as well as getting wet.










All photos © Punkin Dunkin Productions
For those of you following my blog, you know these are among the first people shots I've done. What do you think? Did I capture the event well? What did I do right or wrong? What should I do next time to improve? Would you agree these pictures are a hell of a lot better than all the flowers I've posted over the last few months? I sure think so. But I want to know what you think!