Help Us To Raise £10,000 For Our Favourite Charity!

We realised a few weeks ago that it would be possible to raise a decent amount of money for our favourite charity with a very simple scheme. It's a charity book project. The charity in question being Yorkshire Candlelighters (registered charity number: 1045077) - who you can read about by following the link below:

http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/ellisconderappeal/page6.phtml

Basically this is how it works....

We are looking to photograph 200 families (kids only 0 - 15 years) this year. Each family will complete a nomination/registration form for each child to be photographed and pay a £50 (per family) registration fee. All of the £50 goes directly to Candlelighters - never touches our bank account at all. This way our administration is kept to a minimum. For the registration fee we will photograph each child in an "environmental" portrait setting - so not in the studio - unless of course they are a baby. Each child photographed will then feature in a book to be called "Children Of God's Own County - A Portrait of a Generation 2009". If a child is from a single child family then their £50 will get them a page to themselves, if they have siblings then they will share a page with the other children from the same family. So basically £50 "buys" a page in the book. Our target is to photograph 200 families before mid September and in doing so we will raise £10,000 for Candlelighters.

A little bit more about the book - we envisage that it will be split into 5 chapters - "Children from the Dales", "Children from the Moors", "Children from The Coast", "Children from York" and "Children from Harrogate". We're aiming to have some fun out and about taking the pictures and areas in which we intend to visit for the environmental portraits include for the Moors - Pickering (with of course Steam Trains!), Dalby Forest (my personal favourite place to hang out), perhaps Goathland and maybe even Grosmont or Egton Bridge. For the Coast we intend at some point visiting Whitby (the Abbey and the Whale Bones have got to make for great pictures!), Robin Hoods Bay (we have plans for the Rock Pools there!), Filey, Scarborough and maybe even Flamborough Head - if we can find a family from Flamborough or close by. For the Dales we include Ripon, Masham, Bedale, Leyburn, Pateley Bridge, Skipton (we'd love to feature the stepping stones at Gargrave!) possibly Bolton Abbey, Studely Royal and Fountains Abbey, along with the obvious well known places but this is probably the area we are least familiar with - although we do love Aysgarth and Malham area. York - we think will be mostly around the Museum Gardens and river area. Loads of scope there with fantastic backdrops and easy parking close by. Harrogate - Valley Gardens, the Stray and some of the old streets around town. The book will include some landscape/fine art images of our favourite beauty spots from each area along with a little text/information about the area.

So why Candlelighters then? Well the answer is quite simple. Our son, Jacob, who is a special needs child also suffers with Haemophilia and this necessitates us taking him to the Oncology Department at St. James Hospital several times a year to meet with his consultant and check everything is ok with his anti bodies in his blood levels etc. Each time we visit we find it incredibly emotional as we see children and families struggling to cope with the devastating effects of childhood cancer. Candlelighters support these families and the unit. We understand that the unit is shortly moving to Leeds General Infirmary and Candlelighters are currently raising funds for a new playroom and play equipment in the new unit and also a brain scanner which will enable early detection of brain tumours in children. This is life saving technology - the earlier the detection of any childhood cancer the greater the chances are of survival.

If you would like to take part in this project please contact us to arrange your shoot. Our contact details are: sharon@theportraitpeople.co.uk, telephone number: 01423 323776. We do not include a copy of the book or any photographs from the shoot but both are available for purchase, if you wish, afterwards. At the time of writing the cover price of the book is not yet fixed as we are still gathering in quotes for the printing.