Q. Are There Any Free Pictures With The Shoot?
A. No - sorry. Because we are totally funding the production and printing of the book ourselves and this is costing literally £000's (several thousand actually) we are not including any free pictures with the shoot. Included is our time for the shoot and the viewing our design skills for the best presentation of your child/rens picture in the book and the page in the book itself.
Q. Do We Get A Free Copy Of The Book?
A. Sorry - the answer to this is also "no" for the exact reasons as outline above.
Q. Do We Get To See The Pictures After The Shoot Before The Book Comes Out?
A. Yes - of course - we will invite you to a viewing session of the picture at our studio in Boroughbridge. Due to the logistics involved it is unlikely that we will be able to offer the viewings "on location" although we will try to accommodate families with special needs/circumstances where possible.
Q. Can We Purchase Pictures From The Shoot Afterwards?
A. Yes - and of course we sincerely hope that you do as this will help us to put some money aside for the book production costs. The viewing session will be your ONLY opportunity to purchase extra prints however.
Q. How Soon After The Shoot Can We View The Pictures?
A. We aim to have the pictures edited and ready for you to view within a week where possible but we are going to need to be very structured in booking viewing appointments to leave enough free time for actual shoots. We may need to look at offering evening viewing appointments in order to get through our target of 200. We would ask you to be flexible with us and work with us on this one.
Q. Do You Keep The Pictures From The Shoot?
A. We only guarantee to keep copies of images actually ordered during the viewing session and the one which is selected to go into the book.
Q. Can I Choose The Picture For The Book?
A. No - sorry - the book has to have a certain look and flow to it. This means that we have to be really careful when planning the book about what pictures are placed on which pages. We will of course endeavour where possible to put your favourite image in the book but there are no guarantees of this.
Q. If I Want More Than One Picture To Appear In The Book Can I Buy An Extra Page?
A. Of course. There may however be occasions when we have taken a "sequence" of pictures which we feel should appear together in the book. If this is the case then your child/rens page may have more than one picture of them on that page. If however you would like more than one actual pages in the book for your child/rens images to appear then additional pages are available at the standard cost of £50 per page.
Q. I Would Like My Child To Take Part - What Do I Need To Do Next?
A. There is some paperwork we need to complete prior to the shoot. I can email this to you in a PDF format for you to print and return to me along with your cheque of £50 per page, made payable to "Harrogate Candlelighters". We will send you an official receipt and contact you to arrange the shoot date and time - if we have not done this already!
Q. Can I Pay Over The Phone By Credit/Debit Card?
A. As this money never touches our bank account, no, sorry we can't take payment this way on this occasion.
Q. I Don't Have Any Children Or Grand Children To Take Part In The Book But I'd Really Like To Try To Help Your Efforts - Is There Anything I Can Do To Help?
A. Thanks for asking! Yes - there are a couple of things! Firstly we need help to raise awareness of the project and our aims and to keep the momentum going - so please, spread the word! We're told that if we get a lot of people following the blog that this will raise it up the Search Engines and then more people will hopefully become aware of what we are trying to achieve and participate. So please - register to follow the blog at least! Secondly we have 8,000 postcards to distribute briefly outlining the project on one side and with a take part contact form on the other if you are able to distribute any of these for us in your area please email me with how many you think you can shift and I will glady post them out to you. My email address is: sharon@theportraitpeople.co.uk Great places to distribute these are schools, nurseries, childrens play barns, churches, after school clubs/activities such as Dance Schools, Karate Schools, Scouts, Brownies, Rainbows, Beavers etc.
Q. Can We Purchase Copies Of The Book, If So At What Cost?
A. The book cover price will be £35 per copy once it is printed ready to distribute but early indications are that the book will be sold out before it goes into production. We are however taking pre-paid reservations for the book at £30 for one copy or £50 for two copies or multiples thereof. There is a limited edition print run of only 500 copies - so if you think you would like a copy or two you do need to pre-order them at the discounted price very quickly. Due to the cost involved and to retain the exclusivity of the book we will not be producing any more than the initial 500 copies. To put this into perspective, this is less than 3 copies per family - so to reiterate do get your order in early if you wish to guarantee one or more copies. We only accept reservations for the book on receipt of full payment as outlined above.
Q. What Prices Do You Charge For Extra Photographs If We Want Them?
A. We have a whole range of different prices and display options available for your images. In order to keep everything as transparent as possible a brief version of our price list is posted below - so you can make an informed choice about your likely spend before you come to the viewing of your pictures. We have put together some special "collections" for the book project in addition to our usual price list. We hope that there is something to accommodate every taste and budget. Click on the image to view it full screen (otherwise you won't be able to read it!). Just a word of warning here - if you want to continue reading after viewing the price list full screen use the back arrow otherwise it will take you away from the blog when you close!
Q. Will You Be Doing This Again Next Year?
A. We have already been approached by a couple of charities with requests to offer this project to them next year. As long as we manage to get close to breaking even on the book production costs as possible and get through the number of shoots we are aiming for we will consider running this project again next year. Much of the success of this project depends on the support and willingness of the charity to help us to raise awareness and secure the number of portrait shoots we need to maximise the amount we are able to raise for them.
The photographer in Australia - Tero Sade - who has inspired us to embark on this project has run the same project in Australia for 10 years now and during that time raised over $10,000 Australian Dollars each year for the "Make A Wish" Foundation in Australia. We would very much like to enjoy the same level of success. He has also gone on to inspire other photographers such as ourselves to offer such a project to childrens charities - so all in all he has made a real difference to the lives of disadvantaged children across the world. Since starting out on this "journey" we have already been contacted by 4 other photographers across the UK who have heard what we are doing to ask how to get started on similar projects. We hope it will continue to grow like this but without the support of "Joe Public" it will not happen. Thank you for reading this far. Together we CAN and WILL make a difference to the lives of literally 'ooo's of children and their families.
Well that's enough from me for one post I think but if you have any questions that I haven't answered above please do email me: sharon@theportraitpeople.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment