Photographers Care: Benefit for the Victims of Hurricane Harvey
Once again we invite you to join us for another benefit photo safari, this time to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Harvey in the Houston region of Texas, and for any future victims in nearby Louisiana. Our previous benefits that we conducted over the past 8 years were most successful in generating over $25,000 for several natural disasters: the tsunami in Indonesia, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the earthquakes in Nepal, Japan and Haiti, and the damage to Washington National Cathedral. This time the damage is right here in the States in the coastal and inland areas of southeastern Texas. Thousands of our fellow citizens have lost their homes and all their belongings, many remain without heat and power. In Houston alone, they estimate 20,00-40,000 people whose homes have been destroyed, and the rushing waters have created a lake the size of Lake Michigan!
The American Red Cross has stepped in to provide immediate food and shelter and clothing for the victims and to assist in the long-term recovery efforts of FEMA and state and local governments. More than 80 Red Cross tractor-trailer loads of cots, blankets, ready-to-eat meals, comfort kits, kitchen supplies and cleaning supplies are now on the ground in Texas. The Red Cross has supplied shelter supplies for more than 34,000 people, with additional supplies for 18,000 people en route. More than half of the Red Cross emergency response fleet – 200 vehicles – has been mobilized. At the end of last week, the Red Cross pre-positioned additional blood products in Houston ahead of the storm to help ensure an adequate blood supply would be available for hospital patients, with more blood product inventory in Dallas.
Nearly 11 million hurricane and flood alerts were issued through Red Cross mobile apps since Thursday. The alerts provide people with real-time information so they can help protect themselves and their loved-ones. We need to help. So here is the plan: we have assembled a team of volunteer professional photographer instructors to teach the techniques of camera use and travel photography on a two-hour photo safari on Saturday afternoon, September 16, 2017, from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm.
We will begin the safari at the base of the Andrew Jackson statue sculptor Clark Mills in Lafayette Park, near the intersection of H Street NW and 16th Street NW, right in front of the White House, with a 30-minute orientation on camera use, F stops, shutter speeds, white balance settings, composition, how to photograph people you know and people you don’t know, how to photograph architecture, statues and landscapes, tips that come in very handy when you travel. We also photograph the White House and the nearby Hay-Adams Hotel , St. John’s Church, and the beautiful Executive Office Building.
We then walk down the street to the headquarters building of the American Red Cross at 17th St and D NW to photograph the very poignant Motherland Statue on its front lawn, a statue by the Armenian sculptor Frederic Sagoyan depicting a mother in Armenia clutching her baby during the 1984 earthquake, a disaster which received great assistance from the Red Cross. We end up in the back courtyard at the official Red Cross Statue by famed sculptor Felix de Weldon (who sculpted the Marine Corps Memorial), depicting three Red Cross volunteers lifting a victim out of floodwaters, a very appropriate scene for a Hurricane Harvey benefit.
At each step along the safari our instructors will work with you individually to improve your camera technique and composition. Here are samples of the pictures you will get on this safari:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/123745666@N04/albums/72157688283869195
To participate we ask that you register here on our website and then send us a check in advance for at least $100 (more if you can afford it!) made out to the American Red Cross and designated for Disaster Relief. Your check is tax-deductible to you as a charitable contribution and will be acknowledged directly to you by the Red Cross. (Please do NOTregister using a credit card!)
If you cannot come, we ask that – in the community spirit of photographers helping people – you nevertheless send us a contribution for the American Red Cross that might help us exceed our previous benefit safari fundraising efforts. Please mail the checks made out to the American Red Cross in advance of the safari to Washington Photo Safari, 4545 Connecticut Avenue NW #418, Washington DC 20008. Within a few days after the safari we will turn all the checks over to the American Red Cross, listing all donors and their addresses for acknowledgement. 100% of your contribution will go to the Red Cross, none of it will be kept by Washington Photo Safari.
The American Red Cross name is used with its permission, which in no way constitutes an endorsement, expressed or implied, of any product, service, company, individual or political position. For more information on the work of the Red Cross in disaster relief please call 1-800-HELP-NOW or email [email protected].
In the event of rain on September 16, we will hold the safari on Sunday afternoon September 17, 2:15 pm to 4:15 pm.
Thank you in advance for your participation. Our fellow citizens need help. Join us on this safari: it will make you a better photographer AND a better person! Let’s show the hurricane victims that photographers care!
E.David Luria, Photographer, Member ASMP, AIAP, REPAI, SPE
Founder and Director, Washington Photo Safari