Photographic Artistry » Charity

Gala event for the Decatur Area Arts Council

edvydas — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:34:40 +0000

Cute and stylish table settings

Well, there you go.

Another huge event that I did not even know existed before this evening. That was a huge advantage that I never realized I had with newspapers I worked for in cities I lived — I always knew about the big events. At times, I wonder where my attention sits (actually, I know the answer to that one — brides and grooms!)

This time it was the Corks and Forks 2010 in Decatur, Illinois.

Now for those of you familiar with the extravaganza, you could wonder how I missed it before this year.

WOW!

I pulled up the parking lot at the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel and could not believe what I was seeing. A sea of cars — and only a little bit of space left open. I’ve never seen an event there that even came close to filling the parking lots.

More than 700 people attending the special fund-raising event for the Decatur Area Arts Council on Thursday night — to sample fare from at least 24 vendors that I counted.

The food and the wine sampling was awesome!

And so were the attendees who were there not only to have fun (and food and fantastic wine) but also to help raising funding for the Arts Council. Cakes, mini-tacos, chocolate-covered strawberries and the best vineyards in the area.

And, of course, the people attending were the best of the best!

Please enjoy a few images from the evenings event (and look for some more to come.)

Thank you Lori and Bert for your invite for the evening!

I had planned to show off a couple of photos, but I think this quick video will do this event better justice.

This is a lo-res version and I’ll have the hi resolution version up online on our Facebook page of www.facebook.com/emcphotography later this weekend.

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Pageant Experience This Weekend

Krystal C — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:43:43 +0000

I had the opportunity this weekend to do something that I never thought I’d be doing. I was on the panel of judges for the Miss Teen Bloomington pageant for the Nationals. The show was broken up into four age categories. The little ones were 7 to 9, then 10 to 12, 13-15 and 16 to 19. So there were winners and runner-ups for each age group. I was very impressed with the poise the girls had. The judges were seated in a large room with just our table and a seat on the other side for the contestent. The girls walked in, introduced themselves, shook our hands and sat in front of us. I was amazed at the ability for them to be as comfortable in their outward apearance as they were. I could tell some were very nervous, but they all did this.

Part of being a judge was to, as a panel, do a three-minute personal interview with the girls. I spoke with and listened to about 50 of the contestants. The judges were divided into two groups, half of us taking the older girls and the other half taking the younger age groups.

This was not a Glitz pageant, where the girls were all dolled up, like the show Toddlers in Tiaras, but more realistic in terms of outfits and makeup. I was amazed at the girls being able to walk into a room with 6 total adult strangers and have the confidence to answer questions and maintain eye contact with us. Quite a few of the girls stated they enjoyed singing as part of the ‘hobby’ question and four of them actually sang a note for us. I personally can’t carry a tune in a bucket. So I’m always impressed with someone that can.

One of the questions that I gravitated toward was what is your favorite subject in school, and I was very impressed with as many girls stating that Math or Science were the top listed fav’s. Many of the girls are interested in the fields of medicine, either as a doctors, nurse, anesthesiologist, or helping with the animals and becoming a veterinarian. I think back to even 15 years ago where, as a whole, girls were not looking at jobs that needed science or math as a primary classes.

Overall the girls that were part of the pageant had a sense of helping others, they understood volunteering as part of life, either through a school club, church group, or on their own with help from family members. I heard about girls assisting at the soup kitchen, Habitat for Humanity, picking up trash along the roads, working with small children at churches, orphanages or head start programs. A few worked with the elderly and a couple had gone on Mission trips with their families.

This was a great experience for me as well as for the girls that were involved.

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Working for Breast Cancer Donations

Krystal — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:37:11 +0000

We’re going to try something a bit different this coming October 11 (a Sunday) when we work with an organization to raise money for breast cancer research.
And our goal is to be exhausted by the end of the day. We are taking appointments for Family Portrait sessions on that day and then donating the entire proceeds of the session fee to breast cancer research.

If you want to know more about who we are working with, check out the following link Images for a Cure. We know of only one other area photographer participating as I write this blog, hopefully there will be more in the near future.

There are hundreds of photographers who have signed up nationwide and we are proud to be a part of that group. Krystal has an aunt who survived breast cancer and losing her would have been horrible. She has been there for us many times and we want to do something to help see that the threat that loomed before her does not loom before anyone else.

Please call us or email us and set up a time to not only get a family heirloom created, but to make a fantastic donation to a fantastic group of people. As a bonus, we’ll discount our canvas wrap prints for you from that day’s shoots. We are located in Clinton, but as we are on-location photographers we will travel. We only have a limited number of session available so don’t wait too long to contact us.

We can be reached by phone at 217-542-1602 or at www.edvydasphoto.com.

Click here for more info