#WASIOFaces – Free Portraits in Manhattan
Firstly, we would like to give a major shout out to Phottix, Mac Group (the distributer of Phottix in US) and Becky and Katy – the sexy Peralta sisters from BEKA photography for all of the help and support. This event would not be possible without you.
This past weekend Yaneck and I flew out to NYC for a mini vacation. When we are on vacation, we typically cannot be still for long. So we decided to come up with #WASIOFaces and donate a few hours in our day to go out and photograph people's faces. Since it's around the holiday season, Yaneck and I wanted to contribute to helping out a charity. The donation from people who had their portraits taken was not mandatory but we were hoping people were in the holiday spirit to contribute.
Let's rewind a bit. On our early morning flight to NYC, we sat next to a very cool man named Russ from New Jersey. The three of us talked the whole duration of the flight and the passangers probably hated us for being so quirky and energetic at 6am. Anyway, we told Russ our plan for Saturday for the #WASIOFaces and the first reaction that comes out of him is, "Oh, good luck dealing witht he crabby New Yorkers." We laughed it off and were keeping it positive that we would serenade people with our charms.
We got off the plane at 8am and ran over to Adorama and B&H to get new vloging gear and the Savage backdrop for Saturday. The rest of our Friday we enjoyed exploring NYC and preparing for #WASIOFaces.
Saturday morning comes and as soon as we stepped out of our hotel, the Peralta sisters were there and setting the positve vibe by blasting their stereo and serenading us with some street dancing. After our positive vibe was going strong, we headed over to our location at the Grand Army Plaza. As soon as we set up we had a nice group of ladies approach us for a portrait. Soon after, the Central Park security approached us and tried to tear our operation down. The Peralta sisters worked their magic and the security lets us stay – yay! The rest of the day was filled with interesting experiences and encounters.
The word FREE brought lots of skepticism to people and we kept getting asked, "whats the catch?" This made us realize that people are so tired of being scammed and tourmented and they've been conditioned to be wary of the word FREE. It took a lot of work to build up people's trust. At first it was a bit frusterating that people were so cold towards us and our time we were giviing up, but then we looked from their perspective and tried our best to give as many people as we could the coolest free street portraits they've ever had.
The gear used for this event was:
– Camera: Canon 5d Mark iv
– Light: Phottix Indra500
– Trigger: Phottix Odin II trigger
– Diffuser: Phottix Spartan Beauty Dish
– Backdrop: Savage (the collapsible in Moonsoon color)
You have to view our YouTube video https://youtu.be/pnuSj2spDp4 and leave a comment where you think we should take #WASIOFaces next!
It was lots of fun taking pictures with you! If you could email me the copies of our, I would very much love and appreciate it!
My fmily is in the picutre that is third from the right in the last row (two kids and two women on the back).
Many thanks!
Genie