Images created for Joyful Noise Music School, a non-profit on Cleveland’s West Side that provides free music lessons to kids.
First Day of Spring!
Confession: Every now and then the job comes along where my motto is “Take the picture, cash the check.” Many freelancers will agree that some jobs you just want to get over with and move on. That’s always a sad day for us sole-proprietors who chose to “make a living doing what we love to do.”
Then, there are the jobs we take because we know it’s just the right thing to do, where money is secondary and we just enjoy the work. A friend, a skilled artisan, recently told me he’d take a cut in pay if that would get a special project rolling, rather than see an important idea never be realized.That’s loving what you do.
I quoted the non-profit Joyful Noise a very friendly rate, and figured that alone was my contribution to helping a great community organization. On shoot day I was struck by the beauty of the bond between student, instructor and musical instrument, and I gradually came under a spell as I went from one practice room to the next. At the end of a few hours I was ready to shoot more, but everyone was going home. I rolled through the images on my memory card and could see I had created a solid body of work.
More than just offering a non-profit rate, my contribution to the cause was putting my heart into my photography. I remembered that when I love what I’m doing, it shows through in my images. And I wished that every shoot, whether paying high or low, would inspire me like that day’s had.
Joyful Noise is having a benefit on Friday, April 3. A video I created of the students in lessons and recitals will be shown at the event. Sounds like a fun time… interested? Click this link to get more info, or just to see their website.
