I’m very pleased and flattered to be a part of the StudioBurns brand. Jerry has been a 15+ yr mentor and sounding board for me. Guy and I have been great friends for about 20 yrs. The three of us have HUGE plans for 2012 and beyond. Those of you not familiar with my photography, my cameras and I travel in these circles.

Look for new and frequent posts as we rotate among the three of us.

Cheers!

Jerry

http://www.tumblr.com/blog/jerryburns21days

Six months ago, my friend Lisa Turner, approached me about a project she was involved in through her church, St. Luke’s. It seems, ten years ago they teamed up with Ebeneezer Baptist to create an incredible mission of love and vision. They identified 60 second graders who, at the time, attended the A.D. Williams school in Atlanta. The prognosis for them graduating high school was about 6%. They were in compromised situations, income, family support, resources….you know the story. Without intervention, it didn’t look promising.

Up step the pastors of the churches who make a pledge on behalf of their combined congregations: To mentor each and every student through high school AND provide financial help for their post secondary education. Wow! Daunting doesn’t even begin to describe this undertaking! But through dedication and perseverance, the miracle has come to the launch pad. 55 of the original 60 are graduating high school and ready to begin the next exciting phase of their lives. (The remaining five moved away from Atlanta over the years.)

Time to pay up.

Lisa’s idea was to get someone to ‘take pictures’ of them, ‘The Dreamers’ as they came to be known, so that the congregation and supporters could get an update on them and their story.

As a professional commercial photographer I have spent my time and talent over the past 30 years basically ‘making the rich guy richer’ by helping them sell their products and services. In between those projects, if you’re lucky, someone drops a gift in your lap. Here was one.

If these images could compel people to reach into their hearts and wallets and make this dream come true, I was all in. We did two separate sessions and part one was in the can.

Simultaneously, I’d been in conversation with my friend, Matthew Porter, an accomplished writer, who was in a similar mind space….wanting to do some good. Matt had made contact with an organization in Chicago called EPIC. Engaging Philanthropy Inspiring Creatives. Inspired by their model, he pulled together an All Star Team of creatives in Atlanta and was in search of a launch project.

‘Good Thinking’ was born. http://www.goodthinkingatl.org/

Perfect Storm. We rallied. I shot images, they created identities, logos, websites, posters, collateral….the works.

Along the way, Jennifer Holliday, (Tony and Grammy winner, Dream Girls) saw the prints at St Luke’s and was moved to donate $20k. It was working!
So, tonight we celebrate with an evening of jazz in the theater at Georgia Public Broadcasting featuring Joe Grandsen and the incredible Francine Reed.

What happened to the streamlined vision of the future?

Through careful “hunting and gathering”, I pull all the assetts together and combine (or “composite”) them to create the final product. This process usually takes a couple of weeks just to capture all the different images at the right angles and when the light is just right (plus make friends with everyone who is charge of the property I have to stand on) and put it together in rough form, then another solid week of revisions and tweaking.

Yes, it’s a fairly involved process, but in the end, the final product is exactly as envisioned and something that doen’t really exist suddenly does.

Recently, my boy, Schaffer, has become altogether obsessed with blimps. Ever since the MetLife blimp came to town and circled over my house for an entire weekend during the PGA Tournament just down the road at the Eastlake Country Club, everytime we went outside, it was all about looking for the blimp. If he heard something in the sky, he would yell “Blimp! Blimp! Blimp!!!” at the top of his lungs. Whenever I tried to put him down for a nap, he demanded that I made up a song about blimps (I will not be winning any songwriting Grammys anytime soon). One day after a particurlarly creative improv, I got on the internets and looked up the MetLife blimp. I was pleased to see that they had a whole section of their website devoted to the blimp, with a form you could fill out to request the blimp at your event. Well, thinking that I’d never get an answer, I filled out the form asking if, while they were in town, I could bring my son to look at the blimp. Much to my surprise, sombody from the New York MetLife headquarters emailed me with all the information to go on down to Peachtree Dekalb Airport and check it out- Complete with Captain Charlie’s (the pilot) cellphone number! Well, I grabbed my phone and called ole’ Captain Charlie and he told us to show up at 9:30 on Thursday morning. Expecting to be part of a throng of parents with their young excitable kids, I braced for a fairly quick “move ‘em through” kind of affair. When we showed up at the little obscure back gate to the airport, we were the only ones there. We waited for a little while, when some maintenence workers showed up and asked us what we were doing there. I thought I got the location wrong and was gritting my teeth at the thought of having pumped this up to my son for the past 3 days only to miss our chance. Just then, Captain Charlie pulled up, buzzed our car in the gate and we got a personal escort into the airport runway area, following his van. Suddenly, over the hill, there it was! Blimp!!! Blimp!!! Blimp!!! I thought Scaffer was going to explode with excitement. When we pulled up to the blimp it became clear that we were the only ones there. Captain Charlie couldn’t have been nicer, and let us do whatever we wanted, short of actually giving us a ride. I think it made a huge impression on Schaffer and I would reccomend it to anyone who has kids. Seeing it through their eyes, it’s gotta be awesome.

Schaffer- amazed.

I wonder how many people will just not walk on my sidewalk.