This spring I was privileged to work on one of the most fun, engaging, and challenging jobs ever.
Thanks to a referral from my colleague Mike Lannen of Eternity Web Development, I was engaged by the United Way of Addison County to capture still and video imagery for their new website and for future fundraising and engagement efforts.
The client was incredibly fun to work with, and super well organized (pro tip: working with organized clients is always easier than the alternative).
I spent three days embedded with Amy, Linnea, and Helena at UWAC, traveling all around Addison County, in all sorts of weather, capturing images, video, and documentary style interviews for many of their programs. We photographed everything from nursing infants in daycare to toddler gardeners, from teenage skateboarders to octogenarian volleyballers, from a war hero to team headshots.
But the shooting was only the half of it. It was fascinating to learn about all the things that United Way and its partners are doing to support our community and help those less fortunate to get a leg up and move forward. Being involved in a project like this is especially heartening in a time when we are told that our country is fraught with great division, conflict, and partisanship. I got to see a rich and uplifting side of our country we don’t hear about often enough. Here’s hoping that these stories we captured get spread far and wide.
Here are a selection of some of my favorite images from our work in Middlebury, Vergennes, and all around Addison.
"Paul spent three days with our nonprofit, traveling from site to site, capturing images of the work we and our partners do in human services throughout the county. Our staff agrees that we could not have chosen a better person for this project. We chose Paul because of the quality of his product, but were pleasantly and equally impressed with the way he interacted with people of all ages, in so many different situations. Whether photographing a group of young children at a daycare, a person receiving services from a homeless shelter or an elderly person receiving physical therapy from a visiting nurse, Paul was respectful, engaging, and professional. He has a remarkable skill for putting his subjects at ease and being in the right place at the right time, without being intrusive. We highly recommend Paul and look forward to working with him on future projects."
Amy Bodette Barr, United Way of Addison County