Habitat for Humanity: Volunteer Fun!

Studio 3 recently spent some time at the Habitat for Humanity Store here in Seattle! We had such a blast getting our hands dirty and helping out around the store.While we love being busy working around the studio, every three months our little family likes to give back to our community and the Habitat Store sounded like a great place to be.Taking a day to volunteer and give back to this awesome community effort and meeting all the other awesome employees and volunteers was a great experience and change of pace!Check out some pictures below!

Habitat for Humanity is an international, community based low-income housing developer, striving to provide affordable, quality housing for low-income families.Using primarily volunteer labor, with over 1 million people volunteering each year, Habitat builds houses and sells them at cost, with no profit and no interest.In Seattle and King County alone, the organization has built, renovated, or repaired over 340 homes!

The Habitat Store, with locations in Seattle and Bellvue, is open to the public and sells new and gently used building materials, appliances, and furniture at discount prices.Like Habitat’s building initiative, the stores are always looking for new volunteers to help out in a variety of positions, so Studio 3 was more than happy to be their newest and can’t wait to visit them again soon!All smiles all day, by the end of our shifts we were a bunch of store pros rocking our fancy, official blue vests (see last photo for an overload of group cuteness).

If you’d like to help out with such an awesome cause by volunteering as well, Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King County offers a number of different areas to work in.To find out more about the opportunity to volunteer, follow the link below!

 

habitat for humanity

habitat for humanity

habitat for humanity

habitat for humanity

To learn how you can volunteer at Habitat for Humanity, visit their website!

Animal Photography for A Good Cause

Studio 3 teamed up with the Oregon Humane Society to shoot some fun animal photography for the 2009 OHS Magazine cover and inserts. Every year we love volunteering our services to help these animals in need. Henry Ngan’s beautiful photography helped the Oregon Humane Society more than double their holiday donations. Read below to see how Henry tamed these animals and snapped nothing short of adorable animal photography.

Animal Photography

It’s always fun to shoot for the Oregon Humane Society, especially when they bring over those cute kittens.Everyone in the studio gets involved.We decided to take the glamour approach by incorporating Hollywood lighting.With kittens it’s of course hit and miss.Some won’t last a second on the set.You may only end up with one star that will pose for you and follow instruction.I was inspired by how Hollywood stars were photographed and lit in the ’30 and ’40s.  So I took this approach and lit the subject with a strong key light, to create majestic animal photography for the holiday cover.  I had to shoot fast and also be able to freeze motion. In order to get the exact effect I was looking for, I approached Pro Photo Supply and Rob Layman and got a hold of a high speed Canon camera and some Elinchrom lighting to do the job.We tried various tricks to get the cat’s attention:Dangling bird feathers from a fish line in front of the feline seems to work best.I found it was just a matter of time and patience. No matter what, I always get the necessary shot.  n this case, there was a lot of chasing and cajoling and a bit of catnip to entice the subject into submission, in the end I got exactly what I wanted.Job done. Except…then it is time to dive up the kittens and see who wants to take one home. Unfortunately, I only had a fish tank at home, not a good idea. But, being with the studio I have enjoyed volunteering to create great animal photography for the cover photo of Oregon Humane Society Magazine for many years now and look forward to the years to come.

http://www.prophotosupply.com/

http://www.elinchrom.us/

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras