ASMP South Florida Member's Spot Light: Sandy Levy

Member's Spot Light: Sandy Levy

Introducing our first ASMP South Florida Member's Spotlight: Showcasing your best project, be it a portfolio work, editorial publication, advertising campaign, social awareness job or fine art project.

Please enjoy our first SpotLight for Miami photographer Sandy Levy, in his own words:

I would like to talk about a very touching moment as a result of photographing kids waiting for adoption for the Heart Gallery of Broward.

What happened was that a child named Cleveland was one of the kids that I photographed several months ago for the Heart Gallery. I shot Cleveland, just a week or two before he turned 18, he was adopted.
This is particularly special and critical because: Once a child turns 18, they are no longer in the program and are considered adults. Then they are more or less on their own. It is quite unusual for a child that old to get adopted. In some extreme cases, they end up in the streets.

Barbara Schechter Executive Director of The Heart Gallery of Broward County pulled me aside at an awards presentation event on Oct. 14, and told me that my photo was responsible for Cleveland's new Mom becoming interested in adopting him. Obviously Barbara was very pleased and frankly, it really gave me a very warm feeling as well, as this was also very special for me.

Barbara contacted me a week or two later asking if I could be at the courthouse when the official adoption took place in the Judges chambers. She told me she would understand if I could not be there, but she hoped that I would be able to go. Of course I accepted and I did not mind taking a camera.

The reason that Cleveland's adoption was rushed in the judge's chambers before National Adoption Day was that by Nov. 15, Cleveland would be over 18 and therefore ineligible for this type of adoption.
Cleveland and his Mom also thanked me privately and that was very nice to hear. In addition, Cleveland would possibly like to become a photographer. I found out he is already an accomplished amateur photographer as he proudly showed me some of his photos.

I must say that the feeling of satisfaction knowing that an image that you make was in some way at least partly responsible for a difficult-to-adopt child to find a family, is quite amazing and wonderful.
I told NBC 6 that I cannot recall another photo assignment that was as personally satisfying to me in my 40 years as a professional photographer. Not monetarily satisfying of course, but personally satisfying!.

You can find more information about Sandy Levy and his photographic work at his main website:

www.levyphoto.com

You can also find more info about Sandy and all our shooters in our ASMP's South Florida Chapter, by visiting our Local Search Engine, Find a Photographer, in the link below:

www.findaphotographerflorida.com

"We live here, we shoot here, find us here!"

Kind Regards!!

New South Florida Find a Photographer Website

We are now ready to launch and promote our new South Florida search engine, our new Find a Photographer.

Please take a look at our new website

www.FindaPhotographerSouthFlorida.com

And spread the word about our dedicated engine, covering ASMP South Florida Chapter members in good standing.

We are getting ready to make large scale local, regional and national promotions for this website, as part of the revamped marketing plan strategy we are setting up to bring more business to our members.

We will keep using our slogan, " We live here, we shoot here, find us here", as part of the promotional efforts we are pursuing.

Stay tuned for more info, as we will soon be unveiling a new totally rebuilt website for our South Florida Chapter, and also a new website, fully dedicated to the " Light of Florida" Project.

Our very special thanks to our Board members Paul Morris, Joe Wolf and David Ramos for their commitment to make this new websites a reality. Great job guys!

Best wishes to all

Jorge Parra

Light of Florida Update

Light of Florida update:

Our talks with the Florida Film Society continued this Monday as Jorge Parra,Paul Morris and myself met to continue discussions on sponsorship. Recent budget cuts from the State have placed a temporary hold on our publication despite the interest and excitement our images have created in Tallahassee.

In July, a new state sponsor will review our project, and together with the Film Society, might consider partnering to produce the type of book with the quality we are all expecting. Several ideas were discussed including a "teaser" version but It was agreed that going halfway was not in our best interests and would not do justice to anyone.

In the meantime, we are pursuing to launch an email quarterly promotion, showing images from LOF that will feature their creators sporting a brief write up from each. It will point to a Light of Florida site, that will show one image from each participant and will link that image to each respective website. Also featured will be our own Find a Photographer . This email campaign will be part of our Find us Here program, something we all need in this time.

Stay tuned for further updates..

matthew pace
president /s.fl.

See The Light

Come and See the Light ... the "Light of Florida"




Join us for a visual presentation of the un-edited submissions for the Florida light book promotion project. See below, To read more about the project and see the book mock-up that was presented to the State Film Board. While you here sign is as a follower and post a comment.



Contributors can applaud yourselves and take a bow, you deserve it for submitting a fabulous collection of images for the project. Everyone is invited, members and guests come and view the collection before selections are made by a panel of independent editors. You will have a chance to meet the other members that submitted work and get to know the faces behind the images.



The images will be juried for our book by the end of this month, but before that, we would like to share them all with you in this ASMP Open Screen Event, Open To The Public.




When and Where



Thursday, March 19

Barry University

Andy Gato Gallery, Thompson Hall, 2nd Floor

11300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores

6:30pm gathering 7:30pm showtime.

Refreshments will be served.



Use the links below for a campus map and directions:

Directions
Campus Map



Parking is on the west side of Miami Ave.

ASMP/SoFla FLORIDA LIGHT BOOK PROJECT

Please note the book's cover is only conceptual and was created as a mock-up by vice president Jorge Parra when the project was first presented to the Governor's Office of Film & Entertainment.

ASMP/SoFla needs your best pictures for a new book promoting Florida to art directors and film producers throughout the world. With additional books going to the tourist industries, this is a great opportunity for members to get their work seen by people who may be able to positively affect their careers as professional photographers.

What we're looking for: Your best non-studio CONTEMPORARY work focusing on the use of Florida's unique natural lighting. Your subjects are open and we're looking for images from all over Florida.

Who can enter? All levels of membership.

How much will it cost me? Nothing. The state is picking up the tab.

How many books will be printed? Depending on the final price, as many as 2,000.

Who will judge? Images will be juried from an online archive by three professionals and/or academics in the publishing arts who are NOT members of the ASMP. To insure fairness, please make sure your images do not reveal your name, i.e, through a watermark. The selected images will then be put into a pool to be edited by an art director not associated with the ASMP. His or her final selections for inclusion in the book are final.

Deadline: Up to 15 images may be submitted by JANUARY 31st to president Matthew Pace (matthew@matthewpace.com). Please submit low res images at 72dpi @ 1500dpi max width. Please make sure each image has embedded Metadata which must include LOCATION and TIME OF DAY.

Notification Date: March 1 (tentative) for those images that will appear in the book.

Publication Date: June 2009 (tentative).

The release of the book will be promoted to the media and the public through a festive PR event in Miami. Date and place TBA.

To see Jorge's mock-up of the book, please click here.

Sneak Preview of ASMP Archive Projection on Miami's Arsht Center for the Performing Arts

Last night president Matthew Pace and vice president Jorge Parra assisted Felix Pike of Media Stage in the first test of the Archive Projection Project (APP). Using a 16K projector and a slew of electronic equipment, the guys climbed up into the Sears Tower at the Arsht Center overlooking Biscayne Boulevard and commenced to project the ASMP Archive onto the Knight Concert Hall across the street. The test shows more needs to be done on the technical side but member images looked great. Hopefully more images will be forthcoming from membership so that they can be included in the Archive. This is a great way to bring attention to yourself and your art. Please note, we are looking for images showcasing the south Florida lifestyle in work and play. For a more critical look at last night's semi-spectacular, please watch Matthew Pace's take on his own work below.