Planning

Running a church conducted photo shoot can be a great activity for expanding connections, by linking names to faces.  In recent years, churches have shied away from running professional photo shoots because of cost concerns, and the fact that photo directories becoming out dated very quickly.  The solution is a church run photo shoot using Managed Photos services to guide the church through the process.  

Managed Photos provides the training, the hard to find equipment and the mechanics to allow a church to successfully conduct its own production quality photo shoot.  With a family selected photos captured, the photos can be loaded into Managed Photos directory templates to produce an photo directory which can be managed and printed locally.

The benefits are (1) reasonably priced goods, (2)timely deliveries (3) photo content to use in any number of ways, and (4) the activity can be used to engage the congregation in evangelistic outreach.

The outreach can be extended by having parishioners invite their neighbors or working associates. It’s an easy way to extend the love of Christ in a non-threatening fashion in a one-on-one basis.

Conducting a photo shoot, there are several steps involved in the planning stage. The steps are listed below:

1. Understand the value of a church run photo shoot, establish the cost and obtain approval to proceed.
2. Find volunteers who will support the activity.
3. Take the on-line classes which provide the training necessary to successfully conduct a photo shoot.
4. Procure the needed materials ... with trained volunteers
5. Purchase a Managed Photos starter kit and announce / advertise the activity
6. Set up the required studio and do a dry run.
7. Schedule the parishioners and volunteers and begin.

The success of any photo shoot production is predicated upon having enough volunteers trained to do the job.  To that end, Managed Photos offers threes classes to equip volunteers.  These classes are Overview class, Technical class and the Desktop publishing class.

If a given church is concerned about the complexities of doing a photo shoot, it is recommended that someone in a leadership role take the Overview class. That course is intended to provide a step by step process of the planning, execution and deployment of the program.   The courses are offered at very reasonable prices to encourage volunteers to get the training.  The curriculum for classes is offered on-line and so access to the Internet is required.   

Overview Class Cost $35

The first class is an overview of the process involved in running a photo shoot. The course includes issues related to promoting the event, and scheduling of parishioners to be photographed as well as the volunteers.  The course covers the equipment needs, including the camera, computer and network issues from a planning stand point. Also, it provides some recommendations for the room / facility needs.   

A good portion of the class focuses on the running of the Managed Photo’s program.  The curriculum runs the gambit from equipment costs, registration, production, and distribution.  As a side note, the Managed Photos program is fairly simply to use for any individual who is computer literate.  In fact, the program was designed to be self explanatory for the user ordering goods. However, a volunteer is needed initially to guide the customer through the initial steps. If a given volunteer is not computer literature, the person can be coached to assist parishioners going through the ordering process but at least one computer literate volunteer should be on site.

The course makes recommends on the photo distribution. The distribution will be a point of interest as families pick up their photos and who will likely want to share them with friends.  

Finally, the class makes recommendations for make-up sessions, special event photos shoots, and ways to use the program as an evangelistic out reach tool.

Technical Class Cost $35

The second class is intended for the technical individual or individuals who will run the camera and set up the computer and monitors. While anyone can set up and manage the camera, this role is probably best given to an individual who is technical or enjoys taking photos.  Once the setup process has been learned the information can easily be shared with others.  This class provides details on the camera use in conjunction with studio strobe lights. Also, the class provides the information needed to set up the computer and network components for the photo shoot.   Finally, the course touches on Digital Signage and how the photos can be further used as content to be viewed.

Desktop publishing Class Cost $30

The third class addresses the desktop publishing aspects of the adventure.  Once the photos start to be collected, a church can, in parallel, start building a pictorial directory.  The class explains the how photos are retrieved and loaded into pre-made templates. The actual template loading process is fairly easy. The class addresses the other issues that go into creating a template such as the special pages reserved for pastors and elders. Once a student has completed this class he or she should be able to create a church directory from the photos captured from the photo shoot. The student should also be able to easily maintain the directory to reflect the changes that occur in church. This class is probably best suited for someone working in a church office.