I am so very happy with how my very first portrait event for the charity Operation Smile, Celebration of Smiles went. I had a lot of helpers so first a shoot out to them : My awesome assistant friend, Jocelyn, for helping the day stay on schedule and taking care of all the donations. Ryan, Alexa, and Ava, for your support and entertainment, and Crystal for helping me with everything else as needed (best WaterGirl ever).

As a member of PPA (professional photographers of America), I was given the opportunity to take part in the Celebration of Smiles Event to help out the amazing organization, Operation Smile. 100% of the donations were sent to Operation Smile. Operation Smile has been around since 1982 and is an international children’s medical charity that heals and repairs children’s smiles. They have provided over 200,000 FREE surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lips, cleft palates, and other facial deformities. The way it worked was that for a suggested donation of $24, each person received a mini portrait session (could be individually, with a sibling, or a family) and then they also received a 5×7 finished portraits. We ended up shooting a variety of families, children, a high school senior, and even a pet (the bunny even had a matching outfit to go with his “mommy”). I am happy to say that it went beyond my expectations and even though there were a few minor hiccups, I was so glad that I did it. I photographed 37 mini portrait sessions that day and thanks to my awesome clients, I was able to donate over $1300!!

As an added bonus, I just found out today that 3 of my images won for the PPA Charities Portrait Awards!!!

First Place : Teen Category (of the gorgeous Riley from Saugus High School)

First Place : Pets Category (Eeyore the Bunny and his mommy Megan M.)

Second Place : Children Category (the beautiful Megan!!)

Plus Second AND Third Place overall (Riley & Megan)!!

It has been over 10 years since I’ve entered any photo competitions so I am beyond excited!! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of my fabulous friends and clients that helped me support this charity and it makes me so happy to know that we saved a ton of smiles that day!!

Did you miss out on this event? I am going to try my best to do it again in 2013 and want it to be an even bigger success!! In the meantime, now is the perfect time to do your holiday children portraits or even your family session! You can view our other post about Operation Smile and another children’s portraits session in Santa Clarita here on the blog.