Where can I offer to take free OKCupid portrait photos for MeFites? June 1, 2011 7:43 AM   Subscribe

This post has me thinking - where would be the best place for me to post an offer to take free OKCupid portrait photos (in NYC) for any MeFites who want them?

This post, and this comment in particular, indicate that there are some (possibly many?) MeFites who have OKCupid accounts, but don't have sufficiently awesome photos of themselves to post to their profiles for optimal online dating potential.

I want to help fix that! I'm a pretty good mostly-amateur, semi-pro photographer with a good camera, several good lenses, and years of building up Photoshop skills.

I'd love to do free portrait photography for any MeFite who needs new photos for their OKCupid profiles!

It'd be a fun experience, and a way to give back to the community.

So, questions:
- Which is the right section of the site for me to post this offer?
- If this is the right place, well - anyone interested?
posted by Eshkol to MetaFilter-Related at 7:43 AM (55 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite

Post your availability?
posted by desjardins at 7:44 AM on June 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


we could do it at a meetup. I'd be interested.
posted by sweetkid at 7:45 AM on June 1, 2011


Which is the right section of the site for me to post this offer?

You already have posted this offer in MetaTalk.

It would seem to be more appropriate in IRL.
posted by John Cohen at 7:56 AM on June 1, 2011


Maybe Projects?
posted by smackfu at 8:21 AM on June 1, 2011


Well Music hasn't been suggested and this could be music to someone's ears getting free quality photo help. But, I suspect this post itself will work to get the word out somewhat.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:24 AM on June 1, 2011 [3 favorites]


There's a couple of options. You could slap together a website advertising your services and post it to Projects. Interested MeFites apply, also opens your door to other interested parties. Or, you could propose a meetup soon, and host it somewhere conducive to your setting up a little corner studio and snapping away. That would go in IRL.

You could probably list your availability in Jobs, like desjardins mentions, no matter which other post you decide to make.
posted by carsonb at 8:24 AM on June 1, 2011


I think a meetup would be awesome! (And some of us who like portrait photos but don't need them for OK Cupid might come, too).
posted by ocherdraco at 8:27 AM on June 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


I would spouse just about any one of you who posted a photo of themselves on the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building and referenced Love Affair.
posted by jph at 8:34 AM on June 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


If this does become a meetup, I'd gladly take some portraits too.
posted by the jam at 8:44 AM on June 1, 2011


I like the slapdash website + projects idea. But that's because I have a self interest thing:
As a London based mefite, maybe you could make it so that generous photographers everywhere could offer to take the photos? (So connecting photographers and subjects, you could call it 'OKStayStillMefiCupid')

Really jumping on the bandwagon here which I feel a bit bad about.

Its an awesome thing you're offering btw and hope you find a way of working things out :)
posted by litleozy at 8:53 AM on June 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


In MetaTalk, as a thinly-veiled question about site policy.
posted by dhammond at 9:03 AM on June 1, 2011 [12 favorites]


Well, I figured this'd work out here somehow!

Anyways, thanks all! I'll put some thought into setting it up as an outside site and a project, and other than that just schedule a meetup for it as soon as I get a chance to look through my calendar.

And litleozy - sure, jump on the bandwagon! In fact, memail me if you want to talk about working together to get a separate site up!
posted by Eshkol at 9:20 AM on June 1, 2011


MetaTalk is the place to ask this question and people who imply otherwise are being slightly churlish I think. I get that we don't want people doing a lot of "buy my widget" self-promotion here or posts-as-MeTa threads, but honestly offering to do something nice for free for other MeFites is something that should be encouraged, not scorned. I like litleozy's idea of using this as a way to match up MeFites and photographers and making a little website about it, if that's something you'd be able to do.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:21 AM on June 1, 2011 [19 favorites]


I could use this.

More than the photography skills, I think I need someone with some photoshop abilities ;)
posted by rosswald at 9:25 AM on June 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


MetaTalk is the place to ask this question and people who imply otherwise are being slightly churlish I think. ... I get that we don't want people doing a lot of "buy my widget" self-promotion here or posts-as-MeTa threads, but honestly offering to do something nice for free for other MeFites is something that should be encouraged, not scorned.

OK, I didn't realize this was the distinction. I had always thought Projects and IRL (and AskMe if appropriate) are the places where you can promote anything you do yourself, even if you're not charging. I've never seen the free vs. costs-money distinction mentioned before. And to say "MetaTalk is the place to ask this question" just seems odd. I had just never seen anything like this in MeTa, and offers to personally help out an AskMe asker are most often given in the AskMe thread so that the relevant people will see it.
posted by John Cohen at 9:37 AM on June 1, 2011


K, I didn't realize this was the distinction. I had always thought Projects and IRL (and AskMe if appropriate) are the places where you can promote anything you do yourself, even if you're not charging.

Maybe the difference is that this isn't really meant as promotion. Or maybe, it's not really meant to be 'public' in the same sense that something posted to Projects (and maybe then the blue) is, but rather a favour to Mefites.

I'm not really sure either, but the fact that this is a 'hey, I'm doing Mefites a favour with no real return' makes it a good thing to be in Metatalk if only as a counterpart to the occasionally angry tone around.
posted by Lemurrhea at 9:46 AM on June 1, 2011


and years of building up Photoshop skills.

Now we're talking. This mug is gonna take a lot of photoshopping.
posted by babbyʼ); Drop table users; -- at 9:49 AM on June 1, 2011


I feel that it's an interpretation question at some level. If you feel that someone is legitimately asking a question of the community, for the community, then MeTa is the place for it. If you feel that this isn't a true question and is just a way to self-promote, then yeah this isn't really the place for it but I'd be hard-pressed to try to figure out what sort of angle the OP is working. So I usually default to presuming they have decent intentions.

I refer to this as The Meatbomb Principle.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:49 AM on June 1, 2011 [6 favorites]


If this was actually a thing, I'd go. (I tend to unconsciously make really stupid faces in photos, so I have tons of terrible photos of myself and very few good ones.)
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:58 AM on June 1, 2011


Just to clarify my intent:

I'm offering this entirely for free. I think technically we'd call it work-for-hire, which means that each person will own the copyright on the images of them, and I won't own the copyright on any of the images done for this purpose. I'm not asking for any license to use the photos for my own purposes, or any credit. No restrictions apply other than my lack of infinite free time. I plan to just delete images after sending them out to their rightful owners (why clutter up my harddrive?). And now that's officially in writing!

Seriously, this just struck me as a fun idea. Metafilter improves my life, and if I have a fun way to give back something, I'm totally into it. And photography is *fun*!
posted by Eshkol at 10:03 AM on June 1, 2011 [6 favorites]


Clearly, the angle that Eshkoi's working is that they want people to think, "That Eshkoi sure is a nice mefite!" Can't have that now, can we?

I miss DaShiv, our unofficial photographer. He seemed to be able to make everyone look good, and he was mighty helpful in photography askmes, too.
posted by rtha at 10:13 AM on June 1, 2011 [4 favorites]


Just make it an IRL event?
posted by babbyʼ); Drop table users; -- at 10:20 AM on June 1, 2011


Think maybe this could happen in Buffalo, NY over July 2-4th? Because I'll be in Buffalo, NY over July 2-4th! Ok, a bit of a longshot. This is a pretty cool thing to do for people so I hope it goes well for those who can make it, when and wherever it may be.
posted by Green With You at 10:23 AM on June 1, 2011


Meatbomb has principles now?
posted by Jofus at 10:40 AM on June 1, 2011


I refer to this as The Meatbomb Principle.

When I open my sub sandwich shop, this will be the name of my flagship meal.
posted by Think_Long at 10:44 AM on June 1, 2011 [7 favorites]


And to say "MetaTalk is the place to ask this question" just seems odd.

Metatalk is pretty much the only place on the site where "How do I approach thing x specifically related to Metafilter and it's community" would go. Like jessamyn said, I get that there's a degree of interpretation here but it's not hard to err on the side of generous reading and refrain from giving someone a hard time.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:55 AM on June 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


I live in NYC and would be interested in photos in which I do not look terrible!
posted by miskatonic at 11:11 AM on June 1, 2011


A Meatbomb is like a photobomb except he just like shows up in your sandwich unexpectedly.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:12 AM on June 1, 2011 [6 favorites]


I think it's a great idea and very generous of you, Eshkol. Count me in.
posted by newpotato at 11:13 AM on June 1, 2011


"I miss DaShiv, our unofficial photographer. He seemed to be able to make everyone look good, and he was mighty helpful in photography askmes, too."

Bob's getting a business degree and has brief bursts of social time. I've got one of his old cameras, though I still need to pick up an external flash so that I can fix some of the lighting problems. I'm hoping to shoot a couple members soon, and he's asked to sit in on the sessions, so that should be fun.
posted by klangklangston at 11:49 AM on June 1, 2011 [4 favorites]


(And not to deprecate his skills or anything, but one of the reasons why he makes everyone look good is that he takes a shit-ton of pictures and edits down. I know that the amount of editing and 'shopping time took a real toll on how much fun he thought shooting meet-ups was.)
posted by klangklangston at 11:52 AM on June 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


WRITE A SONG ABOUT IT AND POST IT TO MUSIC.
posted by roll truck roll at 11:56 AM on June 1, 2011


Nobody has mentioned posting it to the Blue, so why don't you go ahead and try that too. Then once it gets deleted, it'll wind up on the Deleted Threads blog. You couldn't be more thorough than that!
posted by slogger at 11:59 AM on June 1, 2011


This is a great idea and if anyone in Boston is interested, I'd love to help organize something. There's a shop in Brookline that rents equipment - I'm thinking lights, but it's a neat way to try out that new kit you've been thinking of buying.

In college, I had a friend that wanted to recreate a photo series he found in an issue of Harper's - sort of a black-tie cocktail party motif. We had a couple of us really into photography, so we invited all of our friends (dress code enforced!), borrowed some lights from the theater club, and set up shop in his not-updated-in-70-years apartment. We had a small corner set up for portraits, and the rest of the evening was all candid. Everyone had a lot of fun and we got some great shots of folks looking their best.

The first handful of photos here are from that evening.
posted by backseatpilot at 11:59 AM on June 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Bob's getting a business degree and has brief bursts of social time. I've got one of his old cameras, though...

I had no idea being a photographer worked like being Starman or Dr. Fate.

Kidding, kidding.
posted by griphus at 12:03 PM on June 1, 2011


Metafilter: I'm hoping to shoot a couple members soon.

sorry, klang.
posted by Lemurrhea at 12:56 PM on June 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


If anyone who can't be bothered to actually have a decent portrait taken still needs one, I can google image search for Brad Pitt or Natalie Portman and send you the results. MeFi Mail me.
posted by owtytrof at 12:58 PM on June 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


Not for nothing, it would also be cool to get a "composite" of all the MeFi users (averaging out all the images). If that is even possible.
posted by rosswald at 1:49 PM on June 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


I'm hoping to shoot a couple members soon
If I had a dollar for every time I've thought that ... ;-)
posted by dg at 2:07 PM on June 1, 2011


OH LOOK THERE IS AN UPCOMING NYC MEETUP

WHAT A COINCIDENCE IT WAS ALSO POSTED BY SOMEONE CALLED "EIDETEKER"

no srsly we could probably do pictures before the karaoke or something

also, ppl should come to my party, it will be rad

I'm not proud.

posted by Eideteker at 2:21 PM on June 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


I am very intrigued by this offer and I would like to subscribe to your services.

(Seriously, I'm down. Is this the thread where we find out when and where?)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:30 PM on June 1, 2011


I would love this. The wife would not. Good luck all.
posted by Splunge at 4:42 PM on June 1, 2011


Isn't having an exceptionally flattering online pic a form of false advertising? I'm just saying.
posted by jonmc at 7:11 PM on June 1, 2011


I love not telling the ladies that I had braces.

The fools! Thinking their children will have straight teeth!
posted by rosswald at 7:49 PM on June 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


Sounds fun! I'm in.

Also, I'm suddenly reminded of life pre-IRL. I kinda miss it just a little bit. Not complaining.
posted by functionequalsform at 5:51 AM on June 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


This meetup idea is a great way to assemble a group of single mefites who are all looking for dates from the internet. Just sayin'.
posted by Sara C. at 7:41 AM on June 2, 2011 [4 favorites]


Yea, also count me as someone interested in having a nice photo taken even it it isn't just for OKC.
posted by kkokkodalk at 8:15 AM on June 2, 2011


I just bought a fedora!
posted by fuq at 9:08 AM on June 2, 2011


I just bought a fedora, ladies.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:12 AM on June 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


while i haven't bothered to do much w/ okcupid for a while, i could prob use some more current photos on there. sign me up.
posted by cristinacristinacristina at 9:13 AM on June 2, 2011


Okay, I can definitely do a first photo meetup on Sunday, June 19th, in Prospect Park, from 4-6. I'm happy to do this more than once, but to start us off, here's an IRL meetup announcement for the 19th!

And nah, it doesn't have to be for okcupid. Your photos, your choice on what you want to do with them.

(Now I want to bring my fedora!)

(Sorry Eideteker, I'm not free on the 11th. But if anyone else wants to take photos then, hey, have fun!)
posted by Eshkol at 9:34 AM on June 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


It would be kind of awesome to arrange a mefi group for the Governor's Island Jazz Age Dance Party on the 25/26th, and then everyone would have an excuse to wear their fedora. It's outdoors, too, so no worries about folks throwing down.

But I respect the 19th. Just throwin' Governor's Island out there...
posted by Sara C. at 9:48 AM on June 2, 2011


Mefites do a lot of nice things for one another, but this strikes me as particularly sweet. A nice photograph of yourself can do amazing things for your self-esteem. Thank you eshkol!
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 11:05 AM on June 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Oh bummed. Out of town on the 19th.
posted by newpotato at 3:47 PM on June 2, 2011


Since a few other people posted here and privately messaged me about wanting a site where they could also volunteer free portrait photography services for MeFites in their areas, I created it as a page on the metafilter wiki - Volunteer MeFite Portrait Photographers

If you too want to volunteer to take photos of the fine folks of metafilter, just pop on over to the wiki and add your name and location to the list!

I'm not sure if this should be posted to the projects list or elsewhere, and I'm ultimately just not going to worry about it. If you want to, feel free.

Righto! Other than the actual photography, my work here is done.
posted by Eshkol at 3:01 PM on June 3, 2011


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