Saturday evening we embarked on a new project we are calling "Porchraits." With all of the "social Distancing" going on due to the onslaught of Covid 19 we wanted to give a little back to the local community. Porchraits was the perfect answer. We decided to photograph people on their front porches. Saturday was both a test and a kick off to this project. The idea was to bring a little fun and joy into the lives of people who have been staying at home for the last month by creating portraits of families on their front porches. It was something we could do safely. We would not ring doorbells. People had to be out on the front porch when we arrived. To help with that we went to Facebook Live so people could follow us and get some idea of where we were and when we would be at their home. Starting in our neighborhood made it easy as we were new at this and were working to identify problems and find solutions to make things run smoothly both for us and the families we photographed. These folks are our friends and they weren't worried about our mistakes, being very patient with us. But because they were friends created it's own problem - we all wanted to talk! Having been isolated for a month we all had things to say and questions to ask. It was a fun problem to have though and made the evening a great joy! So we ran late, something that can be fixed with better Facebooking. Well we were new to Facebook Live and it showed, plus we were just two people trying to manage equipment and conversation. Three would have been better. One to carry the camera and tripod, one to carry the light, and one to facebook. I think we gained enough experience now to overcome the issues. I put some padding in the back of the pickup truck so we could lay the equipment in the bed without having to take it down each time and that helped. Three would give us the ability to walk more, but in the rural areas we live in that might not be the thing to do anyway. It turned out to be a great exercise in creating quick portraits. We could not shoot every image on a porch due to the lack of shade. I had to quickly identify a location, set up the lighting, arrange the posing from a distance and remember to check everything I needed to do to achieve a successful portrait. It wasn't always perfect, but it was a lot of fun for everyone. I can't wait for our next round of porchraits!