Roger Ramirez  www.chariotphoto.com  603.606.1016

“At a time when a steady supply of paying jobs are harder to find, there are various things one can do to turn the tide. One is cold-calling, which is never fun and only rarely successful. Another is to take a long vacation, sacrificing long-term financial stability for short-term stress reduction. But sometimes, the best strategy is one that might seem counter-intuitive: volunteering.

Over the past year, I’ve twice volunteered to take photos at AIGA Boston events: the Shepard Fairey event at the ICA, and the Youth Design Boston’s ‘Looking Back, Looking Forward’ event. AIGA Boston got professional photography services for free, and what I got was invaluable.

First of all, I got to experience these two events for free. More importantly, I got to meet and talk to the creative people associated with the event which I might not have had access to had I been a spectator. Many of those people are now part of my professional network, which is great for my business. The icing on the cake for me is that I got to do what I love to do, which is to photograph the human experience. I was able to build my portfolio and build my network simultaneously. To me, that was definitely time well spent.”

–Roger Ramirez, Chariot Photo