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Time on your hands? Time to volunteer.

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

If you would like to volunteer for AIGA Boston, let us know. Or you can learn more about the benefits of volunteering.

Posted by boston in Profiles  |  August 26, 2009