Will Knott

This photo was taken on Monday. Wednesday’s cold snap and sleet has turned this rose in to a browning collection of former petals. Yup folks, winter is back.

take care,
Will Knott

Dear Grannymar,

I don’t want you getting lonely, so would you like a toyboy to keep you company. One you can actually play with?

Meet Tommy. He’s a bit flash and a little slow… oh sorry that should be “he’s a bit of Flash“, and he’ll take more poking than a facebook account. He also seems to be allergic to shirts. Tommy is the “breast awareness guy“; the focus of a special website and starring in a tongue-in-cheek video which is also on YouTube (and embedded below).

The point of the video and the site is to teach you how to examine yourself for breast cancer (which also effects men, so its not quite as silly as it seem), and if you donate via his site he (OK, a server in Cancer Research UK) will send you an exclusive digital desktop calender featuring photos of Tommy. Shirtless naturally.

I wonder if the Irish Cancer Society would do something similar?

OK, its a little less pink than usual, but it almost fits the bill for Pink for October in Ireland.

take care,
and don’t play too hard,
Will Knott

I know that the October Breast Cancer Awareness Campaigns like the Pink for October sites are helping. However, is Filofax creating a range for “Breast Cancer Campaign”. “Beautifully crafted from pink lizard-print leather, the collection includes a pocket organiser, with matching passport cover, purse and accessory case. Filofax will make a donation of between £2.00 and £2.50 from the sale of every product direct to the charity” So for a £40 filofax, the charity gets £2.

The name is also a bit odd sounding. No ‘the’, the charity is called “Breast Cancer Campaign”. The charity registered in England (Charity No. 299758) and a company limited by guarantee (Company No. 05074725)

Why not more?
Will Knott

Rebecca Lipkin tells her story about breast cancer.

Simply and boldly told. Slightly surprising given the source.

take care,
Will Knott

As this is Breast Cancer Awareness month, a lot of products are jumping on the Pink for October bandwagon.

Image by on2wheelz via Flickr

So a pink coloured (and packaged) energy drink seems to be a “cheap” tie in. That’s what I first thought when I started looking at the Fuze energy drink brought out a flavour for October.  However looking at their “Heroes for Hope” sub-site it becomes apparent that this isn’t a tie in.

It s a commitment.

The site in in support for the “Susan G. Komen For The Cure” foundation (similar to our own Marie Keating Foundation), and it features video interviews and profiles of breast cancer survivors who are taking part in the “Heroes for Hope” tour.

A large pink tour bus travels around the country. Local heroes and committed activists are invited to participate in a formal photo session at the on-site photo studio (in and around the bus). A FUZE reporter documents participant’s story and selects ‘Heroes’ from each community that the Heroes for Hope Tour visits.

We’ve got to do something like that here. There are enough stories in the press, and enough bloggers in the country so that each site have have its own local hero.

What do you think?
Will Knott

Well, as striking as the PINKatic theme was, it simply wasn’t working.

More specifically, that theme was causing too many errors across different browsers. So I’ve switched to the tickled-pink theme. Much simpler, and easier to read.

And as I have a weekend off duty, I’ll be pre-loading the blog with Pink for October news.

take care,
Will Knott

I wanted to do more. I wanted to use the Pink For October meme to generate funds for Cancer Research.

Image via Wikipedia

Maybe next year.

And I set up the Pink for October Ireland with the intention of using it as a hub, to allow the photos to be registered with the models and to display some of the finest shots.

Maybe next year.

But as I said, I registered the site, and I want to use it. Join me.

This year.

The Pink for October Ireland site is now an aggregator site. Register with the site and when you post about Pink For October  using the category p4oi (that’s a letter, a number and two letters) the software will pick it up. I know its working for Wordpress blogs, and I just know I’m going to have fun with Blogger, Typepad, pix.ie, flickr etc. but I’m going to give this a shot. The registration is moderated (by humans too), but the posts are not.

Come on over and register.

Pass it on. If you know someone in Ireland (or from Ireland) who is going to do something for Pink for October on their blog, let them know.

Join in,
Will Knott

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I had been looking forward to placing a call for photographers on the blog now and directing people to the PinkForOctoberIreland.org site to register as models and photographers.

But that is not to be. Instead, I’m afraid to say that there will not be a Pink portraits day on September 20th in Daunt Square, Cork.

If I was to do go back in time to prepare the Pink idea again, I’d have to go back to June. Then I would…

• Start the call for photographers.
• Get then to register.
• Explain that they need to register full contact details so that Gardai and City Council required
  • health and safety
  • traffic management plans
  • pedestrian management plans
  • first aid appointees
  • public liability insurance etc are in place.

  Also the Garda contact mentioned that mobile numbers (or at least contact numbers) of all the “staff” are required

• Also the HSA have legal requirements for event with more than 3 staff

So that seems to be that.
I would like to have a photo-walk in its place. A meeting of photographers and photo-bloggers to wander around Cork City with their lenses out on a busy Saturday. How does 11am in Daunt Square sound as a meeting point? If you want to contact me, my details are in the about page.

Sorry to disappoint those who registerd on the (admittedly half built) PinkForOctoberIreland.org site, but if you’re interested in doing something; I’m planning on turning the pinkforoctoberireland site in to a blog aggregater for this year (should be up soon), and make plans for the photography next year.

If you want to blog, comment etc as part of Pink For October, register with the international PinkForOctober.org site. And when I have the aggregater up, register and tag your posts with “p4oi”.

If you want to do more, bring pink objects to donate to the ICS shop just off Daunt Square when you are coming on the photowalk. Should make us easy to spot.

And as for next year. I’ll take all the help I can get

Care to join me?
Will Knott

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I’m trying to see if I can get the Pink for October Ireland project running with publicity for September 20. In Cork at least… more on that, see below.

Image via Wikipedia

Trying. Having trouble getting the domain I want due to user account isues and only being able to get online long after office hours are over.

And I’ve had a new problem presented before me.

In order to have the photographers meet the models in a public space, I’ll need to complete a “Form PS” off the Roads and Transportation Directorate of Cork City Council. This is the licence to use a public area for an activity or event. If you want to have this event in your city, you’ll need a similar form off your local council. I’m applying for Cork.

However, in order to do this event, legally, you need to have public liability insurance for a minimum of €2.5 million for a single incident.

Somehow I don’t think such cover comes cheap.

Without the cover, no approval (or so it seems) and without the approval, well …

• no publicity which means
• few if any models which means
• not much of a point

And its not just Cork. If there are going to be nationwide events, cover will be needed for every meeting venue. And this is a bunch of people getting together (a photo-walk essentially), not a club or society. So there are no funds to use for this.

I will be asking the council nicely, but I don’t know if its possible right now.

Is there a way around this? Any advice or suggestions?

take care,
Will Knott

update September 3 2008. The 2008 Pink for October Ireland portraits won’t be happening. Details in this post.

How does September 20th strike you as the day to take all the Pink Portraits for October, and try to get the models to show up at various points in various cities?

Does the day suit most of you? Since I would like to have you working in teams, having and agreement on date, time and locations are important.

I suspect I really need to make a site for this too…

take care,
Will Knott