Smile! Its Your Pandemic Porch-trait

In her pre-quarantine life, Jennifer Glass ran her own small business, Great Scott Productions. For nine years, her one-woman video production company produced marketing videos for other businesses. About a year ago, she added still photography to her lineup, offering product photography, business event photos, and headshots. 

Her interest in storytelling through videography and photography has developed over the years and led her to also taking on a number of human interest projects. 

But in March, when the COVID-19 pandemic started to make its way across the United States, her thriving business came to a screeching halt.

“As soon as there was a glimmer of something on the horizon, both new and current clients immediately shut down,” Glass said.

While grappling with the uncertainty of the situation, Glass’s sister mentioned how many photographers in upstate New York were offering “porch-traits” — portraits taken of families on their front porch while the photographer follows safe social distancing guidelines. Some photographers were charging their normal fees, some were asking for donations to local charities, and others were offering their services for free simply to capture this remarkable moment in time. 

Glass was intrigued by the opportunity to capture and preserve history during this time of social distancing. The EverythingBrevard team knew of Jennifer’s passion for human interest stories. Intrigued and also wanting to show how families were handling life during the stay at home order, Glass and EverythingBrevard teamed up. She posted a simple flyer on Facebook and the project took off. Plenty of people were interested and appreciative.

“I found her on Facebook and loved the idea of a ‘porch’ portrait,” said Jalene Johnson, one of Glass’ first subjects. “What an amazing, creative way of capturing a memory of a historical event we are going through.”

“I wanted to make people happy. I had a rough year this past year. I was living alone and working at home alone. It can be isolating and depression can set in,” Glass said. “Now I know I am not alone. I understand exactly how this feels. And I had the ability to bring some happiness to this crazy situation.”

In partnership with EverythingBrevard, Glass offered her brief mini-sessions for free. She arrived at participants’ homes and took their portraits from a safe distance. Some families posed for a traditional portrait while others took a less serious approach. 

“I went with silly,” Johnson said. “I had put a mask on my big oak tree with eyes just to be fun and bring out some smiles. So I used it in some of our shots with us in masks and gloves. We used our motorcycle helmets in our other shots featuring toilet paper, cleaners, paper towels... all the essentials for staying safe and healthy.”

Glass captured a surprise proposal on Easter Sunday for a grateful couple. 

She sends the photos to the families digitally.

“I am excited to be able to provide families with a memory of their time at home with the ones they love most.” 

Plan Your Porch-trait

Contact Jennifer Glass at 321-266-6458 or email Jennifer@GreatScottProductions.net

Read more articles in our Digital Magazine.