1. I’m worried about the COVID-19 coronavirus. Should I wait to register? What if I don’t feel comfortable traveling by then?
We totally understand! The safety of our students and staff on the ground is paramount to us and we take your decision to travel and learn with us very seriously. With the situation on the ground changing so quickly, we want to ensure, when we all gather in person to support the nonprofits that desperately need us, it is the best environment for learning and creativity as well as safety.
As we prepare for all our workshops in 2021, we will continue to follow city, state, and federal guidelines for safety protocols and working with our advisors to ensure every precaution possible is made. In addition the usual safety preparations and PPE we use on our programs, we will also be implementing stringent personal and group hygiene protocols during all 2021 workshops.
Since our programs are limited to small groups and are first come-first serve, we recommend putting your deposit in for the workshop program to hold your place. If you decide you’d like to transfer to another workshop in the future, we are waiving all transfer fees through January 2022 to allow for you to feel most comfortable with your decision to travel with us.
2. When should I arrive/depart? What’s the general schedule?
The workshop begins at 10 am EST on Tuesday and concludes at 9 p.m. on Friday night after the final slideshow party. A number of attendees choose to arrive a day or more early to get their bearings and possibly try to meet with their nonprofits to begin photographing before the workshop.
3. How do you pick a nonprofit for me? What if I want a very specific nonprofit?
Each attendee fills out a questionnaire to help our staff learn their interests, experience, and goals. The questionnaire is a very important part of our process at Momenta. Your answers will allow us to get to know you and your goals as well as help find the good match with a nonprofit to help you build your skills.
If you want to find your own nonprofit:
We applaud any photographer who wants to try this process out on their own! We love when photographers choose this option because it helps you find the perfect NPO for you. Plus, you learn even more about working with nonprofits as a client when you are able to research and work with them on being your workshop assignment. We still ask you to fill out the questionnaire anyway and indicate this choice on your form.
If you want to search for your own nonprofit, we are happy to work with you to help you find a nonprofit that suits your goals. This is the best way to ensure you are 100% satisfied with your nonprofit assignment for the week and get a little extra learning out of the process.
We have a template email we give you to send to the nonprofits you are interested in joining for the workshop and we also do a phone meeting to help you get started.
If you want Momenta to assign you to a nonprofit:
That’s cool too! We are totally willing to do this for you. You start by filling out the questionnaire we send you approximately 45 days prior to the workshop.
Once we get all the forms in from the attendees and the nonprofits, we will make the assignments and introductions approximately 1-2 weeks prior to the workshop.
4. Who keeps the copyright to the images?
You do. You made them = you own the copyright. A Photo Release Agreement is sent to all parties to sign via DocuSign confirming you are the copyright holder of the images, you give Momenta and the nonprofit permission to use your images for outreach or educational purposes, etc. More details will come on the pre-workshop emails about this process.
5. Do I need a car?
On this workshop, it is likely not necessary since there are cabs, ride shares, and the Subway. If you want to have a car and if you feel comfortable driving, that’s totally fine but it is not required. If you won’t be driving and are only using public transport, we ask you to let us know on the questionnaire because we need to take that into consideration when we do the nonprofit assignments.
6. Do you recommend hotels or have a group rate somewhere?
We offer suggestions as we get closer to the workshop. However, we allow each person to find their own accommodations based on their budget. We send registered attendees a list so you can see some of the local hotels and hostel offerings in the pre-workshop mailings which will help you plan.
Lauren Steel