So, the best part of loving photography is that no matter where you go all you wanna do is take pictures and have the images solidified in your memory for years to come. It is the best gift you can bring back from any place on Earth. These are from my most recent excursion to Hawaii. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

reaction paper guest speaker

So, I was really hoping that we would have a guest speaker from National Geographic come and speak to our class, so I was waiting and then the semester was coming to an end. I know that Janelle was one of our first speakers, but she was probably my personal favorite. I also know that she was the first speaker and it has been a long way since then, but I also wrote my research paper on wedding photography which is what she specializes in.

Janelle is a wedding photographer who also teaches at Suffolk County Community College. She has been a big inspiration to me her work is phenomenal and I especially love that she is very open and honest with aspiring photographers. She showed us her on location work as is in the camera, along with the images she shot that were not so good. Most of her work is done in post production which is something that I now know is extremely important to know and excel in for this day and age of photography. She expressed that not all clients are easy to work with, but sometimes they absolutely love it and get into being "models" and she creates some amazing images and ties. Janelle has a fashion and fine arts niche intertwined with her wedding photography and it absolutely makes her images stand out. She has a great eye for little details and it was a comfort to know that she too will take 5 pictures of the same shot for the best ultimate outcome!

Along with her tricks of setting it up behind the camera and getting the most of the image before post production she also taught us a little about how to price things and gave us an awesome breakdown on the packages she offers to her clients. Janelle also gave us insight on how she is able to shoot the whole wedding and have different lenses for different shots and not miss anything because the biggest things in wedding photography is you have to catch everything the wedding will not stop for you the photographer, and they will not redo something because you were unable to capture it. She told us that you definetly have to have more than one camera and keep different lenses on different cameras and have the cards in the separate cameras synced together for the images to be chronologically correct.

All in all seeing Janelle around campus and then having her come to speak to us as a professional photographer was an awesome feeling. She is such a down to earth person and she really enjoys what she does for a living and being an aspiring photographer I can see her enthusiasm and happiness show in her images and her business. The only thing I wonder is, how a wedding photographer can just simply enjoy their own wedding and how they choose a photographer to shoot their wedding without thinking if only you could shoot your own wedding.

I never really knew what exactly I wanted to do in the photography industry, I knew that I wanted to touch on many different things however, after seeing Janelle as a speaker and having her help me in our labs on campus I have grown a newfound interest in wedding photography and would really like to give that a try, I would be extremely excited and grateful to even just assist a wedding photographer and learn more in the photoshop post production part of the business. I would really like to experiment with this aspect of photography and would love to see where it takes me in my photography career.

school art gallery

Before the end of the semester I was able to take a look around our school art gallery. From November 18th to December 12th there was a show put together that was a collaboration of artwork created by the professors that teach on campus. I was absolutely blown away by some of the artwork that was being shown. In particular there was a piece that Jim DeSario did called "Earth, Wind and Water 1." It was stunning. There was 9 images in the piece together and they were inkjet printed on aluminum. It was images of flowers and fish and they were on solid black backgrounds. The overall appearance of it was stunning and realistic the colors jumped right off the wall, he is selling it for $1500. I loved it, I would put this piece up in my house in a heartbeat. But that leads me to the pricing. The people that were showing in this gallery are all normal people to me, they are my professors not famous artists, like Van Gogh or someone to that fame. And I was looking at the prices and I was shocked. They could make good money for the pieces that they were showing in the school gallery. And I seriously wonder how you determine how much to sell your artwork for. There was not one piece in the entire show that I myself would be able to afford. So this is still something that I as an artist will have to work on. There were also some pieces in the show that were photographs that were printed from inkjet but they looked like paintings to me, It was so amazing, I really want to try to do this for some of my own images. For instance Harold Naideau's "Travelers Dilemma" of all the people in the train station, appeared like an oil painting!

Of all the artwork being shown in this gallery there was a lot of ideas that started brewing in my brain. There is a lot of things that I want to experiment with and try. A lot of images that stick out in my mind that I would like to experiment with different printing materials. Seeing the inkjet on aluminum gave me such inspiration for a few piece of artwork I have shot myself. All in all seeing a gallery show full of artwork done by everyday normal people to me gave me such hope for me to make it somewhere in this business. You don't have to have fame and a lot of money and be known world wide to do what you love and have your work and inspiration be shared with others, and it is not about making a lot of money. It's about spreading views and ideals and this show did just that.

ahh i forgot about this!!

oh man!! i totally forgot about this blog with the days off and such. Anyway one month left of school, so excited but it is soooo gonna suck! the stress has risen already the blood pressure is through the roof, i hope my guardian angel is watching and gets me through this i'm actually going to need some luck this month. A lot of work to make up and a lot of crossing fingers. Well i gotta run more work to do, and a very sad boyfriend and best friend i need to attend to. some people just really suck, i mean really how do you leave the country for a vacation and just never come back>?!?! seriously sucky situation!

going through some photos

Well today I decided that maybe I needed a little pick me up, so I decided to change my photos around on my mac and switch up my background and stuff as such, as I tried to calm down about SUNY Suffolk killing my ability to have a job where I currently work for next semester, and decided that I might just die before next semester of stress and not knowing if i can afford my car and go to school with a crappy job anyway, i was going through some pictures and found a few i decided i should post. If i find more i absolutely love i'll post more.

Reaction Paper(s)

Ok, so I was going to write my reaction paper on Nick Vedros, however I was informed that I could no longer do so because of the time constriction, it's just two weeks now, and unfortunately my beloved boyfriend was in a serious car accident so my hands have been quite full. So what I will do is comment on Nick's event, if it is accepted great if not I will also have a separate post on an inspiring fine art photographer that attended my seminar class Sandra C.

When it comes down to seriously thinking and dreaming of yourself in a photography career, it is an intimidating experience. This is where my heart is and what I love doing but there are oh, so many things that go along with attempting this career. The event that was scheduled with Nick, was an amazing experience and I am very grateful for the opportunity to have him to speak to us. I was also part of the class that chose to have Nick come speak to us, so that was another amazing opportunity that I am grateful for.

Listening to Nick's lecture was extremely helpful. He was able to put things in a lighter perspective for me and attempting this career. Most of all it is to never give up, and money is just the object, and maybe one worth shooting one day, but the reward is happiness and love for what you do. With my school career in Suffolk almost at an end I feel as if my next step is to go anywhere and get any job that is going to make me money. But who isn't like that? Just graduated in the field have bills to pay equipment to buy essentially we need the money to survive. But hearing Nick tell us how much debt he was in when he started and then seeing his mansion and studio right next to each other I was so impressed and quite frankly flabberghasted. This man standing right in front of me is doing everything that I want to do. But that is the beauty of events like this. Figuring out with they're insight and help how you could be making money and doing school lectures just like them.

I was so impressed that he was sharing all of his secrets and techniques with us newbies if I may, very detailed information that I intend to carry on with me. All of his images are original and semi humorous which I have a personal interest in. And when he said it is ok for you to say NO! I thought this guy is no joke, he really would like each and every one of us in the audience to succeed in the same ways that he has. This business is the photographers ideas, time, work, effort and some people, most people don't make enough money to have an entire production team such as Nick. Some of us may never be able to afford to pay an individual to do all of our photoshop work for us, and succeed in ways that even the photographer couldn't think of or do themselves.

This business is constant work, and learning, and you have to be a driven individual and know what you want and do anything and everything you can to succeed to your standards, while being intelligent to the clients you select and the jobs that you do. You don't have to own a mansion and a studio right next door to your mansion just as big, to be successful. Just doing what you love to do and being able to make money doing it is being successful. You can't ever give up or slack off, you will need to be intelligent with your budgeting all around your life. If you aren't making business for a month or two you still have to pay off that mansion every month!

Sadly I wasn't able to stay for the questions and answers portion of his lecture, although I would have loved to, I'm sure that I missed out on even more valuable information, but when a loved one is hurt you have to be there for them. But having Nick at our school was an experience I will never forget with information so usable to me, I will forever carry that as well.

god i hate being stuck in a rut, i'm so sick of school right now i can't keep up stupid work and too much school work, i got a full plate and no slack, does anyone know of any job openings i need a new job, and i can't intern because of the fantastic car accident i was in that totaled my car, and now i got a new car i HAVE to pay for every fricken month. all i know is that wed, better be freaking sunny i have outside photographing to do and i need ol'sunshine.

seriously though, about that job opportunity i'm desperate.