Reaction Paper 

Last week, a wedding photographer came to class.  Her name is Janelle Brooks and she graduated from Suffolk County Community College Photography Program.  She started her business back in 2008.  Starting a business when your young can be tough, but Janelle made it happen.  She assisted photographers before going off on her own.  When she first started off, it was just her photographing weddings by herself.  Then she hired another pair of hands to help her shoot weddings because there was a lot to shoot.  Now she has a whole team to help her out with all the weddings.  Besides doing wedding photography, she also does family photos and boudoir photography, as well.  

Reaction Paper: Natan Divr

Last week, a fine art photographer Natan Divr, came to our photography seminar class.  He graduated with Professor Cyr.  Natan started out as a computer graphics designer, but he did not like it.  He made a lot of money, but he was not happy with it.  One of his old students started talking about photography with him and gave Natan a camera and Natan started to shoot and he started to love it.  He took a job that he could fool around with and he did not care about it, but they love what he shot.

After doing so well on the project, he began photographing around the world.  He ended up in Israel to photograph the hardships that were going on there.  They lived in these caravans that were right by the beach.  The people who lived there, were not fond of photographers.  But he showed them that he was not exploiting them, so the people ended up letting him in.  I also feel that him being from Israel also help too. 

There was one picture that really impacted me.  Natan was at the border of Israel and Pakistan and shots started firing.  In the middle of all that, a man came forward with something in his hand trying to cross the border.  The police would not let him through because there were shots being fired.  After the gunfire ceased, they asked the man what he was doing and what he had in his hand.  It turned out to be his dead child that died in the hospital and he wanted to bring the baby over the border to his home.

What Natan Divr is doing really impacted me because even though he is doing commercial, fashion, and editorial photography, he is also bringing awareness to things that are happening around the world.  Knowing that the people he photographed let him into their home and felt comfortable around him goes to show you that not all photographers just want to make money.  They want to also expose what is going on throughout the world.

This is a picture I took of my friend, John.  I was going to use him for my final portfolio and document the things he did, but I decided on another subject.  I got a lot of good pictures of him though.

This photo is from woods by my house.  I love this photo because it looks like an opening into a place and you don't know what is going to be on the other side.  It feels so mysterious to me.

This photo is of a lake by my house.  I love bodies of water, because I feel they go on forever and have no end.  I took this on a really cloudy day and I feel like the clouds brought out the colors in the leaves on the tree.

I love this photo because I love how the light shines through and gives off a yellowish tint.  Also, I like how you can't directly see the light but your eye mostly goes to the shadows.

I am using this picture for my final portfolio for Digital Photography.  I'm capturing the sky with different light posts in them.

This picture is of myself.  I took this picture by accident.  But I love the way the light shines around my hair.  My tattoo has a lot of meaning, so for me this picture isn't just a picture.  I'm adopted and the tattoo represents that.  The heart and triangle is the adoption symbol and the "H" is the initial for my birth mom.

This is a close up picture of a conch shell that is on my porch.  Originally, I had the picture in color but making it black and white makes it much more abstract.  The picture from the angle that the picture was taken from makes the shell look like the inside of an ear.  I love how the texture looks like veins.  Abstract pictures are one of my favorite things to capture.

I love this photo of the scarf, mainly because of the color.  It is so vibrant and one of my favorite colors.  I also love the texture of the scarf.  The scarf is so loosely woven that I feel you can just pull it apart. 

    Reaction Paper 

     I learned a lot from the trip to Jim Lennon's studio. There's a lot to do
besides just booking an appointment. You have to see what the clients budget is.
Also, how much time the client has to do the shoot. You have to engage with the
clients and make sure that you're both on the same page. You have to ask them
how they want the shoot to look, like if they want yellow monkeys instead of red
ones. 
     Lennon said that knowing more of what the client wants and working
with them is more important with the shoot itself. You want the client to come
back and keep shooting with you. If you build up your cliental more and more
each year, you can be successful. You also need to have lawyers. That's
important if people do not pay.  
     Jim Lennon had his camera and laptop on
this pole. He said that wires and wheels do not mix. So I thought it was
fascinating that he has this contraption so he wouldn't get caught up with that
and have more time shooting. Overall, I learned a lot from the experience. You
have to establish yourself. You can't just expect success to come to you. You
have to work for it. Mainly by word of mouth from other clients. 

I took this picture for Digital Photography.  At first, he did not see me taking the picture but then this one he did.  He gave me a puzzled look as to what I was doing.  I thought he was going to say something about me taking his picture, but he smiled and waved at me.  This was right before he did that.

Winter is my favorite season because the snow is beautiful to take pictures of.