October 9th, 2018
I've been noticing ever since I started street photography, that my attention is mostly drawn to children. I find this funny because even though I love children they are not my number one favorite thing. I'm like most, I like to spend time with them and give them directly back to their parents! However they are probably the easiest subjects to photograph because they are so candid and unguarded. It's difficult though, if I want to continue with taking pictures of children I'm going to have to accept the fact that I'm probably going to be approached by one of their parents at some point. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Children are great subjects, but one of the most difficult things about street photography is that somebody might make you feel like you're doing something wrong. If I saw someone taking pictures of my kids, I would be concerned too. Luckily I haven't had anyone approach me yet. I wish there was an easier way to explain to people why they're such great subjects.

Sept,28, 2018
Here to bombard you with a lot of nature, and wild life. I was a literal starving artist today. I woke up late, had two cups of coffee, and set off to have a great nature photography day. By 5pm, I was about ready to, well, die. Or I felt like it anyway! After some pizza, I set off once again to finish up my day while there was still some light to work with. These are some of what I captured. I had an eerie walk through some very suburban neighborhoods that left me feeling like maybe today was a dream, Or, I should just make time for food in the morning. On the plus side, I think my telephoto lens may be working after all. 

Sept. 27, 2018
My very kind friend Trisha agreed to help me in the studio this week for my first homework assignment. I admit, working in the studio was difficult and stressful. Working with studio lighting was really different, I've been working with natural light for so long that everything studio feels very controlled, and very out of control at the same time. It's going to take a lot of getting used to. Time management is going to take a lot of getting used to as well. We are allowed to check the studio out for 2.5 hours at a time. I'll be sure to grab two time sots for the next time around. As far as Trisha's look, we tried to artfully cover her in body highlighter. It kind of worked, kind of didn't work. I wasn't sure if these were going to be "fine art" photos, or look like a makeup advertisement. I wasn't opposed to either. So, some of her is highlighted, and some of her looks like she has wet foundation smeared on her skin. It was an experiment. I was just happy that she was so willing to try my ideas. After a messy, and rushed shoot, I'm not terribly unhappy with the result. I try to not put anything out for the world to see unless I can say put time and effort into it. This shoot took a lot of effort and I appreciate someone trusting me enough to participate in something that only existed in my head until now!

Sept, 23 2018
Came home to a nice surprise from Raymond. His dad's company is going out of business,(this is not the nice surprise! very sad actually) and the company is throwing everything in the dumpster. To my benefit, he scored some light stands and umbrellas that they were using to photograph their products. I was very excited, we took all the equipment out of his car and brought it upstairs to try it out. There is no flash system attached to the lighting. There are three light stands that have an attachment where you can have either one light bulb, or up to four at a time. All the stands have a light defusing umbrella, and that's it. Raymond had the idea that we could attach my flash to one of the stands and try it out with the pocket wizards I had purchased for my lighting class in the spring of 2018. It worked really well, I figured the set up might be helpful for my outdoor shoots. I have a few things lined up with people wanting Christmas cards done. I was planning on taking them to a small outdoor park called The Grange in Sayville, NY. I took this picture of Ray with the new set up and I think it's pretty good for a dumpster dive find.  Ray is always my biggest cheerleader when it comes to my photography.