Dagny Victoria Gallo Photography on Blogger!
Finally! I have been procrastinating creating a blog because I didn't know where to begin. So I guess the best place to start telling my story is the present. Then possibly work backwards with a few flash forwards and maybe a dream sequence or two thrown in. LoL! Is it ok to "lol' here or is that restricted to social networks?
Well, let me begin by saying I am a photographer, obviously, I think some of you may find my story quite grand and some of you may find it crazy and then some may find it awe inspiring and then some of you may be like, "whatever" and think I'm making the entire thing up. But believe me, I'm not.
Ok, so let me start by telling everyone that I have been photographing for almost 20 years now. By the way this is a flashback. I took up the interest when I was young, early teens, and so for my birthday I received as a gift my first Kodak instant camera called "The Handle"! It had a crank handle on the side that you turned to get the picture out to let it expose in the light after you took the shot. You had to purchase a cartridge that held only 10 instant picture cards in it which in those days was expensive. $10 a pack for 10 photos! In the 70's that was a lot of money to be spending on pictures. But I saved my allowance and that would always be the first thing I purchased once I saved up enough money.
That is not my photo. I took it from the Internet because I wanted to show everyone what it looked like. It was big and clunky but I thought it was the coolest thing back then.
Ok, so not to digress too much. I just wanted to give everyone a hint of background of where it all began.
So now here comes the flash forward to the present. Here we are in the present. Much has happened since photographing with my Kodak Handle from the 1970's and photographing now in the digital age in 2014 and in my world of photography in general. Most good but some not so good experiences with photographing but that is life. You have to learn to take the good with the bad and keep moving forward. If there is any advice I can give those just beginning to venture into photography is always, "prepare for the worst!" and by that I mean always have a backup plan! Bring extra SD cards, batteries, back up camera, rain gear! Yes, rain gear and never ever trust the weather man. NEVER! This advice not only comes from a professional photographer but one who shoots outdoors a lot while riding or rather is a passenger on a motorcycle and the last thing you want is for your digital camera to get wet. They are not water proof. Only the ones that say they are. Equipment is expensive. Take care of it.
www.noaa.gov is who you can go to for accurate weather.
Ok, so, I just completed my very first article for a publication called Thunder Press which covers motorcycling events whether it's raising money for charity events or rallies or races or whatever revolves around the motorcycle and the motorcycling world. The event I covered was the Dee Snider Run (Yes Dee Snider from Twisted Sister) for Long Island Cares which is a food bank that collects donations of food or money to help feed the homeless and impoverished families here on Long Island. Dee Snider always comes out once a year to support a charity and for the last 10 years has supported March of Dimes but this year and last decided to help raise funds for Long Island Cares. Long Island Cares was started by the late Harry Chapin's family following his tragic and untimely death in 1981. While he was on his way to his own benefit concert here on Long Island, was accidentally struck and killed on the Long Island Expressway. For those of you young-in's who aren't familiar with Harry Chapin he was a folk singer, songwriter from back in the day who's biggest hits were, "Taxi" and "Cats in the Cradle". He was a real humanitarian and was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1987, six years after his death.
Some shots from the Dee Snider Run for Long Island Cares
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all rights reserved on all images
Anyway, back to the original point of the paragraph. I met Shadow (her moniker) who is an editor for Thunder Press while I was assisting another famous photographer, Mike Lichter who is a photojournalist for Easyrider Magazine. Shadow saw Mike from a distance, I really don't know how considering we were swimming in a sea of people, bikes and vendors but she did and she came over to talk to Mike, he introduced me to her. She asked where I was from, I said, "Long Island". She said, "Hmm, I don't have coverage there. Do you write?" I said, "I like to but I never have professionally." She said, "Well how would you like to write for us?" "It's not a lot of money, nothing you are going to retire on but it's something". I thought for a minute and said ok. We exchanged information and I told her I would be in touch after the Laconia Motorcycle Rally week was over and that I had an article of interest that Thunder Press may like some coverage on, and just like that folks I became a photojournalist.
Now don't get me wrong. Things didn't happen for me overnight. I've come a long way over many years and will elaborate about my "Travelography" and other works later. But for now I'm basking in the delight that someone asked me to do something that I thought I would never aspire to do. I was never interested in photojournalism in the beginning. It just evolved that way.
