TEDDY BEAR RUN

 To benefit the kids of Brookhaven Town Interface 

There is one thing I need to point out to my audience because I know not all of you know me and know I ride on the back of a motorcycle so when I say we went on a "run" or "ride" I'm talking about motorcycles. Some people think I'm talking about bicycles and actually had someone comment that they thought I rode a bicycle out west and back and they thought I was crazy. I said if that was true I would have some set of legs and probably be in the best shape of my life. 

Ok so we had a charity run to go on today called the Teddy Bear run. It is a benefit ride for the kids of Brookhaven Town interface that was run through the Red Knights Motorcycle Club. All bikers were scheduled to meet starting at 10:30am for registration at the Terryville Fire Department in Port Jefferson which consisted of either bringing a new teddy bear and donation of $15 or donate without a bear $20 plus and extra $15 for a passenger so all together our cost was $35.00 donation for charity. I must say it was a large turnout. 

Kickstands were up and we were getting ready to run, but wait, the Christian Motorcycle Riders Group wanted to say a prayer first and bless us all for coming out on a gorgeous day and making an effort for the children. 

So back on the bikes we went after our blessing and started our ride through the back roads of Rocky Point which I have to say was quaint. In all my years living on Long Island I have never been through any of the scenic winding roads they took us on. Officers in uniform blocked roadways and held traffic back for our procession to ride forth. With over one hundred plus bikes it must have been the site to see for onlookers. Many people stood out on their lawns with their small children and waved to us as we roared by. There was even one man on his roof hanging Christmas lights waving to us. The situation reminded me of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation when Chevy's character Clark can't get the lights lit and then his family leaves him stuck on the roof. 

Our warm and joyous ride ended at Ladakins for a hot buffet while live music played. Some staff sold 50/50 tickets while we got online to get some food. Ladkins served up a hot meal consisting of Penne Ala Vodka, BBQ chicken, sausage and peppers, meatballs and much more. I have to say it was very good and although it was warm out it was a little chilly riding so the hot meal really helped to warm your core and feet. 

We met up with a few of our friends who sat at the table with us. We didn't buy any raffles but my new friend Mary found a strip someone lost so she placed them on the table in front of us and told me the story of how she just found them on the floor and how they probably won't win because she never wins anything. Well....a few minutes later she left to use the ladies room and the staff decided they were going to call out the number on the ticket to see who won the raffle of $340.00. Since Mary wasn't there I picked up the strip of tickets and eyeballed them and listened as the entire place of over 100 plus bikers suddenly got quiet. The announcer started to read off the six numbers on the tickets and as soon as she got to the fifth number I knew one of those tickets were going to win and sure enough they called out the number and we won!! At that moment Mary came back from the bathroom and I told her one of the tickets won, go get your money. She turns to me and says, "I can't take the money because these aren't my tickets". Someone else dropped these and I have Irish guilt so I can't take the money". What do you say? I said ok and then she ran up and told the announcer what she said to me and donated the money back. I know what you want to ask me. Why didn't I take the money? Well, she found the tickets so they didn't belong to me either. Hmm, I think I may see another chalk mark on the "good" side of the board for once for me. 

Mr. Boston and my new friend Mary.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! 

My reaction to:

The tour of:

 Jim Lennon's Photography Studio

www.jimlennon.com

First I would like to say that as I am beginning this post I am trying to convince my husband Bill  that he doesn't like cream puffs so I can have the last half along with my hot chocolate that is so deserved after my chilly charity motorcycle run from today which I will post about after this. 

So when our professor's Allen Kenner and Juan Lopez set up the tour to Jim Lennon's studio I was excited because not only did I think it was not going to happen due to a professor swap for the current course I am taking, Photography Seminar, and also that the studio is conveniently located in the Hauppauge Industrial Park where I just so happen to work only a few blocks away but this is where my focus in photography lies, in commercial photography. 

Jim Lennon has been photographing for over 35 years and is pretty well known throughout the Long Island photography industry. He has won many awards for his work which he proudly displays all over his studio. Jim has also taught and lectured at many universities and many art and photography organizations all over the region. 

In the past I interned and shadowed for a few commercial studios so I was not apprehensive to visit Jim's studio but I was curious to see if he ran his studio the same as the others, meaning did he charge the same, was he shooting the same products or different products and clients. I mean you never know. Maybe clients like to jump around get a different perspective and advertising angle for their products or maybe they are satisfied with their photographer's creative vision and stay or maybe they do not care and just want someone to take product shots for them.

Jim Lennon began his tour starting in the front office by talking about his secretarial staff and what type of work they do for him and what their day entails. He stated that they are part of staff that he has to pay which gets worked into the price he needs to charge his clients in order for them to get paid but still be able to turn a profit. Jim then led us into the next area of the studio where he had a full functioning kitchen set up for food photography. He stated that some clients he was shooting food for would rather cook and shoot in the studio for convenience but some food related clients also requested he shoot on location for them at their restaurant. I recently posted a "Reaction" blog on food photography where Jim hosted the food photography workshop. If you find yourself interested in this type of work you may want to read it. He then led us into yet another area of the studio where he was set up for other types of commercial products ranging from makeup to fashion to hospital equipment, tools, medicine, automotive and beyond. The studio was the perfect size for what he needed to accomplish.  

As I have stated once before the one thing about Jim Lennon I really like besides his work is his sense of business. He knows how to work the business end which is something I hope to learn a great deal about from him. He stated to us that him and his wife and assistant Mona have come up with a simple number to charge clients. They figured out they need to shoot at least three days a weeks to be able to cover expenses including studio rental, electric, paying staff, paying themselves and still be able to sink money back into the business for things like for example, equipment repair. This does not mean that the other days of the week are free. There is still editing and other things that need to be done and that will take up the rest of the week. Jim also told everyone that learning the business end is first and foremost, creativity comes later. You can produce a great photograph for your client but if you cannot sell and run the business from a business stand point then you will not be around to long. He met many people that stated to him that they would just open their own studio and do what he is doing but they do not last long because they do not know how to run the business from the business end. 

Although Jim demystified a lot of questions I had circling around in my head there is still a lot I want to know. I will be conducting an interview with him in the near future to pick his brain a bit more. One of the questions I asked him was, "What do you look for in an assistant?" His answer was, "Well I want someone to walk in here with some experience under their belt. Not someone who's afraid to touch the camera and touch the equipment because they are afraid they are going to break it". He also stated please do not put on your resume that you have experience with a Hasselblad if you have only used it once because that means you really do not have experience with that camera and probably should not be handling it anyway. He stated that he needs an assistant that can set up and break down without instruction, can guess his next move and has no problem lifting the equipment was a few of the requirements if one decided to approach him for an assistant position....yes I will. 

In conclusion I would like to state that I really enjoyed the tour and feel in that short time I learned a lot and still had a lot to learn. As a matter of fact one of the other studios I interned for would never talk business in front of me so I find it intriguing that Jim is willing to divulge any information to help out anyone who is interested in running their own commercial photography business. 

I am looking forward to my interview with Jim Lennon and may even ask him if I can assist. I would relish in the opportunity to join in on a food photography shoot! 

Motorcycle Charity Run

Benefit for St. John of God Outreach Center

I am sure many would say we are crazy for coming out on a day like today on our motorcycles in frigid weather on November 16th. But what many do not know is that the reason we riders join together from all over Long Island especially around the holiday season is because we look to give back to the community and help out local charities that are in need of support and our help. 

This year I was surprised to see so many AMA motorcycle clubs come together to show support for the outreach center for St. John of God in Central Islip. St. John of God has been holding the Turkey Ride for the Poor event as it is called for the last three years and because of this outstanding show of support, the church during the past events was able to feed over 300 families from this outreach program from this run they throw every year. All they asked was for a donation of $15 per person or a frozen turkey, we decided to donate cash. Acquiring and transporting a frozen turkey on the bike was an experience we decided we did not need, maybe next year. The ride was scheduled to meet at 10am for sign up registration and collection of turkeys and donations at Suffolk County Harley Davidson on Sunrise Highway in Oakdale, Long Island. While we waited on line to sign up and donate there was a table serving up much needed hot coffee and bagels and of course I did partake not so much for the caffeine but mainly to warm the core.

One of the organizers I spoke with, Ana Sullivan said the outreach program is grateful for opportunities like this to help feed the poor and because of all the donations their pantry is growing bigger every year. Hunger on Long Island is a growing concern to many groups and a cause that we  as Long Islanders have been supporting through charity organizations. Jack Vulpis, his wife Sandrine and John Lafferty were on hand to help coordinate the route with our local police escorts and keep everyone informed on our ride. Before we pulled out, Santa Claus also made an appearance to join us with the ride and welcome in the holiday season, just like he does at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Kickstands were up at 12:15pm and we were rolling with Suffolk County Police Departments escort. We rode downtown through historic Central Islip and other quaint neighborhoods which lead us to the front of St. John of God. Organizers planned the route through the neighborhood to keep the locals informed of the event and the good work the bikers were doing. In front on Carleton Avenue was Reverend Christopher Nowak giving all the bikers, passengers and bikes a blessing as we approached the Central Islip Fire Department who was hosting the after party.

CIFD has quite the nice facility and provided the upstairs recreation room for the luncheon. There were raffles tickets and 50/50 chances being sold with complimentary food and refreshments being dished out by church volunteers. Reverend Christopher Nowak the Pastor of St. John of God gave a small speech and blessing thanking everyone in appreciation for their generous donations and time. The Turkey Ride was quite the success.

It was brought to my attention that a second run was happening today for a local biker that lost his leg in a tragic motorcycle accident. The two events unfortunately reduced the numbers for the Turkey Ride, but I am sure the turnout for Uncle Mike was equally as good and also just as important. We wish Mike a swift recovery and hope he gets back in the wind next year.

Furthermore, I would like to say to all that it is so important especially during the holiday season to remember what Thanksgiving means and to give not only your local outreach groups but any group or organization that you can help. You would be surprised how much the little everyone gives could really go a long way. Especially during these tough economical times. With people losing their jobs and having to chose between either heating their home, pay for the electric or put food on the table. Unfortunately, I have been in their shoes and it is not a good situation to be in and that is why I make an extra effort to help those in need through motorcycle runs and other local programs so please make sure you donate this holiday season and help out those in need because some day it could be you. If by any chance anyone out there would like to donate to the outreach center the link is:

stjohnofGodparish.org/outreach.htm

I wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

Ana Sullivan, John Lafferty, Sandrine and Jack Vulpis who are the organizer's and volunteers who put together this Turkey Run event every year.  

Santa showing support for the Turkey run, getting blessed and welcoming in holiday season. 

My reaction to:

Food Photography Workshop 

At SCCC Culinary Arts Center

My reaction to the Food Photography Workshop was when I first entered I was a bit curious as to what was going to be said, taught. Basically at what angle Jim Lennon was going to come at us from. I have been to Jim Lennon's studio on tour also with my current Professor Allen Keener and he approached everything from the business end. Business first, creativity later in so many words. 

First let me say although I already knew where the culinary arts building was my GPS insisted I make a right at the light instead of a left taking me behind the building to park. I decided to ignore her and then got led on a wild goose chase in the fog trying to find the back parking area. Annoying. Anyway, I park and walk in not knowing what to expect. The first person I run into was Jay Brenner of Brenner Photo Productions in Plainview, Long Island! www.brennerphoto.com. It was good to see him. I fortunately had the privilege of interning / shadowed for him and I really enjoyed it but unfortunately for me the photographers already had their assistants chosen so I did not get to continue my internship sadly. The second person or person's I ran into was Professor Allen Keener and Professor Harold Naideu both of which I had and still have the privilege of learning a great deal about photography from.  

As I entered the culinary studio I was surprised to see that architecturally it was set up bleacher style just like you see in the movies, with the kitchen floor level with a giant mirror hanging over the stove facing the audience so they can see what's cooking. I was prompted to sit in the front row which worked perfect for me. Now for those who don't know me, I am a big foodie! So to sit in the front row surrounded by chef's was a big deal for me. I felt like I was surrounded by celebrities. I wanted them to watch them cook something for me and thought for a moment thats why they were there but it was not to be true. They were also there to learn something about the business of food photography. 

Finally Jim Lennon began the lecture talking mostly about his work while behind the scenes his wife and business partner Mona set up the softbox and strobes for the first round of shots. Jim spoke of the equipment he uses. He shoots with a Hassleblad using a 200mm lens. He also stated that he does have extension tubes as they are called that he could add to the lens giving him the capability to shoot some macro shots for the chefs. 

Jim went on to talk mostly of the business end of it all which I felt was the opposite of Jay's approach. He talked about how much you should charge whether you have a studio or not. He spoke of time scheduling, budgeting, equipment and to break down and spend the money on the professional equipment. Also, he spoke of being honest with yourself and the client and not being afraid to charge someone and never offer your services for free! Also, to remember that this is their lively hood and you can't just walk into a place and state your a professional photographer and take really bad photos for a restaurant or chef. It could make or break them. He showed us some of the work he shot for restaurants which was beautiful and stated that there were no shortage of work out there food photographers which is good for me since that is the direction I'm headed in. He also took some shots of some plates that were made up for him earlier to basically direct us not so much on creativity but to bring into focus that it should take you no more than three shots to have your lights adjusted to where you want them. If you spend too much time fumbling around with your lights trying to set them correctly it's looks unprofessional and you start to lose time. Time you negotiated on to complete the project for your client. The last thing you want is to look bad in front of your client. 

I have to admit I was intimated at first though because the business end is where my weakness lies but towards the end of the workshop I was totally intrigued by his business sense and wanted to sit with Jim and pick his brain. He is a very knowledgeable man when it comes to business. I hope to see more and learn more from him. I am very happy I attended this workshop. 

If you would like to see some of his work his website is: www.jimlennon.com

There is one bit of information I forgot to add. I interned for a small company a few years ago and I had the privilege of working first hand on the job so to speak shooting food photography. We shot for Uncle Giuseppe's, Hawaiian Barbecue from New Jersey and a few other restaurants and also shot food products like olive oils, wines, food baskets and such. One of the things Jim mentioned was make sure you eat before you go to these shoots and let me tell you is he ever right about that! Most of the food you can't eat for various reasons but then you have the chef's or clients who are cooking and preparing the food feeding some of it to you. Although I enjoyed this immensely because I am a big foodie and think there is nothing sexier than a man in the kitchen who wants to feed me, as a professional you really shouldn't do this. Just politely say no thank you and continue to work and prep the set. Always keep it professional. 

Here is some of my food and product photography from last semester:

Pepper Splash! 

Grey Goose product shot

Mirassou product shot

Renoir Interpretation

Family Photoshoot

The Dell'Aquila's

©dvgphoto.blogspot.com
dagnygallo@gmail.com

Every year the Dell'Aquila's request me to photograph their family for their annual family Christmas card. The plan is to always meet somewhere at Central Park because they live near there and it is always a picturesque place to have family portraits photographed. This year we met at the Dakota and entered the park on 72nd. The children Eve and William were enjoying their day running around with each other while I snapped away. Using an 18-270mm Tamron lens I had my focus set to AI Servo and shot using Aperture priority starting at f5.6 with my ISO on 400 because it was overcast and a bit dark and I didn't want my shutter speed to drop too low causing motion blur. It was a great shoot with a great family as always. 

©dvgphoto.blogspot.com

 

My reaction to:

The first time I attended many years ago was I had just entered the world of photography so I was a bit clueless as to what all the products were. I left after that day walking around saying to myself, " I really have a lot to learn before I come here again." So here I am a few years later with some experience under my belt looking forward to the expo. I bit the day meaning skipped work, took the train out of Ronkonkoma early in the morning and headed into Penn Station. For those of you who are curious, the Jacob Javitz center is walking distance from Penn Station. Just use your maps on your phone to give you walking directions to the center. 

Ok, so now onto the good stuff. Upon my arrival I had my paperwork scanned, badge created and headed up the escalator. At the top was a woman handing out large plastic Nikon bags to new arrivals. 

Make sure you get one of those because you will be inundated with a lot of flyers and pamphlets and I mean a lot!  

At the time my arrival was about 11:30 to start the tour. Lots of ground to cover by 5pm so I thought I had plenty of time....boy was I wrong. I was so excited to talk to everyone and get all kinds of information on new products and sit for a seminar or two that by the time 4:30pm rolled around I had only seen half of the expo! 

But during that time I talked with Sean Arbabi who is a commercial photographer and travel photographer and was giving a lecture about himself. He spoke of how he got into the business and gave me some good advice. He spoke of how he graduated college and sent out a thousand resumes and got no response so eventually he went to work for a commercial photographer to supplement his income in order to be able to travel and take pictures to send to vacation magazines which eventually led to a few gigs. Then he set out on his own and started his own business and became a commercial photographer. He also said one of the most important things as a photographer that we need to know is how to run the business. Taking photos is only 1/3 of what you need to know, the rest is running the business and pricing. 

After speaking with Sean I wandered onto a few booths one of who was ASMP which stands for American Society of Media Photographers. I will be joining today as a student since they have student memberships and offer special services for students. Then onto another booth called Macphun who was selling an editing plugin program for Mac users only. Instead of regular chairs to sit in the both was equipped with exercise balls to sit on which I thought was fun. The speaker Ivan Randall who was giving a lecture on the program was very funny and knowledgeable of the product. He said that this program was a few steps above Photoshop and Lightroom and included some extra features that the other programs don't have and was very easy to use. Upon watching him and saw how easy it was to operate with all the additional features it included I purchased it. It cost me $129.00 and comes with 4 different editing programs. You can use it as a stand alone or plug-in. It comes on an SD card and after uploading the program you can re-use the SD card to take pictures because it is an 8GB SD card. 

I know it's not the greatest photo but I just wanted to show everyone quickly what it looks like incase anyone else is interested in purchasing the program and yes they do have tech support and give a tutorial on how to use the program. 

Ok, so onward into the expo I ran into a booth selling camera straps of which I was looking for a strap called the sling. I heard they make ergonomic straps for women and upon my search found one made by a company called BLACKRAPID, blackrapid.com is their address incase any women photographers out there may want the same. Only cost $54.00. They also sell sling straps for men. This strap will work for me while photographing on the bike. The other just comes off my neck in the wind and sometimes I'm afraid I will drop the camera. 

At this point I looked at the time and noticed it was a little after 4pm and I have not even ventured half way through the expo yet! I was a bit upset because I still had not visited the booths I came there to see. Then my husband showed up a short while later and helped me rush through the last half but I have missed so much. I was going to return Saturday but there were family obligations so I couldn't. 

I missed Scott Kelby's seminar and as I approached the Canon booth they shut off their lights. They were closed. Ugh, I was so upset. 

My advice to the photographers is that you need more than one day to get thorough the entire expo. There is so much to see and so many people to talk to and products to handle that believe it or not 6 hours just is not enough time. I wish I could have returned yesterday but next year I will have to plan my time management a bit differently. Overall it was a great experience. There were vendors giving away prizes including camera bags to winning a photography tour trip to Australia and believe me I definitely entered that because photographing Australia is on my bucket list of places to photograph. Also, considering it was Halloween everyone had candy they gave away too. There were companies selling aerial photography equipment and other vendors selling very expensive view cameras. So much to see and do. I had a great experience and I am looking forward to returning next year!