Annual Long Island Hog Toy Run

LI Hog Toy Run to Little Flower Children and Family Services of New York

This day on November 30th, 2014 we have been blessed with sunshine and perfect weather for The Long Island Hog Chapter to host their annual toy run for Little Flower Children and Family Services of New York in Wading River. At the Babylon Town Hall beginning at 10am between three to five hundred bikers gathered from many AMA clubs from all over Long Island along with Long Island H.O.G. to bring toys to the underprivileged children who unfortunately will not be waking up with a family of their own on Christmas day who are housed and taken care of by this selfless organization.
Now you do not have to be a member to join in on the fun. It is an open ride to anyone who would like to show support for a worthy cause and give these children a little Christmas cheer and gifts to open on Christmas day. 

As I spoke with the director for the Long Island Chapter, Bob Brinka, he stated that, "The Long Island H.O.G. Chapter was founded in 1985." Joe Savastano, who played Santa, has been a founding member since the beginning. Long Island H.O.G. has been organizing this charity run for Little Flower for over 28 years and is sponsored by Harley Davidson of Suffolk in Oakdale and Eastern Harley Davidson in Riverhead. This year Long Island Hog is celebrating their 30th anniversary. Happy anniversary Long Island H.O.G.!
So as I was working my way through the crowd I looked around and saw the parking lot was filled. Rows of bikes lined up wrapped around the town hall building and spilled onto the side of the highway. The local Suffolk County Police Department were our escorts for the event. They had organized and closed down Sunrise Highway to make room for the parade of bikes, toys and good hearted people making their way towards the anxiously awaiting children. A few people began their bikes which signaled to me it was close to the start of the event. But before we took off Father Gil from Our Lady Of Grace in West Babylon asked us to bow our heads in silence as he blessed us all for the great work and generosity that everyone has given to Little Flower and many charities throughout the years and he also gave us his blessing for a safe ride. We thanked Father Gil and assembled to our bikes. Many spectators, parents, grandparents and children waved and thanked us for the wonderful contribution we make every year.
First off was the Suffolk Police Department leading the ride and riding ahead to hold back traffic from the oncoming ramps entering the highway. As we all roared down Sunrise Highway more spectators were our of their cars on the service road and on overpasses waving and yelling, "Thank You!" and "Merry Christmas!" About 45 minutes later we started to exit the highway and found ourselves riding down farm roads. People were outside with their children waving as they hung Christmas lights and decorations preparing for the holiday season.
As we entered the long driveway towards Little Flower we were greeted by a few children with big smiles standing outside with caretakers that directed us where to park. As we neared the door hundreds of bikers were entering the building carrying gifts for the children. We could all hear Christmas music playing outside which grew louder as I finally entered the building into the gymnasium. There was a stage to my right with a beautifully decorated and lit Christmas Tree. Staff collected gifts from the givers and put them on the stage for sorting. Some seats were brought out and placed along side the tree for Santa and some of the children to receive gifts. There was singing and laughing and chili being served. Riders congregated as a speech was given by the one of the organizer's Grace Lo Grande who is the executive director and has been with Little Flower since 1996. Afterwards Santa gave a brief speech and shared a little bit of history about Little Shelter and thanked everyone for attending and for being so generous. He then had a seat and the children lined up to receive a gift and sit with Santa and gave a heartfelt thank you to everyone in the crowd for all they have done.
Here's a little history about not so little, Little Flower. Little Flower Children and Family Services has been around since the 1930's although in 1929 the New York State board of Charities approved the incorporation of Little Flower which was a residential center for orphaned, abandoned and neglected children which was founded by Father Bernard J. Quinn. Their mission statement states, "Since the 1930's Little Flower has been committed to improving the lives and well being of those we serve by providing foster boarding home care, residential treatment care and where appropriate, adoption. Our work focuses on strengthening the family so that they can provide a safe and nurturing environment for raising children and to overcome a myriad of obstacles that threaten a child's safety. Little Flower's growth as a service provider reflects its social history and parallels the development of the child welfare system in New York.
If anyone reading this article would like to read more about their services or make a donation you can visit their page at: http://www.littleflowerny.org. It's never too late.

My reaction to: a visit from Janelle Brooke

One of Janelle's infamous photographs you will see in her ads. 

Last week our class had a visit from a former Suffolk County Community College student who now has become a wedding photographer, Janelle Brooke of Janelle Brooke Photography, http://www.janellebrooke.com. One of the things she told us was that when she first enrolled at Suffolk Community College was that she originally registered into the music program and never intended on becoming a photographer. She wound up taking a photography course which she needed to take and then she fell in love with photography and then she changed her mind and moved away from music and enrolled into the photography curriculum. 

Janelle is now a pretty well known wedding and lifestyle photographer on Long Island and New York. She states when she first started out she didn't have a studio and lived at home. She used her parents dining room and set it up as a small office and little by little grew her business. Janelle eventually got married and purchased a home with extra rooms that she could utilize into office space and a meet and greet show place to show her work. Janelle thought as time went on that she could do all this work on her own but then realized as the times changed and social media networking on the internet came about it became overwhelming to juggle photographing an event, editing, keep her website current and respond to all the social media networks like Facebook and Twitter to name a few was impossible so finally she hired a graphic designer and like she says she was hesitant not because she didn't think the young woman was incapable but because Janelle thought she could do it all herself. So she broke down and finally hired Christine and has been grateful she did ever since. 

Christine handled all her website and graphic design and even dealt with social networking so Janelle could concentrate on photographing. Christine also handled editing images part time. Then later on as her business grew she decided she needed a video so people could see who she was, to connect with her and promote the business so she hired Chris Lobello who did an excellent job on her video which you can view on her website. It really is inspiring and I decided not only because of her excellent work and video and not only because I got to meet her in person and loved her immediately but because I really like her style and her unique type of work that I asked her to photograph my husband and I this summer for our 20th anniversary! 

Janelle also promotes herself by advertising in wedding magazines such as, "The Knot" which is a popular wedding magazine for today. She is also a member of a few organizations to help promote her business but it all started with word of mouth and great photographs and a great personality. Within five years Janelle grew her business from the ground up which she says is valued today at half a million dollars. If anyone out there reading this is looking for a wedding photographer do yourself a favor and check her out. You will want to hire her to shoot your special day. 

Pet Christmas Photoshoot

So I finally had some personal time in between photographing weddings and covering events to photograph the newest addition to our family for our annual Christmas card. Her name is Jennifer chosen by my husband Bill. I found her or shall I say a co-worker found Jennifer crying loudly under her vehicle at our job. As I was making my way back from classes to work, as I entered the building my co-worker was texting me to hurry and come over to where she is parked, there is a kitten! She said. I thought, "Oh great. I'm not ready for a new addition yet so close to just losing my last cat a few weeks prior. My heart was still broken but I won't turn away a stray. I figured I would get her home and call a few places to see if someone would take her or if maybe a friend on Facebook would take her. Well to make a long story short after a few days we decided to keep her. I'm glad we made the decision and I am sure she is too considering the sudden change in weather. So one of the things my pets have to learn to put up with is my photographing them. Lol! They become my models for some projects.

Photographing Pets 

NOT EASY! 

What you need is a lot of patience and time. One of the secrets I have discovered to photographing pets is wait until they are tired. With cats it's usually an hour or two after they eat. With dogs I found you need to tire them out by playing with them or take them for a long walk. The last thing you want to do is chase around a pet with a camera when they are full of energy. You will be worn out faster than them and it will take you eight hours to get one good shot. Yes, the first time I photographed a pet it took me eight hours and also became a contortionist that same day. Not fun. That's when I decided to take a pet photography workshop and actually assisted the photographer afterwards on a shoot at a local pet store. Now I am armed with some valuable knowledge that I am now sharing with you so you can do it yourself. 

Props! Keep them simple. Too many props spoil the pet pictures. I only add one or two props. Believe it or not you won't even see the other props and the pets get distracted by them. Let the dogs take a picture with their favorite toy on their favorite chair. Photograph them where they are comfortable if you are shooting in a clients home or your own. Make squeaking noises so they tilt their heads and perk their ears when they look at you and be quick about snapping that picture. Also, NO FLASH! Use either mono-lights, not strobes or open all the blinds and turn on the lights if it's too dark. Pets tend to not like flash. Today I used window light and overhead light. I set my white balance to tungsten because there was more of the tungsten than natural light and I wanted my "whites" to be white. You will see what I mean when I post the pics. Also, I shot in "P "or program mode and let the camera control the aperture and shutter speed because I did not want to look away from my subject and start fiddling with my camera missing a shot and I knew I would be moving around the room a lot too. Also used my 50mm f/1.4 prime lens because it's a great portrait lens and the f/stop opens up wide to let in lots of light. I set my ISO to flex between 800 and 1600. I shot these images in my bedroom which although I opened up both blinds and had the overhead lights on, it was an overcast day and a bit dark in the room. I had the camera set to continuous shoot and set the autofocus to "ONE SHOT" instead of AL SERVO which is what I usually photograph kids and pets using but considering I was up close and the pet wasn't moving around too much I was good with my auto focus at the one shot setting. One question I get asked a lot is about where to focus on pets? The eyes or snout?" Personally I think it depends on what the photographer is trying to portray in the photo. Today I wanted sharp eyes. I decided to let the rest be soft focus because she is a kitten. The problem many will face is if your aperture is open too wide and you are photographing a dog the distance between the tip of the nose and the eyes will cause one or the other to be out of focus. Try not opening your aperture so wide and just bump up your iso to let more light in. It will take a few tries but you can get both in focus. 

The lights I am using for special effect is the christmas light necklace that you can get cheap at the dollar store. 

Jennifer was pretty relaxed at this moment so I was able to gently place the miniature gift on her paws.

The christmas light necklace placed next to her.

With a shallow aperture I held the christmas light necklace next to the lens for this effect. 

 Only used two props for the entire shoot. Both from the dollar store. 

This photo is actually going to be her "Thank You" picture card that Jennifer is going to send to all the kind people that helped her mommy to capture her.