Reaction Paper #1: Jim Lennon Studio Visit

On September 26, I had the opportunity to visit professional photographer Jim Lennon's studio in Hauppauge with my Photography Seminar class. Right off the bat, it was completely different than I expected. I went into his studio anticipating a wide-open, white space with soft box lights and cameras all over the place. I expected the stereotypical photography studio in the movies, so just from walking in I had already learned so much.

Credit: jimlennon.com

In his studio, there were both film and digital equipment, the majority of the latter. I also noticed a light box, loupes, and color slides as I walked around which, to me, was extremely exciting because I am quite the film lover myself. In addition, he had computers everywhere ready to be worked on and backdrops rolled up in so many colors I lost count.
What surprised me the most though was the kitchen. It was so interesting to see such an expansive kitchen set in the studio of a photographer who didn't primarily do food work. I loved the feel of it. The entire space had this sort of homey feeling, which I'm sure is very comforting to clients and models that visit.
For the hour or so that we were there, Lennon spoke to us about what it's like to be in the photography business. He didn't sugarcoat anything either. He explained both the money aspect of the profession, and the production side. Lennon gave us aspiring professionals an insight on how much work goes into preparing for a shoot and also what goes on in post-production.
All together, visiting Jim Lennon's studio was a very rewarding experience and taught me about what I should expect when going into a career in photography.

Dean and Kat Sunset Beach Shoot

For my assignment in Digital Photo I, I had to take photos of three different subjects. Kindly, my brother, Dean, and his girlfriend, Kat, offered to be one of my subjects. That evening, we went to the beach just as the sun was beginning to set. It was the start to a beautiful sunset, so I took out my camera and started shooting.
This was their first time modeling for me, so both of them were a bit confused on what to do, which resulted in a few humorous photographs. After I explained that all they had to do was act natural, they relaxed a bit and I was able to get some pretty great shots.
I positioned Dean and Kat on some rocks so that, with the sunset behind them, they would become silhouetted. Out of all the photos I took of them that evening, I think those came out the best. The two of them are just dark enough that you can't see every feature of their face, but just lit up enough to tell by some key features who they are.
I am really happy with how the photos I took of Dean and Kat came out. Shooting people for this assignment really helped me learn to use my camera quickly in order to get the perfect exposure almost all of the time. Not to mention shooting in RAW also helped out quite a bit in darkening their shadows and adding contrast to make the images more powerful.