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My name is Megan Reeves and I am a 21-year-old senior photojournalism major at the University of Florida. This semester, I took a class called Specialized Lighting Photography with Rob Witzel, the photo editor at the Gainesville Sun. During the semester, our small class of six explored the ways photography can be made better with lighting. We started by using natural light, or sunlight, and have moved through different techniques using as many as three flashes. Rob has always told us that the “overflow comes from the heart” and that photography is something that must be fully delved into. These photos are more than just assignments, they are the story of how I learned what the overflow really means. This is my journey from not knowing a single thing about lighting, to creating a full blown final project. Thanks for visiting, and thank you Rob for teaching.
This is Justine. She is a journalism major and loves fashion, so I knew she would be perfect as a model. During the first week lighting, Rob taught us about working with natural light under different conditions and times of day. The types we were taught included full sun, open shade and overcast light. I chose to go downtown and photograph Justine. This was the first assignment I had ever had in the j-school that was primarily focused on light and where it was hitting the subject. Afterwards, I realized that light can really make or break a picture.
This is my roommate Jacy, and like a good roommate should, she fully supports my photo antics. I drug her down to a little stream by our apartment with two things: my camera and a $10 car sunshade from Walmart. Rob told us that rather than going and purchasing an expensive reflector, we could experiment with either tin foil, a sunshade or anything else we could think of really. This assignment honestly overwhelmed me. I had never directed light before and this was sort of the beginning of learning how to do that.
This is Amber, and Amber is awesome. We call each other “photo friends.” We’ve both shot each other and we’ve both modeled for each other. It’s sort of nice to have someone who understands help you as you’re beginning to learn something new. My new flash equipment came in the mail the morning of this shoot, so I was completely new to all of it. Right as we started shooting a huge storm came and the wind knocked down my light stand, breaking my umbrella. It was definitely an interesting time, but it also definitely taught me that you have to be prepared for things to happen and know how to bounce back from them. It also taught me the importance of sandbags.
This is Emily. She works at the paper with me and has been such a trooper through this class. I have had shoots with her at night, at the office, at her house, and even at 6 a.m., as shown in this photo. This week was all about learning to use rim light. I realized after the shoot that I was shooting with my rim light set wayyy too strong, but I still like how the photos turned out.
This is Emily again, and this was the “Painting With Light” assignment. This was probably the most challenging of all this semester’s assignments, but it was also my favorite class. Learning how to manipulate a photo with exposure time, colored lights and flashlights was so interesting. I guess my favorite part about it was looking at the back of the camera with no idea what to expect.
This week was “Sportrait” week, meaning we had to make a portrait of an athlete. Unfortunately, this assignment didn’t go as planned, so there was no flash used here; however I hope to do more sportraits in the near future.
FOOD! I loved this project because it allowed me to be as creative as possible as I could start with a completely blank canvas. I went to Goodwill and spent probably about $15 dollars on the classes, fabric and basket, and then I went to the grocery store and bought wine, grapes, bread and cheese. I wanted to go for a sort of upscale picnic theme and I really liked how all the colors worked together.
This lady was great. She is the owner of Earth Pets on 10th Avenue near downtown. She loves cats and actually had just rescued the one she is holding as well as several others this same morning. The assignment was to create an environmental portrait and I really like how it turned out.
Fashion was absolutely my favorite assignment. I loved the dramatic lighting and outfit changes. I really liked the pressure of shooting in front of other photographers, or people in general, because that is something I have never really done before. Before this class, and before this assignment, I never thought fashion or studio photography would be something I was interested in, but it turns out I sort of like it.
This is my little sister, Carly. This assignment was really fun because it was so much like fashion, only I got to pick the location, make-up, clothing, etc. Even though the light is a little strong on her face, I think it works. I was going for a sort of street fashion look. My sister had a lot of fun and she turned out to be a great model.
Megan Reeves Photography 