Ethan Rivera: Reflection from the beginning and meeting the Fro

Back in January of 2011 I decided to take that plunge into the photography field. Not knowing what I was getting myself into or where to even start, I did what any other clueless person would do for inspiration and an idea of where to start.

I popped open a tab for google and typed in anything from "getting better at photography" to "understanding a digital SLR" and tons of links and websites popped up but nothing was really getting my attention with all this fancy talk about "shutter speeds, iso and aperture" (little did I know I'd be talking about those all the time now), but something caught my attention on Youtube about video tutorials and learning different settings etc.

So I made my way to Youtube and started doing searches there and came across a man known as Jared Polin of Fro Knows Photos business he started. Instantly I was hooked to his passion for photography, his motto at every end to his videos and of course Lil. What caught my attention most though was his idea of sharing information for others at no cost, giving FREE education online at no cost which is extremely hard to come by in this day in age where everyone is looking to make a buck or two, but his sharing of information is not only priceless but rewarding.

I learned so much from the Fro and I've been so grateful for it. Which brings us to this current time in which one of my friends Cody brought to my attention that the Fro would be in the Windy City aka Chicago for a couple days and offered to do a photowalk with some followers!! So OF COURSE I jump on this opportunity to meet the guy who helped me with my pursuit of happiness, whether it be with gear or further understanding my camera and what I can do with it.

With ALL that being said I met the Fro and not only got to learn something, but I also took advantage of the opportunity to not only meet Jared, but network as well!

"But Ethan where's the cherry on top? you always seem to have a cherry on top!"

haha the cherry on top was Jared letting me use his camera to film the day with everyone! Not only was I able to hold the new Nikon D3200, but he also had one of the Hebrew trinities on it aka one of the GOLDEN lenses every photographer should have in their bag. He had a 14-24 2.8 G ED lens on it.... lets just say that lens cost more than twice as much as the camera it was attached to tipping the scale at over 2,000$ for it!

Did I have a deathgrip on it? YES!

any who, here's a few photos from today with some amazing photo credit to Cody even though I almost had to fight him for my own camera back.......

haha thanks Cody, and thanks Jared for the awesome opportunity!