Day 1275: Jack of All Trades

One of the most frustrating things about being a photographer is the fact that you can take pictures for other people, but taking pictures of yourself is near impossible. It's not, of course, because even I have worked with self-photography before, setting the camera on a tripod with a time or using a wireless remote, but you ultimately spend more time fussing with the camera in those instances than you do actually taking pictures. So in other words, it works some of the time, but not all the time.

Luckily, my roommate is pretty great at taking pictures after the settings are done and I've shown her a few examples, so for the first time in a while, I have some actual headshots!

Megan and I spent about an hour and a half across the river from our college, taking headshots for both of us, and while it's great to have some new headshots, it was even more fun to explore the area! I spend so much of my time at college in class, doing homework, or now, in the summer, blogging in my apartment, that I rarely get to explore what's actually in the area. Within walking distance we found some really beautiful old buildings, a water fountain that I had way too much fun with, and views of the Fox River that supplied a spectacular background. 

Photography, of course, has always been sort of a side project for my entire family. When my brother was born I got my first camera. I was four, and since then I've definitely worked with more than a few different cameras, both in film and digital. Now I usually borrow my Dad's DSLR to achieve the higher quality shots, whether those be of cats on our front porch or in the form of headshots for my friends. 

The truth is, I actually love photography, and I would love to spend an entire trip or more just walking around taking pictures of everything at Walt Disney World. The problem? I'm usually videoing, which, in the end, is ultimately more important than taking pictures to post on my Instagram. In the matter of one trip I can film anywhere from 2 to 10 videos if I spend my time correctly, and that's not even including the vlogs. 

So I'm left with a choice: to either photograph things or film them. I mean, I can't take pictures and film with only two hands. I'd need three for that, at least if I want to use the DSLR and not my phone. It's a decision that means carrying around two not so light cameras and may ultimately result in only a few pictures or not enough video. In the end I'll probably risk it and bring both though, because there's really no better time to experiment with photography than at Walt Disney World, right? 

Have a magical day!

Day 166: Pictures

So yesterday a bunch of pictures my mom ordered, along with my graduation party invitations, were delivered to my house. Anyway, every time we have pictures from a Disney trip printed, mom has to go through them all and sort them by park and so on and so forth. The problem? She couldn't figure out which picture was from which park!

Being the loving daughter I am, I went and helped her with such things, and I told her all the time which picture was from where. It honestly wasn't hard, and I think there was only like one picture that tripped me up. I mean, I was giving her locations for pictures I wasn't even there for. I guess she was looking at them for a really long time because there were a lot of pictures, but still.

It made me pretty proud of myself when I was able to name all those locations, many of which were just like headshots or those ones that my dad takes that are of absolutely the strangest things at Disney World. I mean, he seems to have this obsession with taking pictures of lights, strange lights, so it's always interesting trying to identify where the lights are located. Then again, you can easily tell I'm my father's daughter because I take really strange pictures all the time too. Maybe not so much when I'm on vacation, but it still happens. I just walk around with the camera looking at weird things.

This next trip I'm going to have to take a ton of pictures, both because of my challenge for the trip, which I'll talk about in a couple of weeks, but also because I need to take pictures for the local county fair for my 4-H photography project. What exactly I'll end up taking picture of, I have no clue, but I suppose I should go through the pictures from the last trip too because if I remember correctly I have a couple nice ones that might just work. We'll have to see.

Here's today's Disney History: 2012: Disneyland Resort caps off it's $1 billion renovation of Disney California Adventure with the public opening of Cars Land. Based on the Disney-Pixar movie Cars, it is the largest piece of a five-year expansion at Disney California Adventure Park, adding 12 acres of new attractions to the theme park.

Have a magical day!