Alex+Christian

They first met each other at "the happiest place on earth". What started off as a friendship on an internship with a bunch of people from all over the world, slowly developed into something more after many friends slowly left after their internships ended.

From their first kiss, and first date at Portobello to the many ice cream adventures they had, you can tell instantly that these two were nothing less than happy together. 

I was fortunate enough to photograph Alex and Christian during Christians birthday weekend where they went to all of the places that were meaningful to them from the time they started their relationship and 8 1/2 months later.

Proud to say these two are my friends and to many more months to come, and a "happily ever after"

Here a few from the shoot :)

Not having a lot is a good thing

I don't really know how to start this, so I'm just gonna say it. I'm moving

There I said it!

Now I should probably explain myself. I am moving because my roommate, Alex, is moving back home to North Carolina due to personal reasons not working out with her plans, its sad and I'll miss her, BUT she'll be back by next fall which is a plus! But on another note I'm not gonna be living in this two bedroom apartment by myself... 

So where am I going you might ask? well I will be moving in with my friend Christian who also happens to be Alex's boyfriend :) I've known them both for over a year now and love them to death so everything will still be alright, the only downside we'll probably be having to wake up a little earlier to get to class since I'll be living farther away from campus and work. 

So I've been packing yesterday and I realized having a little amount of stuff is short, sweet, simple and convenient because I really don't need to have a lot of things. I noticed I've made it this long with not too much stuff and I like it, it's pretty nice and I'm not stressed, double bonus! 

Last night after packing, Alex, Christian, our friend from New Zealand, Bekah and I went out to dinner and Buffalo Wild Wings after with some other firends, because nothing screams partying/clubbing then going to Bdubs on their clubbing nights! ;)

here's a few from last night!

Crazy weekend!

After Patty left for spain reality kicked in, big time! I had to work Friday and Saturday-two intense shifts- to start off the weekend but something happened by the end of Friday. I was taking care of 3 girls for my last table of the night and after taking there order I asked them if they were on a vacation or local, the usual spiel I do with guest. and they told me they were local. So I asked what part of Florida they were from and they all gave me three different cities/towns/areas whatever and I was curious to know how they all know each other and what are the chances they tell me they're all make-up artist!

So of course I tell them I'm going to be a photographer and that if they ever need any pictures taken to let me know and they agreed! After that, nothing really progressed and I thought they actually forgot about the whole photography thing but sure enough when they left for the night I was left this

So be sure to hit up Jessica if you need an awesome make-up artist!

Isn't it crazy how life unfolds sometimes? 

After the two intense days of work I was able to start some of my paper that's due wednesday. After getting the first of 3 pages done I was able to take a break and relax since Christian was having a party for all the new people at Electric Umbrella (his location at Disney). The party was awesome and I got to meet so many new people that Ill hopefully be able to get to know them more throughout the semester!

With all the Chaos going on with me right now finishing a paper, reading a play, starting my group project for the semester, submitting photos for this contest at school, joining this photo competition outside of school, working, creating this video for valencia for a scholarship, AND creating my website

I'm glad I can still look at life and laugh.

Night Everyone!

A Boo-tacular weekend!

Just a few photos from this magical weekend with Miss Patty V.

From Animal Kingdom, to Mickey's- not -so scary-halloween party

So Glad I was able to see my friends Dan and Leah, who made our night so much better :)

Patty left yesterday morning to Spain where she's gonna be studying abroad for three months, (Yes I miss her) But I'm glad we were able to get pictures of this awesome weekend! 

Hope you liked them! 

Happy Thursday!

The ladder to success & SHOWIT

When I first started really getting into photography back at the beginning of the year I still had my Nikon D3100 and made the decision to look for an upgrade. When I was looking for an upgrade I came across the Nikon D7000 which was considered an "intermediate" level camera. After looking at all the specs of what its capable of from its AF points, ISO, Mega pixels, frames per second, etc I wanted to see how its video capabilities played out.

Thats when I found Chase Jarvis. I saw his road test of what he thought about the camera and did a video that was completely created from the D7000. I fell in love with the camera, it was like a match made in heaven and I had no doubts that I wanted that camera. Not only did I love the way Chase put together this video but I also loved his style of photography and wanted to learn more about him so I checked out more of his videos and I noticed that he went about talking with other photographers and interviewed them.

That's when I found Jasmine Star. I saw her interview with Chase Jarvis and watched the whole 1:43:22 and loved everything about Jasmine, from her story of how she got started and wanted to become a wedding photographer to how she planned her business and most importantly how she stayed determined and never backed down. Sure we all have our moments where we question where we are and if we're going to get where we want to be but she's an example of never letting go and I definitely look up to her for that. after looking up more of her story through her old blog I learned about this site called Showit that helped her progress her business. I didn't know much about the site and didn't pay too much mind in learning more about it because I was busy with school and work at the time.

Months later after making the Jump to Florida I had to meet photographers in the area to start networking and second shoot for other wedding photographers. so after keeping up with Jasmine Stars like page on Facebook I made a post asking her if she knew any photographers in the Florida area. I only needed one person to help me out just ONE!

That's when I found Julie Story. Julie commented on the post saying that she lives in clearwater Florida and that we should connect and we did! :) After meeting with Julie I learned a lot about her, her sister and friend Cassie from the ups and downs of photographing a wedding. In the back of my head I had a feeling it was gonna happen and I knew it would eventually need to happen and that's when Julie challenged me to create a website for myself and have it live and ready to go by October 1. Ok so I know I need to start working on creating a website but where do I go to to create it! how do I put it online and make it work!

Julie simply said "Use Showit". I knew I heard about it before, but didn't know anything about the site. she had explained to me that it allows you to create and have your site hosted by them, all I need to do is: 1. buy a Domain name and 2. start creating my site! she had told me there was tons of templates and stuff to already work with, all I needed to do was add my own little flare to it.

After hearing all that I let it all soak up on my 1 hour and 40 min drive back home from St. Petersburg. I decided to jump on making the site asap. So with ALL that being said, the past 2 days and over 10 hours later only to stop for an occasional bathroom break or ramen noodles, I've been working on this site. It's a process that I'm still trying to understand and it's slowly coming along.

 The nice thing about Showit is I can make the site as detailed as I want for a flat rate every month to keep it online but until I actually do put it online I can work on developing it however long I want AND if I need help there's video tutorials on putting things together without costing anything (Music to a college students ears!) I really do love showit because they are there to help photographers like myself who are determined to do something with our business and they actually show that! And to think, it only took me the second time hearing about them to actually let it hook! ;)

Taking a break from putting together my Site I get to enjoy the weekend with my beautiful girl friend patty :) this is gonna be great!

When looking back on all this I realized I've been climbing a ladder, occasionally I miss a step but that doesn' mean I'm slipping because there's always the next step ahead of you.

Happy Saturday!

The Optimistic Dress Tie

8am.... ok I still have a couple more hours.
9am.... ok still sometime.
10am........ maybe I should wake up now? nawww
10:30am.... ok I'm hungry let me eat then pass out for a little longer.
11:15am ok lets lay down, BUT figure out what I'm gonna wear.

Black pants, check. Black dress shoes, check. now for a dress shirt.... black one with white pin stripes.... sold!

Now a tie....how about the white one....wait a second!!! Jumping out of bed like a mad man. I FORGOT TO PACK MY TIE! And its now noon!

yup I left my tie all the way back home in the Windy City. I was waying out my options; should I have my mom ship them to me? what am I thinking! it wont get here before 2pm! should I go into the interview without a tie? Heck no, I'm going in dressed to impress!

So what do I do? I go to the mall of Millennia of course! not sure what store would carry that "dress to impress" tie I was searching for, so I opted for Express, because well you can't go wrong with Express! except the price maybe... no it's still worth it ;]

so I storm in there on a mission to look for a worthy tie and sure enough I find one because Express doesn't let me down but I guess it goes to show I have "expensive taste" considering it cost 42$ like seriously! that's crazy! that's like.... like a full tank of gas! Geeeeeezzzz

Flying out of the store back home and into the shower and finally finishing getting ready and running out the door, I "safely" made it to Casting by 1:49 with my interview at 2pm. after walking into the colorful building you can't help but be happy or entertained just from all the artwork as your walking up the ramp to the front desk where you check in.

Following the check in I sat comfortably in a red chair and waited..... patiently, yet nervously. There were two other people there waiting for there names to be called ahead of me and they looked just as nervous as me. Why was I nervous though? I'm dressed to impress, have a new tie that looks awesome and I've already worked for the company before! ...but still something was there that made my stomach turn....

slowly one by one the boy and girl get called into the interview. Finally my name was called and that's when the ship hit the iceberg. Not only was I greeted by a recruiter by the name of mark but another recruiter by the name of Anita. TWO recruiters! are you serious! I was gonna keel over! But I held my breathe and dove in!

They were polite, outgoing, nice, and energetic, like every other casting recruiter I've come across and we hit it off well. I answered questions honestly from why I want to come back to Disney, to the "roles" I was interested in and how I would handle certain situations.

 Everything was going well until they told me that unfortunately there was no current attractions positions open, which is what I applied for.... they then asked me if I had any other options of what I could be interested in. I told them character attendant and Photopass, so we spoke about them both for a little while and they soon learned my knowledge of photography but sadly there were no positions open for those two as well.

They finally come to the offer of asking me if I wanted to return to Quick service food and beverage. At first I didn't really know how to answer it without being rude and saying "HELL NO, do you want to see all the scars and burns I have from working in food? do you realize I have a slight permanent stench from all the french fries I've fried!" but instead I told them "As of now with me working part time as a server at a restaurant and previously being a cast member in food and beverage I feel that I want to open the doors more for myself by trying a different role so that I can be a more well rounded cast member with knowledge in different fields." and Mark looked at me and said "I completely understand and respect your honesty".

By the end of the meeting they said that I have been approved for rehire but because there is no openings for Attractions or Photopass currently, I will be put on a waiting list that could potentially notify me anywhere between now and 6 months from now.

With no other questions needed to be asked I left with a bittersweet mind. Sad because I wasn't hired right there and then, happy because at least I was approved for rehire.

I also left proud of myself, not because I showed up looking good, not because I answered everything truthfully and had a positive attitude the whole time, but because I stuck up for myself not being satisfied with food and beverage. Now by all means I'm not saying its a bad role but I seriously want to try something new and see the other possibilities within the Disney Company. So if that means I need to wait a little longer to get back with the company then so be it, I mean I've already waited long enough so a little longer wouldn't hurt and I am confident it will happen soon.

In the mean time I have a new tie to look good with ;)

Stick up for what you want and don't settle for anything less than your goals. 

Low on inspiration? all you need is a fill up!

The past couple weeks has been filled with so much going on; from school, to work/paying bills, applying at Disney World, and working on gaining residency... it's a stressful time right now! The one thing that I've been neglecting though is my photography and progressing my business (if that's what you want to call it as of now) I haven't made the necessary time to move forward and that's definitely a problem.

Is it because I've been so busy though? or because I'm nervous? I question myself if I am nervous of rejection that I may not be good enough? or am I nervous that I need a little push in the right direction.... I don't know but I need something!

Fortunately that something happened this past Saturday. I was lucky enough to meet up with two other photographers in St. Petersburg Florida (around 1:40min away from me). Julie, Cassie, Lecia (Julies sister) and I talked about our stories and how long we've been shooting for -of course I was the baby in the group, not shooting for very long- and just our progression of what we want to do in the future and where we are as of now. The vibe I was getting from these two was of motivation and fall backs from experience. I heard lots of good experiences and I also heard some not so good experiences.

What I realized though is that at the end of the day its part of the process and I need to get that through my thick skull. It's NOT gonna be all rainbows and sunshine, but in order to progress you sometimes need to take BIG risk.

Whenever you're low on motivation, inspiration, determination, and any other "ation" I missed that goes along with this, just remember you have others around you with similar interest that are willing to help. I'm now running on a full tank and ready to continue my journey :]

Dinner, Mail, and a Training Log

With all the good news that has come through in the last 48 hours, I forgot to mention, that starting just yesterday the first of the month, I started my training for the Walt Disney World 1/2 marathon! I know last year I said I was suppose to do it, but I also didn't realize it was the same day as my departure from the college program! so here's to giving it another shot!!

Also Earlier today after checking the mail, I got a very important green letter. It was my voters registration card!! I can finally get my Florida Drivers license this tuesday along with going to casting to get my interview with Disney World :]

Tonight Im heading out with my roommate Alex and my two friends Jess, and Tyler to Chilis. We're going out to celebrate! (because I hate goodbyes) Tyler's soon to be departure to Kentucky where he will be going to school with another fellow friend of mine, Emily!

Following this night I will be heading to Clearwater Florida in the morning to meet with some photographers! :D

Happy Friday!

Making Progress

September 1, 2011 is a day to remember in my book where so many great things have happened! 

to start off the day around midnight last night I was challenged to do two things from Julie, who I happen to be meeting this Saturday! She challenged me to:

A. have someone pay me 40$ to do a photo session

B. apply it to creating my very first website through Showit on October 1

Am I nervous? yes! 

Will I do it? Duh!

Does Julie know that I always like a challenge? not yet ;)

Is it worth it? I have 100% no doubt that it will be worth it! 

Following the challenge and after getting some rest, I woke up to some great news! the Disney Careers site launched and I was able to apply for a position as a cast member :) and this is what happened:

·         12pm the new application process came out for Walt Disney World. 

·         2:39pm I finished applying for part time in attractions. 

·         3:25pm received email to do "web based interview". (same interview that gave me troubles in the past)

·         4:14pm I passed the first interview and am scheduling my in person interview at casting! FINALLY 

·         5:39pm confirmation email for my appointment on Tuesday at 2pm :] 

*talk about responding fast, huh?*

After being patient for 2 months, being denied for entertainment tryouts and having to wait to apply for Disney when the new application process came out, and getting my photography straightened out with a meeting this saturday with some photographers and a photo shoot this sunday with one of my co workers, I am finally seeing results and I am ready for the busy schedule ahead of me! 

With all that being said, I need some sleep! 

night everyone!