The Beginning: Part 5

As hours turned into days, and days turned into weeks, next thing I knew, I had gone through my first month at Disney! those days were filled with meeting some amazing new people at work as well as outside of work. They were from places such as the East coast, Midwest, South, West coast, Europe, South America, Australia, Canada, China, and Japan, it was insane and overwhelming to meet people from sooo many different backgrounds all within a month! Looks like I have lots of places to visit now, and my master traveling plan is under way, Muwahahaha!

Anyways, within the month I was there I had discovered what a "magical moment" was first hand and of course always having amazing photo adventures with some great people on my off days, but time was going by way to fast, only 4 months left?? how could Disney tease college program students like this. I clearly remember one of my roommates telling me on one of my first days there, "after every month time gets a little faster when your in this program" and man was Nick right! I already had a couple hundred pictures taken and that's a lot from a guy who hasn't owned a camera since his Italy incident. 

Through out all this chaos I noticed something during my first month in Florida that was kind of odd... every time I went to the parks I always had to have my camera with me. Whenever I didn't, I felt this strange overwhelming feeling that I was missing something, something to document my experience there that I didn't ever want to forget, so I always tried having my camera with me at all times :) 

Over sometime though I became unsatisfied with JUST bringing my camera and taking pictures, I always saw that one family with the Dad or Mom who had the huge camera and external flash rolling around getting their neck all sore. Now I'm not saying I wanted to have my neck all sore lugging around a huge camera, and I'm not saying I want to keep up with the joneses but I wanted to compete with them, challenge my picture taking to get better and not just have it in Auto or Aperture...

So I began doing my research and learning, studying about cameras and what not, and I found out over a period of time that I had outgrown my camera, I had pretty much used it to its capability and needed something better, or atleast a camera with a flash aid, because my camera lacked it, so at night my camera turned into a disco flashing strobe to find out where the subject of the picture was.... not ideal

When I began looking for camera deals, I had learned that the best entry level Digital SLR was this one by Nikon at the time. Now I don't consider my self to be a pro or anything, and I didn't really know much about cameras and iso, aperture, and shooting in manual, but I looked up reviews for both Nikon and Canon since those seemed to have been the two top dogs in photography for the majority. and after sometime, I found that the new Nikon D3100 was my best bet, it had all these great reviews and I decided why not! but there was a small problem..... I had almost no money.... see Disney has this was of sucking people up of their money, sure it's a paid internship but when they give you 20% and 50% off all merchandise, you kind of take advantage of it sadly. 

So what did I have to do you may ask? well after surprising my parents when I came home for a visit on thanksgiving I had asked the greatest dad in the whole wide world for a small loan of 700$ (sucking up much?)....yea after some wheeling and dealing I had convinced my parents to get me the Nikon as my Christmas gift and it was on a loan basis, so its a win/win situation for them and me! 

By the end of my amazing mini vacation away from my vacation with my family, I was on my way back to my other home, only this time with a new Nikon SLR, and I was ready to compete with those Moms and Dads! and of course get some even better pictures ;)

The Beginning: Part 4

By the morning my Dad had taken the early flight to Puerto Rico to visit my family and it was official, I was on my own. Driving back after dropping him off, blasting the air conditioning I was thinking about what I might be in store for over the next few months. I didn't know anyone down in Florida, it was definitely a scary feeling, but I managed.

After attending orientation, the welcome party, finding out I'd be working at Epcot (Experimental prototype community of tomorrow, had to say that) getting my "costume" and getting food at Walmart, and getting situated in my apartment, I needed to meet lots of new people ASAP! so I get to know all my roommates, and ask them, wheres a good place to meet all the new college program people, sure enough next thing I know we're heading to the pool, and atleast 50+ people are there, talking, getting to know each other, with their majors where they're from obviously looking at whose attractive and whose not. It's a college program, what do you expect?

Welcome party with Mickey stealing sun glasses

within the first week of my stay I had met a couple girls, Heidi and Heather both from Oklahoma who invited me to this club in Orlando, now I'm not much of a clubber but I did it, to step out of my comfort zone.... well farther than the 1,000+ miles out of my comfort already. I decided to bring my camera because, why not remember all of this Ill look back on! So when I get to their apartment I meet thier roommates, ones from New Mexico, Ashley, another is from Illinois, Carolyn AND happened to be going to Illinois State, what were the chances! I now officially believe in the saying "small world" and not the ride ;)

Heather, Carolyn, and Heidi :)

what was weird though was that I had randomly added this girl who I thought was a photographer on facebook and was doing the college program, now I'm thinking after wards that I would probably never even meet this girl. Sure enough after I walk in to their apartment I see this cute girl all bundled up on the sofa with Ashley next to her. "I like your camera" was what she said after she introduced herself and it didn't dawn till after I talk to Heather, Heidi, and Carolyn for a little that that was the photographer! Small World X2?

I excused myself and went over there and asked her, "I DO NOT want to be a creep but am I friends with you on faceboook?" she looked me up and sure enough we were! although she isn't really a photographer or anything, or so she says (I still think she is) we began talking about pictures and how I haven't been here since I was a kid and didn't know where anything was around here. As soon as I say that her eyes beamed saying that she would take me to every park and ride everything, eat everything! I was too excited and told her that as long as I get to take pictures at every park :)

her response? "of course! it'll be a photo adventure" thanks Leah Macri, for deciding we would be photo adventure buddies :) let the photo Adventures begin! 

 

The Beginning: Part 3

1,176 Miles, and roughly 20 hours of driving to the sunshine state, need I say more?

I've personally never gone on a road trip before, this being my first time with my dad I was very excited but nervous at the same time. Excited for going on a adventure, taking pictures, seeing places I've never seen before, and just experience something new for a change. I was nervous though, nervous I'd get pulled over for speeding, run out of gas, and get murdered by some crazy serial killer from the movies (ridiculous, right?). With all these things running through my head we left and I definitely made sure I had my Ipod fully charged ;)

we made it to Southern Indiana and pulled over to go eat at Denny's. My dad and I were talking about time zones and how we already had to change our time from central to eastern time which I thought was pretty crazy, also the fact that for only traveling a couple hundred miles southeast I already noticed some southern accents coming out from some people I spoke to. plus customs were changing like when my dad asked for coffee and creamer they gave him a little miniature pitcher of creamer rather than the little packages of it!

After Indiana, the Hills of Kentucky and Tennessee caught my attention, something I had never seen before was how beautiful the states south of Illinois could be, so I had to practice with my camera and took a couple pictures.

Hills of Tennessee

Finally by night fall we made it through Georgia and slept at some truck stop. Now keep in mind my dad and I are two 6ft guys in a very small 2006 Hyundai that's packed to its capacity with my belongings, along with my dads. We were uncomfortable on our breaks with little to no sleep :'( very depressing. by morning we made it to Florida, barely awake, and we both looked like Tom Hanks from Cast away with our Beards, or five o' clock shadows.

Once I got checked in at the welcome center and got my keys to the apartment, I found out I would be staying at Chatham Square (one of the housing complexes). Once we got to the door, there were some cars there but not a lot, people were slowly making their way to each others apartments. When I knocked on mine I was freaking out, nervous, gitters, sweating with the Florida heat, and didn't know what to do but smile out of being nervous. this guy with blond hair opens the door with his blue hat, shirt and shorts on, and I tell him "I think this is my new place?...." he responds "hay what's up, well come on in, my names Michael", with a southern accent. I was thinking in my head "OMG he's from the south, this is SOOO COOOL".

so we start talking and I get to know him and another roommate by the name of Justin. Now Justin is this tall 6'2" guy with a Bears football jersey on and after talking to him, he seemed just like any other guy from the Chicago land area. He was from Indiana, border line to Chicago. After talking to them and settling in I decided to room with Michael, the southern kid from Tifton, Georgia, because I wanted to try something different, and who would've thought a kid from Schiller Park, Illinois would be rooming with a kid from Southern Georgia by the name of Michael Kent Butler? not meee.

The night fall of my check in, I drop off my dad at a hotel since there are no over night stays at the housing complexes. By morning my dad would be catching a flight to Puerto Rico to visit family. highlight of my night though? my face hitting my pillows as I knock out and recover from that drive.

Little did I know, what the next couple months would have in store for me

The Beginning: Part 2

Before actually beginning my-eternity of a 19 hour drive to the sunshine state- Journey, I realized that I needed to capture this 5 month experience with some pictures! So while I was working as a lifeguard the summer before I left, I began saving my money towards a new camera.


Now my history with camera is very small.... my first camera was an Olympus digital compact camera my parents had gotten me for Christmas, I wasn't exactly too excited at first because it wasn't something I really requested but the fact that I got something was good enough :) it actually happened to have worked out nicely because a couple summers later I went to Italy on an exchange program and needed a camera. Now when it comes to photography and first starting out, I just played around with that camera and never really thought anything of it, but I always loved pictures that were different, not your typical pose in front of a camera, group shot. the only thing I thought of was illusions to the eye that were just different.

But I ended up falling into the "Group Shot Slump" where we all new our pictures were being taken and we all posed..... Boring... BUT these were from Italy :)

         
Although my trip was amazing and loved every minute of my time there, I ended up coming home with a broken camera, because I had taken mine to the beach and sand had made its way inside.... long story short it wasn't working....

with that that being said, I told myself I needed something more durable, bigger, better quality, and not too expensive. So I end up finding an Olympus 10 mega pixel Digital SLR Camera which was right around where my budget was. I knew nothing about cameras except for the Naive mistake of thinking that the more mega pixels you have the better quality the pictures you have, so that's pretty much the only thing I looked at along with the price of the camera. The fact that this camera was my first SLR was a huge step for me though, I felt like the paparazzi with this huge camera and huge lens, which isn't as big as I thought it was when I look at pro equipment today, but I was happy that I had a camera where I could take tons of pictures!

I was practicing as much I could with that camera taking pictures whenever I wasn't working, and I ended up getting cool pictures where the back ground was all blurry, little did I know I was referring to the "Bokeh" and following the "rule of thirds". These words meant nothing to me at the time because I didn't know about them, all I knew is what pictures looked good, and which ones didn't. When I look back, I question myself if I had a natural eye for what looked good?

Finally after a couple weeks of practicing, the day arrived, and me and my dad left to begin my journey to Florida and start the Program that changed my life.

                 

   

  

 

The Beginning: Part 1

After a couple days of thinking about it, I figured why not catch people up to date on how I got started/interested in photography.... and here we go

It all started on June 3, 1991 when a baby was just born in the City of Chicago and named Ethan James Rivera..... fast forward 18 years ;) and I'm at Illinois State University. 

During my first semester of school I partied, went to class, ate lots of food, went to sleep and repeated, for just about a semester. I ended up gaining the freshman 15 in ONE SEMESTER, I also rushed a frat, joined the run club that I barely attended, and I STILL didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. Next thing I know its 1 week before coming home for Christmas Break and I'm hung over as usual, but this day was different I couldn't explain it, I woke up went to the bathroom and just stared at my self in the mirror with what felt like an eternity and I couldn't recognize my self, it wasn't me. I realized at that moment I was so hung up on changing for other people and not changing for myself that I just let go and it showed.

2nd semester rolled around and I had some goals in mind. I started to do p90x everyday, run, attend the run club practices and meets a lot more, and eat healthier. Hours turned to days, days into weeks, and before I knew it I went from gaining 15 pounds to loosing 20 pounds in one semester. with all the working out though, I barely went out. I was so exhausted I either slept or went to class and by the end of the year I ended up dropping the frat I rushed. 1 because I didn't have the funds and 2 because the Greek life just wasn't for me especially since I STILL didn't know what I wanted to study/major in and my first year of school was half way done.

So one day before going to class I checked my mail, "junk, junk, more junk" was what was running through my head. Then I saw one little piece of paper that had Mickey Mouse on it. "oh hey, I haven't seen you in a longggg time" was what was running through my head, it was an invitation to attend this meeting at ISU if your interested in going to Florida for a semester and work for Walt Disney World, I was like "ehh, sounds like fun" so I left it in my pocket and after class left it on my desk.

The letter looked similar to this only purple and Mickey waving at ya :)

Later on during the week I was at work talking to my friend Raquel (who I just met) and we were talking about how tired she was, so I asked "how come your so tired??" and she responded "I just got back from Florida, I was on this internship there working for Disney World" right away I was a weirdo saying "whoa whoa, you mean that letter I got in the mail about the Walt Disney World Internship?" "uhhhh yeaaaa.... " was her response.

What she didn't realize was that I took this as a sign that might actually be what I need figure out what I want to do with my life. So I decided what the hell, I'll go to the meeting.

Next thing I know a couple months later I'm driving with my dad down to Florida!

Leyden Track Meet

After the past couple days I realized I've gotten into this cycle of waking up going to class, come home, go to work, come back home after work, shower sleep, repeat.... I hate cycles. I very rarely say the word hate but its true in this instance. I don't like the idea of having a routine to follow because it doesn't make for a interesting day, it gets boring and not very exciting. So what do I do? I ditch class

Sure its not one of the best thing I could have done but I needed to do something different and get out there. This past weekend instead of going to class I went to West Leyden High School to watch some of my old teammates compete at the track meet. When I went I brought my camera of course, with my not so new 70-200 lens but still felt very new especially with finally paying off my dad. The meet went on and I spoke to some of my old friends who have matured and grown and become faster stronger athletes.

While the meet was going on I wanted to practice a couple different kinds of photography, one in particular being "panning photography" which is from my understanding allowing blur to occur  but in a way to show motion is happening with not only the forgroung but back ground as well. I think I got it down pretty well, you be the Judge

Roberto Gonzalez

The Gift

Birthdays to me are very special days, they put the Spotlight on that person to acknowledge them when other days the spotlight may otherwise be dim or on someone else. If it wasn't for my parents I would not be where I'm at today, so with my dads birthday today I had to jump on celebrating! 

But the REAL question was what to give my dad for his birthday? A couple months ago before I had came home from Florida my dad had purchased me a new Nikon Digital SLR (on a father/son loan of course) that I had intended on paying him back along with the Sigma 70-200mm 2.8 that he had gotten me too because of the recent price raise of 150$ on the lens. With that being said, I decided to save all the money I had made from being a server till his birthday and pay him back in full (1,500$ to be precise)

The morning of his birthday came and it was the BIG question if I was gonna have enough money. Taking out my calculator I added up what I had made in tips+what I had in my checking account+my pay check+ my tax return= the total I needed to give my dad plus 60$. Not only did I count and add everything up at least 4 times but I flew to Walgreens to get him a card.

When he finally opened his card he had his same serious face on as he always did, but the difference was when he saw the money inside... "is this everything you owe me?"(with a head tilt looking over his glasses) I responded with a simple "yes".... later on during the day he said "I'm impressed, you worked real hard to get that in the time that you did". My dad isn't exactly the most sensitive person when it comes to how a person "should" act on their birthday with gifts, but the fact that he let my hard work go unnoticed was definitely a rewarding experience, and to know that my camera and lens is OFFICIALLY mine is the best feeling in the world at the moment :)

Happy Birthday Dad, thank you for all that you've done for me