Photography and Video

Photography has always been an interest for me, not passionately enough to pursue classes or get some decent training out of it, but I still enjoy witnessing the beauty that result from a good capture.  My dad was taking photography classes when I was young, and he sometimes used us as subjects, so I have a couple of pictures of myself when I was a child that turned out really nice.  I grew up watching him and my older siblings wander around nature trying to capture the scenery.  It was a well known fact that once they graduated from high school, their present was going to be a good camera.  Unfortunately, my sister older than I decided that's not what she wanted, so by the time it got to me the tradition of a graduation camera was no longer an option.  It didn't dampen my interest in photography.  I took over an older camera that one of my siblings used and I've been camera crazy ever since.  Those pictures were terrible (as was the quality of the camera), but in time I learned how to use them well enough to get at least some decent pictures of things.  I always preferred nature, because frankly nature doesn't yell at you when you've got a camera lens pointing at it.  Anyway, my pictures still often look quite amateurish, but once in a while I get a good picture, and people have always told me that I have a good eye for things.  I'll admit sometimes I do like to take some of my pictures and toy around with them in different filters and lighting, but sometimes it gives the picture more character.

I loved it even more when technology developed the amazing ability to not only take pictures, but also to take video.  I loved taking little movies of people around me during family gatherings and record nature in action.  Now there are so many features on these things that I'm simply in heaven, mainly because from the time I was quite young, I've learned how to use computers and devices simply by playing around with them, and I get almost hyper when I discover something new that I didn't know before.  That's when I want to show everyone, but alas, no one else can understand why I get so excited over my discovery, or at least they don't share the same level of enthusiasm.  Sometimes I wish someone could just get excited with me for once, but oh well.  I'll have to have my own party.  After all these video experiments with both pictures and videos, I've added up a collection of things and the question of what to do with them came up, and now I'm glad I have a YouTube account to save them on.

Ah, YouTube, the place where the common everyday person could be the next viral star!  That won't happen to me though.  My experimental movies are mainly just that, experiments, and since they don't star people doing funny things, stupid stuff, or providing information (useless and useful alike), it'll never be popular nor worthy of earning anything.  I've only recently gained a third follower after all the years I've had my account (after uploading a bunch of videos).  Despite the fact that I'll never be known it's been a lifesaver for my computer memory, and I am glad when someone comes across something they like.  I've had a surge this past month in a specific video of the Mickey fountain in Toontown at Disneyland.  It's only 20 seconds long, but someone really caught on to it.  I'm already halfway to 400 views, and though it's slowing down, I'm still getting visits.  It always surprises me what people catch on to.  There are other videos that I have that I thought might be more interesting, but I always get surprised.  Some of the other little videos like that are getting visits, but nothing in comparison to the Mickey fountain.  Perhaps I'm using my account in a different way than everyone else does in that I'm not there to promote myself (I'm not camera shy, just not comfortable with the whole talk to the camera thing without being able to see a face), but more using it as a place to share my new discoveries, happy memories, and creations (good and bad).

In closing, I'm posting a few of the most recent videos that I had the courage to share with people on social media, and got a good response.  In the Sleeping Beauty Castle video I edited a Disney song I sang so that it fit with the timing in the video.  That one was especially difficult to share, because I'm shy about sharing my singing voice, but there were a few people who were complimentary about it.  I'll post the Mickey video and also some of my favorite movies that I made into gifs (had to use the movie version for YouTube though) from the Paint the Night Parade.