Back in college when I was young and impressionable (I’m still impressionable, now I’m just old), I fell into a 30 days of letters challenge. The first letter was a letter to your best friend. I found it the other day. I re-read it and the only thing that’s really changed is that he’s now my husband instead of my boyfriend. Warning, it’s extremely cheesy. But I still love it. Here’s another 10 year throwback and glow-up.
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Disney Photoshoot Tips
So. You’re headed to Disney. But instead of the same old photos with crowds photobombing your picture, harsh sun and shadows, you want to live out your Pinterest Disney photo dreams with dreamy colors and perfect backdrops. How do you achieve this? Easy. By planning ahead.
Last year, I wanted to up my vacation photo game a little. And not just for Disney. Everywhere. I actually hate bringing back kitschy souvenirs and knick knacks from my trips, but I find that I love looking back on photos a lot to reminisce. So I started investing in nicer photos to have as the ‘souvenirs’ of my trip. I started doing this in a few ways. If you’re here from my Instagram, you’re probably here for information on my Disney photoshoots since I posted my Disneyland photos last week and got a few questions about how I go about them. Before I go over that, I want to go over a few budget friendly tips on how I take my photos for trips. And all these things don’t just apply to Disney. You can do all these things on any trip to get beautiful photos. Or even to just up your regular everyday photo game.
Instagram Husband
Do your friends or boyfriends or family members take bad photos when you ask them to? Do they only take one shot and it comes out bad?
Fortunately for me, my baby sister and I both are each other’s IG husbands. We’re on the same page when it comes to what we want, how far we’re willing to go and make the effort to get the shot for each other. Our patience knows no bounds when it comes to IG hoeing. We will stand there all day waiting for the crowd to clear to get the shot.
But sometimes, she’s not always available to be with me. Sometimes it’s just me and the hubby on vacation or on a date. In the beginning, he would just snap a few shots when I asked him to and I would hate them all. But last year on our Paris trip, I was determined to make the most of our trip in case we never came back. So I trained my husband to take better photos for me. How did I do this? Two ways. Either I would show him examples of photos I already liked and asked him to try and replicate the angle, lighting and pose, or I would line up the shot I wanted with him in it, take the photo of him and show him how I want it to look, but with me in it. And slowly he learned what I liked, my best angles and poses, and the style of photos I preferred. Now when I ask him to take a photo, he’s amazing. He’s patient, takes several shots, tries a few different angles and makes me review them before moving on so I know I have at least one good shot I like.
Invest in a nice camera
Smart phones are getting better and better with their camera quality, it’s true, but sometimes you just need a little more. Like the night shot of the lantern in the Tangled area of Magic Kingdom. My phone takes pretty poor night shots even in night mode. This past Christmas, I asked my husband for a camera so I could slowly start to learn how to take better pictures. He gifted me a beautiful mirrorless Sony with 2 lenses to play around with. Honestly I still haven’t learned shit, but when I took it with me to Disney this spring, I noticed a big difference in that Tangled photo on my camera compared to the garbage shot I got on my phone last fall.
Unfortunately a nice camera is expensive (NOT point and shoot), but I would say it’s worth the investment for better quality photos once you learn it. It’ll pay for itself in the end and is more budget friendly than booking a shoot constantly wherever you go.
Love Someone
When you love someone
You open up your heart
When you love someone
You make room.
I love these lyrics. I absolutely love this song. I heard it on the radio a few weeks back and fell in love. And the video is so stinking cute. Love can be applied in so many different ways. It’s not just for lovers but family, children, friends, and other companions in your life. There’s so many different ways to love and be loved.
It’s all about making the people you care about feel just as important and good inside, as they make you feel. Remember to TELL people these things. Don’t assume it should be an unspoken thing. It feels good to hear it sometimes from those you love. Listen when they need you to, help them grow when they need to, be there for them when they need you to be. Trust, it makes a difference.
Sometimes these conversations are “gay” to have, or hard to bring up without seeming cheesy. And it’s hard to be taken seriously sometimes but take the time. I know they’re hard for me to have with the people in my life because the people in my life don’t deal well with heavy subjects. And at the same time, it’s very hard for me allow myself to be vulnerable. Well, it’s hard for anyone to be vulnerable. You don’t want to appear weak and worse, get rejected when you pour your heart out. But regardless of the outcome, I do feel 100% better when I finally lay all my cards out on the table when talking to a loved one about how I feel. It’s like a purge of emotions. I’m a Scorpio so when I feel things, it gets very intense. And bottling things up isn’t healthy.
Sometimes the outcome from having these discussions don’t always go your way. You’re not received or perceived the way you want to come off because people may take things differently than how you mean it. They make take offense, they make interpret it differently, or they just may take longer processing their own feelings because it’s overwhelming for them to understand how you feel. But know that you should never apologize for your feelings. After you lay your cards on the table, the other party is allowed to react however they want to you, but the ball is also in your court in the fact that you may not control all the things that happen to you, but you can control how you react. If the outcome is not what you’re looking for, try to still react with love. Remember, love is patient.
And if these words are hard to say out loud, put them to paper. A love letter may be antiquated but it’s still heartfelt and resonating.
I remember being back in high school when my then-boyfriend now-husband and I were starting to rekindle our relationship. I remember being so scared of rejection, of wasting my time, of getting my heart broken again. I was only 13 at the time but in your teen years, all your emotions are amplified x10. I felt like I was risking everything. Dramatic, I know. But that’s how vulnerability feels. I felt like the world was going to end and every move needed to be precisely calculated at the right time. One wrong move and my world could come crumbling down. But I can also tell you how oh so wonderful it felt when I finally mustered up the courage to hold his hand and he didn’t flinch away in rejection. It felt like I was on top of the world. Looking back, I feel so silly but that’s how it felt at the time. But in retrospect, I can also tell you, it has made all the difference. All those years later, here we are. Because I finally took that leap and poured my heart on the table and opened myself up to love.
My romantic relationship is not the only time I have these moments though. I recently had to go through these difficult talks with my family as well. During my wedding I fought with my mom a lot. But when we finally got down to the nitty gritty to hash things out, we talked about our feelings and what we truly wanted and how much we mean to each other and what other people mean to us. And my dad witnessing all the fighting I was going through with my mom, pulled me aside one day and had a brief but effective talk with me as well. This is special because my father is a man of very little words so when he speaks to me, I know it has to be important. He asked me to please stop fighting with my mother, and told me flat out that he did not care what type of wedding I had, or what I wanted, but that he just wanted both of us to be happy. So please put aside our differences for two of the most important women in his life. This spoke volumes to me because as strong as I try to come off, I still do worry sometimes about how my father perceives me. I wonder what he thinks of my hair, how I dress, how wacky I am. Not that I’ll ever change, but there’s a child part inside of you that wants your family to accept you in some small form or way. And to know that my dad ultimately just wanted me to be happy, was enough for me. And this definitely showed on my wedding day when he danced with me when the DJ put him on the spot for the father daughter dance. All of the drama I ever had with him growing up, all of a sudden, melted away. And there was nothing but love left.
Sometimes those discussions are difficult to have, but they’re absolutely necessary. And honestly, after all the tears and thunderstorms are over, you do feel better.
So. Never be afraid to speak up and voice your feelings to your loved ones. Difficult talks make for better communication lines and better relationships in your life once you weather through those storms.