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Showing posts with label Disney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disney. Show all posts

Friday, March 26, 2010

When I Grow Up

When I was a young girl... (what a cliche beginning.  XD)

Every person had dream jobs when they were growing up.  We change our minds so many times because we find something new and cool to get into.  I think that most women go through a stage where they want to be teachers.  I remember wanting to be a teacher at one point.  Then when I got older I realized that kids are brats!  haha.  At least the ones I was used to growing up with.  If I were to be a teacher, there would be no way that I would teach middle school.  I give credit to the teachers out there who do teach middle school.  Those kids are tough brats!  I would have classmates that would make my teacher cry almost 3x a week in my last year of middle school.



I used to dance when I was younger.  I always wanted to do pointe.  The ones that you see in movies with the pink shoes and standing on their toes.  Sure that would really mess up your feet and the bones in them, but I think those shoes are so beautiful and the poses that the girls can hold are amazing!  If there is one thing I wish I could do still, it would be pointe.  I miss dance.  I did it from 1st grade to 10th grade.  But then people in my studio towards the end were just getting too catty and mean for me, so that's when I decided to make the switch to full time kendoist (for those that are new, i posted about it here: http://shiseitenhikari.blogspot.com/2009/12/retrospective.html).  My sister still does it, and I hope someday to photograph her and make her feel beautiful.  :)



At some point in time I remember wanting to be a Disney animator. I grew up on Disney films and always found it so magical and perhaps a bit nostalgic when I watch them now.  My favorite were always the random, under appreciated ones like The Great Mouse Detective or Atlantis  (though I must point out in this picture....Anastasia is NOT a Disney movie!!).  I remember researching what it took to be an animator and was always drawing.  But then Disney announced that they were no longer going to be doing hand-drawn animation and thus, my dream ended.  I didn't want to do stuff on computers like everything is done nowadays.








Around the time I was in 4th grade to about 8th grade I wanted to be an astronomer.  I went through this giant phase where I was absolutely obsessed with the universe and how it worked.  I wanted to be a cosmologist, someone who studies the universe and how it works.  I was obsessed with the planets and stars, and I partly contribute it to my love of Star Wars and Sailor Moon.  hahahaha.  I know I'm a nerd.  =P  I loved pictures of nebulas and deep space and my goal at one point was to own a telescope.  My dad took me to the top of Mount Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii to go look at the observatory at the top!  It was a great adventure and since it was so high up, we had certain rules for eating before traveling up there.  But then I realized around high school that I'm terrible at math and my dreams of researching the stars died.  Now I just enjoy looking at them and knowing what I do know about them.

I've always wanted to learn Japanese.  I'm a fourth generation Japanese American, and have always had great pride in my heritage.  I set out to learn Japanese in high school no matter what and took it for all four years.  I loved it, but we had a mix up with teachers and my class never took Japanese seriously after that.  It was a struggle to learn in that class because we had a few different new teachers and less interest in the students.  I learned a little but what I did learn stayed with me.  In college I took Japanese 1-4 and found it much more work that high school.  I learned a lot of stuff, but we learned it so quickly, it never really stayed in our minds.  My goal was to go to San Francisco State University to major in Japanese and become a translator.  Unfortunately, I had some slip ups and ended up deciding against it.


In the end, I am now here at the Brook's Institute.  I started photography in high school during my junior year.  I feel in love with it and haven't looked back since.  I originally was thinking of art school, but my parents wanted me to get a degree in something else first before art school.  Then with a few years at a community college and a little persuasion, I'm down here in Santa Barbara living my dream  :)  I'm already halfway done with my 2nd session and time just keeps on racing by.  It's a crazy road that life has taken me down to get to where I am today.  Looking back on my childhood dreams I can see connections between the ideas.  Majority of the things I wanted to do growing up has to relate to connecting with people and being creative.  My ultimate goal is to become a successful photographer, live in Japan, and photographing the things I love most in the world.  I'm living the dream.  And enjoying life while I do it.  :D

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Lights, Camera, Action

I've always had a thing for pretty lights, reflections, and shiny things.  Typical girl I know, but I love it.  haha.  So this last time I went to Disneyland, I decided to do fun things at night with slow shutter speeds and play with the amazing spectrum of lights at Disneyland.  Here are my favorites from that night.

can you see the light source?


There's little hearts in this one!  

Disneyland makes bank of selling stuff at night


Fireflies in Disneyland

Disneyland is full of amazing things


I love Disneyland


Teacup Whimzy


Can you guess what this is?


Flowers of Light


Electric


I finally have my own annual pass to Disneyland!  :D  So anytime anyone wants to go I would totally meet you down there.  ^_^  Disneyland truly is my happiest place on Earth.  It's where my childhood was.  It's where I have so many great memories with friends.  I still would like to go with a boyfriend someday.  Disney is such an important part of my life, if someone can't accept that, then how would it work?  =P  If you saw my house, you'd understand how much my family's love for Disney goes.  I love taking people to Disneyland who haven't been in awhile or who have never been, or who say they hate Disneyland.  People tell me that I'm the Disney insider, and I guess that's all thanks to my dad.  Back in 2007 I went with a guy who said he didn't like Disneyland because of his childhood experience.  I just told him, that's cause you haven't been with me yet!  haha.  Thankfully after that trip, he said he liked Disneyland.  :D  It makes me happy when I can help someone's experience be the same ones that I remember and enjoy.  For me, Disneyland really is the happiest place on Earth.  And it is somewhere that I hope to enjoy for as long as I'm around.  :)


Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Happiest Place on Earth

My happiest place on Earth is definitely Disneyland.  The first time I went to Disneyland, I was 3 months old.  XD  My dad is part of this Disney group called NFFC (National Fantasy Fan Club) and we used to go to conventions a lot.  A lot of the artwork in my house are Disney cells from various movies and old collectables that my dad has found over the years.  I remember going to Disneyland a lot when I was growing up (at least 2-3x a year) and it is about a 6 hour drive from where my family lives.  Everyone in my classes knew me as the Disney girl and everyone looks to me to know the Disney trivia.  XD  Going to Disneyland now, makes me nostalgic and remember the fond memories I have of going with family and friends.  I used to hate roller coaster types, but now I am obsessed.  hahaha.  I think my favorite Disneyland ride is probably Indiana Jones.  Or perhaps Big Thunder Mountain.  I also REALLY like Haunted Mansion at Halloween till Christmas because it is Nightmare Before Christmas themed.  Some of my favorites growing up where Alice in Wonderland and the Submarine ride (now the sub ride is Nemo themed and is super cute!!).

I went over Super Bowl Sunday to Disneyland and shot my photo assignment there.  We had to do pans (where the subject is sharp, but the background blurry), blurs (the subject blurry, background sharp) and depth of field (having the background out of focus).

Pan shot/ can't you just feel the motion?

Blur shot/ teacup mayhem!


Selective Focus/ I LOVE the expression on the guy's face.  This is when he was flipping the girl during the parade.  :)

I also really like these things that are called "circles of confusion."  My teacher is really into them and likes to point them out every time he sees them.  =P
Lights look like this when you open the lens opening VERY wide and keep the back out of focus.  These look really cool right?  Here are a few other pictures that I really like the way they turned out.



A little bit of Disney magic.  :D  


Submarine view  ^_^


It might be a little hard to tell, but that's a girl there.  :)  this is while the teacup was spinning.

This was hard because the only light on her face was from the back of her camera.

The carousel spinning.  :)

Anytime I go to Disneyland I love taking pictures and trying to make the things in Disneyland look less recognizable.  Can anyone tell where this is (this was taken with film and printed in a darkroom)?  It's one of my favorite places to go in the world!  :)  Disneyland is a place that will always make me happy, and I hope that when I have kids, I will be able to give them amazing memories at this place too.  ^_^