Maintain the Magic, people.
Much like it being the “The Happiest Place on Earth”, there has to be belief before there’s magic.
Posts Tagged: documentary
7
Feb 12
Be Nice
Some of the most interesting things around me almost get stepped on.
Even though The American Theme Park documentary has slowed down, I still keep my eyes open for interesting objects, people and actions, and keep an open mind while scouring the grounds. This was found near our hotel near some bushes. It’s discarded, but its point was likely made to it’s young intended audience. I can only imagine the back story to this. These are some of things that interest me the most – where you see a fragment of the story, but so much information can be gathered from it. Sibling rivalries, parents struggling to control their children, anger management problems, or even relationship problems; it’s possible. Written words can be so powerful.
What gets me: it looks like Mickey Mouse wrote it.
3
Dec 11
Best Buy and Lawn Chairs
As Best Buy was doing their final preparations to finally open, I did my last tour around the line that wrapped around the corner and found this gem. The photo says more than I can describe, though. The young man is sitting, watching the entertaining people. The police are there to prevent and stampeding and overall chaos. And it’s all taking place at Best Buy, one of the more popular and busy Black Friday retailers.
Gotta love it.
28
Nov 11
Black (and White) Friday Kickoff
My Black Friday plans didn’t even include my wallet. I decided to hitch around the area and see the crowds, as well as the inside action taking place at the registers and sales floors. My loop of stores included some of the more popular retailers: Target, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, and even the Orange Park Mall (to my surprise). I was only able to actually go inside two of them, Wal-Mart and the OP Mall, as the other ones had lines that would have taken two hours to get through. But since those stores were only letting about fifty people through at a time, the action I was looking for wasn’t going to take place. Wal-Mart and the mall, on the other hand, had open doors. Wal-Mart was of course the most hectic, as they simply place palettes of merchandise our and have the customers fend for themselves, creating the most turmoil.
18
Nov 11
“It Makes The Perfect Gift”
It’s not even Thanksgiving and the decorations are already out. Big retailers are running Black Friday shop-til-you-drop-starting-at-midnight commercials, guaranteeing the lowest prices and even layaway. We are beckoned to “save” a little here yet spend the most in these four weeks than we did most of the year.
I’ve been bombarded with ads from Wal-Mart and Target, ads about spending on awesome toys for your husband and the kids so you can be that Super Mom that you hear about.
The Holiday Spending Season is upon us. It’s time to get my camera out. Some ideas are kicking around. I’ll see you on Black Friday.
8
Oct 11
Many Mickey Mouse
Walt Disney World is marketed as the Happiest Place on Earth. Sure, that’s probably true. Things are what you say they are. Thus, if you believe what they say, then it is the Happiest Place on Earth.
Mickey Mouse makes that happen. He is shown here on an ordinary store shelf, something you expect and see around every corner in these theme parks and frankly, any store. This one is different.
Brittany Evans liked this post
18
Sep 11
Walking Woman, Distracted Man
In effort to upgrade my website to include some more recent work and a recap of The American Theme Park project, I stumbled upon some images that I didn’t use for the book, but thought were interesting on their own. The original intent of this photo was to grab a shot of a man distracted/bored while taking a break while in Disney World.
Our cell phones and portable gadgets are great for distracting us from boredom and connect us to the world in a digital fashion, but we often use these at an inappropriate time. We gain this added convenience at the cost of distracting removing us from our environment – we lose sight of what’s around and in front of us. Say, you’re at a party, social meeting, dinner, etc; you can always identify the person that doesn’t want to be there by finding the one that is zoned in on their phone, browsing the web, texting others. As these distractions are somewhat new, the social guidelines for their use haven’t been completely established, adapted, or perhaps even acknowledged by the masses.
13
Sep 11
Sepia Buildings and American Football
I feel like I’ve been in a truly creative funk lately. Sure, I’ve taken and created photos in the past couple months, but my gears haven’t really been grinding, I haven’t been making any conceptual work as I did during my studies at UNF (though I suppose that’s what college is for, right?). So now, with the only one pushing me to make more work is myself, I decided to pick up where I left off and focus on furthering The American Theme Park series. There are still things to explore, points to make, etc.
So here’s a nice warm up image from my recent expedition. This image furthers the idea of the guests “consuming” the environment and pieces of the set in front of them. Cinderella’s Castle being perhaps the most consumed photographed building in America, and based on my memory of this photo being taken, this man was facing said castle.
Meredith Ramey liked this post
5
Jul 11
There’s One in Every Crowd
There's One in Every Crowd
Yet another trip to Walt Disney World (hey, gotta make that annual pass worth it) leads to more photos to add to the pile.
This one’s an instant classic. There never ceases to be at least one guest that says “screw the heat, the crowds, and hell, screw the standing!” So, they lay down. And not just on the sidewalk that they’ve been camped out on for an hour and a half for a parade that’s going to last for fifteen minutes while they eat their popcorn, cotton candy, sodas, hot dogs, french fries, brownies, and ice cream while holding onto a balloon and getting irritated at their kids (breathe), but in the air conditioned entry way to the gift shop.
I noticed several employees, even managers, eying her laying there but didn’t say anything. It’s either that extra accommodation of tolerating it, or maybe it’s just policy to not make people move.
I suppose in her defense, she wasn’t really in the way of anything. But it goes to show you the luxuries people take when they’re on vacation – as if they’re the only one.
Meredith Ramey liked this post
26
Apr 11
Photographer Guy
The is another photo from my most recent trip to Disney World, but where I shot exclusively on my iPhone (I’ll get back to some of the others soon, including a link to my book). I worked almost exclusively with a predetermined look in Hipstamatic by picking a film and lens choice that I wanted to work in. In this shot, the color and styles worked perfectly to show off the colors and flare from the sun.
This guy caught my attention when he and his son came and stood next to us when we were on the ferry boat taking us to Magic Kingdom. Like many tourist, he had an accent – British in his case. I vaguely remember them talking about the turbines under the ferry boat and how it all worked. Typical father-son talk. A minute or two goes by and we all get our first glimpse of Cinderella’s Castle. This may be their first glimpse of the castle in their lifetime, bit it’s my fifth first glance in just four months. He whips out has camera to capture it, and me being me, whip out mine to capture him.
Even though we are well over a mile away, the fact that we see our destination is enough for us to reach for our cameras. I’m trying to understand this instinct to capture and consume and environment with cameras.