Moving Pictures

Yes, I have jumped on the bandwagon.

But it is such a fun bandwagon! Artistic criticisms aside, I've always loved Instagram. Yeah, it's cheesy. Yeah, it's weird how popular retro filters have become.

Still, what I love is the functionality of Instagram. Whenever I am feeling lazy-- or don't have my DSLR on me-- Instagram is a fun way to jazz up my iPhone photos.

So when Instagram introduced videos, I was understandably excited. I love how you can compose your video of varying clips and I love the filters.

Today, I thought I would post a couple of my instagram videos. I took a lot of videos in St. Louis, capturing little details in the art museum, or beautiful views in the gardens. I think the videos are best viewed on silent-- I wasn't paying attention to the sound when I took the videos so it doesn't really add to the video.



The 15 seconds allows you a quick glimpse into my life. I can't wait to take tons of short videos in France. It's an easy way to convey cool little experiences.




Below is a short collection of my favorite section of the art museum-- impressionist landscapes. I could look at them all day, I just think they are so beautiful.




This was in the St. Louis botanical garden-- the statue is of Henry Shaw, as he was on his death bed. Always concerned with propriety, he wanted to be immortalized, thus the huge statue. He was also worried about his large feet and requested that cloth be draped over him so that 200 years later we wouldn't gawk at his feet.

You know, this is the first non-tutorial/craft/recipe post I have written in a little while! I didn't have room in my St. Louis post to show off my new videos, so I thought I would dedicate a small post to my new love of Instagram videos.

As far as my adventures in France go, I have a little more than two weeks before I leave! It's crazy how quickly it is approaching. I'm slowly checking things off my checklist-- from buying luggage to getting my ears (re)pierced. I'll talk soon about my troubles purchasing train tickets and how I am going to miraculously fit four months worth of clothing into one small piece of luggage! Stay tuned, it's going to be interesting.

Thanks for reading! What did you think about the videos?

Music Madness

So you might be flattered (I do this partly for you, dear reader!), or worried, that I have spent a lot of time thinking about what to post! I try to stay on a self-imposed schedule of posting at least every two days. Some days are easier than others to figure out what to post about.

A little over a year ago I finally got the instrument I had wanted to play my whole life.

A violin.

They have always appeared beautiful and mysterious, a far more potable instrument than my beloved piano. While piano is, in my mind, the best instrument due to its sheer range and ability to stand alone, I've always pined after the violin.

As soon as I got the violin, I wanted to take pictures of it. It is, after all, a rather beautiful instrument. Today I finally went out, staging the violin against nature, trying to find the best way to see it.

It was actually more difficult than I had imagined. I should have expected that; after all, I have never photographed a musical instrument before.

Still, I ended up with some photos that I liked.

I even experimented with some cropping!

:D Yes, my love for Instagram and it's square cropping inspired me. Because Instagram is awesome.

And now for something completely different!

In my year-and-some-months of blogging I have posted countless photos, harping on different topics. I've even posted with pure text, and no photos.

But I have never posted a video! Since my ability to play the violin consists of a pain-educing rendition of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' (power lost equals I squared R!) on a good day, I have decided to spare you the torture of hearing me play it. Because after that I really would have no viewers.

So without further ado, here is the beginning of a marvelous piece, The Great Gate of Kiev by Modest Mussorgsky. On the piano. Because I do love you guys.

Though seriously, this is taking so long to upload, my whole 'ooohhhh I should do a vlog!' phase is going out the window.

I'm sorry if the quality is iffy-- the file was soooo largeee I had to try and downsize it any way I could.

As always, thanks for reading! What did you think of the video? Do you think I should just stick to pictures, or do you want to hear more music/video things?