On Saturday, my mother and I decided to go on a photowalk in Mt Dora, Fl just for lols (I dragged Tyler along and I am so glad I did). A photowalk is really supposed to be where a bunch of photographers, professional and amateur alike all get together to talk pictures and learn from each other. Ok, being that that was the point of the photowalk and was really what I was expecting, here's what I got:

Mom and I get there late due to getting lost (which was pretty funny) and by the time we finally get there, everyone has already set off (except Tyler) Oh, not to worry, right? I mean, how hard can it be to find 50 people in a small place like Mt Dora? Well, we had a lot of trouble finding the group because they all SPLIT UP. I was just fine with that because I really didn't want to walk around with a shit-ton of other people because I really think all of them were using digital and just don't give a fuck about what they're doing because A: they can take 500 pictures anyway and B: Oh, well, isn't that what Photoshop is for? Meanwhile, I'm over here with my film, taking my time deciding what to take and how to take it. Well, we do our own thing for a while (which basically consisted of lol-ing at the sounds that the walk signs made, going to the bathroom, and taking pictures of this house) when mom walks over to this group of guys and asks if they were in the group we were supposed to be in (Steve's group). Apparently that was Steve himself with a few other "photographers" and mom decided that we should join them. Now, I had just taken a picture, and had put the lens cap back on, something I have always done to protect the lens, because we were just talking at the point, I wasn't taking pictures anyway, and what does this Steve guy do? He lectures me on having the lens cap on. "Oh, don't want to have that cap on, or when you go to take the picture it'll be black". Ok, so I'm walking around this town with an "I don't fuck around" camera and you think I'm going to forget to take the lens cap off before I shoot? Are you fucking kidding me? All you have to do is look through the lens and if it's black, THE CAP IS ON. You cant take a picture with it on because you can't see shit with it on. So, I naturally think he's just teasing and laugh but he's sitting there staring at me. This guy isn't joking around. What the FUCK. So then he starts going on about how I might miss that one good shot because I have to waste 2 seconds getting that cap off and you know what, yeah, if I was looking for the spontaneous, oh fuck did you just see that shot, I wouldn't have the lens cap on, but it's film, I'm going to really look at something before I shoot it and find the best angle first. Then, when I've decided that the picture is actually worth taking, I focus, set the aperture and shutter speed, focus again, then finally take the shot. Do you think some spectacular moment is going to wait around for all that? Sure why not. So then, after all that, he starts talking about the histogram crap on his Nikon (really, to top it all off THEY'RE NIKON PEOPLE) and I'm like, oh, I don't have a digital, this is film. Well, guess what, you still have to sit here and let me try to make myself feel better about my work by scrolling through all my stock photos to find one to demonstrate a point that nobody begged to be brought up. And yeah, don't show the one who's actually holding a digital, SHOW THE ONE WHO CANT USE THAT FEATURE YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. And not to mention, I learned all this shit in school, that's why I went to school, I know what you're talking about and if I gave two shits I would have gone out and bought a Nikon just for it, but I didn't. So he's scrolling through all his photos and at first I really wasn't paying attention because it's rude to look over people's shoulders but then I realize that he WANTS me to, this whole thing could very well have been a ploy to have someone look at his work. And I've seen every picture on his camera before, you know where? Postcards. Stock fucking photos. So, not only is this guy an ass, but he's one who doesn't even know what he's doing! So, after that humiliating 10 minutes, we start to shoot again, and he's telling us which way "we're" going to go. Well, fuck that, we already went that way so my party of three head in another direction. Unfortunately, they all catch up. So now, they want to go eat. It's 11:30 and we're stopping to eat because they're too hot and tired and shit. I'm pregnant and from New England and I was doing perfectly fine, so what does that tell you. So we go downstairs to this one restaurant that we were all supposed to eat at anyway and they aren't open. So they all come back upstairs all pissed off because they stopped half an hour early and the place doesn't open until 12, "Oh, well I called ahead" It doesn't matter, THEY AREN'T OPEN YET. So after they stop bitching about how they're never going to give they're business to them again, then we all finally go to another place, The Frosty Mug. There's only one problem, there was a second group in the area who was going to eat there. So we have 7 people and we get there before the other party and we're seated and all that and the waitress is really nice but they're still being asses to her (I can't stand it when people think that they don't have to be nice to waitresses and such just because they're working to serve you, I hope she spit in their food) and as it turns out, nobody told her that the other party, who was much bigger than us, was going to be coming. So after we get our drinks and such she has to move us and she was apologizing and everything and even offered to carry our drinks for us and all we had to do was move to a different section. So we move and then everyone is all pissed at her because they had to move, well IT WASN'T HER FAULT ASSHOLE. The place was fine, the food was good, the only complaint I had was that I ordered the least expensive entree on the menu because I was really hungry and everyone else got sandwiches. My food was 12 something ad everyone else's was under 10 and I had the least amount of food, but whatever. So THEN Steve's wife arrives. Ok, honest to God, I have never met a bigger attention whore in my life. She was sitting there TALKING TO NOBODY but still talking, like, nobody was paying attention to her at all and she was STILL TALKING. Talking over people, talking about completely different things and being just over all annoying. And just to cut this short, None of them were professional photographers, including the one hosting the walk, which really pissed me off, and I think that all of them just had their cameras on the "photos for dummies" mode and just changed the exposure. What a load of bullshit.