{What I did on National Camera Day}

Yesterday was National Camera Day and the hubbs and I spent it in Santa Barbara shooting a surprise engagement (more on that later). The photoshoot was so much fun, and we even had a fun spur of the moment shoot after, at a skate park of all places.

Now I'm going to tell a story of what happens when you take that camera out. Ready?

We decided since we were in Santa Barbara we might as well do something fun. Our natural reaction was to eat something, until we realized we had had In-N-Out three hours earlier. There went our favorite activity. So next we decided to head on over to the beach and take a stroll. We came across a Skate Park that we had been to before and decided to take a look. After being there for a few minutes I thought it would be fun to snap a few pictures. After all, candid "lifestyle" type pictures are SO much fun for me. Brian ran out to the car and soon I was snapping away with the beautiful beach background, palm trees, and amazing sun.

Then we saw the boy on the scooter.

This kid made doing backflips on a scooter look easy. He basically made everyone out there look like children. Despite the fact that I was completely out of my element around these cool Santa Barbara guys on their skateboards and bikes, I asked if I could take a few pictures of him. His dad and I got to talking and I learned he's trying to get signed by Red Bull and they had had a photographer lined up to take pictures of him yesterday, but the guy bailed.

I must have sounded like a complete idiot trying to give this kid instructions. I would say things like,

"Okay, now do the one where you go upside down!"

"You mean do a backflip?" my husband would politely say.

Regardless of sounding like a fool and probably looking like one too as I lay in the middle of a skate park wearing pearls, I got some really awesome shots of this kid. Afterwards, we chatted some more and exchanged information with the prospect of photographing an event in the near future.

So you see where I'm going with this?

I took my camera out and not only had an amazingly fun time (not to mention make my husband burst with pride) but also made a business contact. All on National Camera Day!