Snapshots #2

My last (and first) Snapshots post was in September 2013, and it's been something that I've wanted to continue and make a regular feature. So here are some of the random photos that I took this month.

• I'm a little obsessed with this red vinyl of Dia Frampton's Red, and lately I've been rediscovering and falling in love again with the music that I listened to in high school.
• From a sunset last week, I shot this after I shot through both packs of film that were in my instant cameras. So those photos should be in my next instax blog post. 
• I went to the San Antonio Rodeo last week to see Pentatonix! It was my second rodeo experience and I've completely changed my tune towards rodeos. The highlight (besides seeing one of my favorite groups) was the pig races. 

-Jessica

Instax Diary

Almost two years ago I bought my first instant camera (a Fuji Instax 210) and last year I contributed to the Lomography Kickstarter for the Lomo'Instant. Although the settings and focusing can irk me at times, I really love both cameras. I lean more towards the wide format of the Instax 210, but even though I haven't worked with it as much I prefer the Lomo'Instant, because it allows for more manual controls and it can double expose! The other day I finally scanned two years worth of photos so here is the first of what I'm hoping many posts of my instax shots.

The above two photos are both of a chain fence, the first one I didn't choose the correct focus setting and the second I accidentally triggered the flash. When I shoot film I form a really strong idea of what each shot will come out, and I really love these two photos because they turned out nothing like I thought they would. 

-Jessica

January Reads

Lately I've rediscovered how much I love reading, last year I managed to read 40 books and this year I didn't really make a New Years Resolution, I just told myself that I wanted to just read more books. I'm trying to get back in blogging regularly, so I decided to share the experience on here. I've also been watching a lot of "booktube" videos lately, which are YouTubers that vlog about books, and I decided that I wanted to do something similar. So here's a list of the books I read last month and a few thoughts on them:

Anna and the French Kiss, Lola and the Boy Next Door, and Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins - Each book in this series follows two different characters and they are set in different cities, and I loved how these characters interacted with each other and their settings were used to enhance their stories. I absolutely loved this series of books, I really grew to love the characters and their stories and was a little dishearten to hear that Perkins doesn't plan to continue this series. This series is high on my list of favorite books.

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and art by Maria Kalman - I was really excited to read this book when I learned that Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events was one of my favorite series when I was growing up) had written it. Overall this book was different from what I'm used to reading, I think my favorite part was the artwork that accompanied the story, I liked how the story flowed and how it resolved in the end.

Jackaby by William Ritter - I discovered this book while browsing Book People and I was immediately drawn to the cover, it's gorgeous and I'm a sucker for double exposure manipulations. Another thing that drew me to it was the summary inside described the book as a combination of Sherlock and Doctor Who. Jackaby, a misunderstood detective, is a crazy mixture of the Doctor and Sherlock and overall turned out to be a really interesting character. I'm interested to see if Ritter writes more of this series and I would really like to read more mystery novels in the future.

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner - I was recommended this book while watching a vlog of somebody's favorite books of 2014, and this story didn't disappoint. This book in like a futuristic version of the Titanic, but not in a cheesy way. I really loved the characters and the plot of this book.

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson - The basic premises of this book is  princess, Lia, runs away from an arranged marriage and the prince and an assassin go after her. The thing that I loved most about this book is the identity of who's the prince and who's the assassin aren't revealed until half way through the novel, which makes the reader keep thinking. This book left off on an enormous cliff hanger, and the next one doesn't come out until July, sigh. But overall I really enjoyed the characters and the story.

Alright that was fun! I've already got a stack of books that I want to read this month. - Jessica