Press Button To Blog - Legend Of Zelda

Why did Link have to travel to Hyrule to buy a new camera? Because his old one was Triforcing him to take bad pictures.

Ever since I was a child I've always loved videogames, ever since my grandmother purchased me my first console, a used Nintendo Entertainment System. Playing Duckhunt and Mario instilled a lifelong passion for gaming that hasn't yet waned, even if my amount of free time has . How that relates to this post, is that one of my favourite games growing up was the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64.

In fact, my love for Ocarina of Time runs so deep that I even have a tattoo of Link to memorialize the memories it holds for me. The hours spent losing myself in Hyrule helped me during some tough times in my life. So it only made sense that I would choose that as the theme for my first at home photoshoot with my new camera.

As I began planning the photoshoot, I spent at least an hour playing around with set design on my balcony. It was important for me to feel like I was getting it all right, as I know it would hurt my confidence if my very first pictures turned out poorly. My goal was to create the perfect backdrop that would suit the plastic toy of Link that I had laying around. I had already made a trip to a local Greek bakery to purchase a few additional items that could bring the pics to the next level. I had already amassed a small collection of props to use when the occasion fits, so it was only a matter of staging what I had in a formation that was somewhat interesting. It took me a while to find the right balance between too busy and not enough.

At the time, I had only received my first camera in the mail a few days prior. I had already gone out to do some candid pics in the city, but I hadn't truly explored how it fully worked yet. I also didn't have anything else to help me with the scene, like lightning, a tripod and the like. Other than if I were using my cell phone or a point-and-shoot, you couldn't get more amateur. It was slightly frustrating to see the vision in my head that just wasn't possible for me to fully realize, but we work with what we've got.

One of the biggest challenges was dealing with the sunlight. As a new photographer, I didn't realize how much of an impact natural light (my only light at the time) could have on a photoshoot. While I knew there's more to photography than just pointing and shooting, I wasn't quite ready for the amount of irritation it would cause. I was using a long, low to the ground table as a staging point for my props, and every time the sun shifted I then had to move the entire table so that my deliberately placed setup was still close to what I originally wanted to capture. But in doing so of course, everything would tumble around and I'd need to restage the entire scene.

Nonetheless, this photoshoot was an incredible experience for me. It allowed me to merge several of my passions in food, video games and photography, and that was an incredible feeling for a first shoot. Could it have been better? Of course. But all things considering for an absolute novice, I loved quite a few of my results. And it's that sense of accomplishment after hours of planning and shooting that keeps me excited for my upcoming photography journey.