Photo Friday: Jungle Lanterns

Jungle Cruise is always one of my favorite attractions to shoot. Since it's opening, it's literally grown into its own ecosystem. Let alone the amazing queue, the shots are limitless. After buying a 50mm lens, I had some fun with focal length on here, and this shot turned out a lot better than I originally thought! 

Disney/Pixar: Why I Love the Magic of a Mouse and Lamp

Waiting for the parade to start..

Growing up, Disney was a large part of my childhood. Between going to the theater to see the latest film, exploring Disneyland, and laying in front of the TV on Saturday mornings watching Pepper Ann and Recess, Disney was there. It was one of a few pillars in my life. The movies taught me lessons about life. I learned from Aladdin to always stay true to yourself, and if you judge a book by it's cover, you'll more often than not be wrong. Or I learned from The Little Mermaid to always pursue your dream, even if it's not what people think you need in your life. Those are a few to list, and I could go on for days, but that's besides the point.

Disney apparently is a great thing to love as a child. But as a teenager, not so much, according to some of the kids I went to high school with.

See, when I was in high school, I was sort of a floater. I was never in one specific crowd, and I moved from group to group. I never really had a place of my own, but more a place of their own that I visited. I enjoyed hanging with some of the jocks, some of the anime/emo kids, some of the preps, some of the bookworms. I was fascinated by everyone because they were all so uniquely different in their own beautiful way. But people didn't always see it so positively in return.

When kids heard that I was a huge Disney fan, went to Disneyland once or twice a month just to hang out with my friends down there, it was a bad thing to them, and they called me a variety of names. From a freak, to even questioning my sexuality, I was berated for something I loved.

It was hard. Eventually I stopped talking about it because I didn't want the grief from my peers. I didn't want to hear people calling me a freak, or gay because I liked Disney. I knew I wasn't what they said, but I believe that if people hear something negative long enough, they'll start to believe the lies as a truth.

Now that nearly four years has passed, I'm already graduated with an AA, moving onto my Bachelor's degree, married, and still enjoying the company more than ever, I learned something new yesterday as I watched a 20-minute special on Netflix about Pixar (Inside Pixar is the name, and if you get a chance, WATCH IT).

Some, if not most of the short documentary areEVER give up on what you believe in.

things I've already seen, but yet to actually visit (open them doors for me, Luxo!). But listening to John Lasseter speak about the early years of Pixar, and how he was fired from Disney for going around his boss to make a film he so passionately believed in, only to now be the CEO of Pixar, and Chief Creative Officer for Disney's Imagineering department, I learned again, just like reading so much about Walt Disney, that you can never, EVER

20-something years later, still at Disneyland. This time with my wife, doing long exposure photography.

Never give up on those dreams, because without them, where is the warmth that this world so desperately needs? Where are those happy stories that we escape to on-screen? Where would all of those be without an idea, and a dream that someone had?

I'm over being called a freak, or the logic of 'only gay guys like Disney' (football players, you know who you are, and you should be ashamed of yourself for this type of talk). Over the last four years since high school, I've learned so much about the company I one day intend and hope to work for, and I have made some amazing friends in wonderful departments who are now mentoring me and helping me fine tune details I need to iron out before I apply for my name badge at the Mouse. I'm over the negative outlook on MY dream, because I'm going to do what it takes for it to happen. I want to be apart of a team who's goal is to make stories come to life, and inspire the next generation of kids to dream just like Walt did, and just like I'm trying to do.

You can never let people get to you, no matter how hard it may be sometimes. At the end of the day, the people who are talking down to you aren't the ones who will help you anyways. They don't believe in your dream, so why let them influence it? Find the people who see things the way you do, and build each other up. Maybe someday people will realize they're wrong. If they don't, then you've still won, because your dream became a reality. 

Photo Friday: Entering The Mansion

A lot of photos I shoot are at Disneyland. It's my favorite place to shoot, because you can hardly ever look at something the same way twice. This was shot while hanging out with a good friend of mine, while closing out the parks. Both of us were running around New Orleans Square taking photos of the empty park. This was shot off the new 50mm lens Hailey and I bought. It's a lot trickier to use at first, because it's a fixed lens, and you have to walk around more to set your shots up, over relying on the zoom.

Boy Meets Girl Meets World

I've been a big fan of Boy Meets World for as long as I can remember. In fact, my sister got me the entire series on DVD last year as a Christmas present. Now, Disney decided to bring back the show in a new way, as many of you know, with Corey and Topanga being parents to their daughter Riley.

From the three episodes that have aired so far, I've honestly been blown away. Disney Channel is finally returning to their roots of having a show that teaches history and lessons alongside the events life throws at everyone. Sure, it may be centered around a young teenage girl, but even I'm learning from it, and remembering some of those lessons the original show taught me as I was growing up.

What makes this show superior than the rest on the network though, is that it does what was just stated. It teaches you, and you sympathize with the characters. Why is that?

Because the characters are you. Whether you're a dad or mom, little brother or big sister, best friend or a crush, there's a little bit of you in those characters. There's stories you've gone through, and have tried to figure out how to handle it. There's events that seem bigger than they are, but the characters teach that you can conquer anything with those closest around you by your side to help you through it.

It may be a 'kids show' to some, but really, it's a family show. It's a show that teaches parent's to revel in their child's childhood, and don't rush them to grow up so fast, unlike what the world wants them to do. It teaches the kids to accept that there are responsibilities in life, but don't take them so seriously that they miss out on the fun times of being a kid, because as Topanga so beautifully put it in the third and most recent episode, "stay this young for as long as possible, because when it's gone, it's gone."

Hey Pinheads...Pinterest Isn't Just For Girl

Gentlemen...

We need to talk. There's something bugging me about my gender. We're an arrogant bunch, and I don't know why. We brag about our sports teams being better than the other, our cars being faster than  the one in the next lane over, and our girl being prettier than another.

Oh, and apparently we have an issue with thinking that certain things are for girls only. Sure, I'll agree with you that I'd never be caught dead getting a mani/pedi, or shopping for clothes with a group of guys. But what about online? We Facebook photos of our night out with the bros, and tweet about the sports scores. How about pinning our interests? Or, pintresting? Is that a word? Ladies, help me out there.

My boards. See? It's not that bad. 

Anyway, Pinterest isn't just a site where girls convene to trade recipes and nail art, and create their ideal weddings to Adam Levine. Sure, a lot of that stuff is on there, and just like any other guy, I actively avoid it. However, what if I told you about taking what the girls do, and being guys, and making boards of your dream cars and motorcycles? Or those sick leather jackets and messenger bags? Or a collection of sunglasses and cufflinks? Hell, even trade our own manly recipes for ribs, beer chicken, and more?

I don't understand why more guys don't take advantage of making boards on Pinterest to collect a list of the things we want. The desktop site is easily laid out, and the app for your iPhone and Android is even easier. I believe it's time that men invest some time into this site. It's not just for the dresses and drinks the ladies love. It's for the street art. It's for the architecture and creative backyard solutions to make hanging out in the backyard cooler than just that store-bought plastic lawn chairs.


All I'm getting at here guys, is that it's not something that's just for the girls. We can share in the boards and sharing all the things that are all so great about being a dude. So, here's to pinning. Here's to celebrate being a guy, and giving light into what makes us men so awesome to begin with.

No Bake Energy Bites

Hi everyone!
With all the stress of wedding planning, moving, school, and much more I found myself letting myself go. (No excuses though, purely my fault). However, I REALLY have no excuses now. It's time to get back into it! Jacob and I have been swimming and bike riding a lot plus playing softball twice a week. I have been doing a lot of meal prep and eating whole foods instead of processed. And we both have committed to drinking a gallon of water a day. And even within the last two weeks I've personally felt a difference in how I feel throughout the day. My face has cleared up, I'm not as bloated, my metabolism is getting faster, and I have much more energy.

But even with clean eating... my sweet tooth is still something fierce, even more so with eating right. So what do you do about it? Ice cream? A candy bar? Cake and cookies? Sometimes... sure. (No judgement here) But every day? NO. So this is one of my absolute favorite recipes to crave a sweet tooth in a healthier way.

No Bake Energy Bites

In a medium bowl mix oats, coconut flakes, peanut butter, flaxseed, honey, vanilla and chocolate chips.

When you choose your ingredients, remember CLEAN EATING! So with coconut, either buy your own coconut and roast it and shred it yourself or get unsweetened organic at the store. The other important ingredient to get clean is the peanut butter. Don't go with Jif or Skippy with all of the extra unnecessarily ingredients, go with a much natural peanut butter. Take a look at the difference in ingredients from Skippy on the left, to what I used on the right...

Once you're done mixing all of the ingredients together, use your hands to make ball shapes. I make mine about an inch by an inch.

Then pop them in a big ziplock bag and refrigerate them until you are ready to eat them. I usually like mine in between breakfast and lunch as a little pick me up. They're SO good and very filling.

Ingredients:
1 cup of whole wheat oats
2/3 cups of unsweetened coconut flakes
3/4 cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/3 cup of honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup of chocolate chips (you can add more or less depending on what you like)

You can add more or less of whatever ingredients you'd like. I usually add craisins, chia seeds, or any type of nut as well. Since they are no bake, there doesn't have to be an exact ratio of anything. I like to substitute honey for agave nectar sometimes too. The possibilities are endless!


Happy Healthy Eating!

-HW

Young, Wild, and Married

I got married 5 days after I turned 20 years old. Because of that I got a lot of "Wow you are SO young" "Are you sure you're ready!?" "You already are getting tied down THIS young!?" A lot of the comments I got were pretty negative or doubtful. And I know that some may look down on young marriages, but honestly, I don't get it. I found my person that I want to spend the rest of my life with... without having to search for very long.  I didn't get my heart broken a bunch, I didn't sleep around, I didn't have a ton of failed relationships. It's not a negative thing, it's a blessing. A big blessing. Not only did it save me a lot of heartache spending many years to find the one... but it also means that I get more time with my spouse (God willing). Do I regret getting married young? Not one bit. I am so incredibly in love with my husband and best friend.

Marriage has honestly been the best thing to happen to me. While Jake and I have a lot of similarities, we are also pretty different in some aspects. It's these differences that make life interesting. Before being with him, I think I lacked every possible ounce of compassion where he had plenty of it. He was patient, I wasn't. He was kinder with his words… I wasn't. But never once did he look down on me for that, or love me less because of it. Instead, he used his compassion, patience, and kind words to help me. We grew together, and that is a beautiful thing. I have been blessed to see many wonderful marriages in my life, and I always prayed that one day… someone, somewhere, would be able to look at my marriage and think the exact same thing. And I truly believe that that will happen.

At the moment, Jake and I are simply a family of two. Our own little Williams family. One day, not anytime soon, but some day… we will expand our family. Until then, Jake and I are working to create that strong foundation for them. It is our job as husband and wife to love and live deeply. To set our family rules and beliefs into place now rather than later. To work hard and play hard. We are only four months into creating our family's foundation… and by golly I think we are doing a pretty damn good job.

So to all the "haters" who questioned, doubted, and thought we were stupid… you were wrong. I'm not in this to "prove anyone wrong" because ultimately that isn't my goal nor my intentions. My goal is to have the best marriage possible with my absolute best friend. And while doing that, sharing my revelations, recipes, DIY projects, thoughts, and anything I feel like on our blog. And maybe that one person… somewhere… someday… will stumble along our blog and be inspired by our marriage and our love.
-HW

A Magical Fourth

Hailey and I didn't have any plans over the Fourth of July weekend, so we decided at the last minute to head down to Disneyland. We checked out the new Alice in Wonderland, and enjoyed the day mulling around the parks with no real agenda. Also, I really wanted to give a go at trying to capture long-exposure shots of fireworks, and figured the special fireworks for the Fourth would be a good start. The color isn't the best in these, and I wish some came out brighter, but for the first time, I was happy with the general results.

The Bay and Baseball

We spent a weekend in San Francisco for fathers day, to celebrate my dad. His two favorite teams (Yankees and Rockies) were in town playing the Athletics and Giants, so we did something rare, and ventured north to see the two games. Now, I did make a stipulation for the trip and said we had to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum before Saturday's game in Oakland. Not that it was much of a stipulation, because the entire family loves Disney and the amazing history behind it. But, here's some of the shots from the weekend! 

She's an angels fan, but still supports the pinstripes! 

Presidio has some beautiful buildings. 

The temporary Mary Blair exhibit is nothing short of amazing. 

Girly hard hat is girly. 

I didn't realize just *how* much Walt loved Mary's work. He's been on record numerous times saying she was his favorite. For good reason, too!

Now for the Walt part of the museum!

The type of truck Walt drove when he was in the army (remember, he faked his age to do this. How 'bout it for patriotism, right?)

Walts' grandad's violin. They really did their homework with finding and collecting all of this material. 

This was ingenious. The instruments on the table were synced up to the video on the screen, and guests could try to sync up the music with the short film, just like how they did it back in the day. I can attest, this is the hardest thing to do. It really is an amazing thing to see how hard they worked to sync the sound with the short films. 

Multiplane camera. Definitely a highlight to see such a brilliant piece of film technology. 

Hannah really soaked in a lot of the audio pieces around the museum. Families, this is actually a fairly kid-friendly museum. It's not just all history and facts. There's a good element of fun for the young ones. 

Touch screen with short clips about the films Walt worked on. 

There's also a beautiful view of the bay and the bridge, too. 

And the model of Disneyland with all of Walt's ideas. I loved that they didn't just have a model of Disneyland, but an idealized concept of the ideas he had, and some that either look different than today, or just aren't there because they never made it to conception in the park. 

Why can't Autopia cars look this cool today? 

Audio-animatronic body. 

This room. The last one in the museum. Most of the time you don't hear much of Disney talking about Walt's death. It's a hushed topic that he was a smoker, and died because of it. But the museum is wide open about it at the end. There's audio from the Sherman Brothers, Marty Sklar, X Atencio, and more, that speak of where they were when they heard that their beloved leader had passed. It's sad, but somehow at the same time, beautiful and poetic. 

Another shot of the multiplane camera from inside the gift shop. 

And now onto  the rest of the weekend...

Lunchtime at the Wharf. 

What up, Paul Blart(s)?

Game one! 

Not sure if anyone watched the game on TV, but these stadium lights went out in left field for just about thirty minutes and they delayed the game because it would 'hinder their ability to see the ball'. C'mon, you get paid millions of dollars to play baseball, and you can't see the ball in left field when it's hit because a few dozen lights are out? Go back to the sandlot, boys and see how it is to play with only streetlights!

Dad with his oldest and youngest. 

The captain! 

Work it, Jeter! 

Game two! 

I think they're a fan...

Met up with the Paulus family too! Good friends from the central coast. 

Dad and I decided to walk around and check out the stadium. AT&T Park is really one of the coolest stadiums on the west coast. Great atmosphere, cool location, and good ballpark food. The Coliseum on the other hand...well, there's a reason there isn't more photos of it from the trip. It's a concrete pit. That's all I've got to say about that. 

Family photo! 

Me and Nan <3

Since it was fathers' day weekend, we were able to walk the field, and dads with kids 14 and under could run the bases! So dad and Hannah jumped on the opportunity! 

On the field!

And she's off! 

Dad soaking in the views from ground-level. 

 Hailey and I drove up a day after my parents and sisters got there, so on the way back, we drove over the bridge and into Emeryville to see the famous studio...

I wish we could have gone inside and checked it out, but soon enough, I'll be able to go in for work! 

All in all, it was a great, fast paced and fun weekend. We don't get up North a lot, but when we do, it's a lot of fun. Can't wait to go back!