If I Die Tomorrow

“Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now.” Who knew it was a good photo editing song? Hmm. Oh well.

I was in the process of editing some nature photographs for a client. Typical landscape-type photos, sunsets/sunrises, and flowers. I get a lot of clients who want photographs of flowers. Oh well. It's what they want and what I'm being paid to do, so I have no room to complain. They want nature, I give them nature. Every now and then they want me to photograph them and/or their family and friends or even an event such as a wedding or a party of sorts. Always loved photographing those. I enjoy photographing people over anything else. Especially if I'm able to photograph outside and use the natural light to my advantage.

I finished editing the photographs and e-mailed my client to inform them that the photographs were finished and that they could come by at any time convenient for both parties to look over them. I saved them onto my external hard drive and decided to go out and just photograph for fun. I hadn't done that in such a long time I almost forgot how.

I grabbed my Nikon D5100 and both my 18-55 mm and 70-300 mm lenses before placing them in my camera bag. With my sunglasses on my face and hat on my head, I slipped my shoes on and set out to photograph good ole' Los Angeles.

Now before you ask, no I'm not going out and looking for celebrities to photograph. They deserve to have their privacy and I'll respect that by not photographing them like a creeper--er--paparazzi. Besides, I don't really like photographing anyone like a creeper. I'm one of those who will politely ask someone if I can photograph them. I don't wanna seem like a creeper because no one likes a creeper.

I was walking around and enjoying the view around me. I couldn't help myself and ended up taking about thirty photographs in the first twenty minutes. There was so much going on that I didn't want to miss anything.

I was walking towards The Grove looking through my photos. I was proud to say that the vast majority of them turned out really well and that I was impressed with them.

“Um, excuse me, but would you mind putting your camera away?” I heard a male voice ask rather rudely.

I looked up and saw an older man. “Sorry?” I asked.

“I'd appreciate it if you put that thing away,” he said with the same rude tone.

“Oh, don't worry. I wasn't planning on photographing someone as rude as yourself. I was looking through my photographs,” I said with a calm tone before walking away from him, putting my earbuds in my ears, turning my iPod on and playing music on shuffle.

“Shakin' Hands” by Nickelback was playing in my ears by the time I reached my destination. A good thing about being in a big city is that there are a lot of events going on that I can photograph, from fairs to conventions to concerts. I was hoping for a concert this weekend since I had nothing booked with any clients. I walked into the closest coffee shop and saw a flier for Vans Warped Tour. Taking a closer look, I read it and saw that it would be in town this weekend. Score! I wonder who's on this year's lineup? Oh well. That's what the internet is for, right?

I got in line and grabbed a cup of coffee before heading back to my apartment to look up the lineup and order my ticket.

***

Okay, let's see who we have here. I was looking at the lineup when I saw that there were a lot of musicians I've actually heard of performing. LMFAO, Avenged Sevenfold, Black Veil Brides, Asking Alexandria, Paramore, All Time Low, Falling in Reverse, and a bunch of people I wasn't familiar with.

I continued to look at the lineup when I saw Tokio Hotel. Now where in the heck have I heard that name before? Oh well. I'll have to go watch their set if they aren't playing at the same time as some of the other bands I like.

I went on ahead and ordered my ticket. I printed it out and tacked it to my cork board before adding my photographs from today to my computer to edit. I erased them from my SD card and decided to charge my camera battery. I wouldn't want it to die on me while I was photographing. That would be really bad.

I put my battery in its charger when my phone rang. I grabbed my phone and answered, “Hello?You've reached Leezie Photography. This is Natalia Becker speaking.”

“Okay, you don't have to be so freaking proper, Nat. It's just me,” my best friend and older sister Laurie said chuckling.

I chuckled along with her. “Sorry, sis. This is also my contact number for my business, so I have to sound quote unquote 'freaking proper.' What's up?” I asked sitting down on my couch.

“Not a whole lot. Just wondering what you're doing this weekend and seeing if you wanted to hang out. Unless you have photo shoots you have to go to,” she said.

“Well, you are in luck. I have no clients this weekend.”

“Sweet! Well, I got us both tickets to Vans Warped Tour this weekend and thought I would drive us there. Sound good?”

Well I'll be damned. “You know, if you would have called me ten minutes ago, I would have saved myself forty-five dollars. I already got a ticket.”

“Damn. Well, we could still ride together. You going to take photos?”

“Duh. Plus the lineup is really nice this year."

“Really?”

I chuckled and told her who all was playing.

“Sweet! Well, since I have an extra ticket, I'll see if Candace wants to come along. Do you know if Mom's awake?”

“Probably. And Candace would probably like going, too.” Candace is our little sister.

“Sweet. Well I'll get off here and get a hold of Mom.”

“Okay. Later Laurie.”

“Later Nat.”

I hung up my phone and decided to go on ahead and edit those photos from today before taking a shower and heading to bed. I should probably add an update to my website letting everyone know that I'll be busy this coming weekend on account of Warped Tour. I'm going to do that first before I forget. Can't keep my potential clients in the dark, now can I?

I finished everything I had set my mind to doing, even squeezed getting something to eat in there, and decided I should probably get some rest. Yeah. I'll do just that. I'm exhausted.

I plugged my iPod into my iHome and put it on shuffle while I changed into something comfortable to sleep in. Sleeping in jeans would be really weird. Having changed, I laid down and enjoying the music playing from my iPod as I fell into a deep slumber.