On day 2 of our trip, on December 23rd, we woke up early and packed all our things. Before we left the hotel room to checkout and put all our stuff in the car, I briefly stopped by the mirror in the room and took the “photographer in front of a mirror looking through the viewfinder”™ photo. And with that face obscured photo ready to attach, I have updated my About page with a proper write-up.
Before we headed off, I had a talk with my mom about how the day before made me feel. She told me she wouldn’t nag about stopping to take photos so much and just let me be. We drove to Solvang and because we got there early enough, it was (slightly) easily to find parking. There was still lots of people there for Christmas.
The morning sun made everything look more vibrant and I really liked how the tone of these photos turned out.
I’m sure there’s a story to this, but I did find it mildly fascinating a lot of buildings had storks on the top.
The trolley came by again, so I tried to get another shot of it while it drove by.
My mom and I walked around until we came to a bakery attached to one of the in-town lodgings. I got a Princess Cake, but I don’t think I’d eat it again, since it was too creamy for my tastes unfortunately.
We sat in the outdoor tables surrounded by a nice view of all the themed buildings.
When I look back at my photos for day 2, I think I had a better run of it on day 1. I felt rushed and a bit unhappy on day 1, but took more presentable photos than day 2, when I felt more relaxed and happy. Feelings don’t really transfer to results lol.
Anyway, after our small “lunch” break, we continued on and my mom dutifully followed me around while I explored. We also took some photos of each other and I showed her how to properly focus and use the camera.
Once we circled back to the main street in town, where most of the foot traffic was, I had a very unpleasant experience with a professional photographer running his store. I barely registered it was a photography print gallery, since I was mostly looking at the interesting buildings. I took some random shots of the shape of the roof (which aren’t even worth uploading to show), and then took this shot aimed at the store to the left of his gallery.
You can see his photo prints on display in the bottom right corner. I barely registered them, and was looking at the window of the store next door when this man charged out and told me off. I was so taken aback by his tone I didn’t have time to process everything he said.
I just knew he was very unhappy I was photographing his photos. He said a bunch of things, and then ended it with something about how these were his photographs he was trying to sell, and he said, “I’d like to keep them that way.” I quote that portion because that was the only bit I remember word for word. Then he asked me to delete any photos I took of his work.
He was basically insinuating I was trying to take photos of his photos to… I don’t know, reprint and sell? It was pretty ludicrous. In the moment I just said sorry and that I didn’t mean to photograph his prints. To be polite, I don’t know why, but I went in his store to look around. He ignored me and I looked around his works before stepping out. Then we walked around the nearby buildings, and I took this photo:
We circled back to the main street, and I had more time to mull over that entire bizarre encounter, and the more I thought about what he said, the more ridiculous it was, and in annoyance, I walked in front of his store (but at a safe distance away) to take another photo of his store front so I could get his gallery name.
When I got home, I looked his business up and there was a 1-star review on google maps that basically captured a negative experience in the vein of what I experienced. I looked his place up on yelp and found more 1-star stories. I kind of laughed in relief because it reinforced the notion that I did nothing wrong. If anything, the positive reviews from his customers had much more detailed close up photos of his prints than anything I could ever have captured.
Unfortunately, I think he just didn’t like that I was a fellow photographer on his “turf” and felt threatened by me. It’s really silly because I’m not a professional photographer and I didn’t look like it. I was some random tourist with a camera pointing at the building taking random, unrefined photos of whatever I saw. I can’t imagine how he treats real colleagues if this is his reaction to me—probably with a knife held behind his back. A kinder person would’ve been glad to see younger people take interest in his field or something, and strike up a friendly conversation to try to sell his prints.
Anyway, that encounter put a damper on an otherwise pleasant day. It was still a nice day out, but the crowds were building up. My mom wanted to get something to eat before we drove home in the afternoon, so we started to walk back towards the restaurants.
I walked from the other end of the main street and took a few more building shots before we went back into the crowds.
Most of the restaurants again were too busy, so my mom and I ended up dining at a wine bar since it had no wait. By this point, the sun was out in full force and all my walking was burning me up, so we rested for a while to cool before heading off.
My mom and I had a nice long chat while we ate, and it was a nice close to the trip. She drove us back, to which I was very grateful, because it meant I could enjoy the view again.
I ended up taking a ton of photos on the drive back (since I didn’t need to worry about the battery lasting). I was originally going to include them in this post, but I took so many, I think they deserve their own post. I had a blast playing shutter roulette while we drove past anything interesting.
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