hello

saturday night dominic and i went to a lantern festival – light the sky. it’s where you pay for a lantern that you get to decorate and then a few hundred people all let their lanterns float into the sky at the same time. if there is a good amount of people, it can be pretty amazing.

we ended up getting there like way too early, haha. it said doors opened at 6, so we got there at 6 because they said there would be food trucks and live music, etc. there were zero food trucks – only the concession stand and the live music didn’t even start until around 7. so that was kind of a bummer. but it wasn’t that big of  deal because it was something to do on a saturday night.

so we decorated our lanterns and hung out for a few hours. they had really pretty lights hung up that we took a few photos in front of. and all in all it was a fun night!

unfortunately we were a little underprepared (photo wise). we didn’t have a tripod, so taking photos of the lanterns in the dark was pretty hard. we obviously had to have a super low shutter speed to capture the light, but with a low shutter speed, you literally cannot move your hand the slightest, or it’ll blur the lights. dominic and i aren’t pros or anything, we’re still learning so if you have tips, let us know! regardless, we had a lot of fun. it was more about the experience for me, than the photos. i really wanted to live in the moment when all of the lanterns were being released. i highly recommend doing something like this if you ever get the chance!

however

i was SO bummed because 1. people kept letting their lanterns go way before we were supposed to. there were at least 30-45 lanterns that were released into the sky before we were all told to release them at once. i mean, it’s not really that big of a deal, but it really ruins the whole effect if 30 lanterns are being released over the course of 10 minutes, instead of hundreds of lanterns being release all at once, you know? so that was super frustrating.

ALSO,  the guy said that our lanterns had about a 5 minute burn time so we had plenty of time. WRONG. i lit my lantern and then i was waiting for dominic so we could get a pic and then release them at the same time and mine literally burned completely out within the course of 1.5 minutes. i was SO bummed. i saw it was burning out so i released it hoping it would make it in the sky at least a little. but it crashed like two feet in front of us, hahah. so my lantern was a total fail. but dominic’s worked!

i don’t mean to complain about the night, because it really was fun! i just i wish i would have been able to get my lantern to work, hahah.

anyway, enjoy the photos below! xo

i have no idea why this poop emoji blow up was there – but it may have been one of my favorite parts of the night

i spy the UP… and my roots

these are SO oversized – especially for my extra small face – but i really don’t care. i’m loving tinted sunglasses and unless i get a child’s size, no pair will ever fit me correctly.

hahah trying to take a photo with my big dslr and with the wrong settings on – we tried – those things are harder to take selfies with than iphones!

when he tells you, you can’t get mcnuggets after this..

but then he says he’s just kidding and you’re getting the 20 pack

obsessed with this necklace from h&m

no idea what i found so funny! hahah

photo cred: dominic

how pretty are these lights?

someone lit their lantern before we were all supposed to..

before my lantern burned out and crashed on the ground.. how embarrassing, hahah.

here are a few additional photos i took with my iphone – it’s mostly just photos of dominic and i 🙂

 

there you have it! again, i don’t have too many photos of the actual lanterns being released, but we really enjoyed just being in that moment.

i’m really excited for the long holiday weekend/week next week! i get a few days off of work and it’ll be good to just relax and hang with family/friends.

 

thanks for reading.

 

xo,

 

courtney raf