Finished Photographs and Landscapes PV Linda Ramirez

april 23rd 2023; interacting with @Linda Ramirez

"Hey, do you mind if I will take photos here quickly?"

Alyssea turned around to see who the owner of the voice was. Her hair had been elaborately braided with white streaks (streaks? Or was it some sort of string?) in it. While her dress was quite bright and colourful, she noted the heels. Alyssea was already pretty short for an eleven-year-old, so now the height difference with the heels made her embarrassed.

She prayed she'd get taller soon.

Alyssea smiled. "Yes, of course."

She stood to the side as she waited for the girl to take her photos. What was her name again? They were almost to the end of the year and Alyssea already forgot a lot of names. Can you blame her? She was still trying to remember many incantations and potion ingredients for exams.

In the girl's hands was her camera. It wasn't any Muggle camera like a Canon or a Nikon. Even if it was, it wouldn't have worked on school grounds since they were electrical and battery-powered devices. Did wizards have their own photographic devices?

She cleared her throat gently, just as a way to alert the girl about her presence. "What are you using to take pictures, if I may ask? And how does it work?"

In another spring of thoughts, she realized she didn't remember her name. "I'm really sorry, I've probably just forgotten. What's your name?"

april 23rd 2023; interacting with @Linda Ramirez

So the wizarding world did have their own cameras! Alyssea looked over as the girl showed the different functions of the device. "Do you know how its powered? It's not like Muggle cameras with batteries, or is there an equivalent?"

The cameras even took moving pictures! On Muggle phones, there was such a feature called 'Live Photo', but it seemed as if the wizarding cameras already had that feature. Talk about trendsetting. Would the printed photos from the camera also move? Alyssea hoped so. That would be amazing!

The girl stopped for a moment and turned to face Alyssea. "Alyssea, right?"

Alyssea nodded as her cheeks heated up. The girl remembered her name but Alyssea still hadn't recognised her. What an embarrassment. "We were in the rehearsal room once. My name is Linda."

It clicked, then, as Linda explained when they had first met. Yes! On one of Alyssea's many visits to the Rehearsal Room, they had met there. She had played the piano when Alyssea came in and she danced to the music. It was a lovely time.

Linda then took off her heels. Their height difference didn't seem so pronounced anymore. Alyssea hated walking barefoot on concrete and the bare ground, in general, but back in Australia, it seemed like a part of people's lives to do it at least once. Still, she kept her shoes on for her own comfort.

Alyssea moved closer towards the edge of the path and looked over to the water. In the glimmer of the water's surface, she briefly saw a figure. She gasped. "I think I just saw a mermaid!"

april 23rd 2023; interacting with @Linda Ramirez

Alyssea nodded as Linda explained the mechanics of the camera. She liked knowing how exactly things worked, and that applied to her learning. If she couldn't understand a concept, then the rest of the topic wouldn't make sense to her. While it was a bit of a handicap at the start, insisting that there was some behind-the-scenes mechanic behind magic, just putting the reason as 'magic' seemed enough.

Her parents never had magical photos. The photo frames at home were filled with still photos of the family just smiling at the camera. Maybe they should try to have some moving photos someday.

Linda cautiously moved towards the water to see. The mermaid was long gone, but Alyssea didn't mind. The lake was the closest thing to a body of water you could just relax and watch here at the castle.

After a little while of standing and watching the water, Alyssea decided to engage in some small talk. She barely knew Linda, so unless she would awkwardly have to overthink whether to say hi or pretend to be busy when they walked past in the hallways, now was a good time to start getting to know one another.

"What else do you like to do aside from music and photography?" Alyssea asked.

april 23rd 2023; interacting with @Linda Ramirez

"I like singing, too! I did musical theatre before I came to Hogwarts, so you know, major theatre kid," Alyssea chuckled, "I like dancing and studying history."

She wanted to mention photography, but she wouldn't be able to show that to Linda in their current situation. Alyssea was good at Muggle photography; the still photos, the grids, and the art of posing were all things she perfected for her family and friends. Personally? She still sucked at posing which was ironic given her theatre background.

"I am sorry if I sound rude, but can you tell me more about still photos? I heard even printed they are not moving," Linda said.

Alyssea shook her head with a smile. "It's not rude at all! And yes, that's true. Photos don't move even when printed."

She hummed as she thought about her explanation. How did photos work? It was a simple press of a button on her phone and it would be saved to a gallery she could alter certain settings with. How the camera lenses worked were beyond Alyssea's true understanding, but she tried her best.

She started miming the shape of a phone with her hands. "There's this device called a mobile phone-" -she shaped her hands in a sort-of rectangle- "-and, depending on the model you've bought, it has lenses in the corner of the back of it. My one back home has three lenses, so I can zoom in really close and really far depending on what I want to take a photo of."

"Then, you just press a button on the camera app and, boom! It'll save a picture of that moment," Alyssea smiled. "Some phones have something called a 'live photo' feature, so the photos move for about five seconds, but when you see them in your gallery, they don't move."

She hoped that explanation didn't fully go over Linda's head. Phones were, honestly, the best thing to happen. They were much more convenient than carrying around a big camera around the neck sometimes and less susceptible to getting stolen.

(Stolen? Yes, it happens. You'd be surprised.)

"I can also tell you about actual camera devices. You know, kinda like your one," Alyssea said while pointing at Linda's.

Linda added, "If you want, I can take photos of you and then after printing give to you, so you will have some wizard photos with you."

Alyssea's eyes brightened at the offer. She didn't have any photos of herself from First Year and, knowing her parents and brother, they'd want to see her during her time. With a smile, she nodded. "That would be really nice, thank you!"

She fiddled with her dress skirt as her face heated up. "Uhm, sorry, I'm not really good at posing, so it'd also be helpful if you could tell me where to look and what to do and stuff."

Reducio

OOC Note: You have my permission to godmod Alyssea when taking the photos for when she's posing