^^I love this picture because it clearly shows how distinct Lydia's eyes are and how different the color is from mine! haha

I learned about the app 'Periscope' about a month ago. Periscope allows people to video-record themselves talking about something and their followers can comment on the video in real time for all of the followers to read. (Sorry -it's hard to explain, but hopefully that made sense haha.) I've been watching other people's "scopes" since shortly after I learned about the app, but it wasn't until a week or so ago that I actually considered broadcasting something myself. The idea terrified me beyond all belief - which weirdly just made me want to do it even more! haha. Usually I want to stay away from things that scare me, but for some reason this was also really exciting! Thankfully Stephen was beyond supportive of the idea so last night at our weekly Cafe Rio date (haha...not joking..) he helped me brainstorm about what I could talk about. 

Most of the people I follow on Periscope are "famous" to some degree. A lot of them have very popular fashion, food or lifestyle blogs, or instagram accounts with thousands of followers. I also follow a lot of Utah Photographers who periscope about photography tips and funny stories. Although I have a blog and have recently gotten into photography, I do not feel like I am an expert in either of these areas yet so I'm not in a place give advice about that stuff, but one thing I do know a lot about is myself, haha, so I took about 10 minutes to introduce myself :) I was so scared at the beginning! I felt like I had no clue what I was doing. But after a few minutes I kind of got into the groove and even though I looked up to the right wayyy too many times (as I learned from watching the replay, haha) it was actually really FUN.

On the broadcast I shared 5 things:

1.) How I got into photography/videography 

2.) A little about teaching 6th grade 

3.) Lydia & being a mom

4.) First impressions of Stephen + a reallly quick rundown of our relationship

5.) How I feel about leaving Provo (and some of the thoughts I shared in this post)

Overall I really enjoyed the experience and I'm flattered that a few people have told me that I inspired them to scope! I'm by no means an expert, but if you're working up the nerve to do your first scope here are just a few quick tips! 

1.) Decide what you're going to talk about beforehand and have a list to keep you on track, keep it short + to the point

2.) Don't expect anyone to watch it live or to even get many replays. My goal for the first time was just to do it. It was really fun that my friend Lucia hopped on, but I was 100% expecting to be talking to myself the whole time (which is partially why I panicked when people I didn't know showed up! Thankfully they left a minute or so into it). 

3.) If you're nervous - snapstory first! I know, I know! I've mentioned snapchat on here so many times lately that people are probably starting to get sick of it hahah, but I feel like doing Snapstories the past few weeks has helped me feel a lot more comfortable filming myself, so when I was on periscope it wasn't nearly as foreign as it would have been otherwise. Like, a few weeks ago I was super self-conscious about filming myself so I would never talk in my snaps and Stephen told me he thought it was weird that I wouldn't talk in them so I started talking in them while filming Lydia, and now I'm totally comfortable just chatting away at the camera like it's a old friend!

If you want to catch my scope, you can view it using this link for the next 19-ish hours! (all scopes auto-delete after 24 hours.) https://www.periscope.tv/freckledhan

DISCLAIMER: Periscope is a relatively new app and I've had to block a dozen or so users that had nudity in their profile pictures. It's REALLY gross. Also I've been watching other people's scopes when people will get on and start saying inappropriate things in the comments. There are plenty of really clean, entertaining broadcasts, but I just thought I should give that word of caution to anyone considering downloading the app. I personally have emailed the costumer service people about the problem and they said they are trying to get a hold on it, but to just please continue blocking inappropriate accounts. I think they've grown A LOT in the past couple months and just have more people using the app than they can monitor at this point. 

Let me know what you think! And if you have periscope, let me know so I can follow you!! 

_ _ _

han.