How to Have a Picture Party at Your Apartment

Want to have some cheap fun in your apartment without causing too much destruction and havoc? Have a picture party!

And by party, I don't mean inviting tons and tons of people. I'd advise, for your sake and for your neighbors' sake, limit your guest list to 5-8 people. Also, be sure that the ones whom you invite are creative and good with cameras. At the end of this event, you want to come away with hundreds of really great photos from a variety of different eyes that will immortalize your apartment and help you retain those often awesome, yet fleeting memories.

And if you take some really awesome pictures that feature your sweet looking apartment...be sure to share them with your apartment manager! Maybe they could use them to show how great and fun their apartments can be...Just a thought.

There are two ways of having this event.

1) Got Digital? - Have each of your guests bring their own digital camera and the cables or card readers they'll need to transfer any pics to your computer. Schedule some board games or other fun activities as well as place a number of fun, cool looking objects around the apartment. Of course, you will want to have a few snacks and refreshments available. (Remember adult beverages should be for adults only and handled responsibly)

You'll want to have a timer that goes off at a set time every couple of minutes or so, which will be time for every guest to take a picture. Doesn't really matter of what as long as it's a cool pic!

Then after a couple of hours, transfer all of the pictures over to your computer, have a slide show, and a ton of great laughs!

Disposable Disco- This one is more for those who are less concerned with perfect pictures and more concerned with the element of surprise. Supply each of your guests with a disposable camera as soon as they walk through your door. Follow the same activity and time guidelines as above, but every 10 minutes have everyone put all the cameras into a bag, shake them up, and then pull out another camera. This really mixes it up!

You could then take a group trip to your nearest one hour photo lab and see if they'd be able to actually print all the pics within an hour. If so, kill some time shopping or grabbing a drink while the pictures are being developed. After you pick them up, take them all back to the apartment and spread them out all over the floor.

You'll come away with a bunch of great pics and possibly some great new decorating ideas with all the excellent photos.

Quick tip: If you keep your apartment well lit, make sure that you don't use the flash. Flashes have a tendency of really white washing out pictures and if you can get around using one because your room is really bright...do it!

Either way you decide to do it, if you end up hosting one of these picture taking events, post your pictures on an account at Flickr and post a link to your pics in a comment on this blog. I'd love to share them in our blogs!

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