Would you like to see my creepy face? Keep reading.

It's almost one p.m. and it is eighty-three degrees outside. That's not even as hot as the high for today. No matter what I do I am too warm, even just sitting here! The doors and windows are all open, and any breeze that crawls through the house is stagnant and warm. This is California, apparently.

While I work away on today's blog post and accompanying photos I attempt to distract myself from the heat with tasty snacks and ice cold soda. It's not really working. At least sitting at my computer moving only my hands helps to keep the heat levels down. Thank goodness for the small things.

Neat looking building downtown in Culver City. I like how the

colors turned out! We tried to get the back side of the building

as well but, unless we wanted to step into traffic, there were

too many trees in the way. Oh well.

But enough with this downer talk! I have a jam-packed post for you today! This week saw quite a few photo opportunities, thanks to Andrew, and I have a lot to share. This is one of those marvelous times where I have to leave out photos so the post isn't too image heavy. Isn't it great having good "problems"?

I don't believe I mentioned it here, and if I did then clearly I forgot, but I have a new system for making sure I have fun photography experiences each week. As a way to familiarize myself with the area and the city, in addition to photo taking, once a week I'll be picking up Andrew from work and the two of us will go exploring! We started this grand new tradition last Thursday and it was a lot of fun.

Left: Andrew standing in front of the building used for Flynn's Arcade

in Tron! It's some sort of fancy coffee shop. Right: The pizza place

where we had dinner. Yummy garlic knots! (Click to enlarge)

Our plans are very loosely outlined, and the goal is only to find somewhere to take photos. Last week I was in a serious mood for pizza and I told Andrew so when he got into the car. He didn't know of any good, inexpensive places in the area, and my phone wasn't finding anything either. So we called a friend and were directed toward a really good place in Culver City! The pizza was delicious and inexpensive. Once we ate we were geared up to walk around and take photos of some buildings. It was very dark by the time we started, and we left the tripod in the car, so the pictures are fairly noisy. I was able to take things down a notch in editing, but that's just the way things are.

This is the first shot I took to show him what could be done

with zooming during a long exposure.

We went back to the parking garage to head home when Andrew suggested we grab the tripod and take a few panoramic city shots. They weren't turning out all that well, so we directed the camera toward some brightly lit buildings. It was then that I remembered how ridiculously fun it is to spin and zoom and move the camera during a long exposure. I showed this to Andrew and he was immediately excited. I know I have a fairly limited range when it comes to creative endeavors, so it's absolutely fantastic to work with Andrew and get to glean off of his brain. He went ape and did so many fun things. I really look forward to our adventure for this week!

Pretty sure this is a shot that we took together. One of us

rotated the tripod and the zoom, while the other rotated

the focus ring.

At this point I am totally comfortable with the Canon, so familiarization phase is over. The tripod is new though, and very sophisticated, so it's been nice to use that and learn a new piece of equipment. He bought one that is versatile for video as well as stills. We've only used it for video once, a silly thing of me gleefully riding my bike back and forth, but I imagine more moving pictures will happen soon. Maybe I'll even post them here!

This one is my favorite. Another one where we worked together

to rotate the tripod, zoom and focus. 

Last night we had an incredibly fun and impromptu photo shoot based around painting with light. I don't think Andrew had ever done it before, and I have only ever dabbled. He, of course, had a bunch of wonderful and interesting ideas that I had never thought of before. While I simply waved a flashlight around in the dark, he incorporated movement and a variety of dim light sources to great effect. Some to intensely creepy degrees. It felt good to go off of his creative leads in order to do new things.

He makes for a most pensive and calculating wizard.

However, the star of the night was definitely our wizard photos! While we experimented with lighting up one another and adding in magic type shapes and ideas, he suggested I grab my wand (yes I have a wand). This prompted a whole slew of photos of us posing dramatically with light and stars shooting out of the wand. So. much. fun. He has even more ideas, many that I never would have even dreamed of. I'm really excited!

This is my new favorite picture of myself. Taken by Andrew.

The third fun photo opportunity of this week occurred yesterday. For Labor Day we decided to have a bbq and invite some people over. Andrew asked if we could use it as an Eating with Andrew entry, and I happily obliged. He has one entry up so far, but he'd like to do more showcases of his cooking (complete with photographs). I think it's pretty great for us to team up together because it can be content for both of us, practice for both of us, and dinner afterward! I just love happy endings.

Food photography is interesting considering the fact that most 'food photography' is fake food, or non cooked food that is painted to look cooked. I remember learning that instances where one is shown images of hot corn on the cob with melting butter on it that in reality, the corn is cold and the pat of butter is hot. Weird.

Homegrown cucumbers from my garden! Four monstrous ones!

I have a bunch of new sprouts too. Gardening is super fun.

I knew that my goal in helping Andrew was close ups and bright lighting. The first few shots I took looked plastic-y and had gross harsh shadows. I decided to pull out the big guns, so I grabbed my light stand and one of my silver umbrellas. This helped to disperse the light really nicely. Parts of the kitchen are still dark though (which is where a secondary flash unit would be wonderful) but on the whole I think they turned out well.

Most of the problems that I ran into revolved around poorly planned work space (not enough counter area to move other prep items so I could get a clear shot of him working), and also his hands moving too quickly for the camera to focus on time. For a few instances I asked him to pose, which feels awkward, but it achieved the desired effect.

Here's a preview photo for Andrew's upcoming Eating

with Andrew post! Many more will be included there.

He'll have his entry up soon, and I encourage you to take a look at it! Can't wait to see what we find this week :)

Oh, I wanted to ask how people felt about the coloring in the first image. Is it too purple? Is it an OK amount of purple? Is the photo believable, or is the purple too unrealistic? It's how the picture turned out and I like it, but I am very curious to know the opinions of others! I'd love to hear!

-MJ

Bonus creepy image for those of you that stayed for the whole post!