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!

Ireland Day 74 - Rough

Today was rough.

I didn't feel very well today. I'll leave it at that. I ended up curling up at home and recovering while watching Friends and zoning out. The nicest thing was seeing Estella before I stumbled home. She's swell.

For dinner I decided to be bold and order pizza. I have no idea how many minutes are on my phone, so I thought I'd just order through the website.

That didn't go too smoothly.

So, forced to call, I hoped that I'd have enough minutes on my phone to fully place my order. I called my mom yesterday and we spoke for a while, so I believe I am precariously low.

After the guy picked up the phone he asked if he could place me on hold and I felt a bit panicked. Everything went OK though.

Headboard.

I ordered a small cheese pizza and the garlic pizza bread. The woman taking my order told me about a nice deal they were having that was only about 50 cents more and included more toppings, a second side order and two cans of coke.

I politely declined and she asked if I was sure. This happened once more before I said, a bit awkwardly, "It's just me, so I don't really need that much food". She was quiet for a second and said, "Oh, OK."

Thanks pizza lady! D: But seriously, it was a good deal, I think she just wanted to make sure that I knew that I could get quite a bit more food for only 50 cents. It was nice of her and would have been great if I weren't eating alone, heh.

I'm starting to really enjoy X Factor.

-MJ

Ireland Day 73 - Good Day

Indeed.

Sleeping in actually happened. I was so happy when I woke up this morning and saw that it was almost 10! I proceeded to loaf happily in bed, reading the internet and watching Friends.

Around 1:30 I decided that perhaps I should get out of bed and venture out of doors. I had lunch at this pizza place near Joyce's that Miriam suggested. The pizza was super good! I also ordered tea. I'm not really sure why. I guess I'm getting used to drinking it.

The weather has been a bit miserable. One of those especially dark overcast days, feels as though the sun has never quite come up.

I have my sights set on being out and seeing people this evening. Should be nice.

In all of my attempts to avoid doing a countdown, I still look at the calendar and say to myself, "In two weeks I'll be in Washington... :| " I have to follow that up with, "But in five months I'll be back"

Then I just change the subject.

My fingernails grow really rapidly here.

Lazy photo! I'm really truckin' through this book. What will I read on the plane!? D:

-MJ

Ireland Day 63 - Rain

And lots of it! Night before last there was a spectacular thunder/lightening/rain storm and last night there was just a lot of rain. I left for the bus stop a few minutes early because I was running early (how awesome is that?) and I was greeted to a rather neat sight near the park: super deep puddle!

If I hadn't left early I wouldn't have had a chance to stop and take pictures :3

The rest of the day wasn't super eventful. Pretty average, really. I've been in a very good mood the whole time though, so that's nice! I spent my lunch with Caitriona and Steve which certainly helped with the good mood! I ate at a new place as well, delicious sandwich accomplished! Steve discovered Curiosity Cola, endorsed by a dog. It was good times.

I wondered what I would do with the rest of my day, but nothing particularly brilliant came to mind, so I decided I would just shoot on home and skype with Cassidy! Plans formed. I had mini pizzas for dinner. I need to learn to cook.

The rain was so interesting today. It was a nice day for the most part, and then while I was walking to the bus stop after work it started to sprinkle, and then rained fairly heavy. So I stood and smiled at the sky with my headphones on. I would have spread my arms wide if I hadn't been in public. The bus ride was kind of funny, there's new upholstery on the seats and halfway through the route we got a new bus driver! When I got off the bus it was overcast, and then ten feet from my front door is started to just. pour. It was exciting.

Rain like this never seems to last long so I didn't have a big enough window to experiment and get exactly what I was looking for.

I wanted to take a photo so badly but I had to use the bathroom even more (I have had an extreme amount of water today). By the time I ran back and flung open the front door there was no rain. NONE! It had stopped. "Are you kidding me?!" I yelled. After trudging upstairs and unloading my bag, to my great delight, the rain started again! So open went my bedroom window and I took as many photos as I could until the rain stopped.

Remaining droplets.

Now I am watching 17 Again (brilliant film, by the way) and wondering. Wondering wondering.

-MJ