Sparks Fly

So you may have noticed that the picture on top of my blog is changed. That's because I changed it. :) I felt it was time to give the paris picture a rest and do something else. But where would I find a picture that was pretty, fit my blog color scheme and fit my personality as well? I shall tell you!

Last night, at about 11 some of our friends came over and invited us to go do steel wool photography with them. Are you wondering what that is exactly? I was too! When I heard steel wool photography I was a little bamboozled, but then they showed us some pictures of the night sky illuminated by strands of light, which looked pretty cool. I wasn't certain how the desired affect was achieved using just steel wool (since my only exposure to the substance had been watching my brother light it with flint and steel in our garage during his scouting days) but I decided to have a little faith and go along anyway.

Basically to this steel wool photography right you need:
steel wool
a whisk
string
lighter
a tripod
a niceish camera
and any props you want

You stuff the steel wool in the whisk, tie the end of the string around the whisk, light the steel wool on fire and then just spin it super duper fast to get sparks flying everywhere. Of course you have to set your camera up on a tripod and get all the settings just right so that the shutter stays open for long enough to catch the light and sparks going everywhere, but how important is that detail really? Just kidding, that's kinda the most important part if you want to capture the event on film. Also, this type of photography is known as "long exposure photography" and works best done at night. The shutter speed is so slow that it only picks up the light and anyone who is standing still for an extended period of time. So if you're moving around with the flaming steel wool, you're invisible in the picture!

But enough talk, you probably want to see the pictures!

This is me spinning the steel wool 

Anise, Josh and I chillin while Jake spun the steel wool 

because we aren't moving, the camera picks us up

but not Jake

Jake, Josh and Ross carrying me

Me! 

And then we decided that we wanted to try out some different poses. Anise pointed out how cute it would be if a couple were "kissing" under the umbrella with the sparks flying in the background. Unfortunately none of us are dating or even remotely romantically interested in each other so what would be the point of taking such cute pictures. We hummed and hawed about it for a bit, but finally decided we would take umbrella kissing pictures just for the sake of ART!!! Plus our faces would be hidden by the umbrella so it's not like anyone would know who it was anyway!

And thus the "kissing" pictures ensued 

Here's Anise and Jake

 They actually turned out better then we though because you can see the silhouette of their heads leaning in towards each other

Here's me and Josh

And then I adjusted the lighting on it just for fun 

After we finished up, we all made a pact to NOT tag each other in these "kissing" pictures on facebook! Everyone was very adamant about making sure that this point was clear! I mean, I don't want people to think I'm dating Josh, Josh doesn't want people to think he's dating me, Anise doesn't want people to think she's dating Jake and Jake doesn't want people to think he's dating Anise. And so in social media we remain nameless silhouettes "kissing" behind an umbrella.
Though I've resolved that as soon as I do get a significant other, I will definitely be hauling Josh out to the middle of nowhere with his camera, steel wool and whisk to take REAL kissing pictures behind an umbrella, because seriously how CUTE would that be!!! :)

~Keep Smiling~ :)