#actually decent photos from my camera coming later ish

[gorps]

Went to go visit the diner from mulholland drive:)

[cornerverse-fma]

Monster AU:

Since it’s Halloween, let’s post this son of a bitch that I’ve been holding onto for months!

So, basically, it’s ‘AU where most characters are some sort of Magic Creature’. Because fuck it, you know? The story itself is kinda canon-parallel, but I haven’t thought out everything.

Anyway, first I’m starting off with tidbits on various creatures and stuff instead of straight into the story!

Ed and Al, and Hohenheim – Dragon

Technically Ed and Al are half-Dragon/half-Human, but due to Human Adaptability, Monster/Human Hybrids come out full monster(Monster/Monster Hybrids are rare, but would have abilities from both).

Ed and Al are also bumped up in age, being 18-ish. (so are the rest of the teens but whatever)

First up is the Monster Lore:

Dragon Magic is remains dormant until Awakened(because would you trust the unbridled chaos of a toddler with the ability to set stuff on fire?). It’s designed to be Awakened by another Dragon(usually a parent/guardian) after hitting puberty-age. Ed manages to find a loophole in this.

Dragons have three forms. Full Dragon, Human Disguise, and ‘Midform’(Human with Draconic features like wings, horns, claws, tail, and some scale freckles). Most Dragons feel most comfortable in Midform. While the Midform is still Human-sized, the Full Dragon form gets bigger with age! Ed and Al are young so they’re about the size of a small horse, but Hohenheim is 450-ish and enormous.

While they have the standard Dragon abilities of flight and fire, they also have general spellcasting abilities. Speaking of, another Dragon Ability is to either resist/deflect Magic, or enhance it, depending on if they want it used on them or not. It can even work subconsciously. For example, Ed and Al trust Winry, so her using Magic on them will always work, but they will resist spells from random people. This is another thing that gets stronger with age, as Ed and Al only have high resistance, but it’s difficult to find a spell powerful enough to get through Hohenheim.

Dragon Hoards are also a thing, but not in the usual gold/jewels way. Think of the Unusual Dragon Hoards art. A Dragon picks an item and creates a collection. When the instinct first kicks in, the Dragon will gather up as many items as they can find and just pile it up somewhere and not let anyone in. It calms down after a day or two. Ed’s hoard is actually friends because he’s a dork like that, but it gets difficult when he suddenly has five people in a cuddle pile and gets Very Upset when they try to get up.

Dragon Magic is Unique in it’s Source. Most Magic has an external Source(Fey have Nature, Witches have Spells, Vampires use others’ blood, etc.) A Dragon’s source is their own Life Energy. Using Magic will use up their Life Energy, but it replenishes itself with time, rest, and food. Despite being tied to their Life Energy, it’s very difficult to die from overusing Magic, as the Dragon will likely pass out from exhaustion before it gets unstable.

Very long-lived, but not Immortal. They age at the same rate as Humans until their twenties, and then aging slows dramatically. For example, Hohenheim is 450-ish, but is equal to a 30-ish year old Human.

Also! Colors! The colors of a Dragon’s scales are not genetic. It’s determined by the emotions they feel when their powers are Awakened. Ed is red, a color of passion and love, Al is green for a sense of belonging, and Hohenheim is white for freedom. (Accent colors like on horns and claws and such are still their usual gold)

On to character-specific tidbits:

Ed and Al

A lot of their story mirrors Canon, in that Hohenheim left for reasons unknown, and Trisha ends up dying. They do kinda get on a ‘maybe we can cook up some necromancy?’ idea, but that’s shut down real quick.

Ed still loses his leg somehow, because that’s constant in all my Aus.

Instead of focusing on fixing their shit, the boys are instead trying to figure out what the hell they are. Because, like, no one really knew that Hohenheim was a Dragon. They knew he was more than just a Witch, but they didn’t know what he was. He did tell Trisha, but neither of them told the boys. And since Dragon Magic remains dormant until Awakened, they’ve experienced minimal side effects. None of which are common Monster traits.

So they’re studying different Monsters in a hope to figure out what they are. The plan if they run across Hohenheim is to ask what they are and also punch him(Ed says punch first then ask, Al says ask and maybe punch.)

This does lead them to working for Mustang.

Hohenheim

His story also probably mirrors Canon. I’m not entirely sure what all goes down or how Father functions in this AU(I think I’m doing the ‘evil twin’ thing again, in which case I’m making him a black dragon for contrast!).

Him leaving is definitely still connected to this, though when he’s not actively working on that he uses the whole ‘Dragons can negate most Magic and are rare enough that people don’t have special defenses for them’ thing to help people out. Especially Monsters that get kidnapped for various reasons.

Hohenheim is also less depressed in this AU! Like, obvs he still has some issues. But being 450 years old is a lot more common so he doesn’t have that Angst™ hanging over him. Nor does he have the Angst™ of said Immortality being gained through a bunch of murder, since it’s just his natural lifespan. So we get to see more of his not-depressed side.

Winry – Witch

Monster Lore is short this time. Witches in this Universe are highly debated about whether they are Monsters or not, as they are basically just ‘Humans with the ability to use Magic’. Different people have different opinions on it.

Winry(and her family) consider themselves more on the Monster side, doing doctor stuff for all sorts of creatures.

Of course Automail is still a thing, and of course the Rockbell family is well known for it. Specifically, they make Automail that also hooks into a Monster’s Magic, and will function as they do. For example, Ed’s still missing a leg in this AU. So when he switches between Human, Dragon, and Midform, he needs his leg to change too.

Ling, Greed, and Lust – Vampires.

So, a few character tidbits before the Monster Lore:

Ling:

Despite being a Vampire, he’s still the same age as Ed. He was only Turned a couple years ago. Reasons for that are… not fun. It involves an abusive ex, becoming friends with Greed and Lust to get out of that, and ends in a ‘only way to save his life is to make him a vampire’ situation.

Before that he was just a Witch. Kinda neutral on the ‘are Witches ‘Monster’ or ‘Human’?’ debate, but Monster-friendly.

Greed and Lust

Much like my Groupchat AU, the Sins Crew and Father are mostly not related except for these two, and the Sins did work for Father for a while but they’ve all kinda fucked off. (The Sins crew do mostly stay in contact though).

Used to be Human(maybe Witches?). They were from a noble family about 200 years ago. Greed was Turned thanks to political drama, and was kicked out of the family. Lust willingly went with him.

While they’re around 200, due to Vampires being a bit frozen in time, they’re only a little older than Ed and Ling.

They operate this Universe’s version of the Devil’s Nest, which is a Montser-friendly bar.

Some Vampire Lore applies, some doesn’t.

They don’t have to be ‘invited in’(But they typically stick to societal rules of ‘don’t break in like a jackass’)

Sunlight and Garlic sort of bother them, but not like in some lore. They’re designed to be nocturnal, so being out in the sun is like ‘wtf???’ to their senses. Same with Garlic, which can easily overload their sense of smell(but so can any strong smell)

They can be burned by silver

The no reflection/can’t be photographed thing is sort of true. Old mirrors and cameras used silver. Nowadays mirrors use cheap metals and photo/video is digital, so they show up.

Religious symbols are tricky. It depends on how much the Vampire and the person warding them off believe in said religion.

Vampires have an ‘Enthrall Enchantment’, but it’s not, like, straight up hypnotism. It just kinda makes the person they’re biting feel a bit good and fuzzy and not really in pain. It also helps heal the bite afterward. I’ll discuss this more later.

Vampires need blood, but it doesn’t have to be Human blood. It’s just safest because Monster Blood can have various side effects.

Werewolf blood causes an effect similar to alcohol.

Fae blood causes a different prank each time(minor stuff, like turning your hair purple for a week)

Blood from Monsters related to Religions(like Angels or Demons) are actually poisonous.

Dragon blood causes a large power boost.

This is the Loophole Ed found for Awakening Dragon Magic.

The blood they drink has to be relatively fresh. ‘Straight from the tap’ is best, a vial of blood is good for a few hours

There is the question of ‘do Vampires need blood to live?’.

Technically? They get very weak if they don’t, especially in the Magic Department. But they usually die from said weakness than outright ‘not getting blood’.  

Vampires are Immortal as long as they continue to drink blood. even to the point of self-healing if they have enough.

Technically, a Vampire doesn’t need to eat or sleep if they have a decent blood source. However, it is better for them if they do as they can last longer between ‘drinks’.

Much like the other side effects I listed before, different blood lasts longer. Dragon blood would last longer than Human blood, for example.

Mustang –  Faerie (Fire-based)

An odd choice for him, but I’m running with it!

Time for Monster Lore:

All Fae love legal loopholes and the bullshit technicalities.

Usually Faeries are somewhat allergic to metal(especially iron). Occasionally there are ones that have no issue it, but it’s super rare.

A Faerie’s Magic Source is some form of nature. Fire-based ones have the ability to sort of create their own source(they can magically light fire to become their source). Think how stuff works in ATLA. Water users need a body of liquid, earth users need earth, but fire users can kinda make it themselves in decent conditions.

They’re still effected by other Elements though. Mustang’s whole ‘useless in the rain’ thing is still a problem. Even more than Canon. Like, he won’t die if put in water(the man has to shower sometimes), but it does make him very low-energy and overall weaker. He does not like swimming.

Also! Faerie Wings!! Gotta have those! The colors resemble a Faerie’s respective Source Element, but aren’t made out of it, so no literal fire wings. They do glow a lot when using powerful Magic. They can also be ‘put away’ to pass as Human(or just for convenience of not knocking shit over in narrow hallways).

Character tidbits

One of the few Fae that don’t have an issue with metals.

Between that, and the fact that the wings are usually ‘put away’, most people assume he’s just a Witch. He doesn’t correct them as it does make him more liked.

He subconsciously feels a connection to Ed and Al due to his Fire Magic nature picking up on their Dragon Fire. It’s one of the reasons why he tolerates their shenanigans(the other reason being that after about ten minutes getting to know them he was like ‘okay you’re my kids now’)

mini things on other characters that I don’t have story for yet:

The rest of the Sins Crew:

Envy is a shapeshifter(of course).

Pride is some sort of shadow monster(again, of course.)

Sloth is one of those Dream Eater Spirit things? You know what I’m talking about. He spends most of his time asleep in the Dream Realm.

Idk about Gluttony or Wrath yet.

Mustang’s Team!

Idk what everyone is yet, but they’re all Monsters of some sort.

Hawkeye is absolutely something with wings tho because HAWKeye!

Not sure what Mei is. Maybe just a Witch, but maybe something more? (obvs on her mom’s side though).

I also want to put Lan Fan in, but I’m not sure where or what she’d be? I think what happens here is that she was friends with Ling, but then his whole ‘bad relationship and becoming a Vampire’ thing happens. She feels guilty for not protecting him from that, and they end up going separate ways for a while, but they’d end up reconnecting at some point.

Story Plot Points!

The whole thing kinda kicks off because Ed and Ling are dating. Yes. Really.

Like, they get to that point in the relationship where Ling invites Ed over and is like “Okay, so I’m not actually Human?”. Because that’s a talk people have to have at somepoint

Ed’s like “cool me neither?”. He further explains the whole thing of how he knows he’s a Monster of some sort but doesn’t know which kind.

He then proceeds to ask a fuckton of questions about Vampires because he hasn’t studied one in-person before, and he noticed Ling goes against the typical rules(can’t go in sunlight, must be invited in, etc.)

As they’re talking on this, Ling mentions that different Monster blood has different effects.

Ed’s thought process is that he could use this to narrow down the search for what kind of monster he is by seeing the effect his blood has on Ling.

Ling’s… hesitant for several reasons.

But Ed insists and makes it very clear that he’s okay with it.

This is where the loopholes kick in!

As Vampire Magic uses the blood they drink, it also counts as the Magic of that creature. So Ling using Ed’s blood qualifies as Dragon Magic, and since the Enthrallment is in effect, that kickstarts Ed’s Magic.

This causes a panic as Ling’s Magic is suddenly a hell of a lot stronger and the Enthrallment is a lot more intense.

There’s also panic because once they stop that part, Ed’s just like ‘Holy FUCK I feel GREAT!’, but Ling knows he shouldn’t feel that good right now and he’s overheating. He’s like ‘Okay, that good feeling is probably you hallucinating or something so let’s go into the bathroom in case you throw up?’

And then Ed just kinda bursts into flames? Luckily they were already in the bathroom so Ling just kinda douses him in the shower.

Next day they head back to Ed’s place (He and Al live with Winry in this AU?). And they explain what happened. They agree that they have a decent lead here, but they need someone more knowledgeable. And, well, Ling knows some people.

Ling takes them down to the Devils’ Nest. As mentioned, Greed and Lust run the place.

They talk to Greed mostly. After explaining everything, he tells Ed to try something. Said thing ends with the boy breathing fire.

Greed’s just like ‘congrats kid you’re a fucking Dragon!’.

Greed and Lust share various tidbits about what they know about Dragons, but admit that there’s probably a lot of stuff they’re forgetting or just straight up don’t know.

They explain the whole ‘dormant Magic only activated by Dragon Magic’, and the probable loophole.

They also explain that once Ed finishes the ‘Awakening’, he’ll be able to ‘Awaken’ Al’s Magic easily. (Though Greed does offer to recreate the loophole(Al is very flustered but currently declines))

Speaking of, they do warn Ed that there’s a bit more to go through. Mostly that he’ll have three forms, but the first time he transforms will be involuntary and painful. Best way to deal with it is ‘when you feel your back start to itch like crazy, take some strong pain meds and lay on your stomach’.

By the time they get back home, Ed’s starting to feel that. So he decides to just go to bed early, and everyone else just kinda tries to sleep too. (like, he says he’s fine and they don’t hear him screaming so he’s probably good?). Ling also stays, but since Ed wants his space for this he stays on the couch.

Next morning, Ed comes down and everyone is fuckin floored. They’re staring but he doesn’t notice at first because he’s very hungry and raiding the fridge for everything.

Basically, since his Magic was supposed to be awakened years ago, his body kinda stopped growing, resulting in him looking a bit ‘stuck at 15’. Now the Magic is making up for lost time, so it’s a somewhat literal ‘puberty hit him like a truck’ situation. (Ling and Winry are both like hearteyesmotherfucker!

Like, you know that picture comparing Ed in the early episodes of fma:b to the later episodes and being all ‘look how much he grew!’? That, but overnight. Ya boi got kinda tall. He’s still shorter than Ling but he’s taller than Winry. (With the potential to grow taller now!)

One of the reasons for the height is that he’s in his midform, aka: Human with Draconic features. This includes his legs being digitigrade, so it’s kinda like he’s constantly standing on his toes. (His Human form is technically shorter because of this).

They also focus on the Dragon-y features more. Like the wings, and the horns, and the tail!! His eyes are the slit-pupil thing, and while his teeth have always been kinda sharp he now has full on fangs. Then they also notice his arms transitioning from skin to scale, starting at the elbow until his hands are claws. (his regular leg also does this from the knee down). His ears are also pointed and scale covered, and he has a few scale freckles on his cheeks.

They have about five minutes of normal before something goes weird. Because suddenly Ed is being ridiculously clingy but is seemingly unaware of how weird that is and cannot seem to explain why.

They’re like ‘why are you hugging me?’ and he’s like ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’. And like, if they try to step away for a minute he gets very Upset™

Somehow they manage to make it back to the Devils’ Nest to ask Greed. The group finds a seat on a couch and at this point Ed’s in full cuddle mode, just hugging the three of them and laying across them and he’s kinda like a cat on catnip.

When Greed gets within five feet, Ed suddenly shoots up and stares at him. He freezes, waiting for Ed to make a move. When Ed nods, he takes a step closer. When he takes a second step, Ed pounces forward and drags him into the cuddle pile.

Greed is mildly confused, but explains to the others that this is just the ‘hoarding instinct’ kicking in, and he’ll be back to normal soon enough.

Since he’s not allowed to leave(Ed is stronger than he looks and also even if Greed could leave Ed’s fucking face is too much), he kinda tells Lust to take over running the bar for the day.

The whole ‘get within five feet and Ed shoots up’ thing happens with her, but Greed calms Ed down by saying ‘it’s okay she’s a friend’.

Of course, when she goes to leave, she finds that while she was out of range of Ed leaning over to grab her, she didn’t notice the tail around her leg.

She gets dragged in, and while Greed tells someone else to take over(from a distance), he also suggests they take this party upstairs.

Al says a thing about ‘can you stop flirting for five seconds?’. Greed responds with a ‘while I would love to invite you to my bed for other reasons, now is not the time’.

Al gets oddly flustered by this

They’re trying to figure out what the connection is between all of them that makes them part of Ed’s Hoard. Lust asks more directly ‘why the fuck did you drag me into this??’. And Ed just points to Greed and says ‘He said you are a friend.’. as if it makes complete sense.

Turns out that Ed’s hoard is friendship. And combined with the fact that(despite his grumpiness) he gets easily attached, it took little for Greed and Lust to be considered friends.

Everyone does have the freedom to leave, and sometimes they do because they need to get up and stretch or use the bathroom or grab a snack. But whenever they do Ed just sits up and stares at the door until they come back.

By the next morning, Ed’s kind of back to normal. Like, he still has the instinct in there and all, but everyone can do their own thing and Ed’s a lot more calm. He’s also very embarrassed about the whole thing.

Of course, Ed and Al remember they were supposed to drop by Mustang’s office a few days ago. Mostly because they get a call like ‘are y’all okay?’.

Ed shifts into the Human Disguise form to head down there, but everyone still notices something is up because he’s suddenly the same height as Hawkeye.

They’re all like ‘okay kid. Drop whatever tall spell you found this time’. Ed just grins maniacally and says ‘it’s no spell! I look like this now!’. Al confirms it, but is realizing how obnoxious Ed’s going to be about the height.

They explain that they figured out what the hell they are, and Ed shows off both the full Dragon form and the Midform.

Obvs the team asks how they figured it out, and Ed explains that Dragon Magic is dormant until another Dragon Awakens it, but they found a loophole.

‘Wait, a loophole? What loophole?’, “Uh… a Vampire using my blood?’, ‘Did you get attacked by a Vampire?!’, ‘No, it’s a friend and I asked him to because different monster blood has different effects’, ‘and you were okay with a guy just getting all up in your personal space and biting your neck like that?’, “Well, he’s the kind of friend where I’d be okay with him‘getting all up in my personal space and biting my neck’ anyway.’. ‘Oh.’

Yeah. They didn’t know Ed was dating anyone, much less a guy. So that’s a conversation.

When asked why it’s just Ed who went through the whole thing while Al’s still ‘normal’, they say that they’re mostly waiting to see what all happens to Ed and how to deal with it.

Although, Ed does point out that if they don’t do it soon it’ll probably happen accidentally since it’s basically a ‘next time he uses Magic on Al situation’.

Then Ed’s like ‘Or, you know, you could always ask Greed to ‘recreate the loophole!’. Al gets very flustered again and is just like ‘willyoushutthefuckuppleaseohmyfuckinggod’

Overall, they’d like some report on what else they find out.

Next plot goes on to ‘testing out powers’. Specifically. The boys want to test out the ‘resist and enhance’ aspect.

They bring in Ling and Greed for this, killing two birds with one stone and also studying the Vampire’s Enthrallment at the same time.

Of the various things they’re testing:

Resisting the spell

‘enhancing’ the spell

differences between the resist/enhance skill of an Awakened Dragon vs. not Awakened

if the Enthrallment Enchantment is different between Vampires(and between who it’s being used on)

Ed and Al also already came up with a ‘payment method’, since they’ll be asking Greed and Ling to use up a bunch of Magical Energy to do this. Said payment is, of course, blood. Ed will ‘pay’ for Ling, while Greed and Al get to ‘recreate the loophole’.

We’re going to jump right into my Al/Greed Rarepair because fuck it it’s my fanfic and I pick the ships!

So their banter has been going back and forth for a bit. Like, at first it was just Greed flirting and Al getting flustered, but once Al gets into the rhythm he can kinda flirt back but neither really realized it was more than banter until now

Al realizes it because of what they figure out about the Enthrallment. Because it effected them differently and the emotions it brought forth wasn't anything unfamiliar. Like, Al found Ling’s Enthrallment to be comfortable, because he’s a friend. But Greed’s made him fluttery and giddy and all that. Meanwhile, Ed felt the opposite.

So when they are alone and he has Greed biting his neck, Al ends up going in for a kiss.

And while the feeling is returned, it leaves Greed somewhat flustered and confused. He manages to distract Al with the ‘you’re probably gonna catch fire in a minute so maybe deal with that first’ thing.

Next time they really see each other is after Al’s turn with the ‘puberty hit him like a truck’ situation, but Greed’s kind of… he’s still a little hesitant and confused about things so he’s giving Al space, but Al doesn’t know that so it’s like ‘is he avoiding me?? Why??’.

Al even wonders if it has something to do with his Midform, and tends to stay in Human Disguise more often around Greed.

Next time they’re alone for a bit they end up talking that out though. And also making out I guess.

Okay! So! A Lot of other plot stuffhappens.

Like, probably things like meeting other characters and also the rest of the Sins Crew, finding out about various fuckery going on. I mean, I did say that while the Sins Crew all kinda left, Father himself is still an Asshole™ and doing some major villain stuff.

So they find out all that and a bunch of other things too. I haven’t thought all that out yet.

Out of the stuff that I have planned out though, the next thing to happen is Ed getting a little kidnapped. Idk exactly ‘why’, other than ‘some assholes are grabbing random monsters’, but who knows what they’re doing with them it’s not important.

Anyway, Ed’s already on his way to break out, when he happens to run into Hohenheim.

Oh boy is that a trip. I mean, first off we have them just being ‘why the fuck are you here? Why am I here? Why are you here?!’ and just generally being that pointing spiderman meme. After the initial shock, Ed’s kinda ready to punch, but then Hohenheim just says things that Ed didn’t expect.

Like, Ed expected Hohenheim to just be some asshole who never cared. But he’s immediately concerned about Ed and seems to, you know, care about him.

The thing that really hits him though is when he says something along the lines of ‘Let’s get you out of here and back home. Your mother’s probably worried about you!’.

He realizes ‘oh god he has no clue’. And then he realizes ‘oh god I’m going to have to tell him’.

And like, I’m not gonna get too into that Angst Fest™, but there is kind of a minor breakdown because how else do you react to that news?

But that whole thing is enough to make Ed stop and think things through and overall give Hohenheim chance.

They then end up going on their own adventures while Ed tries to get back home.

And of course various strange bonding experiences happen along the way

A lot of that bonding is learning about Dragon Tricks. Especially flying because while Ed kinda figured out a little bit he hasn’t had anyone with wings(or at least the same kind of wings) to really teach him.

During one flight Ed suddenly catches a familiar scent

obvs everyone is looking for Ed, and he manages to find Ling, Greed and Lust

Ed does a literal flying tackle at Ling and knocks him over. There’s a minor fight because Ling doesn’t realize he’s not being attacked but you know.

After hugging the fuck out of Ling, Ed tells Greed and Lust to get down there too. Greed’s like ‘hell no I’m not getting on the ground to hug you!’ but he forgets about the tail. Lust gives in.

They ask what the fuck happened and Ed’s like ‘where do I even begin??’

At some point Hohenheim had popped up and is like ‘maybe start with introductions?”

then you get the comedic thing of the Vampires looking up, and then continuing to look up, and then being terrified of the giant fucking dragon.

Ed’s just all causal like ‘so, uh, I found my dad?’.

Walking into the nearest town is fun

Ed’s kinda clinging to Ling because goddamn it he was lonely!

At some point Ling kinda starts to stumble a little and Ed’s concerned. Greed says ‘he’s fine he’s just and idiot’.

Basically Ling hasn’t had any blood since the last time he drank from Ed. Which was a while ago at this point, so he’s kinda getting a little weak. Not dangerously but imagine the feeling of pulling an all nighter without caffeine.

Ed offers, but Ling brushes it off by saying if he took a drink now, then Ed would be the one weak and stumbling so it doesn’t make a difference, it can wait until they get a place to stay for the night.

Not putting up with that shit, Ed transforms into Full Dragon and offers a ride. Ling’s a little bit like ‘really??’

Greed’s kinda jokingly like ‘why don’t I get offered a ride?’. Ed says ‘well, when we get back home you can ask Al.” Greed opens his mouth to make a joke, looks over to Hohenheim, and decides he really should shut up.

Lust is kinda like ‘hey. Why are we walking into town when we have a large Dragon that can carry all of us?’

Hohenheim’s answer is ‘First of all, I am not a taxi service. Furthermore, if people saw a large Dragon land in the middle of town, they would freak the fuck out.

Ling falls asleep on the way back.

They manage to get a hotel room in the next town they come across. Ed and Ling get their own room, of course.

They go to do the whole ‘blood drinking’ thing, but Ling’s still very hesitant.

Ed has noticed this a lot and at first he figured it was the typical ‘I’m new to being a Vampire and hesitant to do something so weird/taboo/etc.’ thing, but now he’s getting the feeling its something else and ends up asking about it.

So, big trigger warning for that whole ‘abusive relationship’ thing I mentioned way back in the beginning. But, like, that’s kind of what’s up. Like, his Ex used to use the effect of the Enchantment to be manipulative. And Ling’s kind of afraid of accidentally doing that to Ed.

Ed just points out that 1. he knows when Ling is using the enchantment and knows how to separate his feelings from it, 2. the enchantment itself doesn’t make him feel all love-y (he brings up the whole ‘testing it with Greed’ thing as proof, since it didn’t spark any romance with Greed.), and 3. Ed is a Dragon. His own Magic can cancel out the Enchantment if he chooses to do so.

The whole thing does get Ling to relax about it. It’ll still take a while for him to get comfortable using it on Ed, but now Ed knows to not try doing anything romantic while under the Enchantment.

Okay! On with that! The group eventually gets back to home base and they meet up with Al and Winry and whoever else is a friend at this point.

Ed fucking tackle hugs them, of course.

After that Al and Winry notice Hohenheim and they can’t even figure out how to process that they just gesture like ‘what the fuck?’

Ed explains what happened and they’re kind of like ‘you know what fine.

Time for more family bonding with Hohenheim talking to Al for a while.

Time for another Rarepair because this is my fic and I choose the ships!

So, like, Mustang meeting Hohenheim.

Mustang’s just like, staring for a bit. And it’s not helped by the fact that Hohenheim has no sense of personal space when he’s investigating other creatures(because he’s a nerd and that’s what he likes to do).

Mustang is flustered to the point that Ed and Al actually notice and are like ‘bruh what is up with you?”

Obviously he lies as tries to say it’s a reaction to a large source of fire magic. Ed and Al are like ‘really? Because you never do that around us.’

Someone (Probably Hughes) eventually calls him out says ‘magic reaction my ass you think the guy’s pretty!’

Ed and Al are confused by this revelation but are kinda chill with it? Mostly they don’t know how to feel so they’re just going to be chill out of confusion. 

That’s all I got on the plot so far because fuck it.

[sarakuper]

Zion National Park, Utah (again!)

Stop #34, Nov 3-6

For our second time in Zion on this trip Sean and I had a truly unforgettable experience as we completed two bucket list hikes. If my only mother knew what I was doing, she would have killed me…. but don’t worry Ma! We did it all very safely and came back in one piece. 

We arrived Sunday afternoon at the same dispersed camping site we stayed at back in July when we visited the first time. This time we camped at a spot higher up with views overlooking another beautiful canyon.  We set up camp, cooked dinner, played Kaluche (yes, I won.. again!), and mapped out our next day. We talked about doing Angel’s Landing, a very popular and difficult hike, about 5.4 miles long, that challenges anyones fear of heights. This hike boasts incredible views of the Zion Canyon and the need to use chains to climb all the way to the top of Angel’s Landing. A large majority of the hike is your typical, but also gorgeous, steep hike with several switchbacks. The last quarter of a mile (sounds short, right?) is where you risk your life holding onto chains and climbing up a steep and narrow cliff. 1-2 feet off the “trail” in either direction and splat, you’re dead. Honestly, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It’s such a popular trail, people are basically waiting in line to climb to Angel’s landing! On average one person per year dies on this hike, but thousands of people hike it each year. Possibly hundreds of thousands. While we were discussing the possibility of this hike, Sean was unsure he would do it. He doesn’t fear many things (or at least doesn’t show it), but his fear of heights is real.

Monday morning came and we started our accent. Several switchbacks later we reached Scouts Lookout which is a plateau just before the risky climb to Angel’s Landing. This area was super crowded, and Sean and I were thinking “Let’s climb to the top and then come back here for lunch”. Angel’s landing is literally 0.5 miles away, so I thought this would be quick and we’d be eating lunch in no time. I also thought the portion of the hike we did was pretty much as risky as it gets… maaaaaaan was I wrong. 

Here is where the chains just begin. It was so crowded in this area, but we are so close right? I thought it was just around the bend. We started using the chains and I turned back to Sean where he shook his head at me. He didn’t need to use words; I knew this meant he wasn’t coming. I nodded back and continued on thinking to myself “this will be quick!”. Well, I got around the bend passing a large majority of the crowds, and there it was.. the scariest view I’ve ever seen. Reality set in as I actually saw the treacherous 0.5 mile hike ahead to the top of Angel’s Landing. At this point I thought “I’m already here. I made it this far. I’m doing it.”. 

A few minutes into the climb I made friends with the people immediately ahead and behind me. Most of them also came with a parter that stayed back at Scout’s Lookout. We encouraged each other and thought out loud “holy shit this is so dangerous and sketchy”. I don’t have a particular fear of heights, but I couldn’t even look to the right or left of me. All I could do was look down at my feet and the immediate steps ahead. I was terrified. This is where I thought to myself… if my mother knew what I was doing…  

I wanted to turn back. I was actually thinking this hike is so freaking stupid because of how dangerous it is. How is it possible that its crowded with hundreds (and maybe thousands) of people doing it each day!? There was no turning back now. We scrambled up the entire way, using the chains to pull ourselves up and to hold onto for dear life. But I did it. I made it to the top. I was so shook, I barely took any photos. I sat down and stayed down feeling the comfort of the ground below me. After the first set of chains I had to put my camera in my backpack because I needed it out of the way during the climb. One of the girls I climbed with forced me to get up and take pictures, and so here they are. 

I was very anxious to get down and be reunited with Sean. This “short” climb took way longer than I expected and I had already been gone for an hour. So, with most of the same people I climbed up with, we began our decent back to Scouts Lookout. I thought the way down would be way worse for 2 reasons; 1- navigating around the uphill traffic. There was NO room for two way traffic, and the large amounts of people doing this made it extra dangerous. 2- going down you are looking directly at the cliffs beside you. You are looking at how you will fall and die if you misstep. So yeah, thinking about the downhill made me even more scared. But as it turns out, and I’m not sure why, the decent back was actually less scary than the way up. I made it back to Scouts Lookaut and found Sean, immediately running into his arms for a huge hug. I wasn’t sure if he was worried about me because I was gone for so long, but he gave me a huge smile and high five. He actually climbed up to a different viewpoint and was watching me climb up and down through his binoculars. He was very proud of me and also felt reaffirmed that he didn’t do it because of what he saw through the binoculars and because of what I shared about it. This might have been the craziest thing I’ve ever done and I will never do it again. But damn I DID IT!!

After the hike into the Grand Canyon my legs were absolutely fried. I was very excited that after completing Angel’s Landing my legs and body felt strong and were not aching in pain. I guess the South Kaibab hike to Skeleton’s point was a good warm up hike after all! 

That afternoon and evening we prepared for our next adventure, hiking to The Subway from the bottom up. We rented water shoes and socks from a local rental shop. A few days prior I inquired with the Wilderness department at Zion about a getting a permit to do this hike. It’s a non maintained trail in the backcountry that takes route finding, scrambling, and hiking through water to complete. I tried to get a permit for this hike back in July but was denied because they reached the maximum number of people to permit for that day. Looking back I’m so glad I was denied then; I was not a strong enough hiker to complete this challenge! Looking at the stats this hike is 9.1 miles and 1,500 feet in elevation gain. I’ve completed hikes with more challenging statistics, so I was confident that I could do it. But this hike is a lot more technical and complex than that. And no matter how much we read about it, I didn’t realize how challenging this hike actually was until we were there doing it. 

The trailhead was almost 1.5 hours away, and so we hit the road before 7am to get a decently early start. We started the hike on a normal path for about 0.5 miles before completing a very (and I mean VERY) steed downward climb to the river. Once we made it to the river we placed neon rope around the area as a marker so we knew where to get out of the river on the return. We didn’t see a “trail” at this point, so we hiked through the river upstream. As long as we follow the river we will make it to The Subway.

After about 30 minutes navigating around rocks and trying to not to slip, we realized we were moving very slowly. We needed to find the trail so we could get a move on. Sean found the “trail”, which came and went every few minutes. We crossed the river, climbed, and jumped over large rocks and boulders to make our way through. It felt very strenuous, and was taking much longer than a typical hike. This gave me a serious appreciation for maintained trails where all I needed to do was “follow”. But Sean was our guide that day, and when I wanted to turn around because it was too hard he gave me the tough love I needed to make it to the end. It was me who wanted to do The Subway so badly anyway! Well, after 4 hours (yes, it took 4 hours to go 4.5 miles!) we made it to The Subway. And WOW, this place was absolutely spectacular. I will let the photos speak for themselves.

We took enjoyed the scenery, took photos, ate lunch, and began our hike back in hopes to make it back for Jaxon before sunset. It turns out the hike back was a lot easier and went by much faster. Maybe that’s because we actually found the “trail” and did a lot less hiking through the river and scrambling compared to our way up. Oh, and did I mention there are dinosaur tracks right along this trial? Seriously! They are very hard to find, but with our AllTrails map we were able to spot them!

We made it back to the car around 4pm taking us a total of 7.5 hours to complete this hike. We were proud of ourselves as we left the trail feeling very accomplished! I could never have done this hike without Sean and am grateful for his ability to navigate us safely and push me  with tough love and encouragement when I needed it most.

What an incredible two days we just had. What an amazing 4 months its been.

We have another week of traveling in the trailer and visiting national parks before we begin preparing for the next chapter of our trip. Once we get to Denver on Nov 13(ish), this amazing part of our journey will come to an end.

I’m feeling very grateful for all the new places we’ve seen, experiences we’ve had, and for the time me, Sean, and Jaxon have spent together just us in the small quarters of our trailer thats become our home. It will be hard to say goodbye to our mobile home, but significantly harder to say goodbye to Jaxon. That is something we are really not looking forward to; my heart breaks just thinking about it.

Thanks for reading, love you all.

[pauldeckerus]

Guest Blog: Architecture and Airplane Photographer Mike Kelley

How My Career Turned Into One Massive Personal Project In 2011, I had just moved to Los Angeles from northern California. I got a little sick and tired of living the snowboard bum life, even though I found a nice little niche working as a real estate photographer in the Lake Tahoe area. Unfortunately by this time, the injuries (and the associated depression) were piling up. On nearly a whim, I moved to Los Angeles in an attempt to snap out of the funk I was in.

This decision was based on the fact that I had heard one way or another that it was sort of the capital of art and design in America, a title which may or may not be true depending on who you ask. I knew essentially nothing of the city beyond also hearing that people were self-absorbed and the traffic was ridiculous, but I’d made my decision, and in August of 2011 I packed everything into a tiny uHaul and drove the 6 hours south to a city my entire prior experience with consisted of transiting LAX.

For the first few weeks I was like a deer in the headlights. I grew up in New England and Los Angeles is a serious departure from that – windy mountain roads and corner stores turned into boulevards and 405 gridlock – but it offered tons of new photographic material. I would shoot nearly constantly, putting a tripod down in front of any new-ish looking building I could find and taking pictures to fill out my portfolio, which at that time consisted of mostly Tahoe log cabins.

I’d arrived in Los Angeles with around $2,000 to my name and it was dwindling quickly, as it tends to do when you show up in a new city for the first time. All I knew was that I had to start making money somehow, and I had decided a few years prior that photography was going to be my career. Being a rather naive 23 year old (I’m now 31 and not much better), I spent probably half of my at that point $600 net worth on $300 worth of printed brochures and started going to door to door to the office of any business that could require photos of architecture. Architects, interior designers, realtors, developers, couch designers, if they worked in the architectural industry in even a tangential way, I was there.

95% of those first efforts ended with me being laughed out the door or stopped by a secretary, but by the 10th or so attempt I had this down like clockwork. Of the 5% who actually stopped to talk to me, 2% weren’t interested, another 2% said they might call me back in the future but thanks for stopping in, and 1% – probably four or five business in total out of hundreds – wanted to work with me right then and there. I’d hit them at the perfect time they said, and they needed a photographer for something or other. And how much did I charge, by the way? Okay – great – we’ll call you.

The unintentional beauty of this was that before I went around knocking on doors, I had been out building my portfolio, fueled by the need to create something mixed with necessity and boredom. Since I wasn’t being paid, I got to pick and choose exactly what I wanted to photograph. Los Angeles is full of incredible architecture, and I’d sit on Google searching for the best examples of new architecture to photograph – it was pretty simple, to be honest. Pull up a car, get out the tripod, and make some shots at the right time of day. Sometimes I’d screw it up and make another trip out at sunrise instead of sunset, daytime instead of morning, whatever. I had all the time in the world and none of the money, but we’re gonna get there. Occasionally get busted for not asking permission to be on private property, but occasionally get away with something great, work ’em a little bit in Photoshop and I had the beginnings of a portfolio of interesting architecture. This is a theme that ends up recurring over and over in my career, so make a note here.

My first clients from my door-to-door extravaganza ended up being a realtor from Boston (they heard my accent from across the office when I walked in and we hit it off), a small-time architecture firm that had me photograph some office spaces for them, a couple of interior designers, and a car dealership (I told you, I annoyed literally everyone who would listen!). The beautiful thing was because I’d spent enough time building a portfolio in my own style, I was, for the most part, expected only to shoot what I had done previously. In a sense, I’d been hired on the back of my personal style. The majority of my portfolio was not influenced by clients, it was almost entirely my vision.

And that’s Lesson #1: Only put in your portfolio what you want to be hired to photograph.

About a year later, I had finally moved into a decent part of town and business seemed to be doing alright; the rent was paid and I was feeding myself, though hardly eating at steakhouses every night. Somewhere along the line I picked up some work editing paparazzi photos on the side. This was done in an attempt to smooth out the ups and downs of self employment income and half out of curiosity; the gigs I wanted just weren’t consistent enough and when the opportunity presented itself, curiosity got the better of me and I just couldn’t say no. It was the most LA job one can possibly have; but I learned a lot from it.

This job was enough to pick up around $2,500 every month, mostly from working on the weekends, which was absolutely perfect. Here’s how it would work: the paparazzi would deliver the photos to me on memory cards, and I would upload, edit, keyword, and export the images to our servers. Part of the process was also negotiating some of the licensing deals that came our way – if we had a big scoop, say, some Kardashian making out with someone she wasn’t supposed to be, or whatever it was, I had to deal with news agencies from around the world who wanted to call and buy those photos from us. The numbers were crazy, tens of thousands of dollars and in some cases even more depending on how juicy the gossip was and whether or not we got the exclusive, meaning we were the only company who got photos of the event.

The beauty here was that I was fast learning the value of licensing images, knowing how to negotiate in a fast-paced environment, and retaining control of your intellectual property. Even though the subject matter wasn’t my favorite, the business experience I learned at this side gig would prove to be invaluable. The income from this gig would also allow me to be very selective in what jobs I would take on – because I knew there was some money coming in (there’s always money in the banana stand…), I could turn down the jobs I didn’t want to shoot and spend time building my portfolio with exactly the images I wanted in there. I had enough extra cash to smooth over the gaps and really focus on going after the work I wanted.

Which is Lesson #2: Be open to learning things from unexpected places (like the paparazzi industry).

My New England genes were catching back up to me sometime around late 2012, and after a year in the city I decided I needed a bit of a break from Los Angeles. By no means was I rolling in the dough, but with a little coaxing from some friends and family, I made another decision that was probably half-baked on the surface but turned out for the best in the long run.

I spent about $2500 of my $5000 net worth (see, we’re getting somewhere!) to go spend 3 weeks on my own in Iceland to build a portfolio of images to promote my business. The goal was that by having images that nobody else in my market had and by filling my portfolio with amazing architecture that I actually wanted to photograph, I’d attract more clients that were both interested in my work and who were designing buildings similar to those in Iceland (clean, modern, set in nature).

The trip was a resounding success, and I’m continuing to use images from that project in my portfolio today. I also made some fantastic connections in the architecture community there, and I’m still in communication with many of the architects that I initially contacted when asking for advice on where to go and what to photograph. I’ve returned a few more times since then to continue building my portfolio of Nordic architecture and it’s always great to meet up with the same architects I met on that original trip six years ago.

Lesson #3: Use your marketing budget for personal projects, creative fulfillment, and travel to new and exciting places, not just mailers and web design.

—

Before getting too deep into this next saga, which is a brief departure from architecture photography, let me make it clear that I’ve had four longstanding interests in my life: art, design, aviation, and music. To some degree, these four things have never stopped being a constant in my life, and at times they’ve all been an outright obsession. Perhaps this was what contributed to me being a photographer in the first place instead of just following a more standard approach of high school-college-desk job – thank goodness!

It should come as no surprise then, that I’m one of those guys who lines up along the fence at the local airport on weekends hoping to get a glance of rare aircraft or interesting liveries (that’s what us nerds call the paint job), or driving hours out of his way to go to airshows when they’re nearby. For nearly the entire period that I’ve lived in Los Angeles, trips to LAX to watch planes have been a regular occurrence. It was not unexpected then, that on the weekend of March 29th, 2014, I was again at LAX with a camera in hand taking pictures of planes as they arrived and departed.

But I’d been doing this for years, and man, I’d taken every variation of airplane picture possible. Closeup, far away, sunlight, daylight, cloudy light, from below, from the side, whatever, you name it. So I was trying to something a little bit different when I was struck by the idea of applying some architectural photography techniques to aviation photography. When photographing architecture, I’ll often leave the camera on a tripod in the same spot for 20 or 30 minutes while pedestrians and cars pass by, and I’ll photograph all of them to later reconstruct a temporally expanded image of the subject. This allows me to pick the best looking people, most interesting cars, the most balanced objects within the frame as life unfolds in front of the camera; essentially extending the decisive moment from a fraction of a second to minutes or even hours. My idea for this airplane photo was much the same – leave the camera in the same spot for a few hours and capture all of the departing traffic from LAX and then composite it into one photo.

On the next day I returned with my new idea in mind. After about an hour of doing this and scrolling frantically through my pictures on the back of the camera, I realized that this was just too damn cool to quit early. So I made the decision to stay outside, completely unprepared without food, water, or bathroom, for about eight hours in total, photographing every airplane that took off from LAX on March 30th, 2014. Sunburned to the shade of lobster, I headed home around 6pm and remember being struck by this insane inspiration. I ended up staying up almost all night editing this photo together, and the resulting image was the single most career-altering event in my entire life.

After posting it online, (reddit, to be specific) this thing went viral. Stupidly viral. I’m talking Good Morning America viral, Guest-on-a-Japanese-Talk-Show-Viral, spreads in countless magazines, newspapers, websites, shot out of a cannon viral. I was lucky enough to be able to use my background as a paparazzi photo rate negotiator or whatever you’d call my job in a past life to manage the rights to this image and turn it into the single most profitable event of my life (pro tip: copyright your work, I know you’re lazy about it, so learn how to do it!).

This was another completely personal project that changed the course of my career (and life)!  I used the income from this single image to plan a round-the-world project featuring over 20 airports where I’d repeat the same concept with different variations. The project, known as Airportraits, has become one of my brand hallmarks and has been displayed in endless publications, museums, galleries, and more. All of the exposure lead to a great deal of interest by people interested in purchasing prints, which spawned the birth of my online print store which has been a great success by all measures. By carefully managing the printing, licensing and usage of these images, it’s been an incredible investment that has allowed me a great deal of financial freedom and the ability in my own career to only photograph the projects (both architectural and otherwise) that I am interested in.

Lesson #4: Explore photographing the things you are passionate about, even if it’s not what you’re usually paid to photograph.

I realize that there was certainly an element of luck, timing, and other factors outside of my control that played into the success of the Airportraits series, but my combined experience with personal projects, rights managing, and commercial photography all came together to help me get the most out of this massive project. There is a compounding effect at play as well that I am just beginning to truly understand: when you are able to grow your brand around personal projects, you are able to create only the photographs that you want to create.

You can generate income from these projects that allows you to be more selective in what commissioned work you choose to take on. Since you’re more selective in your commissioned work, your portfolio of commissioned work becomes very tightly curated; so much so in fact that you only get contacted to do the high-end jobs that you show. And at this point, since you’re such a specialist, you can charge top dollar for your work which then allows you more time and freedom to pursue personal projects. And if you’re able to monetize those personal projects…you see where I’m going with this. You’re able to create exactly the career you want for yourself, (mostly) taking the pictures that you want to take.

Lesson #5: Set aside time every year to really knock out a personal project, even if there is a financial risk involved. A well-calculated risk is a risk worth taking in artistic careers.

At this point, I’ve got my career in a place that I’m quite happy with. I’m able to break up the year between personal and commissioned work more or less as I see fit, and every year I try to expand my catalogue of personal and niche commissioned work. Recent projects include photographing the creation, use, and destruction of aircraft in my series Life Cycles, investigating NASA’s assembly process and the myriad stories it contains, and setting aside three months earlier this year to create a coffee table book for a major publisher of some of the greatest architectural works in California.

All of these projects, while requiring tons of planning and time, end up refining my style, growing my brand, and in the long run, paying dividends both in terms of artistic and financial fulfillment. I think it’s absolutely critical for any successful photographer to set aside time each year not only for a literal creative break, but also to create work that inspires you. While it may seem daunting at first, with proper planning, you can absolutely get your personal projects working for you. It’s a concept that I believe transcends genres: no matter what you shoot, there’s something out there that will both inspire you and further your career as a photographer. Who ever thought that taking photographs of airplanes would help me as an architectural photographer? But these personal projects have unequivocally made me a more successful photographer in almost every way. Get out there and make it happen!

So, to recap:

Big lesson #1: Only put in your portfolio what you want to be hired to photograph.

Big lesson #2: Be open to learning things from unexpected places (the paparazzi industry, for one).

Big lesson #3: Use your marketing budget for personal projects, creative fulfillment, and travel to new and exciting places, not just mailers and web design.

Big lesson #4: Explore photographing the things you are passionate about, even if it’s not what you’re usually paid to photograph.

Big lesson #5: Set aside time every year to really knock out a personal project, even if there is a financial risk involved. A well-calculated risk is a risk worth taking in artistic careers.

You can see more of Mike’s work at MPKelley.com, purchase prints from him at MikeKelley.art, and keep up with him on Facebook, Twitter, and his architectural/commercial Instagram and fine art/personal Instagram accounts.

The post Guest Blog: Architecture and Airplane Photographer Mike Kelley appeared first on Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider.

from Photography News https://scottkelby.com/guest-blog-architecture-and-airplane-photographer-mike-kelley/

[myphotobucketlist-blog]

Best Camera for Photography Beginners

Buying your first camera can be tough, expensive and time consuming. I can tell you I have personally wasted a lot of money on cameras early on that probably weren’t the best choice. I’ve also wasted a lot of money switching camera brands along the way. I started with Nikon, switched to Canon and now I am team Sony which has been a lot of buying and selling. I also had bad advice early on so hopefully this blog post will give you some good ideas to think about when looking at what camera you want to buy first.

Things to Consider When Buying Your First Camera

Price: This is probably your biggest driver when getting your first camera. Camera equipment is expensive and if you want to get into photography you will need something that’s a step up from a simple point and shoot. The biggest thing you will want/need is a camera that allows you to manipulate all of the settings such as shutter speed, aperture and ISO. So no matter what your budget is, at least get that function so you can start learning how to control the different parts of a photograph.

Quality: Quality and price do tend to go hand in hand, however, sometimes you will be paying for a band name rather than a good quality camera. A Leica camera is an awesome camera but will start at around $1000 and offer generally the same features that you could get for the Sony RX100 pictured above. You will want a camera that offers good quality but you won’t want something that is top of the line. I do recommend getting a camera that you could continue to grow with.

Brand: I’d strongly recommend figuring out what brand you want to go with now and doing your best to stick with it as you grow as a photographer. Typically what happens is you will buy a camera body which can vary greatly in price. Then you will purchase lenses to go on that camera body. Pretty soon you will have a camera body with a handful of lenses. The issue here is that camera lenses are not interchangeable with different camera brand bodies. Each company has their own proprietary lens mount which makes lenses only mountable to one camera brand body. So let’s say you buy a Canon 7D Mark II as your first body and get a whole bunch of Canon lenses and then decide you want to go to a Sony, you will have to sell all of your lenses and Canon body and then buy a new Sony and all new Sony mount lenses. This is obviously pricey.

One mistake I’ve made is I always bought the camera that my buddy recommended rather than what was the best item on the market. The bottom line…. Do your research. I personally recommend Sony. I think their mirrorless systems are the best on the market. I’ve had Canon, Nikon and now Sony and I believe they offer a product that is superior. But, that’s just me.

Ability to grow: Your last consideration should be… can you grow into your camera? If you buy a little point and shoot you will most likely grow out of in pretty quickly and then have to spend more money again in the near future. I recommend finding a camera that can accept interchangeable lenses rather than one with a built in lens. Also find a brand that has a various levels of cameras from entry to expert so you can grow with them.

So what Camera should you buy?

That’s a great question. I am sure I don’t hold the answer but here are some recommendations. I will go from cheap to expensive. Again, I am team Sony over here so that’s what I recommend. That doesn’t mean that the other brands don’t offer good options… I just like Sony, if I didn’t say that enough already.

Least Expensive Beginner Camera

Sony RX100

The Sony RX 100 is a great starter camera because you actually get a pretty decent quality camera for around $370. The camera comes in a manual mode so you can learn how to adjust the settings. In addition the camera weighs in at just half a pound and is around 4 x 2.5” so it’s really easy to throw in your pocket if you’re traveling around. The 20.2 mega pixel CMOS sensor will ensure that any photos you capture are high resolution and could be blown up and framed if desired.

In addition the camera has an ISO setting of 125-6400 which allows you to do some low light shots, although the camera isn’t going to perform to well at higher ISOs, that is typically reserved for the higher end cameras. One of the best features is the Zeiss 1.8, 28-100mm zoom lens. That gives you a pretty wide range aperture range so you could practice using your depth of field. Finally the 28-100mm zoom isn’t amazing but it does give you a fairly decent range to work with.

Some of the cons with this camera is that you will outgrow it quickly, the lenses are not interchangeable and you will have poor low light shots. This is very much a beginner camera and wont be something you’d stick with for very long. However, it’s a great one to try if you want look into becoming a photographer without breaking the bank.

Mid Range Beginner Camera

Sony a6500

The Sony a6500 is an APS-C camera meaning its sensor is slightly smaller than a full frame camera. The sensor is big enough to get some incredible shots and this is actually my go-to travel camera/back up camera. The photo quality is good enough that if you captured a great photo that you wanted to blow up as a print you could make it pretty much as large as you like.

I originally purchased the Sony a6500 after I was looking for a camera that offered great quality shots but was also light and portable. My goal was to use this as a travel camera. After using it for a month I was so impressed that I sold all of my Canon gear and made the switch to Sony. The crazy thing here is that I owned the Canon 5d MkIV, one of their flagship full-frame top of the line cameras. This means that Sony’s mid-line camera impressed me so much it convinced me to ditch my top of the line Canon…

I would suggest the a6500 one as a great option because you can swap out lenses as you start to build you lens collection and the lenses you buy for the a6500 could also be used on a full frame camera if you decided to go that route later on. In addition, the camera comes with a lot of the nice bells and whistles such as wi-fi, add-on apps and the ability to attach external batteries or a flash.

Finally, the a6500 performs much like a high end camera with a 24.2 mega pixel sensor, 425 auto focus points (meaning it auto focuses really well), 11 frames per second continuous shooting (meaning it can take a lot of photos really fast for sports or wildlife photography), and a 4k video (meaning it takes really nice video).

For a body you would pay around $1100 and a lens can run you anywhere from $300 on up. I currently run the camera with a Zeiss 16-70mm f/4 lens which is an excellent combination.

If you want a more detailed review of this a6500 I did a full write-up here. Best High End Beginner Camera

Sony A7III

With the Sony A7III I use the term “beginner” very loosely. In fact, this camera is absolutely incredible and is used by professional photographers around the world. The A7III is a full frame camera that came out after the A7RIII (the camera that I use as my go-to). In some arenas the A7III actually out performs some of the A7RIII’s capabilities and does it for around $800 less. If you want the bottom line on this camera I would say it’s an absolutely phenomenal camera for a somewhat affordable price. The A7III body will run you around $2,000 and lenses are around $300 on up. However, if you’re going to splurge for this one, I’d recommend getting a good lens to match so you don’t lose all the great quality that you get from the camera.

I’d recommend getting this camera if you’ve decided you’re ready to be a professional photographer. If you buy this camera you won’t need to upgrade for a long time and if you do upgrade this is a great camera to use as a backup/secondary camera.

What makes the A7III so great? Well for starters it features a full-frame 24.2 MP sensor that has some of the best low light capabilities on the market. The AF features a 623 point phase detection with 93% coverage. Now if you are just getting into photography I know that might not mean anything but to break it down nice and simple… it means it does a great job of focusing on the object you’re trying to capture.

One other thing I should point out is the A7III comes with 4k video capabilities… So if you’re looking to also get into videography this camera would again be an excellent choice.

So what makes this camera a beginner camera? Well again, it’s not really a beginner camera but it’s more of a beginner-ish price. Your only set back on this camera would be the 24.2 megapixel sensor. For reference, the A7RIII features a 42 megapixel sensor. However, this difference can also set you back. Fewer megapixels can lead to better low light qualities. In addition a 42MP sensor can drastically slow down your editing time if you don’t have a super fast computer. However, a larger sensor will capture more information which can be beneficial in post editing. There are plenty of times that I have imported a photo into LightRoom and thought it wasn’t going to edit. However, because the A7RIII has such an incredible sensor it captures a ton of information that can be edited.

In the end, the 24.2 megapixel sensor will still produce some amazing photos and you probably wouldn’t notice much of a difference until you started to blow the photos up for super large prints. To be honest, I wish the A7III was available when I purchased the A7RIII because I would have saved myself a lot of money and I’d have one amazing camera to work with.

The Take Away

Ok so I have been crapping on about all of these cameras for awhile now but here’s my abbreviated recommendation. The camera you purchase should be scaleable in the sense that you should be able to grow with it. Photography equipment is very much in the arena of “buy once, cry once”. Most often people purchase a budget camera, with budget lenses and then outgrow their camera quickly and then want to upgrade. If I could recommend one thing to a beginner it would be to buy the Sony a6500 and a 50mm lens and use that until you get the hang of photography. The reason is that we as humans tend to see the world at around 50mm so you will photograph what you see (ok so for anyone reading this who’s a photography nerd, yes I know the APS-C turns a 50mm into more of a 75mm focal length, but you get the idea). In addition a 50mm prime lens combined with the a6500 with produce some incredibly crisp shots. By shooting a 50mm fixed length you will be forced to capture the shots you want by getting creative, rather than just zooming and zooming out. I personally believe that a good photographer uses additional lenses to simply enhance their photography skills rather than act as a crutch. The bottom line, if you can capture great photos with that combination you will absolutely crush it when you start upgrading your lenses and camera body in the future.

Camera Comparison Guide

[chromacomaphoto]

Places to Shoot in Bangkok Part 11: 'Airlab'

Welcome all Chromacoma brethren, I am looking to try something new this month and going for a 'two for one' kind of deal involving a useful place to know for film photographers (digital too for sure) with good facilities, people and equipment that also happens to be a place you can shoot at (even if the area is small) as there is a studio for rent there too!

Airlab has already been mentioned in this blog and within the main guide article (click the banner at the top of this page) but I thought it might be nice for bit more detail and a dedicated round up this month in the style of 'Chromacoma meets Airlab!', so let's get it started. First up, I think that there might well be a parallel to be drawn between this entry to the guide and the 'Chang Chui' post last year. This place also being the brainchild of a fairly well known chap within photographic/artistic circles (and Thai society circles also) who decided to create and open up his own place as a sort of hangout and cool zone for his artistic vision. Just to be clear, this isn't the same person or in anyway connected to Chang Chui, it's just another, similar example of a Thai artistic type with the vision and resources to make a place like this happen in Bangkok. If you check out their website HERE, I'm pretty sure you will be able to see more details about this individual himself but for the sake of his modesty and protocol, I'm choosing not to name him specifically in this article. Suffice to say, if you choose to visit Airlab, you'll probably meet him yourself and find that he is very cool, laid back and relaxed with a nice, welcoming down to earth sort of vibe.

The location itself isn't exactly one you are likely to accidentally stumble over, even if you live in Bangkok, but the good news is that it really is easy for anyone to get to. So easy in fact that I am not including a map as there is one on their website and I have a very simple way of explaining it to you: Take the BTS skytrain out of Bangkok heading down the main (old) Sukhumvit line towards the East (Bearing etc) and get off at On Nut station. Go down one floor and keep walking in the same direction that the train was heading in before you disembarked. Walk all the way in this direction as far as you can go to the station's end before you go down to street  level. Before you exit down, you should clearly be able to see Sukhumvit Soi 81 and its road sign ahead of you, on the left. Go down the stairs to street level, walk along to this street and turn down it (all on your left hand side), keep walking a little way and turn down the very first soi off of Sukhumvit 81 on the left hand side, follow that around a blind right hand corner and walk for a couple of hundred metres at the most, Airlab will come into view after a couple of minutes walk on the right hand side, it's a compound with a house inside and very clear signage. Trust me, it's very easy indeed and hard to go wrong, just wear a hat for the sun.

So, what did I find there? Well, lots of good stuff really. First up, there's a nice air con cafe with decent Thai food at local prices and proper fresh coffee on offer. So, even if you were to visit with people who might not be as keen on photography as you are such as with a partner or kids in tow, there's a haven for them to occupy for a while in relative comfort. There's also a huge all glass and air con shooting studio for rent plus a nice little leafy lawn area with some cool tiny artsy shops. Cool t shirts and the like were for sale here and there but it didn't come off as tacky, definitely a faint whiff of hipster (maybe that was coming from me)  but overall this is only too much at busy times. Apparently however, such really busy weekends as I had seen before at this venue are not as common now. That said, they do hold events from time to time and these are not only 'Airlab' events per se but also sometimes things done in conjunction with outside companies and brands as crossover into advertising and brand hyping circles so I guess it all depends on what's on. There's a small shop selling very high end and good condition camera gear including lots of Leica and classic Rollei gear, bodies, lenses etc. but it opens towards the later part of the day and not in the morning time. I can't comment on that much more as I have never purchased here and so I'm simply putting it out there.

Meanwhile at the other end of the lawn area there's somewhere to sit in the shade and have your coffee or tea (even a smoking area) and this backs up to a really impressive and fully equipped darkroom facility inside an old (air conditioned) familiar looking metal cube shape. I guess one man's shipping container is another man's darkroom, this is also for rent to those who would like access to it. You'll have to contact them for details re. pricing

I would just like to say that I didn't inform Airlab that I was going to be dropping by and taking photos for inclusion into the guide or recommendations to others, rather preferring instead to just turn up on spec as a random foreigner to see what sort of reaction or welcome I received. I'm not saying that I was trying to be deliberately sneaky or judgemental (I really wasn't) but rather I merely wished to try and see what would happen if you, dear reader, were to do the same and how it would be. I'm delighted to say that people either left me alone (as was the case when I first strolled in around 11am) or they then eventually came up to me and politely spoke in English. This wasn't done to hassle me either, a couple of people were genuinely making sure I was okay and letting me know they would help me if I had any questions, was I looking to buy or develop film? etc. Expanding on that last point, there's film for sale of many different types and they do a whole load of processing here, colour and black and white and even some really long lost ancient wet plate processes which is really cool. Again I won't comment too much on pricing but its reasonably competitive at the time of publishing this post and suffice to say that they accept most kinds of film for processing including even slides (E6) and will do very accurate push and pull processing too. It's not a Mickey Mouse all hipster and no skills outfit, it's a proper lab. There's also an 'express' option for those maybe leaving Thailand soon, scans of a very high quality also available. The guy behind the whole endeavour is certainly deeply into film photography and so you are not just going to be handing your film  over to a random outfit without any interest or skill. They have a lot of processing equipment, chems and machines actually onsite in addition to the fully set up darkroom. It's pretty full on. I deliberately didn't attempt to talk to the owner until the very end and he was very polite and friendly indeed. I am certain that  if you turn up on spec and behave respectfully as you would at anybody's 'open house' kind of business, the people here will be very accommodating indeed. It's open daily from around 10am and goes on till about 7pm ish. You might even bump into a Thai celebrity here and there....

As an aside, there were some lovely quirks that had been really well thought out here and there. One personal favourite example was perhaps in the public toilets extending off from the garden lawn area where I noted that the toilet roll holder was actually an old style Polaroid camera body adapted to this new role (maybe that should be 'roll'? ha!).  If you've ever felt like your photographic skills are slipping and your last roll was about as good as toilet paper, well hey...maybe you're not alone in such an assertion. Another nice touch was that the food menu of simple, classic Thai dishes was a full colour, medium format positive contact sheet showing the dish to be ordered, a simple but very effective idea that really caught my eye.

There's limited parking inside the compound but looks like you would be good to go on a weekday, although the street outside is legal to park on. Motorbikes would have no issues. Honestly though, it's probably easier to just take the BTS there. So, I hope this month's little entry proves useful both in terms of picking up film there, dropping it back off to have it devved or even booking their soft light, glasshouse (thankfully there's air con in there too!) kind of beauty/photo studio as a stunning location that is just crying out for great portraiture to be done there (as the owner has done many times and examples of which can be seen around). You could even then go on to rent their darkroom in which to develop the films that you've just shot in the studio at the same location. That's seriously cool and a fully contained (albeit 'shipping contained') 'one stop shop' option for serious dedicated film photographers in Bangkok. For that alone, and with no affiliation whatsoever, I have deemed it well worth inclusion in the places to shoot series for this month, enjoy.

CCP

[lesphantom]

FFXV: A Retelling - ish....   Chapter 4

My bestie makes an appearance in this chapter via text message, but she still shows up.  I have a bad habit of tossing my friends into scenarios with me...  oops.

---------------------------------------------------

FFXV: A Retelling-ish...

Chapter 4:

______________________________

~~~~~~~~~~~Third Person POV An hour later~~~~~~~~

“It's been a while since Mina went into her tent.  Think she's OK?” said Prompto.

“She's probably waiting for her phone to charge.” Noctis said with a yawn.

Ignis stood.  He walked to the camp table to begin the prep work for dinner.  On the way, he glanced into Mina's tent.  He smiled slightly upon seeing her sleeping soundly on her backpack.  

“Or she's sound asleep...” Ignis said.

“Is she really?” Gladio said.

“She was up before dawn.” said Prompto.  

“And she's been runnin' pretty much nonstop since then...” said Noctis.

“So we will let her get the rest she deserves.” said Ignis, glancing at his sleeping friend.

Prompto smiled.  He pulled out his camera.  He began leafing through the pictures.  He smiled as he reached the ones Mina took of the sunrise. He made a mental note to print them out when he had a spare moment. He continued looking through the photos and he stopped on the selfie. He grinned.

“What you looking at Prompto?” said Gladio.

“Some pictures of the sunrise Mina and I took today...”Prompto said.

“Nice! Can we see?” said Gladio.

“Of course!  Gather 'round.” said Prompto.

Ignis dried off his hands with a towel before joining the rest of the boys around Prompto's chair.  Prompto flipped through the pictures slowly. He explained the circumstances behind each one.  He paused over the ones Mina took.

“Damn! That's a great shot!” Noctis said.

“Yeah. She sure can take a decent photo...” said Gladio.

Prompto got to the selfies and he grinned.  “We were having so much fun out there that I had to take this one.”

“Prom, that's a good shot of you.  Your smile actually reaches your eyes.” said Gladio.

“She insisted...” Prompto said.

Gladio smiled.  “She did good.”

“You know,” said Noctis.  “She's pretty well rounded for what she's been through.”

“How so, Noct?” Ignis said.

“I promised her I wouldn't say anything, but I will say this; she's had it rough.  Yet she's got a great sense of humor and she'll go toe to toe with you if you make a bad pun.” Noctis said.

“Indeed. She's brought a certain degree of.... humor to our band of dullness.” said Ignis.

“That is true.” said Prompto.

“I can't imagine what would have happened to her had she not been rescued by us.” said Noctis.

“I don't want to think about it...” said Prompto, with a shudder.

“Me either.” said Gladio.  “She also brought a certain degree of sleepiness... I could go for a nap right now as well...”

“Me too...” said Noctis.

“You're always ready for a nap, dude...” said Prompto.

“So you all take your naps... I'll get dinner started.” Ignis said, slightly annoyed.

“Knew we could count on you Iggy.”

Ignis sighed and he went back to prepping dinner.  He chanced a glance at Mina's tent.  She was still sleeping soundly.  He smiled, a faint blush coloring his cheeks.  

“Hey Ig!  What's for dinner?” Gladio called.

“Fish and asparagus.” Ignis said.

“Yuck! Asparagus?  Really Ignis?” said Noctis.

Ignis sighed.  “I will make some potatoes for you, Noct.”

“You baby him...” said Gladio.

“Then by all means, Gladio, you try to get him to eat his vegetables.  I've tried for fifteen years.  I've learned from experience to just roll with it.”

“Are those the fish Noct and Mina caught today?” Prompto said.

“Yes. I figured we would use it while it was still fresh.” Ignis said, pushing up his glasses.

“Good thought, Iggy!” said Prompto.

“Fresh fish is always better anyway.” said Noctis.

Ignis smiled.  “Precisely.  Hopefully, dinner should be ready in about an hour.”

“Sounds good!” said Prompto.

“Ahh... an hour of nap time...” said Noctis.

Ignis rolled his eyes.  Within minutes, the boys around the camp fire were snoring.  Ignis continued his prep work in silence, occasionally glancing in Mina's tent.  He smiled.  The crush he was developing on Mina was growing exponentially the more time he spent with her. Taking a long swig of his ebony, he sighed.  He rubbed his temples a bit.  

It wasn't just Mina's looks anymore that make him yearn for her.  It was almost everything about her.  He loved the way her blue-green eyes sparkled as she laughed when he told a very bad joke.  He loved the way her voice sounded when she spoke.  He felt very aware that he was smitten with her.

He looked forward to mornings when it was just the two of them, before anyone else was awake.  They would sit and just talk.  Mina seemed to love hearing Ignis talk and they shared recipes among other things. Ignis found himself finding new recipes just to talk with her.  He just loved being with her.

Ignis brought himself out of his mini trance and he continued to make dinner.  He followed the recipe in his notebook to the tee.  A half an hour later, he had just thrown another pot on the stove to begin making Noctis's potatoes when he heard a small groan come from Mina's tent.  He peered in and he saw that she was beginning to stir.  He smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~Mina's POV~~~~~~~~~~

I awoke to the smell of breaded fish.  I looked around groggily and I turned my phone back on.  I gasped at the time.  It was already 6:15. 'Shit!!!' I thought.  I scrambled to my feet and I fell out of the tent, landing on my butt on the ground.  I heard a chuckle above me.

“Hello, my dear.” Ignis said.

“Hi, Iggy...” I said.

“Did you enjoy your nap?”

“Yeah... sorry about that...” I said, getting back up.  “I totally set you guys back a day...”

“It's perfectly fine, Mina.  We all sort of needed a day for relaxation. You're not the only one who decided a nap was in order.”

“Huh?”

Ignis pointed to the other boys who were all passed out around the fire pit.  “You wore them all out.”

I laughed.  “I guess I did.”

“Prompto showed us the pictures you took.”

“Oh God...”

“Well done my dear!”

“I was so damn nervous.  I was scared to death that I would break his camera.  They were shit pictures though...”

“They were not.” Ignis said, nudging my shoulder.  “You need to have a little more confidence in yourself, dear.”

“If you say so, Ignis.”

“I do.”

“OK.. Do you need help with anything?”

“No. I'm... pretty well set here.  All I have to do is wait for Noct's potatoes to cook.”

“What is with him and not eating veggies?!”

“He's never been a big veggie eater.  I've been trying for years to get him to eat them...”

“I tried to convince him earlier.  I mentioned broccoli and he gave me the dirtiest look.  It's like I cussed out his mother or something...”

He chuckled.  “Yes, he does that...”

“I don't know how you do it, Ignis...  If I had to put up with Noct's picky eating I would have probably thrown a seven layer salad at him.”

Ignis laughed.  “But that's such a waste of food, Mina... I take everything that happens with a grain of salt... and lots and lots of Tylenol.  When it gets rough I add a dose of whiskey on the rocks as well.”

I laughed.  “Fair enough.”

“Mina?”

“Yeah?”

“Would...um... would you like to help me with breakfast in the morning?”  Ignis said.

“Sure! I'd love to!” I said, grinning.

He smiled.  “Excellent.”

I grinned.  “I'm looking forward to it!”

“I am as well..” Ignis said.

Ignis's phone's timer went off.  “Ah.  The potatoes should be done...”

“Want me to wake everyone up?”

“If you would, yes.”

I nodded.  I walked over toward the boys.  I opted to wake Gladio up first.  That way, he could help me wake the others.  I lightly shook the sleeping shield.

“Gladdy.... Gladdy, wake up.”

“Hmm? What..  Hey.  What's up, Mina.” Gladio said, stretching.

“Dinner's ready.  Can you help me by waking up his highness?”

Gladio yawned but he nodded.  “Yes, ma'am.”

“Sorry to have to wake you up...” I said.

“You're fine, kid.  I was just passed out!  It takes me a minute or so to wake up when I'm that out...”

“Thanks for the assist Gladdy.”

I walked over toward Prompto.  In his sleep, he had dropped his phone on the ground.  I smiled and I picked it up.  I gently shook Prompto's shoulder.  His eyes shot open.

“Huh? What?” Prompto said.

Prompto launched forward.  His guns appeared in his hands suddenly and they were pointed at me.  I immediately put my hands in the air.  I had never stared down the barrel of a gun before and it was absolutely terrifying.

“Whoa... Sunshine... Prompto.... It's me...” I said.

“Mina.... Oh God... I'm so sorry... I...”

“Breathe Prom...  How's about lowering those pistols huh?”

“Yeah... yeah... sorry...” Prompto said, making the guns disappear.

“Are you OK?”  I asked.

Prompto scoffed.  “I pull guns on you and you ask me if I'm OK..”

“Prom...”

“I'm fine, Min.  That dream was just so... vivid...  I am so sorry...”

“I'm more worried about you right now...”

I took a step closer to him.  He sighed.  His hands were shaking.  He ran a hand through his blonde locks.  He looked at me, utter terror visible in his clear blue eyes.  

“I um...”

“Whatever just happened doesn't matter, Sunshine.  As long as you're OK..”

He pulled me to him in a tight hug.  I felt his shoulders start shaking as he let out a shaky breath.  I gently hugged him back, rubbing his back.  He clung to me for a good five minutes before he bounced back, his typical grin on his face.

“You good?”

“Yep. Fine...”

“Good. Come on, it's food time.”

“Thanks Mina... for... just being you.”

I shot  Prompto a grin.  “Hey, just don't go pullin' guns on me again, OK?  That's scary as fuck.”

“I'm really sorry, hon..  I just... I got lost in that stupid dream...”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Maybe later..”

“OK I'm always here, Sunshine.  Oh!  You dropped your phone.”

I handed the phone back to him.  He took it in his hands and he grinned at me.  We both headed over to the camp table to get our plates. Ignis looked at me in concern.  I waved him off, mouthing “I'm fine...”   Noctis was already digging into his food.  Gladio tossed me a water from the cooler.  I nodded at him in thanks and I filled my plate.  Ignis waited until everyone had sat down before making himself a plate.  I watched from the fire pit as he took a bite of his food and then he immediately started washing dishes.

“Hey Iggy!!!”  I called.

“Yes, Mina?” Ignis said.

“Come sit with us.  I'll do the dishes.  You've been slaving over a hot stove for the last hour at least.”

“Mina, I assure you...”

“I'm not taking no for an answer, Ignis Scientia. Get your ass over here before I drag you over here.”  I said.

“Mina....”

“Come on.  I don't mind sitting on the ground.”

He sighed, knowing this was a losing battle.  He pushed his glasses up on his nose.  He hesitantly picked his plate up and he came over to us, joining the circle.  I smiled as he sat down.   I sat in between Ignis and Noctis on the ground.

“Now, was that so bad, Ignis?” I said, a smirk playing on my lips.

“Yes, it was absolute torture...” said Ignis, sarcastically.  

We chatted a bit during dinner and Ignis was more involved in all aspects of the conversation that he had been in two weeks.  I smiled. Near the end of the meal, I began collecting plates.  I carried the majority of the dishes to the sink.  I began washing them.  Ignis excused himself a moment later and he joined me.  He leaned against the camp table, similar to what I did this morning.

“You don't have to do this you know?”  Ignis said.

“I said I would so I am...” I said.

“At least let me dry.  Dishes are a pain..” Ignis said.

“I can handle it, Iggy.  Go relax.  Have an ebony and talk with the boys.  Live a little..”

Ignis laughed.  “Talking with the boys is living a little?”

“Sure....”

He laughed harder.  “Mina, I'll say this...You do know how to make me smile.”

“Just doin' my job, Iggy.” I said, grinning.

Ignis left me to rejoin the boys around the fire pit.  A few minutes later I heard the crackling sounds of a camp fire.  I saw small licks of orange flames coming from the fire pit.  I inhaled the scent of burning wood.  It was beginning to get dark.  I tried to see Ignis on the other side of the camp fire.  The glow of the fire was illuminating his slightly tanned skin.  I felt heat creep into my cheeks.  I quickly finished the dishes and I ducked into my tent for my phone.  I jammed it into my pocket.  I grabbed a clean rag once I was outside again and I wiped off the camping table before I rejoined the boys.  I sat on the ground at Prompto's feet.

“You want my chair, Mina?” said Prompto.

“No. Sit, Sunshine.  I'm fine here.  I'm cravin' s'mores though.”

“I know, right?!” said Gladio.  “Unfortunately we don't have any marshmallows or chocolate.”

“I could make some marshmallows...” said Ignis.

“Nope. No more cooking for you until tomorrow morning, Chef Scientia.  Time for relaxation.” I said.

Ignis chuckled.  “I am rather enjoying being by the fire like this... The crackling is really relaxing.”

“Good to see you laid back a little, Specs...” said Noctis.

“Indeed.” Ignis said, taking a sip of his ebony.

I smiled and I listened to the boys talk.  I saw Ignis's head bob a few times.  He really was starting to relax.  He cleared his throat and he drained his mug of ebony.  He then stood up.  

“I have to admit, I am beginning to fall asleep out here, so I am going to retire.”

“'Night Specs.” said Noctis.

“Sleep well, Iggy.  See you in the morning for cooking... class?”

Ignis chuckled tiredly.  “Yes.  I'll see you in the morning, Mina.  Good night.”

I watched as Ignis yawned and he ducked into the tent.  I heard rustling as he changed in the tent.  I saw the light on his phone go out.  I gazed into the fire.  My phone dinged. I grinned as I received a text from Ignis.  

“I am so bloody tired."  

“Then get some rest... duh.”

“I'm trying to...”

“You're not trying hard enough!”

“What do you want to cook tomorrow?”

“It doesn't matter to me...”

“Pancakes?”

“We could... up to you though, Chef.”

“Mina...”

“What?”

“I can't sleep...  Make an excuse and come talk to me.”

“Ignis!!”

“Please...?”

“Iggy, try turning your phone off...”

“Then how would I talk to you...?”

“YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE SLEEPING!!!”

I heard Ignis laughing to himself in the tent.  “God, I'm tired...”

“Shut your damn phone off and go to sleep Ignis.  I'll talk to you in the morning.”

“Good night, Mina.  I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.”

“Me too...  Good night.”

I chuckled as I stowed my phone away.  Noctis and Prompto were engaged in a game of King's Knight and Gladio was reading his book.  I stifled a yawn and I lay back on the rock.  Gladio looked at me over his book.

“You OK, Mina?”

“Yes, sir.” I said. “Just lookin' at the night sky.”

He shook his head and he chuckled.  One by one each one of the boys headed off to bed.  I sat alone underneath the stars with a dying fire in front of me.  I heard my phone ding.  

“Ignis if that's you I'm gonna...” I mumbled to myself.

“DUDE!!!!!! Your brother's in Lestallum talking shit about you.  I'm about to punch him in his fuckin' teeth.~Harmy.”

I laughed.  Harmy and I had been best friends since 2nd grade.  She was the one friend I had that wasn't afraid to call Steve out on his bull shit.  She and I were thick as thieves.  I hadn't seen her in forever.

“So, fuckin' do it!  The dick hole deserves it.”

“That reminds me, shouldn't you be with him.  God forbid he loses his main source of income...”

“Psh. The asshole left me to die in on a plain near Hammerhead about three weeks ago.”

“He did WHAT?!?!  Oh, I'm going to fucking kill him.  He's dead in the god damn ground.”

“Harmy, calm down.  He's a douche bag.”

“Where are you now?”

“About half a mile from the motel near Hammerhead.”

“You alone?”

“Nope. I found a pretty good group of guys that I'm pallin' around with.”

“Please tell me you're safe...”

“I'm just fine Harmy.  If you need to hear my voice you can call me, hon.”

“I'm good.  So this group that your with... Any... cute dudes?”

“Maybe...”

“OK, you have a crush on one of them.  I can tell.”

“Dammit! How the hell do you know me so damn well?”

“Mina, I've known you since you were seven years old...  Shut it.”

I laughed.  “OK, OK   There is a guy... He's cute.. and really friggin' sweet.”  

“Got a pic?”

I sent her the picture I took of Ignis when I first met him.  “That's Ignis.”

“Oooh. He is kinda cute...”

“Yep. He's so sweet too... like OMG!”

“Glad to hear it.  I'd better let you go though, hon.  I'll tell Steve to go get fucked for ya'.  Just do me a favor and stay safe...”

“Yeah, I'll try.  You stay out of trouble OK?  I don't wanna have to bail your ass out of jail for killing my brother.”

“No promises...  Love ya.”

I set my phone down.  I let out a sigh.  I heard the tent flap to the boy's tent unzip.  Ignis emerged and he walked over toward me.  He sat next to me on the ground.

“I thought you were tired.”

“I was.  I got some sleep.”

“Ignis, you got literally less than an hour.”

“So?”

“You need to rest!” I said, with a laugh.

“And so do you.” He said.

“Iggy...”

“Don’t Iggy me....  Go get some sleep.”

“Did I wake you or somethin'?”

“No. I just knew you were awake.”

“If I get some sleep, will you?”

“Yes.”

“Fine then.” I said.  

Ignis got up off the ground.  He extended his ungloved hand to help me off the ground and I took it.  Ignis shot me a warm smile.  We walked to our tents together.  

“Night, Iggy... again.”

He chuckled, stifling a yawn.  “Night, Mina.”

I ducked into my tent and I lay back against my backpack.  I thought about the day ahead.  My stomach filled with butterflies at the prospect of cooking with Ignis.  I took a few deep breaths and I willed myself to fall asleep.

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Chapters:

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3

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1

[manilaanimal]

19 weeks ago, Coldplay released that quick GIF of a sneak peek of their first few cities for the 2017 leg of their #AHFODTour. I saw the silhouette of the Philippines among other Asian countries and immediately knew I had to get tickets. There are very few artists I would spend good money to buy concert tickets for. But seeing Coldplay live? People who’ve been lucky enough to see them say it’s priceless.

  What would’ve cost us ₱22,500 (the price of VIP tickets in Manila), only cost us ~₱8,000 each for Standing Pen A tickets in Singapore. That’s a huge difference. Our tickets weren’t the most expensive (VIP tickets cost around ₱3,000 more than ours) but we didn’t need the merchandise or priority entrance anyways, and this was already the front-most part of the National Stadium. The Standing Pen A tickets were also slightly cheaper than the nearest seats, which were actually quite far from the stage already.

Another big factor of choosing to watch in Singapore instead of Manila was that we wanted to see Coldplay in a stadium. I’ve seen videos and photos of Coldplay concerts in other countries and I saw how different a stadium-type concert and a field-type concert were. The Singapore National Stadium had 60,000 people that night but it didn’t feel tight at all. They weren’t strict about IDs or cameras, and entering was incredibly organized and quick. Oh, and when Singapore says that the gates will open at 6:00 PM, they will open the gates at exactly 7:00 PM, not a minute later. Singapore is the best, they really are!

The merchandise booth outside the stadium! Shirts went for S$50 so expect the same prices for the Philippines.

The view of the stadium from the line entering the concert

When we finally got into the stadium at 6:30, we were amazed. It was my first time being in an event venue of that size and I was kind of blown away just by the arena. A part of it opens up to the sky so we were able to watch the sun set during the opening act Jess Kent’s set.

Although we were in line for only an hour and half, we still got a really great spot near Stage B at the end of the ramp. We stood behind some pretty tall people but it wasn’t so bad towards the end of the night and we got great shots in.

If you can bring a camera, DO IT. The Sony RX100 V compact camera is the most ideal (because the zoom is ah-freakin-mazing), but if you can’t get your hands on one, a mirrorless camera should do. The photos I used during my trip were all taken using a Sony a6000 with a kit lens and I was honestly really surprised with how many decent shots I got in! The super speedy 11fps and quick start-up came in handy for taking those blink-and-you-might-miss-it shots. Also, the camera did pretty well autofocusing considering the conditions were so difficult to shoot in. Five stars!

Concert photodump incoming! (Click the individual photos to see the photos up close!)

Yes that’s Chris Martin taking a selfie with a lucky guy’s phone

LOOK AT THOSE LIGHTS.

A sky full of stars! The confetti was literally stars so cuuute

Yeah. Wow. Photos can’t even capture how beautiful it was in person. The watch out screens were so clear and the visuals were gorgeous. The confetti flew at exactly the right moments and the balloons were a still a big surprise even if I knew they’d be coming out. The concert was pretty long — more than two hours — so it’s definitely worth the money. I don’t wanna spoil anything but their set list was perfect! I’m pretty sure that the Manila crowd will go WILD tomorrow night!

But the most amazing part of the concert for me were the Xylobands. These wristbands with radio-frequency receivers are what make Coldplay concerts extra special. There were times I wasn’t even watching Chris Martin and just watching the Xylobands of the seated audience members pulsing to the sound of the bass drum. It’s SOOO TRIPPY and unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I can’t even describe what it’s like, you just HAVE to be there! How they synchronize all the bands (or have them all sparkle in different colors) should be the eighth wonder of the modern world. Seriously.

Outdooran concert crew!

Exiting the concert venue was really easy and organized! 

Singapore can host the Olympics — I swear they’re amazing. Leaving the concert was a breeze, with several ushers holding signs about which train to take, how many minutes it would take to walk there, the best place to get an Uber, etc. I was expecting the Stadium MRT to be bombarded with 60,000 people but there were hardly any lines and we got on the first train we lined up for (with so much space to spare!).

All in all, watching Coldplay was a really thrilling experience. I remember looking at my friends several times during the concert and we would just shake our heads in disbelief with how beautiful the visuals were and how freaking great Chris Martin sounded live. I cried like a baby during Fix You, and you probably will too. If you don’t, you’re most probably cold and heartless. Hahaha jk (ish).

It was one of the best things I have EVER spent my money on. If you ever have a chance to watch Coldplay, grab the opportunity. They’ll be in Frankfurt at the same time I’ll be in Germany in June so I’m considering watching them again! (Yeah, it was THAT good.)

Living in Manila, we’re used to incredibly expensive concert tickets. Madonna charged a steep Php 57,750 (over $1100) for front row tickets to her show at the Mall of Asia Arena, so our standard for ticket prices is completely different from the rest of the region. My friends and I spent several days waking up early in the morning to try and catch the ticket releases for the April 1 Singapore date and still didn’t get any tickets. But fortunately, they opened another date — March 31, their first concert for 2017 — in Singapore. We were lucky enough to buy our tickets during the first day of the release and bought our flight tickets not long afterwards.

Our plane tickets cost us ~₱12,000 each (including travel tax) on Philippine Airlines, plus we get miles. Choosing Singapore over the other Asian countries (which were just as cheap) was a no-brainer to me because I got to stay with my aunt, and even if my friends chose to stay in a hotel, they spent less than ₱5,000 each for three nights. It was also the closest for us to go to, next to Taiwan. Not bad at all.

I’ll be up with a blog post soon about what we did in Singapore for the weekend! We only had two full days (Friday + Saturday) in the city but I feel like we squeezed in a lot! I’ll be releasing the post later this week so stay tuned for that!

xo

  Photos can't even capture how beautiful it was in person. I was blown away. #COLDPLAY 19 weeks ago, Coldplay released that quick GIF of a sneak peek of their first few cities for the 2017 leg of their #AHFODTour.

[bevseyeview]

A Woman's View: Amanda Orlando, Founder Of Everyday Allergen-Free

Welcome to a new series on Bev's Eye View! This series is called "A Woman's View", a little play on the tittle of my blog (sometimes, I think I am so clever...not). I love career profiles of women who are doing their thing and doing it well. I wanted to do this series as a way to motivate, inspire, and encourage women. Often times, these profiles are of people who have unattainable careers and unrealistic success. I wanted to profile women who are real, inspiring, and doing what they are passionate about! So, lets start with Amanda Orlando!

Name: Amanda Orlando

Age: 26

Current Job/Company: Founder, Everyday Allergen-Free. Associate Category Manager, Indigo Books & Music

Education & School: Human Geography degree from University of Toronto

You have a degree in Human Geography, what made you want to go into the book and publishing industry, along with being a food blogger? One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned since graduating is that your career journey is not linear. Despite having plans, it’s good to be flexible to opportunities that arise. I got a job at Scholastic after working for one of my professors doing research on American declining cities. I thought it would be temporary but I ended up really enjoying being part of the publishing industry (I’m a very avid reader). It also helped me figure out how to get my book (Allergen-Free Desserts to Delight Your Taste Buds: A Book for Parents and Kids) published which is one of my proudest accomplishments.

As for food blogging, that came about for a few reasons. I got a camera as a grad gift and enjoyed playing around with it. I had this goal that I was going to use the shit out of it [and]become awesome at photography. I had a Tumblr page for a couple years, just for fun. My photography was alright but it was just a hobby at that point. Then I got a book contract and I needed to provide a photography portfolio. Suddenly I just kicked into gear and created this small portfolio of my best shots which they accepted. A few months before my book released I had an anaphylactic reaction to improperly labelled bread that contained dairy. I decided it was a sign and started an actual WordPress blog to write about my experiences and share recipes and photos. This grew over the year (2015) and then in June 2016 I decided to close that blog and re-brand as Everyday Allergen-Free with the help of my close friend Joella. We wanted to create a site that inspires confidence in teens and adults living with food allergies. I’m so happy with this decision.

  What is it about publishing and food blogging that you like? Food blogging: I’ve always been very creative and I get really into things. I can never sit still and I’m very passionate. Photography, writing, and just “creating” in general are things I could do literally all day, every day. It keeps my mind active but also keeps me busy physically. I could start working on an article or a shoot at 7am and still be perfecting it at midnight and that’s totally cool with me. I also enjoy sharing my experiences with others who are in the same situation as I am. I’m always challenging myself to do more, better.

Publishing: The curation aspect of my job is the most fun. I love knowing that the books I choose will be enjoyed by kids and will bring them joy.

You have an amazing website, what are the steps you took to start your site and why did you want to start your site? The first step I took was to say – I want this, I’m doing it immediately. You have to just commit. It helps to make yourself feel a sense of urgency – if you don’t do this, someone else will. I bought the domain, Jo and I researched the best hosting platform to use (Squarespace), and then worked on the layout behind the scenes. From there we started generating content immediately and booking collaborations well into the future. Within a week the site was live and active, and we were reaching out to brands and bloggers that we wanted to work with.

Where did you get the idea for your site from? I started looking for sites about adults/teens dealing with severe allergies back in early 2015 when I had that terrible reaction. But my findings came up short. Instead I began following a lot of allergy mom blogs because I felt the need to be part of a community; I needed inspiration. And then it sort of dawned on me that I had been managing my allergies my whole life and that I actually had a lot of experiences to share.

 What were some initial challenges you faced when launching your site? Time! Our main constraint is that we never have enough time to do everything we want to do. We are really good about scheduling though so we manage to make it all fit. Our other challenge is geography. We don’t have an office and Jo and I live in different areas of the city so travel time has to be accounted for. It would be great if we had twice as much time and lived across the hall from each other haha!

What does a typical day look like for you as a blogger and an associate category manager? My day job is 9 – 5-ish (often later) and does involve some travel. I keep a notebook open and as my blog ideas come to me throughout the day I write every one of them down. EAF is my second full time job and I work at it every night. I do a lot of pre-planning before every shoot; curating the cookbook and recipes, buying ingredients, cleaning, buying props if needed, washing/chopping/dicing so everything looks photo-ready.

On EAF we generally do one collaboration or cookbook review (with a guest in the kitchen) once a week, usually on Thursdays. When I get home from my day job I have to do all the prep I just mentioned, as well as booking future collaborations, long-term strategizing, liaising with companies/bloggers over email, tweaking the site, sharing posts on Twitter and Facebook, and Jo and I spend a lot of time brainstorming.

The actual photo shoot usually takes up the whole night and then I have about an hour of tidy-up after. The next day I’ll do the photo editing which generally takes a couple hours, and then writing the piece which takes a couple hours. I like to post more than once a week so I also squeeze in an editorial post or recipe post mid-week. These could take an hour or ten – completely dependent on the topic and format. This often involves some recipe testing and planning. Jo and I try to go to networking or blogging events to stay in the know. I also do some freelance writing/contributions to other sites and just finished working with my new agent on a proposal for a second book.

I usually wrap all this up by 12:30/1am so I can get a decent sleep. And of course I regularly follow my favorite allergy mom blogs!

What are the biggest challenges you face as a food blogger and an associate category manager? I hate to sound like a broken record, but time is always the biggest challenge. There isn’t enough of it.

  What has been the best moment of your career so far? My book launch party was probably the most exciting and satisfying night for me. That feeling made me raise the bar in terms of my aspirations. It was also amazing to see my first contribution to the Huffington Post Blog do so well. I wrote honestly about my own personal experiences and it got over 2000 likes/shares/comments. It affirmed that I was on the right path.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/amanda-orlando/allergies_b_9703216.html

What are the perks of your jobs?

In my day job I get to do some travel which is awesome. Visiting places that are new to me, like Frankfurt for example, also gives me great material to write about. I’m also always surrounded by books which is a dream come true for any book lover. Blogging is all perk for me. I love every aspect of it, especially meeting amazing new people and collaborating creatively.

You have a strong social media game, what are your tips for social media?

Our Insta account is really Jo’s domain but I think I still have some wisdom to share. Pick which social channels you like best and focus on those. There are so many sharing platforms and it’s impossible to make use of them all. Post often and at the times you get most traffic. Try to stay on brand! This may mean you have to open a second Instagram account for personal use, like Jo and I did. It may be tempting to share that family photo from your grandmother’s birthday but it might not be of interest to followers of your blog.

 How do you stay motivated and inspired doing what you do?

Honestly I’m always trying to one-up myself. Every time I finish a post I think about how I can do it better the next time, or what I can add to the site to make it more appealing. Comments or interactions are also motivating because you get to directly hear what people think of your content or how it’s impacting their life. I’m motivated by the fact that I want to do my absolute best all the time. Having a partner means you can feed off each other’s excitement.

Which other woman working in your field do you look up to?

She’s not in my field, but I really look up to Mindy Kaling as a creative inspiration. She’s hilarious, she created the career she wanted, and she’s so confident. That to me is everything I could hope to achieve.

What advice would you give someone who wants to do what you're doing?

Make the decision and then commit; don’t let yourself put it off.

You can find Amanda's Social Media Links Here (Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and her Blog). All the photos were provided by Amanda Orlando!

You can also get Amanda's book "Allergen-Free Desserts to Delight Your Taste Buds: A Book for Parents and Kids)" by clicking on the link!

Thank you so much, Amanda for doing this!!

What do you think of this new series, put it down below!!

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