the sparklers were burning a hole in my imagination

Seth and Lexa got me sparklers a few weeks ago. Even though we used up the nice ones playing atop the city, I still had fifteen or so left in my room. Every time I saw them, I wanted to play with them. But it's no fun to play alone. Tonight I dragged Doug outside to play with me.

We had to get the obligatory 'laugh like sparklers' shot. I'm obsessed.

Once we got that out of the way, I told Doug he could draw whatever he wanted. He decided to draw me a cupcake (because I'm his cupcake).

And a goldfish, because he "loves me like a fish". (Don't ask.)

He also was cute enough to write out I heart Brenda but unfortunately my camera was set to a 2 second exposure at the time so I didn't capture part of it. Sorry!

And then, in true Doug fashion, he decided to issue me a challenge:

composite of three shots
camera set to bulb mode
f/8 aperture, ISO 200
light trail made with flash set to second curtain, 12 sec exposure

Doug actually asked if we could make something like this. I wasn't quite sure I could do it because there's no way to make a long exposure exactly like a shorter exposure with a huge burst of flash. I know I did not do the best job assembling the composite. I am too tired to spend 4 hours meticulously masking out the differences in tone between the asphalt illuminated by flash and the asphalt illuminated by ambient light. I still think it is super awesome and I cannot wait to do more of these.

I already have a few ideas.