Jonah the Photographer
Pictured: Jonah Corder
As some of you may already know, I'm dating my best friend, Jonah Corder. And yeah we've heard it all before, trust us, we know, everyone says they're dating their best friend. But we really were BEST friends for 3 whole years before we were both on the same page about our more-than-a-friend love for each other! And I do mean best friends... like we even shared embarrassing stories about our crushes we had at the time which seems really weird now but once was normal for us.
Since that day (March 15, 2016 to be exact), we've been going on adventures and laughing with each other as a couple for almost a full year and a half. And that's excluding the 3 years of doing that same exact thing as "just" friends!
Here are some pictures I took of Jonah outside the Phoenix Art Museum.
Some fun facts I learned about Jonah once we started dating - he's super sweet, sensitive, and romantic, which is fun for me because it means I get to go on a lot of cute dates! One date we went on recently was to the Phoenix Art Museum which he chose because he knows how much I love art and photography being the Photography student I am. See how thoughtful he is?
My pictures from the Phoenix Art Museum (above).
Jonah thought I'd understand the art like only a true artist could, but in reality I don't understand all that abstract stuff... like all black canvases hung on walls in expensive galleries? Someone, please explain that to me.
Regardless of my lack of understanding, I still enjoy museums and this just means Jonah and I also got to enjoy lots of quiet giggles over our knowingly-too-critical art comments. To be perfectly clear, we're only critical because we don't get it - so don't think we're just stuck up art snobs. Really, we're just dumb kids... or young adults... or whatever we are.
And yes, yes, I know - all art has some sort of deep meaning and says something different to each person, and I'm sure even the all black canvases fall into that category. I don't mean to offend any abstract artists, all I'm trying to say is the meaning Jonah and I find in this art, is a good laugh. (Nothing wrong with that! I'd love for my pictures to bring that kind of joy to whoever looks at them.) But I guess this does mean I'm not a true artist who understands abstract art... oh well!
Anyways, the whole reason for this date was for Jonah to relate to me and show me how much he cares for this photography passion I have. What he may not know is that he shows me how much he cares all the time! He does this by choosing to date me, a photographer who makes him wait an extra 10 minutes to get a well-exposed, interesting picture of a tiny wild flower near a sidewalk. The same flower that many normal girls glance at, admire for maybe a total of 3 seconds, then move on with their day. Sorry, Jonah.
My point is Jonah is a very supportive and patient boyfriend waiting on his photography-obsessed girlfriend. And this time he even joined in on my fun instead of just waiting and watching me! He asked me to teach him how to use my camera in order for him to take a picture of me. Which never happens by the way! And it's a nice change from me just begging him to pose for my camera all the time, which I do way too often. It was honestly really flattering that he asked me to teach him.
His results? Quite impressive for his first real go at my camera. (I say "first real go" because I have several pictures of trashcans - and I do mean trashcans - on my SD cards that he's taken to mess with me. He claims it's art. Yeah, okay. Maybe it's just another abstract concept I don't understand.)
Here's his first picture he's taken manually (meaning he wasn't just stuck on the "Automatic" setting of my camera). I let him change the shutter speed in order to expose me properly and taught him a little bit about framing and focusing before I let him loose!
Jonah's picture of me (Jessie) inside the Phoenix Art Museum.
Not too bad, huh? I'm so proud of him!
Then he started getting real creative with the cacti outside the museum. See what I mean?
Jonah's picture of me framed by cacti outside the museum.
I edited these pictures for him this time around. Next time, I'll have to teach him how to use photoshop so he's able to polish off his masterpieces by himself.
In the meantime I'm looking forward to teaching him some more shooting techniques on our next photography-related date! And I promise I'm not just forcing him to learn the art I love. For real! He claims he enjoyed the little time he did spend on my side of the camera this time around. And I'm seriously so happy about that! It's probably best for him too because he doesn't exactly love all the pictures I take of him. Sorry again, Jonah...
