Electric Twist Pt. 1

August 7, 2012 Mia Klaus

We ran across fields filled with grass in our underwear, just because it was too hot to keep on the sticky clothes and we wanted to feel the caress of the air against our skin. We swapped bras and danced in silly circles. We slipped traveling down to a small lagoon and squealed at the thought of ticks being found after we returned to the confines of the city. We climbed piles of dirt, and pretended that we were creatures of the wild. Like little children we leaped and spun and covered our feet in a fine layer of dirt. We talked about life and laughed about everything, and through it all we felt the pure and utter joy of being young and healthy and happy.

May I present to you, my dear readers, part one of the series Electric Twist:

-AK

Stick Twist Bread

August 1, 2012 Mia Klaus

Hello my fellow dreamers :)

Happy Wednesday to you all!! As always, I hope this post finds you happy, healthy, and enjoying every moment of your summer! I am currently writing to you from a comfortable home in a peaceful section of a small Minnesotan town. The trees are presenting a shadow dance with their leaves upon the wall, and the Olympic games are playing quietly in the background. A small Italian woman full of much love for her children is in the next room with the hair dryer, carefully preparing for her workday. On my left, in a matching armchair to the one in which I am currently reclining, is a dear friend of mine. He is currently focusing on his computer, there is some issue about increasing desktop or disc space for his apple's virtual computer system. The air is laced with the smell of my friend's morning coffee intermixed with the scent of cinnamon and freshly baked bread. This whole place speaks of peace for me, it speaks of sun kissed skin, of the cool embrace of lake-water, of warm summer evenings drifting into slightly cooler nights. It is the smell of the fire and the sound of feet in the sand. This is a beautiful place, one which I am always sorry to leave. I hope that you, my wonderful readers, have a place such as this and that you have had the opportunity to enjoy that place this summer.

While you are out hanging with your friends this summer, you might want to consider trying a new recipe called "Stick-Twist Bread." I found this recipe in the wonderful Kinfolk Magazine Volume 4, which if you haven't read before, I would seriously suggest checking out. This was my first time making the bread, but I have to say I was very pleased with it and even found an alternate use for the dough. The basic idea is that you make a very simple eggless dough (the recipe that I used can be found in Kinfolk) and you wrap said dough around a clean branch/stick and cook it for about 5 min over the coals of a fire. I was really pleased with the way in which this recipe worked and found that the leftover dough can be rolled and made into pretzels! :)

Photo journey capturing the making of Stick Twist Bread:

Oh hai everyone :)

<3 AK

"Let your heart skip like a pebble on water"

June 20, 2012 Mia Klaus

Happy Hump Day to all of you lovely readers,

As always, I hope this post finds you well. I have been spending that last few months experimenting with film, so I found it only fair to share some of my favorite images from a trip I took this past week to a beautiful little town in Minnesota. All images are unedited (unless otherwise noted) and were taken either with Yoshi (a Yashica Fx-2) on a 50mm f/1.8 or with a Asahi Pentax K1000 on a 40mm f/2.8 (both cameras were using 400 speed Kodak film). My favorite part about shooting with these cameras is the fact that their light meters currently do not work, so shooting with them required me to truly test my knowledge and understanding of light and how to properly expose my film using manual controls, my past experiences, and gut instinct. I'm incredibly happy with how the images turned out, and can not believe how far they show I have come as a photographer. I doubt that I would have been able to properly expose this film at this time last year. Thank you all for supporting me and continuing to encourage me as I grow as a photographer. I appreciate you all so much, and I am so excited to see where this next year takes us all. :)