#have photos as example of clothes and poses and motorcycles

[jmdbjk]

JK's Seven live

JK starts off announcing his new single Seven. He immediately says he knows people will be disappointed it is just a single and not an album, but don't worry, he is working on a "full" album. It irritates me that he feels the need to even acknowledge this. JUST BE HAPPY HE'S CREATING NEW MUSIC OF ANY KIND.

He says he likes it and thinks we'll like it a lot and to look forward to it.

My take on perhaps what the MV might be like? He says its a feel good song that fits this time of year and since it was filmed in Los Angeles, the land of palm trees, sunny days and beaches I would expect a lot of outdoor scenes, people having fun, etc... because if it was all filmed on a soundstage, what was the point of filming in Los Angeles? Also, not a single leak of a pic of JK on set anywhere soooo hmmm...

The actor Han Sohee is supposedly very popular and edgy and I would imagine her fanbase and his will dovetail perfectly and the MV will be a match made in marketing heaven. The contact may have been made through Tae and his actor network. We don't know.

... and sorry, this won't be a p*rno film where they will be doing the nasty... no matter how much the homophobes think it will be. I mean... seriously? JK? Who had to get over his bashfulness of posing for cameras with no shirt under his Calvin Klein denim jacket?

Jimin had to gently break it to us that there would be female dancers just touching him (while fully clothed) in the Like Crazy choreo... and y'all think Kookie is going to be inserting his [blank] into a [blank] on camera? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... HAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAA... AHAHAHAHAHAAAA....

Anyway...

He also explained his album process is one where he is still working out what his colors and voice are. Which tells me he is much like Jimin in that though he is part of BTS, his central being is not creating the music but performing it. I hope he learns a lot from this process and is able to express his colors and voice to his satisfaction.

He talks about "resting" for so long and how much he really enjoyed this lengthy personal time. Back in February when people were sounding the alarm that he was being held back and forced to stop work... welll... he just said he chose to be a lump on the couch for a long time and apologized. DON'T APOLOGIZE KOOKIE! He's been running as BTS since he was a middle schooler, he deserves to be a lazy lump, JUST LIKE THE LAZY LUMPS EVERY ONE OF YOU ARE WHO JUDGE HIM AND HIS CHOICES ALL THE TIME.

He says the song Seven came about after a meeting with Bang PD and he heard the song and said MINE! I can't wait to see what Kookie did. I suspect this is the song he was recording when we saw this:

[April 16, 2023]

Kookie explains his new piercing:

Like bondage? Wait, that came out of nowhere... never mind, DON'T WANT TO TRIGGER ANY CLOSE-MINDED PEOPLE FOR GOD'S SAKES.

... what were you saying Kookie?

They always try to show "a different side" of themselves in their work. Their photo shoots have run the gamut of concepts. But Jungkook has indulged in tattoos and piercings for a few years now, experimenting first with the fake studs on his eyebrows before plunging in (literally) with a real eyebrow piercing.

You look like a cuddly bunny? Like a sweetie? Cuz you are?

His desire to be less "round" and more "sharp" is intriguing. Edgy is what I believe he's going for. His personality is edgy but perhaps not in the way he perceives "edgy" to mean. So he wants an outward appearance of edgy: tattoos, piercings, the whole motorcycle aura thing which reminds me, when are we going to see him straddling one of the bikes he supposedly owns?

Oh this explains everything...

[Paraphrasing for people in the back: Jungkook says to fuck off, he can do whatever he wants to his own body.]

A TMI: he just had an English lesson earlier. He says the order is difficult and I know exactly what he's talking about. The sentence structure of English and Korean are not the same. English is subject-verb-object, example: Dogs eat kibble. Korean is subject-object-verb: Dogs kibble eat. Also, English past/present/future participles are HARD for those learning English. The brain has to do some mental gymnastics in translating. Takes a lot of practice. He's very good at reading English and pronouncing what he reads. I suspect his struggles with English are conversational English and vocabulary. Not only do you have to recall the correct words to say what you want, you have to construct grammatically correct sentences as the words leave your mouth and its really hard to do that. I am certain he 100% understands English when it is spoken to him.

Another TMI: he had been at the company earlier, and ate buckwheat noodles...

I feel the need to further explain some misleading terminology people are constantly throwing around... not all noodles are "ramen" or "ramyeon". I already explained the difference between "ramen" as Japanese style and "ramyeon" as Korean style but ramen/ramyeon noodles themselves are made of wheat. When Jimin was asked specifically about did he go to Jungkook's for ramyeon, and he said no, he has not been to Jungkook's for ramyeon... but perhaps he's been there for buckwheat noodles which are gluten-free and are what JK used in that last dish he posted a pic of on Weverse. We already know JK has been told to lay off the gluten.

Anyway... back to JK.

He explains his 20/4 intermittent fasting. Some call it the "warrior diet." No eating for 20 hours and then a 4-hour window to eat. This type of eating pattern may impact metabolism and glycemic levels in your blood. If he's been told to lay off the gluten, this type of eating pattern may also be a way of controlling certain levels of blood chemistry throughout the day, especially if he's also working out. The timing of the eating pattern also makes a difference and what you eat during the four hours also impacts the effectiveness. That's all I know about it. Just keep in mind, all the members have a staff of professionals helping them stay healthy and when they say "diet" they don't mean they have eating disorders or are doing anything extreme that would hurt their health, they are following the advice of their trusted professional staff. Jungkook says his eating window is from about 7-8 pm until midnight or so.

After going on for a minute or two about how awesome yet cute Yoongi is, he says he wants to be like that, play instruments and sing and dance and be awesome too but...

I'm only 18 minutes into this 1 hour 50 minute live...

He showed off his mullet:

He still doesn't understand how some comments disappear...

My explanation to Jungkook: there is a complex war of wills happening in the comments where different factions of the fandom attempt to impose control over each other using the "report" function in the live chat. And that some comments, seemingly innocent of motive, "touch your hair", "touch your nose", "make a funny peace sign with both hands", are actually an attempt to coerce you into sending secret hidden signals to those watching in order to confirm that you are half of a "hidden" couple within the group and that you are being controlled and forbidden from living your life freely. These hand gestures (that only they know) and the places on your face that you touch are being intercepted and analyzed and fed into a software program as you speak so that these idiots ... conspirators ... dumbasses um, individuals, can prove their baseless ... ridiculous ... disrespectful ... selfish ... uh ... their fantasies are real. For real. Don't laugh. Ok go ahead and laugh because that's everyone's first impulse.

But for real, stop fiddling with your new piercing because it might get infected if you are constantly touching it with your fingers.

Gratuitous armpit shot for our hairy armpit enthusiasts:

Someone asks him for a spoiler for the song:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA SUCH A REBEL! This is the rebellion everyone insists proves that Kookie-pookie is being held back by the company. Right...

This is your rebel trying to invent his own "heart" gesture:

This is our dorky rebel, y'all... TAKE THAT, HYBE! (oops he gave himself a muscle cramp trying to make his goofy heart hands... our big, edgy, pierced, tatted up Kookie... love him)

And without any warming up, he commenced to working out on his home workout power tower.

Sorry, couldn't resist...

The whole time he's doing his arms work out he's whining about being so tired. Actually the ENTIRE time he's working out...

But he dropped another TMI too:

A shoot? What shoot, JK? And oopsie:

Every time he dropped those free weights to the floor, the neighbors below him probably fell out of bed...

[the chewed up corner of the coffee table is taking me out...]

At least he's not singing with his whole chest for 3 hours straight...

Then he gave himself a pep talk... to make himself do the workout... to finish it... to work on his solo activities well, to stop his habit of starting things and not finishing...

NO PAIN NO GAIN! YOU CAN DO IT KOOKIE!

Koo is gonna be hangry ...

That workout was a killer. Damn. Abs of steel.

As I've been making my way through this live, I've also been kept in the loop about a few things... Celine show has been cancelled. I was concerned that one of ours was in Paris while this turmoil was ongoing so hopefully Tae can get out of there. Maybe he can zip over to London and visit his bae at some point before heading back to Korea.

And hopefully no one gets triggered by this post since I kept it clean-ish. People are ready to call them lovers but saying they might be into certain sexual preferences is off limits? Seriously, check your prejudices before you start coming at me.

[icyevergreen5]

[dwellordream]

“To understand the depiction of women's toughness in fashion magazines, it is important to consider how they describe women's leather fashions. Fashion magazines often portray women wearing leather attire and must in some way negotiate the aura of toughness associated with leather. In American culture, leather is strongly associated with masculinity and tough men. Mention the word "leather" and images of motorcycle straddling Hell's Angels are apt to spring to mind. Leather is tough and masculine. How, then, do women's magazines present leather fashions for women? Does the bad boy image of leather make it too tough, too rough for the glamorous models who fill women's magazines? The representation of leather is interesting because, like all clothing, leather does far more than keep a person warm. 

Leather signifies a great deal about its wearer. In "Fragments of a Fashionable Discourse" Kaja Silverman discusses the multiple purposes of clothing; "Clothing and other kinds of ornamentation make the human body culturally visible" (145). She observes, "Dress is one of the most important cultural implements for articulating and territorializing human corporeality — for mapping its erotogenic zones and for affixing sexual identity" ( 146). No form of attire makes a body more visible than leather, which suggests both toughness and sexuality. Valerie Steele writes about the appeal of leather, "Many people find black leather sexy for both men and women... . Not only does leather have a certain tactile appeal as a 'second skin,' but it may also carry a variety of erotic connotations. From Marlon Brando's black leather jacket to Saint Laurent's black leather miniskirt, the message combines seduction and danger" (62). 

Steele adds that leather has acquired "tough, even sado-masochistic connotations" (62). Leather signifies many characteristics, but it is always linked to toughness, particularly in men. Leather must be presented with care in women's magazines because it potentially threatens the magazines' dominant feminine imagery with its tough connotations. Many articles and photo spreads explicitly tone down the association between leather and toughness. One article in Glamour entitled "Leather or Not" states, "Bikers, hit your brakes. The new leathers are coming through and they're miles from tough. This year's keepers are refined, tailored" (254). An article in Seventeen titled "The Leather Report" assures its readers that leather is not as tough as they might assume, commenting "Bye-bye, biker chick: Leather's new look is more tender than tough" (137). 

Calling into question the common linkage between bikers' culture and leather is one way that women's magazines try to reshape leather's image, making it kinder and gentler. When leather does appear, magazines soften its tough image by posing leather-clad women with men, especially in what appears to be a romantic entanglement. An article in Mademoiselle, "Zip! The Motorcycle Jacket — Truly Cool Again" (188), depicts four women in motorcycle jackets. Three are portrayed in sexually suggestive poses with men, and one woman is photographed alone. In this article and others, the man acts as a signifier of heterosexuality and limits the toughness of the women models by disavowing the implicit linkage between toughness and lesbianism. 

Another common technique for diminishing leather's connection to toughness is to emphasize the femininity of the woman wearing the leather clothing. For example, in an advertisement for Calvin Klein from Vanity Fair, a female model wears leather gloves and has a black leather biker's jacket flung over her shoulders (Calvin Klein 16-17). She wears a low-cut black dress, has long hair, and is classically beautiful and feminine. In this interplay between masculinity and femininity, femininity is the dominant signifier. There is no suggestion that this statuesque beauty is threatening traditional gender roles, despite her masculine leather jacket. The masculinity of the jacket only heightens and accentuates her predominantly feminine appearance. In an advertisement for Calvin Klein jeans, a model wears a tough black leather jacket and rides a motorcycle, but her long hair and flawless face suggest that she is still all woman ("Best & the Worst" 122). 

Similarly, in a story from Vogue that describes fashion trends, a model straddles a motorcycle and wears a black leather jacket that would make the Fonz envious, but the large gold earrings she wears and her makeup reveal that the model has not abandoned her femininity, despite her biker's garb ("Best & the Worst" 122). In another fashion spread from Cosmopolitan, a boyish model wears a biker-style leather jacket ("Runway" 223). She has a short boyish haircut, but her eye makeup is quite evident, as is her lipstick. In our society, makeup and lipstick are two important markers of hetero-femininity, undermining the model's potentially lesbian-masculine presentation. In another article from Cosmopolitan, a model wears leather pants, which come across as far more sexy than tough because she has a sultry, come-hither look ("Runway" 219). 

By stressing the femininity and heterosexuality of models who wear leather fashions, women's magazines convey to readers that leather attire, despite its tough tradition rooted in images of James Dean and other bad-boy heroes, only enhances a woman's femininity. Another way women's magazines mitigate the toughness of leather attire is by frequently including pictures, fashion spreads, and articles that stress the importance of combining a leather item with a more feminine piece of clothing. In one picture, a frilly top accompanies a black leather mini-skirt with the reassuring caption: "Bad-girl black leather looks sweet when it meets a tiny top or ruffled shirt" ("The Leather Report" 139). A fashion spread from Vogue suggests that even "the traditional leather jacket softens up for spring" when made from white leather instead of black ("Pale" 316). In a fashion spread from Vanity Fair, a tough-looking leather bustier is combined with a silk skirt ("Funny" 91). 

Not only is the toughness attributed to the leather undermined when presented in the form of a bustier, a piece of clothing very much attached to femininity and sexuality, it is also undermined by associating it with the softness and femininity of silk. Combining styles associated with masculinity and femininity sends out a complex signal to viewers because the "values of 'masculine' and 'feminine' in style are ultimately bound up with the values placed on actual male and female roles in social and sexual life" (Williamson, Consuming 53). Masculine styles are connected with authority, prestige, and power —attributes associated with men. Feminine styles are connected with softness, delicacy, and powerlessness, which is why women in business often wear outfits that have masculine characteristics. Feminine and frilly outfits would typically be interpreted as wielding less power. 

Thus, combining the masculinity of leather with the femininity of other clothing is one way to diminish the masculine strength and authority that are often conveyed by leather. Women's magazines frequently combine masculine and feminine styles, and not only with leather fashions. For example, Mademoiselle contains a fashion spread that displays "tough but pretty party clothes that wear as well as West Side Story" ("Stay Cool" 159). Another spread from Mademoiselle, "White-Collar Cool," portrays one model in a denim jacket combined with a frilly lace collar and another model in a leather jacket paired with big earrings and a flouncy blouse. The spread has semitough headings such as "Want to make something of it? Punch up a pastel shirt with a tight, streetwise skirt" ("Stay Cool" 161). In a photo spread entitled "Pretty Tough" from Seventeen magazine, jean jackets are combined with bikinis to give a look that is attractive but cool. 

One model is dressed in a "beat black" jacket that "cruises over a pretty polka-dot maillot" (169). Another wears a "bleached-out denim jacket (skimming the midriff) [that] toughens up a sweet peach bikini" (170). In a fashion spread from Cosmopolitan entitled "Feminine Denim" (1993), a classic men's-style denim shirt is paired with high heels and bikini underwear (158). These examples show how customary it is for women's magazines to combine tough clothing with feminine, frilly attire — a sign of a culture that is ill at ease with women adopting too many characteristics associated with men and masculinity because of their association with lesbianism. The fashion styles that fill women's magazines suggest a great deal about how men and women have been segregated into separate spheres by gender. Even when tough fashions are not shown, their absence speaks as loudly as their presence, a sign that being tough is still not perceived as acceptable for women.”

- Sherrie A. Inness, “Pretty Tough: The Cult of Femininity in Women’s Magazines.” in Tough Girls: Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture

[luna-loo]

＼(◎o◎)／Stop! This is the OC police! Show us your original WWEVerse character(s) and overpower us and the community with creativity love (*˘︶˘*).｡*♡ Carry the good vibes on if you want! (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Luna (faceclaim Priscilla Kelly) exists in different variations but the character does not change much. Most changes are optical. For the profile I choose my favorite Luna.

“THE BIKER UNIVERSE”

Full Name: Luna Loo Black

Nickname:Luna, LuLoo,Doll,Dollface,Boo,Poppet

Age: between 19 & 21

Sex: Female

Birthday: November

Occupation: prospective photographer, dancer (stripper), Bartender

Orientation: straight

Height: 5'5"

Skin colour: Pale

Hair style: long hair

Hair colour: natural red (ginger like her Pops) but dyed black

Eye colour: green

Distinguishing Features: A birthmark on her inner thigh, Tattoos and Piercings (snakebites,nose and a clit piercing)

Preferred Clothing: Sexy, Goth,Biker Chick,wild style

Any physical illnesses?:No

Any mental illnesses?: Slightly depressive and melancholic

Take drugs?: sometimes

Smoke?: Yes

Act before thinking/Think before acting?: definitively act before thinking

Way of speaking: Because she has a twisted and dark soul, she sometimes expresses herself in riddles but most of the time she speaks normally. Maybe sometimes a bit much and fast when she is excited.

Swears?: oh yea, a lot of swearing

Strengths: Creative, helpful, generous, loving Weakness: Impatient, cocky, sometimes unfaithful

Hobbies

Photography…But she also likes to stand in front of the camera herself, so she is a hobby model... Parties, dancing, tailoring, collecting old things,makeup , her bestie

Habits

When Luna is concentrated, she slightly bites her tongue. If she is not careful it can hurt. She needs her coffee every morning. When she gets nervous, she plays with her tongue in the right corner of her mouth

Skills/Abilities

She has a knack for aesthetics, which is an advantage when photographing. Her creativity knows no limits. She tailors most of her clothes herself. She can dance damn good. She also dances professionally sometimes, she strips and has no problem getting undressed...on the contrary.

Secrets

Sean... Sean is her biggest secret. First she is secretly in love with him, then they have a secret affair and with him she secretly takes substances she should not take. This man is both her salvation and her misery.

If you want some Luna and Sean action then read Stalker’s Gaze and Photography !

Fears

Although she grew up with motorcycles, she is afraid to ride one herself. But she likes to pose on it. She is afraid of missing something in life. She is also afraid that something might happen to her beloved family or friends.

Dreams/Goals

Her goal is to earn money with her photos and maybe even become famous.

Favourites

Food: Pizza

Colour: Black and red

Animal: Fox, Cat, Bats

Time of day: Night

Type of art: black&white photographs

Genre of music: rock/metal

Relationships and others

Luna is the daughter of Taker. He raised her (see THERE SHE WAS) and they love each other very much, even if it is not always easy. Luna is totally into her Dad’s best friend, Sean O'Haire. At first she is only physically attracted to him, but later it develops into a very deep, intense and especially twisted love. Her best friend and soul sister is Ava Valerie Silver (OC of @kittysilver86) The two love each other like sisters and are inseparable. For Luna, Ava is even more important than her Pops or Sean. 

Personality

You can find most of it in the profile.

What is still to mention... Luna is very sexy and wicked. She knows exactly how she looks to men but she is absolutely not arrogant or horrible. She just likes to play with her charms and with men (only Sean doesn't let her play with him, he rather plays with HER)

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OTHER SHIPS AND THINGS

Ships: Luna x Jeff Hardy, Luna x Matt Hardy, Luna x Drew McIntyre, Luna x Lance Archer

Other Facts: Luna is also the Princess of Darkness (see A FAIRYTALE) because she is the daughter of the Lord of Darkness (Taker). She also exists in a trailer park, where she has fire-red hair and is married.

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All edits/manips are made by me and do not correspond to 100% of the description. I added them to make the post a bit nicer and to illustrate some things (for example her tattoos). For Wrestling edits go to wrestling-edits-af

Thank you @lilithxue for this wonderful opportunity to tell something about my beloved OC!

And a very special thanks goes to @kittysilver86 resp. @the-writing-kitty , the only person who understands me and my thoughts. She is the absolute best writer and writes such awesome (and damn hot) stuff about Sean for me. I am so infinitely grateful that you are in my life.

[saiilorstars]

It Had To Be You

Ch.15: The Choice’s Aftermath // Story Masterlist

Fandom: The Flash

Pairings: Barry Allen x Original Female Character

Pronunciation of OC’s name: Bell-en. The last syllable has an emphasis so it’s not pronounced like ‘Helen’ would be.

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Chapter Summary: The weight of Belén's choice between her brother and Barry (and, thus, their friends) has truly fell on Belén and now she has no idea what to do with herself.

Belén stepped into her home - rather lonely home - expecting a peaceful afternoon of rest. CC Picture News was having rough days full of news considering the exposure of the Flash had happened, and, apparently, a couple sightings of the Azalea. There were news about them nearly every day. It looked like the article they had once ran against the Flash had disappeared because now everyone loved him apparently. It was fine, it just meant killer days even after a shift was over.

So, it was an understatement to say Belén was surprised to find her older sister, Maritza, placing a plate on the dinner table. Axel was already digging into his plate

"Mar...itza?" Belén arched an eyebrow, slowly coming in and shutting the door.

Maritza smiled upon seeing her younger sister, like nothing had happened only a few days ago. "Belén, good your back. I made your favorite: lasagna."

"Uh...thanks?" Belén dropped her things on the couch as she walked by, coming into the dining room. "What are you...doing here?"

"I've been thinking, a lot, and I decided that maybe it's good if we live together…"

Belén's eyes popped wide.

"You know, it's getting difficult for me at my own place, and I thought...considering what happened to you last week, and then with Dad...I don't want to be so far away anymore. If you're okay with it - considering this is technically your home now - can Axel and I move in?" It was quiet for a full minute, and Maritza wondered if she too were going to be rejected like Rayan.

But then, Belén laughed and threw her arms around Maritza. "I think that is really what we need right now!"

Slowly, Maritza smiled back and hugged get sister tighter. From his chair, Axel cheered, though he didn't quite understand why.

~ 0 ~

That night, S.T.A.R. LABS became just as busy fighting crime building as any other night. Three gang robbers had struck at some jewelry store and while the policemen were actively trying to capture them in a car street chase, the Flash was making a slightly bigger effort to run them down.

Caitlin was monitoring from the computers, along with Cisco. "Oh, Barry, there's an intersection coming up. Hurry!"

Barry sped up ahead of the thieves and disoriented them a bit. "This should slow 'em down!" However, the intersection came up and the three bandits split up easily. Barry came to a skidded halt as he stared in each taken direction. "Guys, which way?"

"Left," went Caitlin at the same time Cisco went, "Right."

"Right!"

"Left!"

"Stop!" Barry cut in before they went further. "You both hear you're telling me two different things, right?"

"Barry, listen up. Listen carefully," Dr. Wells took over the comm. "Belén is making her way there - I'm sending her after the Queen. You, on the other hand, have to handle the other two."

"She's not gonna be able to keep up," Barry said frantically. She was already up far ahead, and Belén was coming in from her own house. How was she gonna do it?

"Excuse you, I'd hit you if I was there," came the cool and collected voice of the woman in question.

"Barry, take a right," instructed Wells, making him immediately zip in the opposite direction.

"Belén, the Queen is trying to make it to the bridge…"

"Got it!" Belén, in her dozen of vines, ripped through the streets, not as fast as Barry, but enough to get to where she needed to be on time.

"Make her go west before Fremont!"

"Ooh, like a detour, yeah?"

"Precisely!"

Belén grabbed several construction blockers and organized them along the street with her vines. She could hear the motorcycle nearing but by the time 'the Queen' reached the site she was forced into a quick delve into the next street.

"All clear!" Belén exclaimed, disbanding into vines soon after.

"Excellent, now Barry, the King is headed for the entrance to the interstate."

Barry was one step ahead, his mind now cleared of some stress. He went on ahead and blocked the entrance with more construction blocking tools. "What entrance?" he said smugly afterwards.

"Atta boy. Check…"

With the construction blocking their way, the three bandits were forced into a second intersection. Only this time the police officers in their own cars had managed to surround them.

Barry went by each in speed from, yelling to them. "Got the keys!" And he left them to deal with their new situation.

~ 0 ~

Coming back to S.T.A.R. Labs, both Barry and Belén were welcomed warmly by their friends. Belén went straight to Caitlin while Barry went to Cisco, and 'high-fived' for triumph.

"Efficiently done, Mr. Allen," Dr. Wells congratulated and glanced at Belén who was in the middle of finding her clothes with Caitlin. "As did you, Belén."

"Thank you," Belén mumbled, more focused on finding her clothes.

"We need a picture," Cisco announced, and didn't even wait for answer before he hurried to find his phone.

Barry looked after him. "Pretty sure rule number one of having a secret identity is not taking pictures of yourself in your super suit without a mask on."

Cisco, turned back with phone. "Oh, come on, please! This is just for us. This is to document all this."

Wells swayed his head as he came to with the idea. "Who knows? Maybe people in the future will want to know how all this happened."

Barry nodded, resigned to. "All right, well, if you want the future to have the whole story, then, we all need to be in it."

Caitlin put hands to her face. "First, let me put on some makeup?"

"The future does not care about your makeup, Caitlin," Cisco tossed his phone over tossed Barry.

"Don't be so rude, Cisco," Belén scolded and gently brought Caitlin to where Dr. Wells was, ready for the pictures.

Barry prepared to take the photo. "Okay. Big smiles. Three... two... one-" he left the phone to go be in the photograph then returned a second later and caught the phone before it even had the chance to fall. "Ha!"

Caitlin tilted her head, wondering. "Does that count as a selfie?"

"Absolutely," Barry pointed at her while giving Cisco back the phone.

"Sick," Cisco laughed at the resulted photograph. "Came out good."

"I really have to get home," Belén set loose her hair from the root invasion she usually pinned it up with when she went Azalea. "Maritza's probably waiting for me…"

"Your sister is at your place?" Cisco glanced over, apparently surprised.

Belén nodded. "Actually, she moved in."

"When?" went everyone except Wells, much to her amusement.

"This afternoon," she laughed at their reactions. "Yeah, she surprised me too."

"I suppose after what you went through last week, she just wants to be close with her sister," Caitlin reasoned logically and gained agreement from everyone else.

"Yeah, well, I love it, but it does make things trickier with this whole secret fighting thing. Now, for example, I gotta go home - she's making it movie night."

"If you'd like, I can speed you there," Barry offered kindly.

But Belén instantly shook her head. "No! I...I can get there on my own, thank you." There was an awkward silence between them soon after, and Belén wanted not to be further questioned. "I have to go. Goodnight," she hurried off without looking at anyone in the room.

Caitlin rose from her chair and tapped her fingers along the desk, looking after their friend. "She left without changing."

"What's going on with her?" Cisco asked, confused. "I thought we were...you know, cool again?"

"I keep telling you, it has something to do with how she escaped from Snart's warehouse," Barry was tired of telling them.

It had been nearly a week since the defeat of the Rogues but Belén refused to talk about the incident. They don't know how she escaped considering there was a bomb strapped to her chair. But, Belén just wouldn't talk.

"Belén is just disoriented from all that's happened lately," Dr. Wells said matter-of-factly. "We just have to give her time to...fall back into the normal routine."

Barry couldn't help the sourness in his words as he said, "Well I just don't understand why she's taking it out on me."

For that, neither Wells nor Caitlin or Cisco had a response. They were well aware on the distinct distancing Belén had taken against Barry, and none of them could figure out why - not even the man from the future posing as a paraplegic.

It was all just a mystery.

~ 0 ~

That same night, Iris made a stop by Belén's home and was surprised to find Maritza and Axel there as well. Axel, upon seeing her, hopped off the couch and ran up to greet her.

"Iris! Hi! Hi!" he hopped excitedly at her side. "Do you want to see the drawings I did today!? My Mommy says I'm really good at them!"

Iris, who was holding a box in her arms, could only chuckle in response. "Hi, Axel. What are you doing here?" discreetly she looked up to Belén asking her the same thing.

"We're living here now!"

Iris' eyes widened, but made sure to hide her very shocked face from Maritza who was coming in from the kitchen. "Hello Iris," Maritza greeted and took her son away from the woman. "We're moving in back home as Axel said. And, speaking of Axel, it's your bedtime."

"But I wanted to show Iris my drawings!" the boy stomped his foot.

"Maybe you can show them to me tomorrow, yeah?" Iris tried helping out Maritza. "We can even put them an album for you to look over whenever you want."

Axel's face lit up with excitement. "Okay! Goodnight, Iris! Goodnight, auntie Belén."

Belén smiled. "Goodnight Axel." She waited until her sister and nephew were gone before speaking again. "What are you doing here, Iris?" she eyed the box in her friend's arms. "Did you and Eddie already have a lovers' spat?"

Iris playfully rolled her eyes. "Oh, ha-ha. No. I realized I accidentally, for some reason, packed in a couple of your things with mine." She walked into the living room and put down the box on the couch.

"Oh, well thanks," Belén followed and leaned over the couch from behind. "I did wonder where some of my things went, but I just thought I left them in Barry's room."

Iris opened the box and pulled out several items that Belén did realize she'd been looking for. "I really hope this wasn't a diary," Iris laughed as she passed a purple journal to Belén.

"No, it was work notes," Belén smiled to herself, eyeing several other clothes that went into the box by accident.

"Uh oh," Iris stopped at a gray shirt in her hands. "Man, I suck at packing."

"Why? That's-" Belén was halfway pointing when Iris cut her off.

"I put in one of Barry's old shirts by mistake." Iris exhaled and shook her head, re-folding the gray shirt to put back into the box.

"...I thought that was yours," Belén meekly said a couple seconds later. Iris looked at her friend with a teasing smile. Belén rolled her eyes, half-expecting some of the words that would be coming out as a response. "It was lying around, and considering you are not a neat woman...I thought it was yours," she turned her head to the side in thought. "Although that does explain why it was a bit too big…"

Iris busted out laughing, much to Belén's irritation. Iris put away the now-folded shirt into the box and pushed back her hair as she took a deep breath in. "You gotta admit that was funny."

"Whatever," Belén muttered and went back to reading the notebook in her hands. "You're just lucky that I love you because if it were any other person now they would not tell you what I am about to tell you."

"Yeah, like what?" Iris crossed her arms and waited.

Belén's eyes looked up, and completely seriously, announced, "They've asked me at CC Picture News to extend a job offer to Iris West but...I may just change my mind."

Iris' eyes had never looked so big at that moment. "Oh. My. God! Are you...are you kidding me?"

"No, I'm no-"

In her excitement, Iris hopped onto the couch and went to be face to face with Belén. "Annah-Belén Palayta, please tell me that's not a joke, please?"

"No, it is not a joke," Belén said with a crooked smile. "One of our co-workers quit a couple days ago and they've been looking for someone. I reccomended my good ole friend who also wrote a famous blog-"

"It wasn't that famous," Iris waved with a hand.

"Do you want the job or not?"

"Oh yes, please!"

"Then your blog is famous, period. So, what do you want me to tell them?"

"That I will be there first thing tomorrow morning of course!" Iris squealed and threw her arms around Belén's shoulders. "Oh, you are such a good friend to me! I owe you big time!"

Belén smiled and pulled away. "It's nothing, Iris. I'm gonna like working with you. Although, considering Noah and I have Linda as our mentor, you'll probably be paired with someone else."

"Doesn't matter, we're gonna be co-workers," Iris smiled the widest possible. She got off the couch and continued taking out what was left in the box. "I have to get back to Eddie's and tell him about this."

In her excitement again, she pulled out Barry's shirt and placed it onto the couch. "Iris, that's not mine!" Belén exclaimed but Iris ignored her as she babbled on.

"Nine a.m. right!?" Iris called from the door.

"Yeah, but-"

"I will see you outside so you can give me like a little tour or something cos I definitely don't wanna be that dork on her first day-"

"Okay, but Iris, this isn't mi-"

"Oh this is gonna be so much fun!" Iris laughed to herself and hurried out.

Belén raised her hands in resignation and went around to gather what Iris had brought in. Maritza came back down the stairs and mused. "What was that all about? I could hear Iris from upstairs."

"Oh, I told her about CC Pictures giving her a job offer and she went...all excited," Belén smiled in the end. She was happy Iris was finally going to be recognized by an official company for her talent.

"So you're gonna be working together, then?"

"Yeah, that's the plan."

"That's good," Maritza came up behind the couch and looked down at the various things left across. "What's all this?"

"Just some of my things Iris accidentally packed while I was staying with her and Joe. I'm gonna take it upstairs right now."

"This isn't yours," Maritza chuckled as she pulled up a bright neon pink blouse.

"What - oh for God's sake!" Belén took the blouse from Maritza with a loud sigh. "That woman really does suck at packing."

"And neither is this," Maritza then pointed at the gray shirt.

"Yeah, that's Barry's. I'll be bringing these by tomorrow for Iris to take," Belén took the gray shirt and stuffed it back into the box along with the pink blouse. "I'm gonna go get some sleep too."

"Mhm, you do that," Maritza smiled and watched her sister go upstairs with the things that actually belonged to her in her arms. Once gone, Maritza's smile vanished and she turned around.

Well, if Iris was going to be working at CC Picture News, then it would make it a lot more difficult for Belén to slip away and see that Flash. Noah and Iris were going to take the shift there - unknowingly to Iris - and Maritza herself planned on taking the shift at home. She promised Rayan that by moving in with Belén it would become more difficult for Belén to continuously see that Flash. Plus, living together, she could hopefully push Belén in the right direction towards her family.

~ 0 ~

As promised, the next morning, Belén arrived to work and saw Iris anxiously waiting right outside the doors. Belén couldn't help laugh a little as she saw the practically bouncing woman. "Did you seriously not go inside yet? Iris, you've been in there like a million times already."

"Yeah, but as your friend!" Iris pointed at her. "Not as myself, the new cub reporter."

"I'm one too," Belén shrugged casually and reached for the doors. "It's fine, just be...casual."

Iris took a deep breath and followed her in. Belén led her up to her desk, and Noah appeared a couple seconds later from his own desk.

"Iris, hi," Noah greeted her with a shake of hands. "Belén told us she was gonna be asking you about the offer. Glad to see you took it."

"Yeah…" Iris could think of only that word at the moment.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine here! You've got awesome bosses around here," he said purposely loud as Linda walked by.

"Being a kiss-ass will get you nowhere, Iris," Linda turned around, mockingly scolding Noah. "So don't even listen to whatever this guy has for advice."

Iris chuckled and nodded her head. "I think I'll go with Bells."

"You guys are wanted for the meeting," Linda pointed at the three. "Hurry up, Larkin's here today."

"Yikes," Belén dropped off her bag and left Iris' there as well. "C'mon Iris, time for you to meet the big boss."

"Good luck," Linda told the newest worker before leaving.

The meeting was held across the room, on an elevated platform. There were already several other workers waiting in their chairs.

"Look who showed up," Noah whispered to Belén, but Iris was able to hear perfectly from her spot. He had nodded over to an older, brunette man reaching for some of the hand sandwiches on the table.

"Who's that?" Iris asked them both.

"The snobbiest man ever," Belén spat as they came to take their seats.

Iris took a seat beside Belén, and Noah took the other. A couple minutes later, Larkin showed up. He was an elder man, a small one too.

"Mr. Bridge! Nice of you to make an appearance at a staff meeting," he addressed the man identified as Mason.

"I do love a good shmear."

"Ah, Miss Palayta, I see you have persuaded your friend to take the offer," Larkin had laid eyes on Iris who sheepishly smiled in response.

"I told you she would, sir," Belén said politely. Iris noticed a sort of...dreadful expression take over her face a second later, like she was just waiting for something.

"Well," Larkin placed a hand on the table, "how's about next you give one of our reporters a little something about the Flash for the next round of articles?"

Belén looked anywhere that wasn't Larkin. She pushed back some of her hair and, quite breathlessly, said back, "I would...if I knew anything."

Larkin raised his eyebrows, for a second looking crossed (as Iris noticed) then addressed the entire group. "Everyone, welcome Iris West, our new cub. Anyone want to volunteer to be her mama bear?" Iris expected something like this to happen, but she felt even worse when Larkin gave another word. "Mason, you picked a bad day to actually show up."

"I don't nanny," Mason shook his head.

"I lost the ability to make a joke back in '05. Today, you do," Larkin finalized then, onc eagain spoke to the entire table. "Deadlines. All new stories are due on my desk at the end of the day."

Everyone began to get up and disperse to their tasks. Belén got up quietly and turned to leave as well.

"What was that about?" Iris asked her before she left, eyeing a glum Mason depart at the same time. That would be fun, she noted. "Larkin...asking you about...you know…"

Belén deeply sighed, shaking her head. "Ever since I was...kidnapped last week, everybody won't stop pinning me to the Flash. All the time it's 'Flash this' or 'Flash that' - they don't get that I don't want to talk about it." She almost blurted about the article they'd run about her as the Azalea...thank God she kept her mouth shut.

Iris blinked rapidly as the last words of Belén became louder and more aggressive. She had never quite heard her like this. Without another word, Belén walked away, still pretty upset.

"What...just happened?" Iris asked Noah, the only other possible man to answer her question.

"I just think it was pretty traumatizing, you know," Noah shrugged, the two beginning to walk as well. "And I don't think it helps when all anyone around here cares is whether or not she saw the Flash or knows him. Only Linda and I don't join in on that.

"Yeah," Iris said. "But, I mean, if she did know him, she would have told us right?"

Noah felt so sorry for that woman then. If only Iris knew what her good friend was up to nowadays.

~ 0 ~

In S.T.A.R Labs, everyone save Belén was gathered in the cortex awaiting for an explanation of their newest enemy. Only a couple seconds in, Belén came in looking slightly out of breath.

"Dr. Wells, I am so sorry for not being able to come in earlier to see you," she went straight up to the man, more than concerned over the 'prank' played on him the previous night. She'd gotten the text from Caitlin she and Cisco were going to Wells' home to see him directly, but having to go into work to show Iris around prevented Belén from joining.

"I'm fine, thank you," Dr. Wells showed with open arms how perfect he was for condition.

Belén was relieved to see this was true. She looked around and noticed the profile of a young man in glasses plastered on a computer. "What's going on?"

"I was just about to explain who was behind the attack last night - you just made it," Wells explained.

"The metahuman?"

"He's not a metahuman," Cisco declared in the utmost crossed tone. 'He's worse."

Belén looked at the group, and noticed that Caitlin and Dr. Wells seemed to be in the know of something she, Barry and Joe didn't. "I'm confused, do you guys know him?"

"Hartley Rathaway possesses one of the finest scientific minds I've ever encountered," Dr. Wells said, basically giving the 'yes' for her question.

"Any ties to Rathaway Industries?" Joe wondered.

"His grandfather founded the company, his father expanded it, and Hartley here was set to inherit the throne."

"What happened?" Barry asked.

"He came out to his parents. Old money, old values," Caitlin said sadly.

"They were estranged when we met, but, brilliant. I couldn't have built the particle accelerator without him." Wells mused.

"But I don't think I've ever heard a mention of him from any one of you," Belén remarked, giving them all looks for that.

Caitlin cleared her throat. "That's because Hartley had a...challenging personality."

Cisco rolled his eyes. "What she means is he was mostly a jerk. But, every once in awhile... he could be a dick."

Joe busted out laughing. Barry too smiled, and Belén tried not to laugh as Joe had.

"Let's just say that Hartley, like many outliers, had trouble relating to his peers," Wells tried to downplay that bad behavior of Hartley.

"So if you two were so close, why would he target you?" Joe asked.

"Hartley left S.T.A.R. Labs about a year ago after we had a... a disagreement."

"About what?"

Barry saw that Wells was not feeling like sharing, and so he stepped in. "Look, don't worry. We'll stop him. I won't let him hurt you, any of you," he said to the rest. "Let's get back to my lab, all right?" he said to Joe.

Joe nodded and headed for the doors. Before doing the same, Barry glanced over to Belén, seeing her rummaging through her bag.

"Bells, you want a lift?"

She seemed startled by the way she nearly dropped her phone. "No, I'm good. I don't intend on going back to work yet."

Although knowing his chances were very slim, he insisted again. "Are you sure? It's-"

"I'm fine-"

"-not that difficult to-"

"-I don't want to-"

"-or did you come-"

"I said I'm fine!" Belén exclaimed loud enough to finally cut Barry off. There was a visible urgency, and annoyance in her face that made Barry back off. A little embarrassed, Belén hurried out of the room.

Barry then made a gesture after her for the rest to understand that this was what he meant about her taking something out on him. She was distant with everyone, yes, but he didn't recall her flat-out rejecting and nearly shouting at anyone else but him. It was frustrating, to be honest, and a little hurtful. What had he done to be on her bad list?

~ 0 ~

"Hey," Caitlin's voice startled Belén in Cisco's workroom. After everyone had gone to their separate tasks, Belén retreated into the only room where she could possibly take a break.

"Did you guys find anything about that Hartley guy?" Belén leaned back against a table. It was then that she spotted the newspaper Caitlin was holding in her hands. "You read the newspaper now?"

"Um...sometimes I do," Caitlin cleared her throat. She wasn't sure how to bring it up without further upsetting Belén, because Caitlin was sure she'd found the reason why Belén was acting differently. "I was reading something from a couple days ago, actually. It was the late edition, I think...?"

Belén crossed her arms and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I wasn't in those days since, uh...you know...I was kidnapped. Again."

Caitlin's lips stretched into an apologetic smile like it was her fault. "Well, it ran but I guess we all missed it since we were looking after you. But my neighbors, yeah, they don't miss anything. I found this one-" she motioned to the newspaper, "- in the trash and I...I got curious when I saw your name on it. The Azalea?" she unrolled the newspaper and showcased the headline to Belén. "'The Flash and the Azalea Might be the Couple the City Needs?'" Caitlin saw Belén's mortified face only get worse after reading the title out loud. The picture of the Azalea hugging the Flash was certainly not helping the case.

"Oh God I really wish you hadn't seen that," Belén covered her face just as she felt herself get all red and warm.

"And I suspect Barry as well?" Caitlin rolled the newspaper back.

"Well of course!" came Belén's muffled response behind her hands.

"You don't need to be embarrassed by this sort of thing. And you definitely don't need to avoid Barry either."

"But I feel so awkward around him!"

Caitlin gave a tiny smile, one similar to the teasing ones Iris usually gave. "Belén, do you think that maybe the reason you feel a little awkward-"

"Not 'little'. Big. It's monumental awkwardness, actually."

"Okay, do you think that the reason you feel this way is because...you might actually...like Barry?"

Belén dropped her hands from her face to reveal a stunned, wide-eyed expression. "What?"

Caitlin knew she was treading on a delicate pathway, but she suspected Belén didn't have the courage to talk about this with anyone. She wanted to give Belén the chance at a clean, secret talk where Belén could vent whatever she needed without worrying if it would ever make it out. "It's okay, Belén. I would never say anything."

"Caitlin Snow I do not..." Belén had began with determination but just like that it vanished. The air seemed to leave her lungs like she'd been running a marathon. "I don't...no! I could never! And not like in the condescending 'I would never date Barry' but just...I can't."

"Why not?" Caitlin tilted her head curiously.

"Because...it scares me," Belén admitted with a quiet sigh. "Just...just the idea of dating altogether. After Carlton - after he kidnapped me, I just...it scares me."

"You're traumatized," Caitlin realized and walked over to hug her friend.

"I don't know what it is but it just doesn't feel good. I don't know what I feel, but...it scares me."

Caitlin pulled away and smiled. "Well, whatever it is you feel you shouldn't be afraid because - if you happened to like Barry-"

"I don't," Belén said all too quick, making Caitlin chuckle.

"Well, just in case you did...he would never be like Carlton. But right now, I think he's hurt by your distance."

Belén felt guilty for not telling Caitlin the entire reason why she was avoiding Barry, but for right now...she couldn't speak. "Thank you Caitlin," she hugged the brunette again and really thanked her luck for having such good friends.

~ 0 ~

It wasn't long before Hartley Rathaway made an appearance in broad daylight. In a black hooded cloak, he marched up to Rathaway Industries. Matching black hand gloves were extended towards the company building, and sonic waves emerging from it that shattered the glass walls. It took down signs, parked cars and even one nearing police car.

"Peek-a-boo!" someone tapped on his shoulder.

The moment he turned around to 'sonic wave' them as well, something hit him hard against the chest and threw him to the ground.

Belén hovered inches from the ground via vines, and lowered herself to a graceful landing. "Ever watch Doctor Who, Hartley? Because you are so Doctor Who-ing - is that a real word? 'Who-ing?'"

"I've seen you," mused Hartley as he studied the woman in green. "But you're not as well known, huh? What's your name again?"

Belén rolled her eyes at the attempt to make her falter. "I don't care how well known I am. Nice try. Moving on now."

Wind picked up as Barry joined in, now standing on beside Belén. "It's over, Rathaway."

Hartley laughed, apparently amused."Oh, you both know my name. Well I know some names too." He started picking himself again. "Caitlin Snow. Cisco Ramon. Harrison Wells. I can hear the radio waves emanating from your suits. About 1900 megahertz. Is that them on the other end, listening? Are they gonna hear you die?"

"Someone is so full of himself," Belén remarked, rolling her eyes. "Is that a guy thing?"

Barry reacted fast to that accusation. "Hey!"

Hartley took his opportunity and blasted the two metahumans backwards. Barry got right back up and looked over to Belén to see her condition. Her healing was, in comparison to him, much slower, but she seemed only to be groggy from the hit. He went after Hartley instead, preferring to make himself the target in order to give Belén a chance to get back on her feet. Hartley followed Barry's quick movements around the police car, attempting to knock Barry out again. His attempts were futile as Barry easily zipped right back, and past Hartley, while swinging a very hard punch that sent Hartley to the ground. Barry stopped and grabbed him by the cloak.

"Looks like you're not as smart as everyone says," Barry couldn't help feel smug about the easy win.

Hartley, while being captured, didn't look too disappointed with his loss. If Barry had been paying more attention, he probably would have noticed. "Smart enough to have figured out who Harrison Wells really is. You see, I know his secret."

Barry didn't listen to his irrelevant words.

~ 0 ~

Caitlin and Cisco stood across the entrance elevator and waited for Hartley to be brought back to S.T.A.R. Labs. The elevator doors slid open and out came the two metahumans and one handcuffed culprit.

"Being scooped up by a guy clad in head-to-toe leather is a long-time fantasy of mine, so thanks," Hartley shot Barry sly smile as they walked in.

Belén, rubbing the side of her head on which she had hit herself thanks to Hartley's first attack, purposely groaned loudly. "If there is something you can put around his mouth that would be great."

"Let me help you," Caitlin told her, gesturing for them to leave. She wanted nothing to do with Hartley, just like Cisco.

"Not a very good fighter are you," Hartley eyed the already annoyed Belén. "Didn't last very long…"

"Yeah well you didn't last very long either so shut up," she snapped.

Hartley rolled his eyes, sighing so casually it might have been his home he was in instead. "I was thinking of calling myself Pied Piper."

There, Cisco had to cut in. "Hey! I assign the nicknames around here. Although...that one's not bad."

A crooked smile spread across Hartley as he looked to Caitlin - apparently he had some for everyone. "Caitlin...never did get that wedding invite." Belén stormed towards him but Barry gave him a hard shove.

"Shut the hell up!"

Caitlin persuaded Belén to come back with her into the cortex, thanking Belén anyways for the attempted defense.

~ 0 ~

"You should be fine, really," Caitlin concluded as she stepped away from the bed Belén was sitting on. Her head injury, while a bit painful, was nothing more than a light injury at that, needing no stitches or further examination.

"Thanks, Cait," Bells sighed and got up slowly. The pain in her head was subsiding with the pills given to her and she did feel actually a lot better than before. "What time is it? I'm probably dead late for work."

"Iris called…" Caitlin began, making a face.

Barry then came in, expecting to be thrown right back out. "Don't worry, I made up an excuse for you."

"Oh...thanks," Belén's eyes averted him as she walked by him.

Barry turned around and decided to follow, making another response, one more sassy. "Unless maybe you want to go back, you know, away from certain people?"

Belén stopped and glanced over her shoulder. "I think...I think I'll just stay here for a while...if that's okay."

"Why should I care, hm? Not exactly been in your consideration lately…"

Belén made a light noise of surprise as she fully turned around, visibly shocked of the comment. Caitlin, hoping to drive away a looming argument, stepped in between them. "I think we should focus on Hartley."

"There's nothing to focus on, he's been caught," Barry pointed out, eyes, slightly narrowed, still on Belén.

The ombre-blonde in turn remained with a guilty look. She knew deserved the jabs and she wasn't gonna argue a defence for her. "Where's Cisco?" she asked quietly.

"He's in the pipeline," Caitlin said, moving for the desk and hoping to dear God they would follow her. "And, to be quite honest, I don't like that idea of him being alone with Hartley."

"They really despised each other?" Belén was the first to move towards the desk.

"Like you wouldn't believe it," Caitlin turned on the speakers on the desk that would allow them to hear what was being talked about in the pipeline. "That's funny…" she leaned forwards, only able to see Hartley in his cell, speaking with someone alright but not Cisco.

Dr. Wells was in the pipeline instead, and apparently something he had said had made Hartley scoff and loudly.

"Not bad... as far as heartfelt apologies go," Hartley said. "Except that wasn't for my benefit. That was for you, Flash." In his cell, he looked up to the camera, and in the cortex both Caitlin and Belén glanced over to Barry. The metahuman in question was not happy in being brought up, especially when Hartley began directing words to him instead. "Feels good to have the great Harrison Wells behind you, doesn't it? But one day, this man will turn on you...in a flash... And even you won't see it coming. I only hope that he leaves you in better shape than he left me. If you're lucky, you'll only be dead. Because every day I have to live with the agonizing, piercing screaming in my ears." He then turned to face in the general direction of where Wells was on the other side of the cell. "I almost forgot... I told your pet I know your deep, dark secret, Harrison. Have fun letting him in on that one."

The word 'secret' put the three in the cortex on edge, and when Cisco came in and learned of it, he too was put in the same state. Dr. Wells came in a couple minutes later expecting the silent, questioning looks from the group.

"I assume you were all listening. Well, Hartley was telling the truth. I have not been honest with you. With any of you." He took in a breath before he continued. "The accelerator...Hartley warned me that there was indeed a chance that the accelerator could explode. His data did not show 100% certainty, just that there was a risk, but it was a real risk. And yet I made the decision that the reward... that... everything we could learn and everything we could achieve, that all of that... simply outweighed that risk. I'm sorry."

An unsettling emotion took over everyone's faces. Caitlin was the first to stand and speak, and her voice shook as she did. "Then the next time you choose to put our lives, and the lives of the people that we love, at risk, I'll expect a heads up," she looked away and walked out of the room.

Cisco, having no words, but his face practically saying them, decided to make an exit as well. Belén bit her lip, crossed her arms, and stayed put.

"After the explosion, when everyone else left you…" Barry felt extremely uncomfortable, and partially pained from the revelation, "Caitlin and Cisco stood by you. You owe them more than an apology."

"They might soon get more than that what with Hartley so intent on sending me to the next world…"

"I don't think that is precisely what they would want," Belén said quietly. "It's more about trust, Dr. Wells-" she flinched at the quiet scoff Barry gave in return, assuming for her comment.

Having nothing to say then, Barry grabbed his jacket and left the room next.

With a deep sigh, Belén let her arms loose on her sides. "I can't fault you for the decision you made," she continued with Wells, attempting to make it seem like nothing happened. "Though I am very upset, because that decision is what led to my own brother being out there - a metahuman estranged from his family - I can't judge you. We all make decisions...whose consequences we don't quite foresee at the moment."

Wells tilted his head, inquisitive at the response. "You sound like you're speaking from experience."

"Haven't we all had that?" Belén gave a crooked smile.

"I would suppose, yes," Wells nodded. "But, if I may say, despite what you have heard from me, I do care for everyone's safety here, and you are letting those decisions cloud your mind and they are putting you at risk out there."

Belén stiffened, for a minute fearing he knew what exactly those 'decisions' were. "Dr. Wells, I-"

"The reason we have not let your friend, Ms. Clarke, help you or Barry out in the field is because she is not capable yet. Now, if you fail to focus outside, you may become incapable as well and I will have to ask that you not accompany Barry out as well."

As much as it pained her, she knew he was justified. "I...know…"

"I may not be the indicated person for you to speak with, but I suggest you find someone, and fast."

"I know," Belén responded, rather breathlessly. "But...can I say something as well?"

"Sure."

"The trust, while broken, it can be earned back," Belén gave a final smile before walking out of the room.

~ 0 ~

"Feeling better, Bells?" Cisco asked, in the middle of examining Hartley's confiscated gloves. Belén had come to stand by the threshold of the side room, clutching a cup of coffee in her hands. With a weak smile, she gave a nod. "I thought you may have gone back to work…"

Belén scoffed, saying quietly, "Not the place I want to be at."

Cisco stopped working to look at his friend, noticing how troubled - at least more than she had been recently. "Bells, you know...you know you can always talk to me right?" Belén smiled warmly and nodded her head. "You know, I don't know what's going on in your mind but whatever it is...it's kind of uncool for you to take it out on Barry."

"I'm very sorry about that, honest…"

"I'm not the one you need to apologize to," Cisco gave her a light shrug, returning to his work.

Belén sighed and came further inside the room. "I do intend on doing that, trust me, I just...it's very hard...what I'm...processing…"

"Processing?" Cisco looked up from the gloves, though saw nothing as Belén had her back to him.

Belén tapped her fingers along her mug as she debated whether or not to finally confide in someone, and precisely Cisco. She didn't give Caitlin the opportunity but maybe it was better if one friend knew something and the other another thing. It made it easier on her at least.

"Belén, I'm here for you," Cisco said, as if seeing her internal debate.

Belén turned around, wearily coming up to the table. "Can you...for a minute," she tried again, "...can you just...be my friend, please?"

"Bells, I kinda am your friend," Cisco reminded with a cheeky smile.

"Yeah, but...your best friend is Barry and what I need to tell you has to do with Barry - do you see the dilemma?"

"Kind of…" Cisco lied. He saw none of it.

"Let's just, for five minutes, pretend like Barry hasn't woken up from his coma and that you and I are friends. Can you do that...please?"

For her sake, Cisco nodded his head. "Okay, shoot."

Gratefully, Belén smiled. She took in a breath and gently placed her mug on the table before beginning. "When I was kidnapped, I waited for someone to come in and help...get me out of the warehouse Snart and Mick had put me in…"

Cisco nodded, so far on board. "Yeah, Joe and I went out looking for you but when we got there...you weren't anywhere…"

"Right, because, well...someone else rescued me."

"We figured - we all figured. We just can't figure out who nor why you won't tell us anything about it."

Belén sighed and just said it all before she ran away. "My brother, Rayan, and Azul showed up and rescued me." Cisco's eyes widened. "Rayan's a metahuman. He has...I don't know, telekenetic powers, and he, quite literally, floated me out of harm's away."

"Cool," Cisco began to smile. "Ultimate powers."

Belén rolled her eyes. "Stay with me, please. Rayan knows that I've been looking for him, and when we were out of the warehouse, he asked me to come with him."

That got Cisco's attention.

"For so long, I had wanted nothing more than to find my brother," Belén's eyes began to glisten with looming tears. "He said that he would answer all my questions, and he would take me to where he'd been living all this time. We were supposed to reunite that night…"

"What happened?" Cisco asked quietly, assuming the worst. Belén looked down, her coffee becoming suddenly so interesting. "Bells, what happened?" Cisco repeated his question, trying not to sound so impatient. He could see this was in part what was troubling her as of late, but he could not understand what it had to do with Barry.

"I had to make a decision," Belén replied faintly.

"A...decision? What kind of decision?"

Belén looked up, her tears already beginning to loosen at the corner of her eyes. "I was so happy that he had finally come for me - come to see me - but then I saw the beams of the cold and heat guns in the city...and I realized Barry was probably out there fighting Snart and Mick. I told Rayan we had to go help, but he didn't want to," with a hand, she wiped a tear from her cheek. "He didn't care about the Flash, about the city. He wanted me to leave, and when I say 'leave'...I meant like he wanted me to forget about everything here. I kept insisting that...that we needed to go and help Barry, because...because that's what needed to be done."

"But he didn't want to," Cisco guessed sadly, beginning to realize what it all came down to.

Belén sniffed and began clearing up her tears on either side of her face. "I wanted to be with Rayan, but I kept thinking about Barry and how he needed my help. I had to make a decision...and I chose to go find him."

"Bells…" Cisco slowly rose from his chair.

"At first, it hadn't really hit me what I did, but then days passed...and I realized 'holy shit I just gave up my brother for...for…"

"Barry," Cisco finished, connecting all the puzzle pieces at that moment.

"I don't mean to be rude to Barry but it's hard facing my decision every day, everytime he's in the room I'm reminded of what I did. It's not his fault. I made the decision."

"Bells, this is something you should be telling him, not me," Cisco said as kindly as possible. "If Barry knew then he…"

"He would feel guilty even when he did nothing wrong," Belén finished for him. "I know him, and I know that's exactly what he would do. I can't do that to him, Cisco."

"I think you should go and talk to him," Cisco stayed firm on his opinion. "Because, first of all, he needs to know what you gave up for him because wow that was a lot-"

"It's not like that," Belén meekly said, though the tint of pink on her cheeks made it nearly impossible for Cisco not to smirk. It only got worse when Caitlin's words came back to mind.

"Second of all," Cisco forced himself to continue, "I think he deserves reasons for your behavior, don't you think?"

Belén lightly nodded. "Yeah…"

"Sooo…" Cisco plopped back down on his chair, slowly getting back to his work on Hartley's gloves, "...I'm gonna switch to being Barry's bro and say I can't believe you did that-"

"Cisco! It's not like that!" Belén stomped her foot, mortified of where this conversation was headed to.

Cisco smirked widely, picking at some parts of the gloves. "Hmmm…."

Belén shook her head and picked up her coffee mug. "It's not," she repeated quietly, sipping her coffee afterwards.

She repeatedly shot down Cisco's accusations, until Caitlin made (thankfully, Belén internally thought) an entrance into the room. "Anyone seen Dr. Wells?"

"No, he probably thinks we don't want to speak with him," Belén jumped on the subject change fast.

"Barry was right," Cisco announced, looking up at them both. "Hartley was using sonic resonance. The intensity regulator's measuring decibels."

"I'm gonna pretend like I understood all that for the sake of time," Belén sighed and took the last drink of her coffee.

"You know what's weird?" Cisco rubbed his temple. "He had it set to the lowest setting."

Caitlin tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Well... He could've completely destroyed his father's building if he wanted to in one blast."

"But...if he could do that...then…" Belén frowned. "Why didn't he just do it and leave?"

Cisco eyes widened as he realized what truly had happened. "Unless he wanted to be caught!" He jumped from his chair and ran to the cortex to the computers. Belén and Caitlin rushed in afterwards and, through the computer, saw Hartley's cell was empty. Cisco moved to the comm. and called for Dr. Wells. "Dr. Wells! There's been a pipeline breach!"

"You think he's gonna come for us?" Caitlin looked at the two beside her.

Cisco didn't stop to answer. He warned them both, "Stay here," and ran off.

"I don't think so, Cisco," Belén rushed after him, ignoring his refusing looks. "I'm a metahuman, and I promise to pay attention."

"Bells-"

"C'mon!" Belén yanked him after her as they made it into the corridors.

What they didn't know was that as they ran towards the pipeline, Hartley was in the middle of making his grand escape. He pulled out one of his earpieces, enduring a high pitch whine in his ear as he placed the piece on the pipeline door sealing him away from the rest of the building. Belén and Cisco made it halfway in before the door blasted them backwards. When Hartley emerged, slightly disoriented from the blast, he was very pleased with the results.

~ 0 ~

Caitlin had heard and felt the blast from the cortex and was trying to get ahold of her two friends whom she feared had been hurt. "Cisco, can you hear me? Bells?"

She felt a presence behind her, and knowing it probably wasn't neither Cisco or Belén, she slowly turned around. Hartley stood there, and promptly smacked her hard on the head. Caitlin turned and fell to the floor, knocked out. Hartley spotted his gloves and ran to retrieve them. As soon as he had them, he ran back to the computers and started typing for something specific through the pages. Something loaded and downloaded and once he had what he needed, Hartley left the cortex and went to find the last person remaining in the building. Before he found Wells, the older man had already called in Barry, and it was only a matter of minutes until he was in.

When Caitlin came to, she saw Barry coming in. "Hey!" he rushed to go help her. "Are you okay?"

Caitlin felt groggy but was conscious enough to remember what had happened. "Yeah, uh, Cisco...Bells...and Dr. Wells…"

Barry understood and left her to go find the others. He came across Wells in the entrance, the man in his wheelchair and pretty collected despite being nearly attacked.

"He's gone," Wells said.

Finding both Belén and Cisco unconscious in the pipeline, Barry brought back both to the cortex to be treated by Caitlin. They lasted a couple hours unconscious, but still enough for them having to make yet another excuse for Belén's absence, this time at home considering Maritza was now there waiting for her. Early dawn saw their awake.

"My head…" Belén kept her eyes shut longer than did Cisco.

"You both need to rest," Caitlin announced from Belén's bed side. "You have concussions. You're lucky."

Cisco leaned up as much as he could. "Please tell me you got him," he looked at Barry pleadingly.

Barry shook his head. "I guess the attack on his family's company was a fake out so we'd catch him."

"And give him direct access to S.T.A.R. Labs," Caitlin sighed.

"So we basically got played," Belén frowned, now trying to sit up.

"I should've known he was up to something," Cisco muttered. "This is my fault."

"Hey, man. This is on me, too," Barry cut in, glancing at Belén to see how she was doing. In his sourness, he had left the place when he shouldn't have. Belén hadn't been on her game lately when they eerie out catching metahumans and he had left her in care for the others. He should have been more conscious instead of focusing on his feelings. "I shouldn't have left before…"

Wells came into the room. "This is no one's fault but mine. I earned the blame... I'm not interested in sharing it. Hartley doesn't think I've paid for my crimes. And he's right. He won't stop until I do."

"Where are you going?" Barry called as Wells turned to leave.

"To earn back your trust."

With those words, he left the group.

"I think one of us should go see exactly what that meant," Caitlin said cautiously. She was still upset with Wells, as was everyone else, but at the moment they couldn't afford to be attacked on their own again.

"I will," Barry volunteered, figuring he had nothing left to do there at the moment. It was very unlikely Hartley would return.

As he walked by, Belén gathered courage from Cisco's urging look and called out to him. "Barry? Can we talk, please?"

"Not right now, Belén," was the very short, curt answer she received. It was enough to shut her down and let him leave.

"I...deserve that," she uttered after a long moment of silence.

"Don't worry about it," Cisco tried to lighten up the mood. "He's just upset by all this."

"No, Cisco," Belén shook her head, ignoring Caitlin's desperate gestures to sit back down. "He's upset with me - and I deserve it for being a jerk."

"Where are you going?" Caitlin sighed in frustration as she walked towards the doors. "You can't leave, it's not safe for you."

"My sister's probably going crazy that I didn't come home to sleep. I won't even go into the fact I haven't been back to work since yesterday afternoon."

"Don't worry about that, we called in and told them you had an accident and that we'd be keeping you in for some observation," Caitlin explained, making Belén turn back to them. "So you see? There's no need for you to put yourself at risk today - not more than we need to anyways. Come back."

"Well...how come Cisco gets to get up?"

"Hmm?" Caitlin glanced back and saw Cisco's empty bed, the man in question already in another side room doing what looked like research on a tablet. "What - Cisco! Come back!"

"No! I need to figure out why Hartley let himself be caught!"

"You're like children, the both of you!" Caitlin scolded them both and huffed as she walked towards the desk, where at least Belén had taken refuge in for 'rest'.

~ 0 ~

"I thought moving in would be a step towards the solution!" Maritza, dressed normally, stood in front of her younger brother who was raiding a medicine cabinet. "I don't need your shouting at me, Rayan."

"And I don't need you talking so loudly, Maritza," Rayan rubbed his temple while the other hand plucked out medicine bottles. "And, if you wouldn't mind, I don't want to speak about...Annah-Belén."

Maritza rolled her eyes. "Using her full name won't erase the fact you're hurt, moron. So she chose to go help, big deal. I already told you that's just her personality! She needs to help others, that's why she became a...a…"

"Partner to the Flash," Rayan turned around, sourly looking at the taller woman. "The person she chose over me, her brother...her twin."

"She's just disoriented. She's been so far from family lately that she...I don't know, she didn't know how to react. But that's why I moved in with her, to make her remember that family is all we've got in this world."

"Well, as you just told me, that idea isn't working so well," Rayan abandoned the medicine cabinet and walked past Maritza. The room was full of cabinets and while there were barely any bottles he decided to go look into another cabinet. The killer headache was on its way to become a migraine.

"Caitlin called me earlier telling me Belén had an accident at S.T.A.R. Labs and that she had a concussion, so she would be staying over there to be monitored." Maritza crossed her arms, muttering, "Though if you ask me it probably happened because of the attack yesterday."

This intrigued Rayan, making him stop and turn his head to the side facing his sister. "What attack?"

Maritza arched an eyebrow. "What? Where've you been? Sulking?"

Rayan rolled his eyes and returned to the cabinet. If she only knew he had been battling constant headaches all day.

"There was an attack on Rathaway Industries yesterday and the Flash and the Azalea made an appearance," Maritza explained. "They say the guy who did it blasted them with some sort...wave thingy? I don't know, point is, that thing hurt our sister. I'm 99.9% this 'concussion' thing had to do with that. How am I supposed to make her remember family when she's out there playing hero with some guy and team?"

"Hey," Noah hurried into the room. "You guys have gotta see what's on TV right now."

Rayan rolled his eyes. "Nobody cares."

"Oh, you'll want to," Noah came up to them holding a tablet in his hands. "It's broadcasting everywhere," he told them.

On the screen of the tablet was Dr. Wells making an exceptional speech towards the public.

"Did he just say he knew the Particle Accelerator could blow up?" Maritza scowled, images of her late husband popping up in her mind. Had he suffered what this man had thought could happen?

"It looks like he just went through with the plan despite the consequences that could happen," Noah looked at the two siblings, wearing pretty much the same outraged expressions as them.

Rayan flicked his hand to the side, causing the phone in Noah's hand to splatter against the wall. He ignored Noah's indignant look and turned away, pressing his hands on the counter. "Harrison Wells knew that he could cause chaos and yet he willingly went through with it."

"He's the reason Christopher's dead," Maritza whispered, although sad her fury masked it perfectly well.

"And the reason my mother's dead," Noah breathed in.

"He is the reason why there are so many unhelped metahumans out there," Rayan turned to face them both. "And what's he doing instead? Getting his Flash and my sister to lock them for good - or worse."

"Belén is not a killer," snapped Maritza.

"We have to get this guy," Noah cut in before they began to argue.

"So we say without an actual plan," Angie appeared behind them.

"That was where Belén was supposed to come into help," Rayan growled, balling up his fists. But, his sister had decided to help someone else instead of her own blood.

~ 0 ~

By the time Wells and Barry had returned to S.T.A.R. Labs, they discovered not much had happened in their absence. Hartley had not made an appearance at all throughout the afternoon, leaving the remaining Caitlin, Belén and Cisco to just...wait.

"I don't know why you think Hartley would try to make contact with us in the same day, Dr. Wells," Belén wearily looked up from the chair she had made comfortable. With the concussion, she felt a headache from the back of her head, and her entireself just felt tired in general. She had her legs pulled up to her chest, and her head resting on her knees.

"Because he's Hartley, and he'll want to have the last word," Wells assured them all.

Barry noticed Cisco fervently working on a tablet in his hands. "Cisco," he sighed, "you should be resting."

"Hmph," Caitlin mumbled underneath her breath, "Been telling him that all day."

Cisco heard her and shook his head. "The answer to why Hartley fooled us into catching him is in here-" he pointed to the tablet, "-and I'm gonna find it." He pointed at them warningly as he made his way to another room. A couple seconds later, Wells went after him.

"Cait, are you sure I can't just...close my eyes…" Belén fought the urge to shut her eyes by attempting to focus on Caitlin's black skirt beside her, "...for a minute?"

"Play solitaire!" Caitlin abruptly slammed a hand on the desk, jerking Belén upright.

"I don't…" Belén yawned, covering it up with a hand, "...want to anymore." She lowered her hand and forced her eyes attention somewhere else for her sake. "Oh, Barry! Can we talk now please?"

"What's brought on the sudden urge to speak with me?" Barry came up to the desk, looking down at her tired form, making it just a little more impossible to be mad with her. "Ever since last week you've done everything possible not to be in the same room with me."

"I know and I'm sorry," Belén said imploringly. "But...but I'm ready to talk, and - and I know I don't deserve it but...you have a right to an explanation."

Barry considered this silently, thinking she was absolutely right and that he most certainly had a right to know what was going on. He glanced at Caitlin, about to ask for a moment when sparks from the ceiling flew below, causing them all to crouch.

"What's that?" Caitlin exclaimed, slowly sitting upright again.

Hartley's voice emerged from the speakers that still surpriginsly worked. "Nice gambit, Harrison. But this isn't over."

Wells and Cisco came out of the side room at the chaos and Wells responded quite calmly. "Hartley, what do you want? What do you want, Hartley? I already gave my mea culpa today."

"The city already hated you. You don't think I noticed that press conference was a pathetic bishop sacrifice? No, no, no. I've played with you too many times to let you get away with that. This is between you, me, and The Flash."

Once again, Barry still wasn't pleased to be brought into this. However, once he thought of the damage that guy had done so far he wasn't so against fighting Hartley on Wells' behalf.

"You don't want to play for those kind of stakes with me, Hartley," Wells warned.

"Actually, I really do. What do you say? One last game of chess?"

"You and I both know that the winner of the game is the one who makes the next-to-last mistake, and you clearly have a move in mind."

~ 0 ~

From his spot at a roadside, Hartley had caused the pay machine across him to blast into pieces. Cars were barred from their journey.

"You're right," he smiled, continuing his 'conversation'. "And I'm already at the board. So why don't you move your precious scarlet knight while I take out a few pawns."

More sonic waves emerged from his gloves, pushing back several cars while blasting front view glass.

~ 0 ~

Barry wasted no time in switching into his suit. There was only the matter of finding Hartley. "Cisco, where do I go?"

Cisco tried to locate Hartley from the computers but seemed to be unsuccessful. "I can't trace the signal. He could be sending his messages from anywhere."

Wells came in closer and ordered, "Cisco, scan for seismic activity. If Hartley's using sonic blast, the vibrations could cause tremors."

"Barry," Belén made her way over to him, "maybe you should I come with you-"

"With a concussion?" Caitlin cut in, quite firm on her opposition. "I don't think so."

"But I-"

"It's fine," Barry told the ombre-blonde sternly. Though he was still upset with her, he didn't want her getting hurt yet again on his account.

With some help from Dr. Wells, they were able to locate Hartley in the Keystone Cleveland Dam, not that far from the city's outskirts. Hartley was in the middle of blasting cars over the edges when he found him.

"Barry, you need to disarm Hartley immediately," Wells warned as soon as possible. "Immediately! Do you hear me? He is a master of distraction. He is a master of hiding his true endgame."

Hartley stepped forwards and blasted several waves towards Barry. Seeing that was a fail, he changed targets and went for the cars on the road that still contained drivers. Barry went in and got everyone out in time, and this time he didn't wait for another proper confrontation and sped straight up to Hartley.

~ 0 ~

"Aha!" cheered Cisco who'd come running into the cortex with his tablet, having left Wells and Caitlin to take control of the computers. His smile vanished after a moment. "Uh oh…"

"Mm, no, let's go back to that 'aha' thing," Belén had taken her spot back on her chair again.

"I figured out what Hartley stole from S.T.A.R. Labs, why he let himself get caught!"

"And that brings us to the 'uh oh'," Caitlin said dreadfully.

"He has all the data on Barry's molecular scans."

Belén looked between the three scientists, hoping for an easy explanation. "And...what exactly can he do with that?"

Wells had the answer straight up. "He can get Barry's frequency." He moved over to the comm., intending on warning Barry. "Barry, you need to get out of there! You need to get out of there immediately!"

~ 0 ~

Barry had disarmed Hartley and thrown the gloves to the side. Hartley had been pushed to the ground but yet again he didn't look too disappointed.

"It's over! You lose!"

"Amazing," Hartley breathed in, truly looking awed for the moment. "He replaced me with you? Total moron. I got you with the same trick twice."

The gloves Barry had thrown to the side began to vibrate on the ground. As seconds ticked by, the vibrating grew louder and violent. Out of the nowhere, Barry felt a ripple of pain within him. He clutched his head and stumbled around, crying out in pain. "Ah! Uhh!"

Hartley smiled, satisfied with the results. "I got the idea watching you and Harrison chit-chat...to use your suit's own speakers to kill you." Barry fell to the ground, coughing up blood. Hartley neared him, lowering himself just slightly. "That feeling? That's your organs shearing apart. And you activated the frequency when you disarmed me. In chess, we call that a discovered attack. You don't see it until it's too late. Right, Harrison?"

~ 0 ~

"Barry's vitals are bottoming out," Caitlin looked up from the computer in front of her that was flashing red in warnings.

"I should have gone!" Belén had jumped from her chair to see for herself the mess they were now in. "We need to do something - I've got to go there!"

"You won't make it," Wells discarded that idea as he fiercely typed on another computer.

"What are you doing?" Cisco eyed him much like Caitlin did. Belén was looking at her own suit, as if wondering whether or not to listen to Wells' warning.

"Barry's on the travel road of the dam, at rush hour, surrounded by cars. Many of those cars are going to have satellite radio. Satellite sends a signal to the car, song comes out the speaker…"

"Yes! I know how satellite radio works!" Caitlin interrupted him. "How does that help?"

"Well, I'm gonna have the satellite send something other than a song. Hartley is about to hear something he was not expecting... a sound wave that will meet the frequency of and destroy his weapons."

~ 0 ~

Barry had turned flat on his back and was practically choking on his own blood. His hearing only contained a ringing that, for the love of God, would not go away. He see a blurry Hartley hovering on his side, still speaking but God knew what. And then, just like that, the ringing began to fade away.

Hartley heard a loud sizzling coming from his gloves and ran to see what was happening. "No! No! No!" he snatched them from the ground and tried to fix them again, but this time it was he that heard a loud ringing. He screamed as something warm dug into his palms - the gloves had began to hurt him instead. He let them roll off to reveal bloody palms and fell to his side, unconscious.

Slowly, Barry picked himself up and blinked rapidly as he recollected himself.

"Barry, can you hear me?" he heard Wells, partially, from the comm.

"Sort of!" Barry shook his head, hoping to finally get back to normal. "Okay…" While he wasn't quite there yet he was able to see perfectly again, and when he saw the unconscious Hartley across he felt more than at peace.

~ 0 ~

While Hartley was being placed away in the pipeline again, this time for good, Caitlin forced Barry to undergo a thorough exam to see if there had been any long-lasting effects from Hartley's attack. A few minutes after Caitlin asked Belén to help Barry get his face cleared of the blood leftover from his fight. She then walked out of the room to gather the results, which on a face to face basis already looked good, Belén gathered her little remaining courage to once again try and speak to Barry.

The metahuman was sitting at the edge of the bed, no longer in his suit but still with dried blood on the bottom of his face. Seeing her come in reminded him they did indeed have a pending conversation. Belén stayed near the threshold, in case she was sent back out - she honestly wouldn't argue if that was the decision Barry took. She deserved it.

"Can we...can I...talk?" she tried again, feebly. "Please?"

"Are you going to actually explain? Or leave midway?" Barry knew he was sounding rude, but at this point he was just tired of so much secrecy.

"If you're willing to listen...I'm willing to tell," Belén promised him. When Barry gave a nod, she took the moment before he changed his mind. "I guess you're smart enough to know this has something to do to when I was kidnapped last week?"

"Very," Barry nodded. Part of Belén was relieved to know he hadn't seen that stupid newspaper. "We all figure that much. What I just can't finish comprehending is why you're giving me the sour treatment. I mean, what did I do?"

"Nothing," Belén reacted fast and urgently went up to him. "You did absolutely nothing wrong."

"Then...what is it? Why don't you want to talk to me anymore?"

Belén felt awful when she heard his words that were laced with confusion and hurt. Instead of giving the flat out response, she told the story. "My brother showed up to rescue me in that warehouse. He, along with Azul, got me out safe and sound."

Barry's mouth fell open, shocked. "You're brother came!? H-how did he...there was a...Joe said there was a bomb!" And that detail was what struck all of them the most odd. They wandered without a possible reason as to how Belén had managed to escape without setting off the bomb herself.

"Rayan is truly a metahuman. He had telekinetic powers and he used them to get me out," Belén explained. "He...he told me he'd been watching me, knowing that I've been looking for him. And when we were about to leave, he...he asked me to come with him. But...bet if I left, I was leaving for good." Belén has to make that clear so that Barry could at least understand a little why she reacted the way she did. "He wanted me to come with him, and in exchange we would be reunited...and he would answer all my questions."

But clearly that didn't work out, thought Barry. "So...so what happened?"

Belén lightly smiled. "I saw the gun beams shining from the city. I knew you were in trouble, so I told Rayan we needed to go help first. But he...didn't want to. In fact, his refusal was so big that in the he gave me a choice: leave with him at that moment and not look back, or leave him to go help you. I turned it around it on him, making him choose but...I guess by doing that I told him how I basically chose you."

Barry's eyes widened till they couldn't anymore. It was like a brick had hit him on they head, and he was sure it wasn't part of Hartley's hit. Suddenly everything made so much more sense.

Belén couldn't take his stunned look, feeling embarrassed and partially guilty she was laying this all out for him. She went to a nearby table and picked up cotton swabs and some alcohol to help clean off the dried blood from Barry's face.

It was a long two minutes before Barry could say some words. "You…you chose...you left your...brother...for me…"

"To help you," Belén corrected, turning around and coming back. She gestured what she was gonna do and then proceeded to gently dab at a side of his face. "I don't want you to feel bad about this. I'm just...telling you all this because you had a right to know. I acted like a complete jerk and you deserve better."

Barry was still overly thinking about this revelation, and immediately feeling his own guilt. "Bells, I'm so sor-"

"You don't have to apologize. This was a decision I made, and-"

He grabbed the wrist of her hand that was near him and looked up at her. "That was a huge decision you made. And you didn't even talk to someone about it."

"I talked with Cisco earlier," Belén tried to make it look less bad than it was. "He's the one that made me realize you needed an explanation."

"That's not what I meant," Barry gave her a sharp look.

"I know," sighed Belén, gently wiggling her wrist from his grip. "But, like I said, this was a decision I made. I just, at that time, didn't realize I would have to face it everyday."

"And by 'facing it' you mean me…"

"Not in that way but...yeah, and I'm sorry. It's just hard, and I know that is no excuse but…"

"You hadn't seen your brother in a near year and the only chance you had you gave it up - that's a good excuse," Barry released air he'd been holding in without consciousness. "A very good excuse."

Belén couldn't come up with anymore words other than her repeated apologies. "I am so sorry. Lately, I've been messing up and repeatedly apologizing, but this will be the last time - I promise."

"But your brother-"

"Everything seems to be in perfect condition," Caitlin came in looking at the results in her hands. "You are one lucky man, Barry Allen."

"Not so much luck as it is speed," Belén remarked quietly, thanking for the interruption. She got what she needed to get off her chest. "I think I am done playing doctor for the night-" Belén walked up to Caitlin and handed her the medical tools she was using on Barry, "-and I will go back to being a journalist. I gotta get home."

"I agree on that one," Caitlin nodded and took the tools. "And as far as Maritza knows, you just had a concussion, remember?"

"Got it," Belén did a thumbs up. She glanced back at Barry, looking nervous despite already having apologized. "I'll...see you tomorrow?"

Barry smiled at her, giving a nod and quiet 'of course' that made her beam. She waved once more to Caitlin before walking out.

"Well, is it safe to assume you guys are back on good terms?" Caitlin walked to the table on Barry's other side to put down all that she carried.

"Yeah," Barry cleared his throat, his voice lowering when he asked her, "do you know who rescued her last week?"

"Her brother," Caitlin made a face, still partially in shock the famous twin had made an appearance and yet none of them knew till now.

"Yeah - how did you know?"

"Oh, Cisco told me, after Bells told him it was alright to tell me anyways."

"Why would Belén go and tell him first?" Barry found himself asking out loud, much to Caitlin's amusement.

"Because they've always been a little closer," she turned around to continue what Belén had, unknowingly unsuccessful, tried to do.

"Why is that...again?" Barry further questioned, letting her swab away the blood from his face.

"Um, well, I don't know. They just seemed to hit it off initially. Why?" Caitlin pulled away for a second to teasingly smile his way.

"No reason," Barry quickly said, eyes darting to the other side.

Caitlin kept her comments to herself, but her teasing smiles were everlasting.

~ 0 ~

"I am actually very stuffed, Mar, I can't eat anymore," Belén promised Maritza as she pushed away an empty plate from her spot.

Maritza chuckled and too pushed away her own plate. She glanced at Axel who was still puncturing his peas with a plastic spoon. "I'm glad you were able to eat with us, though. I thought maybe after your concussion you might have wanted to go straight to bed."

"That was the idea," Belén admitted as she took a last sip of her drink. She'd gotten home intending on finally getting some needed rest, but Maritza had coaxed her into having a proper dinner. Feeling bad she was lying straight to her sister's face, as well as having not seen her for an entire day, Belén agreed to some dinner.

"Well I'm glad you stayed," Maritza looked at Belén with a sweet smile. "Because, well, family's kind of all we have right now."

Belén coughed awkwardly, wondering how Maritza would react if she knew their brother was still up and breathing. "Yeah…"

"I mean, I know we still have Mom and a couple of members but they're in Italy so, really, it's just us right now. Everyone else moved away."

"Their loss," Belén discarded their extended family members without a care in the world. "I always liked Central City better than any other place."

"Even Starling City?"

"Yup. I mean, don't get me wrong I love the people there, but this is my home. And I intend on staying here for many, many years to come."

Maritza acknowledged the statement with a nod, then, hesitantly, added, "Because this is where we grew up right? It's a...family sentimental thing?"

"Yeah," Belén nodded. "This is where...all of my memories are. I wouldn't give up any of this for anything."

"For your family, you mean…?"

"Yeah," Belén eyed her sister curiously. "What's with you? Are you alright?"

"Mhm," Maritza forced her mouth shut. Of course she couldn't say anything about knowing how awful Belén had been to their brother, nor how they were hoping she would recapicitate and come to them.

Belén pushed her chair back and got up. "Well, as family genes go, I'm gonna get some sleep. And, just like you, I'm gonna key into my hard-sleeper habits and sleep for another day."

Maritza smiled lightly as Belén cleared up her space and left the room.

Upon finally entering her dark room, Belén was able to release a large sigh. She locked her door and pulled off her jacket, tossing it to her bed. She rubbed her face, liking to think that this way all her problems would just disappear. But, coming back to the real world, she spotted one portrait she had on her vanity desk. She walked up to it and picked it up, unsure how to feel about it now. It was her graduation day, or rather, hers and Rayan's high school graduation day. Both dressed in golden cap and gowns, they beamed with radiant smiles as their picture was taken.

"How far have we come from then, huh, Rayan?" she whispered, tracing a finger down the edge of the frame. With another sigh, she put the portrait face-down on the desk. As she went to her drawers to take out her pajamas, she heard a distinct, quiet knock against her balcony doors. With the blinds covering the view, Belén slowly made her way towards them, expecting it to be some sort of hallucination her concussed mind had made up as a trick. But, upon pulling the blinds, she found Barry on the other side. She unlocked the door and slid it to the side, allowing Barry to come in.

"I don't mean to be rude but what are you doing here?" she asked him quietly in case Maritza was nearby.

"I was thinking about what you told me earlier," Barry ignored her and paced like he was in his room. "About Rayan, and how you left him, and-"

"Barry, shh!" Belén urgently told him, rushing to cover his mouth. "My sister is awake, please just...shhh!"

Nodding his head, his mouth was uncovered. He took in a deep breath and began once again. "I was thinking about what you said about your brother, and...I realized how much you gave up, and...Bells, I don't want you to give up anything that'll cost you your family. You need to find your brother, and you need to make amends right now or-"

"Barry, I won't do that," Belén declared firmly, yet her voice was low. "Rayan is not the brother I thought I was looking for."

"He's a metahuman," Barry tried to remind. "Of course he's going to be different. I mean, I'm sure you're much more different than when he last saw you."

"It's not just the biological differences. It's the way in which he acted...the way he's acting as of late." With a sigh, Belén walked over to the graduation portrait laying on her vanity desk and picked it up again. "My brother was a genius, a total nerd. He loved to build things - he was head of the engineer club in high school, and that's what he was going to be become in college: an engineer. He was a very kind man, though he had his moments with attitude. Now that man is gone. He's in league with rogue metahumans. He doesn't help people, he robs them. He manipulates feelings and gives ultimatums. That is not my brother anymore." Swallowing hard, she looked up to Barry, maintaining a pretty firm look. "I don't want to look for Rayan anymore."

Barry couldn't believe what he was hearing. She was going to give up the search for her brother!?

"He made his choice of becoming who he is now, and now I'm making my decision."

"But he's...he's your brother, your family," Barry weakly argued back. He could see the battle was already lost by seeing her eyes.

"Yes," Belén agreed with a nod of her head. "Once upon a time. Now...he's...a metahuman. And, if he's a metahuman that's going rogue...we have a responsibility to lock him up."

"Bells," Barry sucked in a breath, totally astonished with her words.

Belén's face showed signs of falter as she went on, but she did actually go on. "Thank you for all your help, but I don't need it anymore. I'm also going to call Felicity and tell her the search is off. Ultimately I got what I wanted. I found Rayan. I just found a different version of him that I simply cannot agree with."

Barry accepted her wish with a small nod. He couldn't very well force her to search for someone she no longer wished to. All he could do now was just be a supporting friend. When Belén walked up to hug him, he did not continue pushing but just hugged her back. She'd gone through so much lately he should just be glad she hadn't fallen apart.

But that was Bells for you, she was much stronger than she appeared.

[thepapers]

GATM//2: Bloom

I cringe. #backatitagainwithattemptstowrite

A chapter of attempting to develop some character devices cause its needed. But I really just want to skip to the meaty bits already gah.

Here’s to a multichapter fanfiction attempt of my current fave ship.

Previous: 1-A Fateful Meeting

It seemed like plate upon plate upon plate of food being set onto the table was never going to stop coming. An older woman with short stature and a ready smile on her face adorned with a plaid, navy blue apron was humming as she walked back to the kitchen once again to retrieve another serving of food to put on to the dining table.

"Eyyyy, Eomma! This is too much! You're overworking yourself," Ji Chang Wook playfully protested as he hovered between the kitchen and the dining table, watching it slowly get filled up with numerous dishes and sides until the surface could almost not be seen. He was pleased to see his mother in her element but was also partially, genuinely concerned at the time-consuming and hard work his mother must have put in to make the feast being laid in front of him.

"My son that I miss so much has come back from the army! All the mothers of Korea would be do the same thing. This is normal," Chang Wook's mom called out to him from the kitchen. After scooping a ladle full of soup onto a big bowl, she cautiously exited the kitchen. Chang Wook hurried to his mother to help her set the bowl on the table.

"A mother's joy among many things, is to feed her child food that she's cooked. And I haven't been able to cook your meals in a long time! Consider this a favor for your mom that's been lonely cooking meals just for herself, ne?" Chang Wook smiled affectionately at his caring mother and gave her a hug.

"My mom, you worked hard. Thank you very, very much."

Hugging her son just a bit tighter, she felt herself tearing up at the thought of all the things that her son had to endure. Beyond the army, there were months that he would barely be in contact knowing full well he was giving his all to another project often to the neglect of his own health by not having proper meals and eating ramyun after ramyun instead. For what its worth, she wanted to show her son her love and support in as simple as preparing food for him to make him feel that she was always there for him. Though he may love his job,  she knew it must have been difficult to always keep people at a distance due to the nature of the industry he chose to be in.

Working to stop the tears from falling, she decided to take the conversation into a lighter tone by slyly remarking, "…if only my son can finally give me a daughter in law to help with the household and keep me company around the house…" At that statement, Ji Chang Wook briefly stiffened. "Didn't you have that girl you always went out with? What was her name…lemme think..I think it started with a J? J-J-"

"Ah, eomma! Now, now! I wouldn't want the food that you worked so hard on to get cold," Chang Wook hurriedly worked to change the topic at hand. He put on an exaggerated act of enthusiastically sitting down and putting on a face of awe at the feast in front of him.

She shook her head at her son and settled the topic to be brought up again for another day and sat down at the table.

In front of them was truly a feast that bring about awe. On the table laid home staples sides that ranged from a fluffy rolled egg to all kinds of seasoned vegetables (bean sprouts, spinach, radish, perilla leaves, kimchi) that were sure to renew one's health, cucumber pancake, hearty slices of bossam and a murky, meat filled soup at the center.

"Sundaeguk! Sundaeguk! Hwa~ I missed that the most!" Chang Wook beamed and already had a spoon at the ready to dig in. ------------------------------ Ji Chang Wook sighed contentedly while rubbing his stomach. Settled comfortably on the couch with the remote on one hand and the other on his stomach, the handsome actor looked every bit of a newly released and unemployed army man lazying around in mismatched house clothes  that he was rather than what one would expect from someone who is a fashion icon, a sponsor and face of products ranging from luxury brands to face masks that millions of people go crazy over.

"Ah, I'm so full…," Ji Chang absent mindedly murmured as his concentration was on the soccer game that was airing on TV.

After his early lunch with his mother and the clean up afterwards, she had insisted on him resting whilst she went out for errands though he had suggested accompanying her. Since then, a few hours have already gone by spent watching the replayed soccer tournaments and the usually active man was starting to feel restless.

Getting up from the couch to retrieve his phone in his room, he dialed his manager's phone to see if he was available to go for a motorcycle ride around the city later in the day along with some of their other friends.

The quiet beeps of the flash sounding from the camera could be occasionally heard cutting through the music sounding in the studio.

"Good! Ji hyun-sshi, just tilt your head to the right a little bit…neh, neh. And your hands…..good, good," the photographer took a photo as he crouched in the ground to take a photo of Nam Ji Hyun in a better angle. Taking a pause to review the photos taken on the computer screen, people from Ji Hyun's styling team took the opportunity to retouch her makeup and add further volume to her tousled hair with a hairspray and a comb in hand.

Nam Ji Hyun stood from her position on the floor for her stylist to better fix herself, the trail of her off white, chiffon dress fluttering behind her. Rearranging the relaxed waves of hair strategically on top of the flower crocheted V-neck lining of her dress, the actress exuded the perfect example of simple elegance and innocence as her outfit highlighted her youthfulness and delicate features. And yet when it was time to resume the photoshoot, the versatility of Nam Ji Hyun's gaze brought out by the photographer's directing showcased an allure that wouldn't be expected from a fledgling of a former child actress. Delivering looks ranging from one of coquettish curiosity to pained longing to hesitant desire with ease, young though she may be, it could not be refuted that she was still a seasoned professional with over 10 years of experience in the industry with the control she had over her expressions.

The photographer murmured in approval as he prompted Ji Hyun to make slight changes on her poses. "Just one more...And...we're done! Good work everyone! Good work, Jihyun-sshi!"

Jihyun bowed her head humbly to everyone around her saying, "Thank you everyone! You've worked hard. Thank you," before she approached the photographer to personally thank him.

"Thank you for your care and guidance, photographer-nim."

"Thank you too, Jihyu-sshi. The photoshoot today will be for sure be a success with the quality of shots you've allowed me to take. You are truly amazing. It's going to come out great."

"Ey, photographer-nim. Anieyo. I just tried my best. Thank you for acknowledging my effort," Jihyun bashfully and humbly responded to the photographer's compliments.

"It has been an honor to work with you, I hope I can take more of your pictures in the future and oh! Good luck on your movie," the photographer shook her hands and left to further review the shots that he took.

Meanwhile, Jihyun went to go change out of the sponsored dress for the photoshoot and go back home as her schedule was done for the day.

Rambunctious laughter filled the café as Ji Chang Wook and his friends entered the place with their helmets in hand. The barista standing at the wooden counter illuminated by the metal light fixture and the letters spelling out PEACE overhang against the wall, greeted the crowd with familiarity and set out to do their usual drink orders.

They collectively passed by to head to the stairs where there was a private seating area in the upper level for the owner and his friends to hang out as they wish. The retro coffee shop by day and bar by night, Carnaby St., was the regular hangout for the handsome actor, especially on days when he went out to for a ride on his motorcycle or vespa. The vibe of the shop was stylish, bright and yet approachable with its eclectically designed British memorabilia that makes one feel like they're at the heart of London.

Everyone was settled on to the wooden table placed amidst the string lights and hanging vines upstairs as the owner of Carnaby St. brought them their drinks. With the owner joining in, they updated each other on the going-ons of their life that had been busy lately and prevented them from getting together sooner. Their conversations were boisterous and filled with teasing and jokes especially to the expense of Ji Chang Wook as his release from the army was one of the main topics to talk about. A lot of his friends had already enlisted long before he did and knew from experience the difficulty of adjusting back into society once again and wanted to ease their friend back to the way of things. It made Ji Chang Wook really appreciate his friends as he saw their efforts and love the bond they all had despite being in different working industries.

Bringing himself out of his thoughts, he tuned into the conversation to hear about Gil Bok who worked as a camera director talking about the new movie he had been busy with to Chi Gu.

"Are you guys going? I'm sure the higher-ups expect you guys to come to the VIP Premiere since Chang Wook-ah is back and he's worked with the actors of the film before."

Chang Wook looked at Chi-Gu in inquiry.

"It's still a couple of months away so that's probably why the company hasn't confirmed with us about the scheduling quite yet," his manager responded.

"Ah okay," Ji Chang Wook said to Chi-Gu and then turned to his other side. "Hwa~ Gil Bok-hyung, this is rare for you to suddenly bring up work. That's strange."

"Yeah it is not typical of me but you guys have to watch it when it comes out! This old man's heart has been moved," Gil Bok jokingly patted his chest with a mockingly teary eyed expression, his mouth skewed in a comical manner.

The actor and his manager laughingly jeered at Gil Bok's antics.

"Oh, are you guys talking about Jihyun-ah's new movie?" Choi Tae Joon interjected into their conversation. "She was telling me about it when I happen to meet her in a café with Khun (his cat)."

"That's right. Yah~…Nam Ji Hyun-sshi," the camera director shook his head. "It's amazing. She is completely different in this one," thinking of how the young actress's role in her new film was a complete and utter departure from her roles in the past. "The set would get goosebumps in some of her scenes."

"Jihyun-ah?" Ji Chang Wook tilted his head in thought.  "I didn’t think she'd be doing another project yet. We lost contact after my first year in the army but I remember she told me she was taking a break to finish school."

Tae Joon shrugged. "I didn’t get a chance to ask her but we're probably going to see each other again in that cat café since she's a regular there so I could ask for updates."

"Oh! Jo Jae Yoon-Hyung is also part of the production by the way," Gil Bok mentioned.

"It's the same movie that you were working on? I know he mentioned he was busy with a movie that's coming out soon. I didn't know it would be the one you were also in," Tae Joon said.

"Yeah, he's not playing a bad guy this time," Gil Bok laughed. "Did you know his wife is pregnant again?

"Wow, again? Incredible," Chi Gu remarked. "I don't know how he does it..."

"Hyung! Have you seen the game last night?" Kangwoo, who had been busy talking with the Carnaby owner, Jin Su, excitedly brought up the soccer game that aired to Gil Bok and the others.

And just like that, the group got swept up by talk of their favorite sport, they fervently discussed the moves of the players and moved on from discussing work matters.

While Ji Chang Wook joined in on his friends' conversation, he couldn't help wonder at the back of his head how his lovable costar was doing and be especially curious as to what she was working on to have made his hyung react in such a way.

[savanahdppadillaim10insuran-blog]

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Techniques – 10 Characteristics of Great Photos (2019 Update)

People often ask us how to take “good” photos. As a studio, we’ve tried to develop a methodology so that we can consistently create amazing images. While studying our art over the last decade, we compiled a list of ten characteristics most often found in the best photos. While we use examples from our wedding and engagement portfolio for the images below, these rules apply to all genres of photography.

If there is one overarching characteristic whose importance precedes that of all the characteristics listed in this article, it’s that every image needs to have a purpose. The image should tell a story or capture a unique moment in a meaningful way. If you comb through your portfolio and find yourself wondering why you captured a particular image, then there’s a good chance it’s lacking some or all of the following characteristics.

While it is highly unlikely that a given image (even an amazing photo) will include all of these characteristics, try to combine as many as possible and always keep composition in mind.

Without any further delay, here are 10 Characteristics of Great Photos.

10 Characteristics of Great Photos

1 – Compelling Composition (Must Have)

Most basic photography guides include common compositional concepts like the rule of thirds and rules of symmetry, but what other techniques can we use to create compelling compositions? Some less common techniques involve negative space, leading lines, depth of field, and framing. I mention this rule first because it doesn’t matter which particular style, technique, or rule you follow, so long as every image is thoughtfully composed. There will be times when composition takes a back seat in order to just grab the shot, but it should otherwise be considered whenever possible.

  The image above uses one of the most common compositional rules, the rule of thirds, in two ways. First, the dunes occupy two-thirds of the image horizontally, leaving the sun & sky to fill the final third. Secondly, the couple has been placed near the upper left intersection of the horizontal and vertical thirds. Although the rule is commonly practiced, this image exemplifies why it is so effective, especially in this scene from Dubai.

  This image features the dynamic symmetry of continuous spiral, which is often found in both nature and architecture. There are mathematical equations concerning ratios that explain in technical terms why this is pleasing to the eye, but it’s easy enough to notice how the lines effectively lead to the subjects, who’ve been placed in the lower left third of the image. Of course, the dramatic lighting also plays a role in minimizing distractions and drawing the viewer’s focus to the brightest part of the photo.

  The photo above features several compositional components, including leading lines, the rule of thirds, and unique framing. The leading lines in the scene draw the viewer’s eye to the couple, who occupy the space framed by the walls on either side of the walkway at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In addition, the entire composition is framed using thirds, the left third where the couple resides, and the right two-thirds occupied by the wall and leading lines. The couple’s reflection in the wall on the right also adds a sense of (nearly symmetrical) balance to the image.

  Framing is key in the image above, as the couple is framed inside of multiple layers of squares. They’ve also been placed at the intersection of the lower left thirds, and lighting has been used to draw focus to the couple.

  In the image above, bokeh, which basically refers to the out-of-focus parts of the image, works in tandem with a shallow depth-of-field to separate the subjects from the background (and in the case of this shoot-through, the foreground as well). The subjects occupy a very narrow margin of space that remains in focus, which also happens to reside in the lower-right third of the image.

  Here, we have a great showcase for the power of symmetry. The couple has been placed on the apex of the triangular rock formation in the foreground, creating the first layer of symmetry. The mountain range in the background also adds to the symmetry of the image in that it echoes the triangular shape in the foreground while also providing its own symmetrical element.

You can find more information on composition and how to combine compositional elements here.

2 – Display Of Emotion

As human beings, we are drawn to emotion. Whether we’re laughing or crying, emotion ties each and everyone of us together. Images that capture genuine displays of emotion often prove timeless, and these meaningful moments will always capture the audience’s attention.

  The image above was captured during a Vidaai, which marks the end of the Hindu wedding ceremony and the beginning of the bride and groom’s journey as husband and wife. Vidaais can be intensely emotional as the bride’s friends and family wish her farewell (as illustrated above).

  On the flipside of sad emotions, genuine happiness also effectively connects viewers to the subjects in images. Usually, the more candid and natural the capture appears (even if it was actually directed), the larger the impact of the image.

[Related Reading: How To Pose And Direct For Natural Portraits: 10 Tips From Working Professionals]

3 – Simple Storytelling

Some of the greatest images simply tell a story. Rather than relying on great composition or featuring other unique characteristics, they instead focus on storytelling. Some of the best storytelling images are found in the news and other sources of photojournalism. From the triumphant shout of a newly crowned sports champion to a protester standing in front of a tank in the Tiananmen Square massacre, these images capture and freeze moments in history for everyone to become a witness. Here are a few examples from weddings we’ve photographed.

  You can almost feel the anticipation in the air as the bride’s father walks her down the stairs to the ceremony site at Malibu Rocky Oaks. From this unique perspective, you can see the story unfold as the bride’s family, friends, and groom-to-be anxiously await her arrival.

  What is bride prep without a little help from the bride’s friends or family? Here, an ensemble cast of bridesmaids admire the bride’s beauty from all angles while helping her with the final touches in preparation for her big day.

  For wedding photographers, the first look at the altar offers a perfect opportunity to capture the anticipation and surprise of the bride and groom seeing one another for the first time on their wedding day (depending on whether or not they did a first look earlier in the day). It’s one of the staple moments of the entire day.

4 – Elliptical Storytelling

Most images that tell a story are already worthwhile, but images that tell stories while leaving something to the viewer’s imagination are even better. You’ve probably heard people say that the book is always better than the movie because it allows us to use our imagination to create the most amazing and personalized special effects in our minds. Images that leave something to the imagination tend to do the same thing. They offer just enough information to fuel our imagination as we fill in the missing pieces.

  This image was shot at a local airport during an engagement shoot. While we can’t be sure of the subjects’ identities, we’re given enough clues to imagine they’re embarking on a long-distance trip. We don’t know where they’re going or under what circumstances, but that’s also why the image works so well. The limited clues let you imagine the rest.

  We’re given very few clues to determine the situation in the above image, but it’s enough to allow for creative speculation. The close proximity between the subjects implies a close relationship, and the style of the shoes and wardrobe combined with the graffitied background lend an urban feel to this untold story.

5 – Iconic Moments

When capturing an iconic moment, you are capturing a moment created or modeled after meaningful moments in pop culture and/or history. Whether it is a reproduction of a scene from a classic movie or a moment based around something trendy, these shots allow the audience to feel emotionally connected to the moment within the imagery.

  While James Dean never rode a motorcycle in his movies, plenty of photos exist of the star as he sits atop an old Triumph, exuding the cool guy, rebel persona he’s often associated with. In the James Dean-inspired shot above, viewers are transported back to the era of cool as we spy a glimpse of a couple in the rearview mirror, just before they ride off into the sunset.

  The couples portrait above recalls the golden age of Hollywood through its use of dapper outfits, editorial posing, dramatic lighting, and on-set props (like the retro-style light, which was part of the decor in a room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel).

6 – Unique Moments

What’s an easy way to create an interesting image? Simple, shoot something that is unique to the respective audience. For example, while a Christian wedding may seem quite common in the United States, a traditional Hindu wedding isn’t so common and therefore is automatically more interesting to an audience in the states. Other unique moments might reveal themselves during unusual events or at one-of-a-kind locations.

  During his pre-wedding baraat, a Sikh bridegroom peeks through the strands of his Sehra to take in the sights. While baraats are quite common in Hindu and Sikh weddings, they’re unique to those who’ve never witnessed them. In addition, the ornate and colorful clothing worn by most in attendance make for unique photos.

  It’s not often that you get to capture family portrait framed under a spectacular fireworks display. The image above took place outside the venue during a wedding reception and used a backlight to separate the family from the background.

You can find more tips on how to capture portraits under fireworks here.

  The image above was captured at sunset just after the clouds began to clear at Malibu Rocky Oaks. By using off-camera flash to highlight the couple, we were able to capture a unique couples portrait in an environment whose look and lighting changed by the minute.

You can see how we captured the image above here.

7 – Juxtaposed/Contrasting Concepts

Some of the most interesting images juxtapose (compare) completely contrasting objects and concepts. Examples of this might include a beautiful bride in a completely white and flowing wedding dress shot in front of a background littered with trash and graffiti, thus juxtaposing beauty and purity with ugly and uncleanliness. Or perhaps a homeless person downtown sitting with all of his belongings with a glowing Merryl Lynch sign in the background, contrasting utter poverty with a symbol of wealth and power. See the images below for more examples.

  You might be wondering what’s going on in this image. We’re looking out from a makeshift shanty in downtown Los Angeles. This might not be the first place one would imagine using as a backdrop for an engagement portrait, but it aligns with the urban engagement theme and presents a unique setting for lighting and framing the couple.

  The image above was shot at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center against a graffiti-esque wall mural. The dapper wardrobes of the bride and groom in this editorial style shot contrasts well against the painted background.

8 – Unique Lighting and Color

Lighting and color is really where a lot of great images start. Great lighting can turn a mundane scene into an amazingly colorful scene full of texture and life. In nature, these types of scenes happen all the time during sunrise and sunset, and while we can’t control the lighting of those fleeting moments, if you happen to be in the right place at the right time, you just may be able to capture it (see point number six above). However, we can control and create unique lighting on our own with the proper knowledge using off camera lighting, flashes and more.

  The image above was created using a whip pan technique, which can be used to add dynamic motion with shutter drags. While the backdrop in this image was already appealing (taken outside of the Monarch Beach Resort), the added light technique makes this portrait standout from others captured in this same location.

  By lowering the ambient exposure in-camera and illuminating the couple with off-camera flash, we were able to capture this unique couples portrait under the beautiful Arizona sky.

  Silhouettes are backlit images that are easy to capture and produce amazing results. In the image above, captured in the dunes outside of Dubai, we placed the subjects directly in front of the setting sun and lowered our exposure to reveal the outline of the couple riding a camel across the sand. White balance also plays an important role in this image as it adds a desert feel with the bright orange sky.

We cover these and other lighting techniques in Lighting 201, as well as our Unscripted Series.

9 – Attention To Detail

In our time and society where everything is about speed and efficiency, images that capture overlooked detail can be enough to make someone stop to smell the roses. While pictures of unique and unseen detail is amazing and breathtaking, you can often get the same reaction out of your audience by simply shooting the detail in everyday life.

  This detail image of a bride’s shoes was captured on a hotel tabletop during a wedding in Huntington Beach. The dramatic lighting and reflective surface elevate this photo to a product shot you might expect to see in an ad for the shoes.

  While they’re often used to photograph flowers and insects, macro lenses open up a world of possibilities for photographing all kinds of tiny objects, including wedding rings (as seen in the image above). The best part is, aside from purchasing a macro lens, you can use inexpensive lighting to get your desired look.

[Related Reading: 10 Creative Wedding Ring Shots For You To Try]

  In the image above, an Indian bride takes a brief pause before heading out to the ceremony site. The ornate dress and accessories, as well as the henna on the bride’s hands and arms, are packed with detail and deserving of a closer look.

For more information on how to photograph details like those featured above, see our Photographing the Groom and Photographing the Bride wedding workshops.

10 – Unique Perspective

Most of us live our lives viewing the world with relatively the same perspective. This is what makes unique perspectives so interesting to the audience. Instead of shooting a child from an adult’s perspective, why not get down low and shoot them from the child’s perspective. Very low bottom-up and higher top-down can often create a much more unique and interesting image.

  This image was shot during an event as some of the kids were having a little party of their own. What better way to shoot kids, then to shoot it from their perspective. You can imagine how this shot wouldn’t be nearly as special were it shot from a standing (grown up) perspective.

  No drone was needed for this overhead shot of a bride and groom dancing in the rotunda at the Monarch Beach Resort. Whether you have to use a drone, balcony, or even an extended monopod, capturing your image from a higher perspective can elevate your image from ordinary to extraordinary.

  The image above was shot from a low angle to capture this unique perspective and show the beautiful background above the couple. Remember that backgrounds can be above or below you!

  In this portrait taken at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, we’ve used a wide aperture panoramic stitching technique called the Brenizer Method to showcase the couple. Without using this technique, it would be difficult to capture this large of a frame with such shallow depth of field.

We discuss this technique more in-depth in our Panoramic Stitching Workshop.

  We hope you enjoyed this article! If so, please share this article to show us your love! Also, please add your additional ideas on creating great images in the comments below.

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16 of the Best Shopify Stores to Inspire Your Own

Ecommerce is predicted to account for 17% of all U.S. retail sales by 2022. As ecommerce grows, so does competition, making it hard to differentiate your website from everyone else's.

It isn't enough to have a one-of-a-kind product: to attract your ideal audience -- and more importantly, to turn that audience into passionate brand ambassadors -- you need a one-of-a-kind website.

A sleek and captivating Shopify website can attract a large audience and even act as your start-to-finish marketing pitch.

But you need to know what makes one Shopify website better than the rest. Here, we've curated a list of 16 best of the best Shopify stores to inspire your own.

Whether you're new to ecommerce and about to design your first website, or an ecommerce veteran considering a redesign to outshine your competitors in 2018, this list offers plenty of creative ideas.

Top Shopify Stores

UgMonk

Pipcorn

Taylor Stitch

Happiness Abscissa

Skinny Teatox

HELM Boots

BioLite

Pop Chart Lab

Luca and Danni

Harris Farm Markets

So Worth Loving

Great George Watches

Choose Muse

Brilliant

Holstee

Kylie Cosmetics

1. UgMonk

Jeff Sheldon starts the "About" section on his UgMonk website with a simple question: "Why was it so difficult to find fresh, high-quality, unique items in a modern aesthetic?" His Shopify site is simple and fresh, and exhibits UgMonk's clothing, workplace items, bags, and prints in the same modern aesthetic style he sought while designing his unique products.

2. Pipcorn

When you think about popcorn, I'm betting the first concern that comes to mind isn't "is it healthy?" Pipcorn knows this, so their homepage features a simple slogan: "Most tender, crunchy, delicious popcorn … and it won't destroy your teeth like the ‘generic' stuff." The best websites know their target audience's primary concerns (in this case, the taste of popcorn and the kernels in teeth), and sell them on those solutions upfront.

If you look on their "About Us" page, you'll find Pipcorn's products are also non-GMO, vegan, gluten free, and whole grain. Even though this could have easily been incorporated into their slogan, they chose to exclude it in favor of tackling our bigger concern: Does it taste good?

3. Taylor Stitch

The inner child in me loves Taylor Stitch's website because of the creative alternatives displayed when you hover over a product: a jacket, for instance, flips to an image of a model posing with the jacket on a motorcycle.

The Taylor Stitch website does something else really cool, too: it almost immediately calls more attention to its message than its products, with "Three Simple Ingredients" written across most of the images you see on the homepage. Taylor Stitch doesn't just make high-quality clothing. It also aims to reduce waste and help the environment by creating clothing with recycled or 100% natural products.

On their website, you can't miss their environmental efforts, and I'm betting this is a differentiating factor for most buyers when they come across the site.

4. Happiness Abscissa

Many of the websites I mention on this list have clean, straight lines. Happiness Abscissa is unique. It shows a playful side by displaying a layout with bright abstract images, and even products hanging from different angles.

The company's logo, a crooked "Ha," draws in the viewer's attention, and then they use Ha in a sentence without defining the word, further stimulating viewers' curiosity. You get the sense they don't take themselves too seriously, affording the viewer a cheerful and fun experience.

5. Skinny Teatox

I myself was tempted to purchase the Teatox product when I checked out this site (in my defense, they were having a one-day flash sale I did not want to miss). The Skinny Teatox homepage immediately confronts your biggest concerns ("Is it natural? Yes. Will it work? Yes."), and uses pastel colors and cute icons of bikinis and mugs to convey a fresh vibe.

As I've noticed with a few other Shopify websites, Skinny Teatox places its products on the homepage with an easy "buy now" call-to-action. For a company that isn't too complex to figure out ("All Natural Detox Weight Loss Tea" is written beside the company name in search engines), I think it makes sense to offer the viewers what they want upfront.

6. HELM Boots

"Our boots give men confidence from the ground up, confidence to take steps they've never taken before." Immediately, HELM incentivizes viewers through emotion: I might just be a guy looking to buy some boots, but yes, I'd definitely also like some confidence and bravery while I'm at it. The website looks elegant, and you can find everything from the homepage, which is designed to convert viewers at various stages of the buyer's journey and assuage doubts as you scroll.

7. BioLite

I might be a sucker for the little details, but the product images on BioLite's website are enough to make me want to buy something (they look 3-D and illuminated, and some even look wet from rain!).

Since BioLite's major selling point is its humanitarian impact (the products bring affordable energy access to places in India and Africa), the first thing on the homepage is their slogan, "Gear That Brings Energy Everywhere," which will appeal to their target audience. The navigation bar at the top also has a clever twist: beside each product title, there are little black-and-white cartoon drawings of the product.

8. Pop Chart Lab

This site looks like one of the vintage and trendy prints they sell. It's also organized in different categories depending on a viewer's browsing preference.

First, Pop Chart Lab's Shopify store has a scroll-down navigation with sub-categories ranging from, "NYC" to "Kids" to "Hip Hop" to "Wine." They also have a carousel with some of their top prints on display. Below the carousel, they offer "wholesale," "gift guides," and "scratch-off" collections, for viewers who are having a difficult time discerning what they want. The shop manages to appear simple, despite its vast array of different print products, which is no easy feat.

9. Luca and Danni

There's something addictive about an ecommerce store that changes as you scroll. Luca and Danni's page is highly interactive: as you scroll, some images get bigger and others get smaller, boxes of bracelets open up within images, and some images follow you down the page. It can be tricky to offer so much movement on a page while remaining coherent, but somehow, Luca and Danni accomplish this. There's also a very zen vibe to the whole layout, with images of palm trees and cactuses, and calls-to-action with language like "brighter days: shop soil to sky," and "find what speaks to you."

10. Harris Farm Markets

This is a family-owned company, something you can't miss from the homepage. It's casual and playful, with text that looks like a child's handwriting and colorful drawings of fruit (there's even an adorable drawing of a bee with animated wings!). Even the calls-to-action sound laid-back, like "What's nature been up to?" It's so genuine, you can imagine a family building the site together.

11. So Worth Loving

Sometimes, being evasive pays off. While it's not always a good idea to hide your products from the viewer, it can be a very smart move if your product doesn't make sense without understanding the backstory. With So Worth Loving's site, you don't even see the t-shirts for sale until a third of the way down the page. By that point, you've already read their slogan, a little bio from the founder, Eryn, and a full narrative about how the site began.

The site leans into personal touches, with handwritten-looking quotes scrawled across images and very normal looking images of people posing in t-shirts. This is a great example of knowing your audience enough to break the rules.

12. Great George Watches

I'm not an experienced watch shopper, so when I first read, "Made with Swiss parts and 100% square," on Great George Watches' homepage, I thought maybe "square" was a fancy term I'd understand if I knew watches. But as I scrolled and read, "Think outside the circle," I realized these terms were unique to Great George Watches, which are all square-faced.

By emphasizing what makes their product unique before even showing the produce, Great George Watches captivates the viewer. I love this shop because it has a refined and polished look, with black-and-white photos and an attention-grabbing red call-to-action button.

13. Choose Muse

Choose Muse incorporates a full-display video of a man putting headphones on and using Choose Muse's product right from the homepage. The video starts playing immediately (as opposed to offering a play button option), which is especially eye-catching. I usually think simple is better when it comes to design, but Choose Muse proves me wrong, incorporating compelling designs with a ton of images and text, while still retaining a clean and enjoyable viewer experience.

14. Brilliant

For a math and science website, Brilliant is surprisingly easy-to-navigate (even for someone like me, an English major … ), with big, colorful block buttons to choose the math concept you want to learn. This shop is also a fantastic example of using a call-to-action button wisely: there's a big "sign up for free" button prominently displayed in the top right, and then another at the bottom of the page, after you've scrolled past the information you need.

The site doesn't have a navigation bar, but instead uses the web page to answer all the questions a viewer might have.

15. Holstee

Holstee does a fantastic job of designing their site in tiers depending on a person's initial level of interest in the product. For starters, you see the text, "We help you along your journey to live more fully and mindfully." If you're already convinced, you can click "Join today" right below the text. If not, you can continue to scroll down the homepage to find pain points this product reduces, read a "Holstee Manifesto," see Membership benefits, check out testimonials, and find publications Holstee's been featured in.

Throughout the page, there are various calls-to-action, like "Choose a plan that's right for you," and then, at the end, "Become a member today." I love this site because it becomes increasingly convincing and in-depth as you scroll: it's clear they use their homepage as a start-to-finish marketing pitch.

16. Kylie Cosmetics

As one of the top 10 most followed accounts on Instagram, Kylie Jenner's Cosmetic brand is one of the bigger brands using Shopify today. Her site has a very distinct girly-girl vibe, with a bubble-gum pink background showing off her lip kits and gloss.

Kylie's site is also well-organized for her audience: the lip kits, her best-known items, are shown first on the homepage, with "top sellers" below that. I didn't feel overwhelmed looking through the various cosmetic products like I thought I would, and what really stood out to me about Kylie's site is the fun, colorful layout. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm betting it appeals to her target audience.

See a store design above that you like? First, grab the guide below to find out how user-generated content can give your business the gusto it needs to attract and retain online shoppers.

[rjgadvert-blog]

TASK 1

The first advert I will be looking into is the Coco Chanel Mademoiselle Film. The advert runs for approximately 3minutes and 21seconds directed by Joe Wight and released in 2011. The script entails a young woman participating in a sexy photoshoot before leaving her suitor dazed and in awe from a sneaky escape.

To start, one of the techniques used in the advert is the strong sense of product branding through visual imagery. The Coco Chanel advert explicitly uses Sepia tones all throughout the film, these subtle warm colours have connotations with a romanticised scene, and a relaxed mood. Chanel relishes in the idea of an irresistible perfume that creates an irresistible woman. This being the main concept of their branding we can see this when Kiera comes to a stop at the red light and is surrounded by men dressed in black. The juxtaposition to her cream coloured clothing persuades the audience that she is untouchable, because she wears the perfume, and therefor she is in control. This is more than ever convincing when she leaves them in the dust as the light turns green, proving that she has first pick. This idea again is construed through the scenery, and backdrop of the advert, filmed in France – the city of love – the passionate setting for any perfume advert. (More specifically the Fashion Street in Paris, which presents a clear opinion of the director and that their product is a high-fashion brand.) This automatically sets the mood for the film, and engages the female viewer as it plays to their romantic ideals and desires. Moreover throughout the Advert, long smooth shots are used, this also identifies the intense and teasing nature of the advert, which not only makes the film more breath-taking but also foreshadows the latter.

Taking a further look into the ideology of using romance to capture an audience, we can note that this advert uses high amounts of sex appeal to do so, and is done in a matter of ways. Woman have used perfumes for generations for their distinctive scent, and appealing quality. However it can be seen as a new-age ideal that perfume is used to attract the opposite sex for well, exactly that. Perfume adverts toy with this idea by using a high-profile model that not only are desired by men, but are coveted by woman. In this particular advert, we can assume that the producers have targeted the product at the younger generation by using Kiera Knightly, known for her part in Pirates of the Caribbean and other, new-age films for which she stars in. Quite strategically using a public figure so admired by those mentioned, this technique is called Celebrity Endorsement.

Moreover, there are many areas to the Advert that convey a strong theme of sex appeal. To start the clothing is nothing but a ploy to illustrate the attractiveness of the model. As mentioned before, the tight-fitting nude coloured clothing highlights every aspect of her figure, portraying the idealistic body of any woman, in no shame objectifying Knightly in explicit detail. The director’s choice of colour seems clear to highlight the similarity of skin and flesh, therefor arousing the sense of feminine and sexiness of the actress. Having her ride a motorbike in the most seemingly poised manner again is striking and enticing for both men and woman who either want to be with her, or want to be her. An example of how the filming is used to do so is when Knightly is mounting the motorcycle, and the camera is positioned pointing up at her waist, highlighting her feminine figure. The film also uses a range of long shots, and profiling shots to illuminate and frame the actress’s face, making sure that the audience is aware of her beauty and charm, this also creates tension in the scene as her every expression is captured in great detail, making the viewer want that same affection, and mystery. A good example of this is when Knightly has fled from the bedroom and is looking up at her suitor, her eyes convey both longing and a flirtatious distance. Proving that with this perfume, she is at her own will.

Once again, Chanel embellishes the perfect world, where many, suits and cars are at hand, and somehow their perfume will get you there. After Knightly pitches up outside the suitor’s house, the mood again changes to be even more so ‘romantic’. Kiera stages as a model having her photo taken on a bed, posing dramatically and sharing longing looks with her photographer, before he is told to excuse his staff. Having the photoshoot taken in the bed again has connotations with lust and desires, that the produces want their audience to crave, as their perfume is supposedly going to be the item that can give you that happy ending. That’s not to say that the audience is hoping for that ‘Happy Ending’ on screen, however the concept is enough to taunt and tease the viewers into ‘needing’ that perfume.

Another technique to consider is the primal use of music throughout the video. The director uses clear intentional contradiction in his choosing of the song. Having the song ‘It’s a man’s world’ performed by a woman signifies the irony in the fact that it really isn’t. The whole scripted film suggests that a woman can be in control, that a woman can taunt a man, and leave him breathless and in awe, and it is all down to how she starts her day. However the song specifies that the world is owned by man and man alone, so the audience is left conflicted and thought-provoked. Chanel strives to prove that woman are just as much the object of attention and affection, you just need the right perfume.

 Continuing into looking into the different techniques that are used in Advertisements, I will be analysing the 2014 Netflix Airport Advert. This advert couldn’t be more dissimilar to Chanel’s sexy screenplay. This sequence uses comical report and play-on humour to engage its audience and stand for a well-produced promotional video.

The video plays out with a middle-aged man arriving at the airport looking flustered and in a hurry, with contrasting shots of a woman on her way to catch her flight. Already the audience can piece together the romantic cliché scene about to take place, as shown in so many films, for instance ‘Friends with benefits’ or ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, although from this point it is still unclear as to the point of the video.

The first difference to make note of is the colour scheme, with Mademoiselle, the director fondly uses soft beige and brown tones, however with this advert the colours are realistic and down to earth. This brings to life the realistic nature of the advert which I personally found very entertaining and amusing. Another way the director has intentionally downplayed the melodrama of this advert is the actors. Unlike Coco Chanel’s typical casting criteria, Netflix has opted for the ‘everyday man’ an actor who has let himself go – respectively, has an unkempt beard and rocks jeans and sneakers. The woman also dressed in a low-fashion attire, checked shirt and scarf, conveying the assumed ‘everyday woman’. Which is not to say that the actor and actress are purposely unattractive however it is made clear that this particular advert is not promoting a product of superficial desire.

Another difference is the techniques used, where Chanel focus on sex appeal, Netflix focusses on bringing humour into tense situations, playing with the audience’s expectancies. This is shown when the man finally reaches the woman in a gust of romantic whim, and just where the viewers would think a declaration of love or some earth-shattering realisation, the man asks for the Netflix password. This style of production is very entertaining for viewers because it gives the audience a sense of comical relief. Especially when we as a millennial are so involved with the importance of Netflix, and other ‘film fanatics’. Moreover the comedy continues when the woman painfully answers “I love Stephan” –lower case, no spaces. The reason perhaps as to why viewers would find this type of humour funny is because we tend to laugh at other misfortunes, along with the reality check of just how important Netflix is.  

The variation of shots used in this piece range from quick cuts, to long drawn following shots that build tension, this is noticeable when the ‘hero’ has made it into the airport and is looking for his partner, exclaiming “Elizabeth!” Once again toying with the cliché romantic end scenes of so many loved films. Notice that also many of the shots are taken from below, looking up at the personal. This is another way the director has intentionally ‘downplayed’ the suspense, by empowering ‘Stephan’ as he makes his heroic journey through security.

The music used in this is also essential when leading the audience into a false sense of romance. The song is an intense dramatic instrumental which builds perfectly to the point of interaction. Although the name and artist of the song is unlisted, the melody proves to be a seamless addition to the advert.

All in all I really enjoyed both adverts, although the Netflix ad, is more my speed, I do appreciate the art of Coco Chanel productions, and their creativity and flawless piece speaks for itself.

[definelifestyleblog-blog]

A Simple Way To Define Lifestyle Preferred goals

Since you are setting goals on your own, whether like a Fresh Year's resolution, or perhaps to simply alter your life, you should have an incredibly specific focus when you make what exactly are called lifestyle goals. When ever many people make goals, they opt to save up for something which they need to buy, or maybe continue on a holiday. Lifestyle goals are far above some other goal which you is ever going to make. If you are writing these down, you will not give attention to an unique objective, one that you could obtain. You are considering altering your life because it is from that time on to the future. This is tips how to define lifestyle goals quickly, and the way the process can virtually improve your life inside the quickest time frame possible.

Just What Is A Way of life Goal?

It is a goal that will change every factor of your way of life. For instance, in case you are working in a job that you simply do unlike, and you also are living paycheck to paycheck, this can be one specific sort of lifestyle. Nevertheless, an infinitely more preferable lifestyle can be one where you will have a business that is certainly making income to suit your needs, managed by people aside from yourself, allowing yourself and your family to accomplish what you would like without having to worry concerning the cost. Both of these very contrasted examples will reveal why lifestyle goals are incredibly very different than regular goals that folks set each day. This essentially represents a total and total shift of your life you might be living now, getting into something which is more preferable.

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[slrlounge1]

Techniques – 10 Characteristics of Great Photos (2019 Update)

People often ask us how to take “good” photos. As a studio, we’ve tried to develop a methodology so that we can consistently create amazing images. While studying our art over the last decade, we compiled a list of ten characteristics most often found in the best photos. While we use examples from our wedding and engagement portfolio for the images below, these rules apply to all genres of photography.

If there is one overarching characteristic whose importance precedes that of all the characteristics listed in this article, it’s that every image needs to have a purpose. The image should tell a story or capture a unique moment in a meaningful way. If you comb through your portfolio and find yourself wondering why you captured a particular image, then there’s a good chance it’s lacking some or all of the following characteristics.

While it is highly unlikely that a given image (even an amazing photo) will include all of these characteristics, try to combine as many as possible and always keep composition in mind.

Without any further delay, here are 10 Characteristics of Great Photos.

10 Characteristics of Great Photos

1 – Compelling Composition (Must Have)

Most basic photography guides include common compositional concepts like the rule of thirds and rules of symmetry, but what other techniques can we use to create compelling compositions? Some less common techniques involve negative space, leading lines, depth of field, and framing. I mention this rule first because it doesn’t matter which particular style, technique, or rule you follow, so long as every image is thoughtfully composed. There will be times when composition takes a back seat in order to just grab the shot, but it should otherwise be considered whenever possible.

  The image above uses one of the most common compositional rules, the rule of thirds, in two ways. First, the dunes occupy two-thirds of the image horizontally, leaving the sun & sky to fill the final third. Secondly, the couple has been placed near the upper left intersection of the horizontal and vertical thirds. Although the rule is commonly practiced, this image exemplifies why it is so effective, especially in this scene from Dubai.

  This image features the dynamic symmetry of continuous spiral, which is often found in both nature and architecture. There are mathematical equations concerning ratios that explain in technical terms why this is pleasing to the eye, but it’s easy enough to notice how the lines effectively lead to the subjects, who’ve been placed in the lower left third of the image. Of course, the dramatic lighting also plays a role in minimizing distractions and drawing the viewer’s focus to the brightest part of the photo.

  The photo above features several compositional components, including leading lines, the rule of thirds, and unique framing. The leading lines in the scene draw the viewer’s eye to the couple, who occupy the space framed by the walls on either side of the walkway at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In addition, the entire composition is framed using thirds, the left third where the couple resides, and the right two-thirds occupied by the wall and leading lines. The couple’s reflection in the wall on the right also adds a sense of (nearly symmetrical) balance to the image.

  Framing is key in the image above, as the couple is framed inside of multiple layers of squares. They’ve also been placed at the intersection of the lower left thirds, and lighting has been used to draw focus to the couple.

  In the image above, bokeh, which basically refers to the out-of-focus parts of the image, works in tandem with a shallow depth-of-field to separate the subjects from the background (and in the case of this shoot-through, the foreground as well). The subjects occupy a very narrow margin of space that remains in focus, which also happens to reside in the lower-right third of the image.

  Here, we have a great showcase for the power of symmetry. The couple has been placed on the apex of the triangular rock formation in the foreground, creating the first layer of symmetry. The mountain range in the background also adds to the symmetry of the image in that it echoes the triangular shape in the foreground while also providing its own symmetrical element.

You can find more information on composition and how to combine compositional elements here.

2 – Display Of Emotion

As human beings, we are drawn to emotion. Whether we’re laughing or crying, emotion ties each and everyone of us together. Images that capture genuine displays of emotion often prove timeless, and these meaningful moments will always capture the audience’s attention.

  The image above was captured during a Vidaai, which marks the end of the Hindu wedding ceremony and the beginning of the bride and groom’s journey as husband and wife. Vidaais can be intensely emotional as the bride’s friends and family wish her farewell (as illustrated above).

  On the flipside of sad emotions, genuine happiness also effectively connects viewers to the subjects in images. Usually, the more candid and natural the capture appears (even if it was actually directed), the larger the impact of the image.

[Related Reading: How To Pose And Direct For Natural Portraits: 10 Tips From Working Professionals]

3 – Simple Storytelling

Some of the greatest images simply tell a story. Rather than relying on great composition or featuring other unique characteristics, they instead focus on storytelling. Some of the best storytelling images are found in the news and other sources of photojournalism. From the triumphant shout of a newly crowned sports champion to a protester standing in front of a tank in the Tiananmen Square massacre, these images capture and freeze moments in history for everyone to become a witness. Here are a few examples from weddings we’ve photographed.

  You can almost feel the anticipation in the air as the bride’s father walks her down the stairs to the ceremony site at Malibu Rocky Oaks. From this unique perspective, you can see the story unfold as the bride’s family, friends, and groom-to-be anxiously await her arrival.

  What is bride prep without a little help from the bride’s friends or family? Here, an ensemble cast of bridesmaids admire the bride’s beauty from all angles while helping her with the final touches in preparation for her big day.

  For wedding photographers, the first look at the altar offers a perfect opportunity to capture the anticipation and surprise of the bride and groom seeing one another for the first time on their wedding day (depending on whether or not they did a first look earlier in the day). It’s one of the staple moments of the entire day.

4 – Elliptical Storytelling

Most images that tell a story are already worthwhile, but images that tell stories while leaving something to the viewer’s imagination are even better. You’ve probably heard people say that the book is always better than the movie because it allows us to use our imagination to create the most amazing and personalized special effects in our minds. Images that leave something to the imagination tend to do the same thing. They offer just enough information to fuel our imagination as we fill in the missing pieces.

  This image was shot at a local airport during an engagement shoot. While we can’t be sure of the subjects’ identities, we’re given enough clues to imagine they’re embarking on a long-distance trip. We don’t know where they’re going or under what circumstances, but that’s also why the image works so well. The limited clues let you imagine the rest.

  We’re given very few clues to determine the situation in the above image, but it’s enough to allow for creative speculation. The close proximity between the subjects implies a close relationship, and the style of the shoes and wardrobe combined with the graffitied background lend an urban feel to this untold story.

5 – Iconic Moments

When capturing an iconic moment, you are capturing a moment created or modeled after meaningful moments in pop culture and/or history. Whether it is a reproduction of a scene from a classic movie or a moment based around something trendy, these shots allow the audience to feel emotionally connected to the moment within the imagery.

  While James Dean never rode a motorcycle in his movies, plenty of photos exist of the star as he sits atop an old Triumph, exuding the cool guy, rebel persona he’s often associated with. In the James Dean-inspired shot above, viewers are transported back to the era of cool as we spy a glimpse of a couple in the rearview mirror, just before they ride off into the sunset.

  The couples portrait above recalls the golden age of Hollywood through its use of dapper outfits, editorial posing, dramatic lighting, and on-set props (like the retro-style light, which was part of the decor in a room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel).

6 – Unique Moments

What’s an easy way to create an interesting image? Simple, shoot something that is unique to the respective audience. For example, while a Christian wedding may seem quite common in the United States, a traditional Hindu wedding isn’t so common and therefore is automatically more interesting to an audience in the states. Other unique moments might reveal themselves during unusual events or at one-of-a-kind locations.

  During his pre-wedding baraat, a Sikh bridegroom peeks through the strands of his Sehra to take in the sights. While baraats are quite common in Hindu and Sikh weddings, they’re unique to those who’ve never witnessed them. In addition, the ornate and colorful clothing worn by most in attendance make for unique photos.

  It’s not often that you get to capture family portrait framed under a spectacular fireworks display. The image above took place outside the venue during a wedding reception and used a backlight to separate the family from the background.

You can find more tips on how to capture portraits under fireworks here.

  The image above was captured at sunset just after the clouds began to clear at Malibu Rocky Oaks. By using off-camera flash to highlight the couple, we were able to capture a unique couples portrait in an environment whose look and lighting changed by the minute.

You can see how we captured the image above here.

7 – Juxtaposed/Contrasting Concepts

Some of the most interesting images juxtapose (compare) completely contrasting objects and concepts. Examples of this might include a beautiful bride in a completely white and flowing wedding dress shot in front of a background littered with trash and graffiti, thus juxtaposing beauty and purity with ugly and uncleanliness. Or perhaps a homeless person downtown sitting with all of his belongings with a glowing Merryl Lynch sign in the background, contrasting utter poverty with a symbol of wealth and power. See the images below for more examples.

  You might be wondering what’s going on in this image. We’re looking out from a makeshift shanty in downtown Los Angeles. This might not be the first place one would imagine using as a backdrop for an engagement portrait, but it aligns with the urban engagement theme and presents a unique setting for lighting and framing the couple.

  The image above was shot at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center against a graffiti-esque wall mural. The dapper wardrobes of the bride and groom in this editorial style shot contrasts well against the painted background.

8 – Unique Lighting and Color

Lighting and color is really where a lot of great images start. Great lighting can turn a mundane scene into an amazingly colorful scene full of texture and life. In nature, these types of scenes happen all the time during sunrise and sunset, and while we can’t control the lighting of those fleeting moments, if you happen to be in the right place at the right time, you just may be able to capture it (see point number six above). However, we can control and create unique lighting on our own with the proper knowledge using off camera lighting, flashes and more.

  The image above was created using a whip pan technique, which can be used to add dynamic motion with shutter drags. While the backdrop in this image was already appealing (taken outside of the Monarch Beach Resort), the added light technique makes this portrait standout from others captured in this same location.

  By lowering the ambient exposure in-camera and illuminating the couple with off-camera flash, we were able to capture this unique couples portrait under the beautiful Arizona sky.

  Silhouettes are backlit images that are easy to capture and produce amazing results. In the image above, captured in the dunes outside of Dubai, we placed the subjects directly in front of the setting sun and lowered our exposure to reveal the outline of the couple riding a camel across the sand. White balance also plays an important role in this image as it adds a desert feel with the bright orange sky.

We cover these and other lighting techniques in Lighting 201, as well as our Unscripted Series.

9 – Attention To Detail

In our time and society where everything is about speed and efficiency, images that capture overlooked detail can be enough to make someone stop to smell the roses. While pictures of unique and unseen detail is amazing and breathtaking, you can often get the same reaction out of your audience by simply shooting the detail in everyday life.

  This detail image of a bride’s shoes was captured on a hotel tabletop during a wedding in Huntington Beach. The dramatic lighting and reflective surface elevate this photo to a product shot you might expect to see in an ad for the shoes.

  While they’re often used to photograph flowers and insects, macro lenses open up a world of possibilities for photographing all kinds of tiny objects, including wedding rings (as seen in the image above). The best part is, aside from purchasing a macro lens, you can use inexpensive lighting to get your desired look.

[Related Reading: 10 Creative Wedding Ring Shots For You To Try]

  In the image above, an Indian bride takes a brief pause before heading out to the ceremony site. The ornate dress and accessories, as well as the henna on the bride’s hands and arms, are packed with detail and deserving of a closer look.

For more information on how to photograph details like those featured above, see our Photographing the Groom and Photographing the Bride wedding workshops.

10 – Unique Perspective

Most of us live our lives viewing the world with relatively the same perspective. This is what makes unique perspectives so interesting to the audience. Instead of shooting a child from an adult’s perspective, why not get down low and shoot them from the child’s perspective. Very low bottom-up and higher top-down can often create a much more unique and interesting image.

  This image was shot during an event as some of the kids were having a little party of their own. What better way to shoot kids, then to shoot it from their perspective. You can imagine how this shot wouldn’t be nearly as special were it shot from a standing (grown up) perspective.

  No drone was needed for this overhead shot of a bride and groom dancing in the rotunda at the Monarch Beach Resort. Whether you have to use a drone, balcony, or even an extended monopod, capturing your image from a higher perspective can elevate your image from ordinary to extraordinary.

  The image above was shot from a low angle to capture this unique perspective and show the beautiful background above the couple. Remember that backgrounds can be above or below you!

  In this portrait taken at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, we’ve used a wide aperture panoramic stitching technique called the Brenizer Method to showcase the couple. Without using this technique, it would be difficult to capture this large of a frame with such shallow depth of field.

We discuss this technique more in-depth in our Panoramic Stitching Workshop.

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16 of the Best Shopify Stores to Inspire Your Own

Ecommerce is predicted to account for 17% of all U.S. retail sales by 2022. As ecommerce grows, so does competition, making it hard to differentiate your website from everyone else’s.

It isn’t enough to have a one-of-a-kind product: to attract your ideal audience -- and more importantly, to turn that audience into passionate brand ambassadors -- you need a one-of-a-kind website.

A sleek and captivating Shopify website can attract a large audience and even act as your start-to-finish marketing pitch.

But you need to know what makes one Shopify website better than the rest.  Here, we’ve curated a list of 16 best of the best Shopify stores to inspire your own. 

Whether you’re new to ecommerce and about to design your first website, or an ecommerce veteran considering a redesign to outshine your competitors in 2018, this list offers plenty of creative ideas.

1. UgMonk

Jeff Sheldon starts the “About” section on his UgMonk website with a simple question: “Why was it so difficult to find fresh, high-quality, unique items in a modern aesthetic?” His Shopify site is simple and fresh, and exhibits UgMonk’s clothing, workplace items, bags, and prints in the same modern aesthetic style he sought while designing his unique products.

2. Pipcorn

When you think about popcorn, I’m betting the first concern that comes to mind isn’t “is it healthy?” Pipcorn knows this, so their homepage features a simple slogan: “Most tender, crunchy, delicious popcorn … and it won’t destroy your teeth like the ‘generic’ stuff.” The best websites know their target audience’s primary concerns (in this case, the taste of popcorn and the kernels in teeth), and sell them on those solutions upfront. If you look on their “About Us” page, you’ll find Pipcorn’s products are also non-GMO, vegan, gluten free, and whole grain. Even though this could have easily been incorporated into their slogan, they chose to exclude it in favor of tackling our bigger concern: Does it taste good?

3. Taylor Stitch

The inner child in me loves Taylor Stitch’s website because of the creative alternatives displayed when you hover over a product: a jacket, for instance, flips to an image of a model posing with the jacket on a motorcycle. The Taylor Stitch website does something else really cool, too -- it almost immediately calls more attention to its message than its products, with “Three Simple Ingredients” written across most of the images you see on the homepage. Taylor Stitch doesn’t just make high-quality clothing. It also aims to reduce waste and help the environment by creating clothing with recycled or 100% natural products. On their website, you can’t miss their environmental efforts, and I’m betting this is a differentiating factor for most buyers when they come across the site.

4. Happiness Abscissa

Many of the websites I mention on this list have clean, straight lines. Happiness Abscissa is unique. It shows a playful side by displaying a layout with bright abstract images, and even products hanging from different angles. Their logo, a crooked Ha, draws in the viewer’s attention, and then they use Ha in a sentence without defining the word, further stimulating viewers' curiosity. You get the sense they don’t take themselves too seriously, affording the viewer a cheerful and fun experience.

5. Skinny Teatox

I myself was tempted to purchase the Teatox product when I checked out this site (in my defense, they were having a one-day flash sale I did not want to miss). The Skinny Teatox homepage immediately confronts your biggest concerns (“Is it natural? Yes. Will it work? Yes.”), and uses pastel colors and cute icons of bikinis and mugs to convey a fresh vibe. As I’ve noticed with a few other Shopify websites, Skinny Teatox places its products on the homepage with an easy “buy now” call-to-action. For a company that isn’t too complex to figure out (“All Natural Detox Weight Loss Tea” is written beside the company name in search engines), I think it makes sense to offer the viewers what they want upfront.

6. HELM Boots

“Our boots give men confidence from the ground up, confidence to take steps they’ve never taken before.” Immediately, HELM incentivizes viewers through emotion: I might just be a guy looking to buy some boots, but yes, I’d definitely also like some confidence and bravery while I’m at it. The website looks elegant, and you can find everything from the homepage, which is designed to convert viewers at various stages of the buyer’s journey and assuage doubts as you scroll.

7. BioLite

I might be a sucker for the little details, but the product images on BioLite’s website are enough to make me want to buy something (they look 3-D and illuminated, and some even look wet from rain!). Since BioLite’s major selling point is its humanitarian impact (the products bring affordable energy access to places in India and Africa), the first thing on the homepage is their slogan, “Gear That Brings Energy Everywhere,” which will appeal to their target audience. The navigation bar at the top also has a clever twist: beside each product title, there are little black-and-white cartoon drawings of the product.

8. Pop Chart Lab

This site looks like one of the vintage and trendy prints they sell. It’s also organized in different categories depending on a viewer’s browsing preference. First, they have a scroll-down navigation with sub-categories ranging from, “NYC” to “Kids” to “Hip Hop” to “Wine.” They also have a carousel with some of their top prints on display. Below the carousel, they offer “wholesale,” “gift guides,” and “scratch-off” collections, for viewers who are having a difficult time discerning what they want. The shop manages to appear simple, despite its vast array of different print products, which is no easy feat.

9. Luca and Danni

There’s something addictive about an ecommerce store that changes as you scroll. Luca and Danni’s page is highly interactive: as you scroll, some images get bigger and others get smaller, boxes of bracelets open up within images, and some images follow you down the page. It can be tricky to offer so much movement on a page while remaining coherent, but somehow, Luca and Danni accomplish this. There’s also a very zen vibe to the whole layout, with images of palm trees and cactuses, and calls-to-action with language like “brighter days: shop soil to sky,” and “find what speaks to you.”

10. Harris Farm Markets

This is a family-owned company, something you can’t miss from the homepage. It’s casual and playful, with text that looks like a child’s handwriting and colorful drawings of fruit (there’s even an adorable drawing of a bee with animated wings!). Even the calls-to-action sound laid-back, like “What’s nature been up to?” It’s so genuine, you can imagine a family building the site together.

11. So Worth Loving

Sometimes, being evasive pays off. While it’s not always a good idea to hide your products from the viewer, it can be a very smart move if your product doesn’t make sense without understanding the backstory. With So Worth Loving’s site, you don’t even see the t-shirts for sale until a third of the way down the page. By that point, you’ve already read their slogan, a little bio from the founder, Eryn, and a full narrative about how the site began. The site leans into personal touches, with handwritten-looking quotes scrawled across images and very normal looking images of people posing in t-shirts. This is a great example of knowing your audience enough to break the rules.

12. Great George Watches

I’m not an experienced watch shopper, so when I first read, “Made with Swiss parts and 100% square,” on Great George Watches’ homepage, I thought maybe “square” was a fancy term I’d understand if I knew watches. But as I scrolled and read, “Think outside the circle,” I realized these terms were unique to Great George Watches, which are all square-faced. By emphasizing what makes their product unique before even showing the produce, Great George Watches captivates the viewer. I love this shop because it has a refined and polished look, with black-and-white photos and an attention-grabbing red call-to-action button.

13. Choose Muse

Choose Muse incorporates a full-display video of a man putting headphones on and using Choose Muse’s product right from the homepage. The video starts playing immediately (as opposed to offering a play button option), which is especially eye-catching. I usually think simple is better when it comes to design, but Choose Muse proves me wrong, incorporating compelling designs with a ton of images and text, while still retaining a clean and enjoyable viewer experience.

14. Brilliant

For a math and science website, Brilliant is surprisingly easy-to-navigate (even for someone like me, an English major … ), with big, colorful block buttons to choose the math concept you want to learn. This shop is also a fantastic example of using a call-to-action button wisely: there’s a big “sign up for free” button prominently displayed in the top right, and then another at the bottom of the page, after you’ve scrolled past the information you need. The site doesn’t have a navigation bar, but instead uses the web page to answer all the questions a viewer might have.

15. Holstee

Holstee does a fantastic job of designing their site in tiers depending on a person’s initial level of interest in the product. For starters, you see the text, “We help you along your journey to live more fully and mindfully.” If you’re already convinced, you can click “Join today” right below the text. If not, you can continue to scroll down the homepage to find pain points this product reduces, read a “Holstee Manifesto,” see Membership benefits, check out testimonials, and find publications Holstee’s been featured in. Throughout the page, there are various calls-to-action, like “Choose a plan that’s right for you,” and then, at the end, “Become a member today.” I love this site because it becomes increasingly convincing and in-depth as you scroll: it’s clear they use their homepage as a start-to-finish marketing pitch.

16. Kylie Cosmetics

As one of the top 10 most followed accounts on Instagram, Kylie Jenner’s Cosmetic brand is one of the bigger brands using Shopify today. Her site has a very distinct girly-girl vibe, with a bubble-gum pink background showing off her lip kits and gloss. Her site is well-organized for her audience: the lip kits, her best-known items, are shown first on the homepage, with “top sellers” below that. I didn’t feel overwhelmed looking through the various cosmetic products like I thought I would, and what really stood out to me about Kylie’s site is the fun, colorful layout. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m betting it appeals to her target audience.