Psychedelics and Photography

The two really go hand in hand.

I have a girlfriend that is an amazing artist, not only in her professional life, but in her personal life and within her relationships as well. This woman cans food and makes blueberry ketchup and dried fruits and jams and most importantly.... chocolate. The best chocolate truffles I've ever had were made by her. She has a gift with chocolate. She makes truffles with all sorts of essences and flavors and textures, like her chambord truffles with chopped hazelnuts on the exterior, or her milk and honey truffles that, once you break through the hard tempered outer shell, explode into your mouth and melt without being runny or sticky.

One of my favorites are her habanero lime truffles. They are regular ganache on the inside, with a tempered outer shell and pressed into the top are pieces of candied lime peel and a small piece of candied habanero pepper. There is even a special way to eat these: You don't just shove them into your mouth. You pick up your truffle, take the tiny piece of habanero off the top and pop it into your mouth. You let the flavor of the pepper and the heat seep into your whole mouth, until you can't take it anymore, then you eat the rest of the truffle, letting the cream in the ganache kill the heat in your mouth and replace it with smooth lime/chocolate. Not only is the flavor absolutely incredible but the experience as a whole is unforgettable.

This particular girl happens to not partake in most "normal" substances, such as alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana. She instead prefers, on very rare occassions, to partake in psilocybin mushrooms. She believes (as do I) that if done in a controlled amount, in the right environment, hallucinogens can be very beneficial for reconnecting with people, reality, nature, and just the world in general. A few years ago she decided that, with my help, we would make the ultimate treat. A hallucinogenic chocolate truffle. The whole thing went off with much success and has become somewhat of a yearly ritual. Recently, she and another friend decided that a truffle party was in order.

The party was great, although I have to admit, I'm not one to be around large groups of people in that state of mind. So after wandering through a forest of sparkling diamonds on the perigee moon on an amazingly clear night for a few hours, I decided to take myself and one other person downtown to walk and talk and take photos.

Now I don't consider myself anything more than a hobbyist when it comes to photography, but I took some pretty incredible pictures considering I had no tripod and was using cars/railing/my friend's shoulder/tables to take flashless pictures.

And, as I'm a Libra and feel the need to relate everything to my relationships with people, not only did I have an amazing time with my friend "Patchouli" but ran into an ex..... no not just an ex.... the ex... and for the second time since we broke up 5 years ago, I felt ok about seeing him. The butterflies were less pronounced and (maybe it was the mushrooms) but I felt like we were both finally moving past our awkwardness.

Yay for hallucinogens.

Yay for photos of friends eating ice off trees.

Yay for something way better than winter blues.