They’re ready for their close-up: Wife-and-husband team Tracy and Rob Sydor have long been snapping stunning photos of live shows like Primus and Beats Antique, EW covers and high fashion images around Eugene. Now they have opened a studio for their companies Digital Latte Photography and Eugene Commercial Photography. Nosh on Sammitch or sip a Ninkasi brew while bouncing to the beats of DJ Mr. Rose at the studio grand opening 7 pm Friday, Aug. 9 (1000 S. Bertelsen, Unit 2, Eugene).

Create! Eugene — the inaugural month-long arts blitz put on by the Arts & Business Alliance of Eugene — is officially in full swing. During the month of August there will be a smorgasbord of arts and culture workshops and events, from the Eugene Textile Center’s Spinning Mohair course(8/2) course to beginner classes at Ballet Fantastique (8/5) to the Plein Air Paint Out Competition (8/21). Visit createeugene.com to browse all 195 workshops.

First Friday ArtWalk downtown has a special guided excursion this month: the Art the Box tour — part of a public art competition of whimsically painted traffic control boxes — hosted by Eugene’s Public Art Manager Isaac Marquez and competing artists Wendy Huhn, Alexander Southworth, Bryan Putnam and Bayne Gardner, starting at 6 pm at 13th and Willamette (in front of fire station). Hop off the beaten track with a stop at The Gallery at the Watershed’s Huge Beauty: The Work of Kirk Lybecker — a work that includes Lybecker’s glowing, hyperrealist large format watercolors of everything from irises to a beat-up Volkswagen Beetle.