Picture Of The First Day Of School

Doesn't the first day of school need to be rewarded? It was huge and he ate almost the entire thing. School has given the boy an appetite!

How I Spent Six Hours In The Kitchen, By Choice

Remember that Sunday night family dinner idea I had? Perhaps, it's gotten out of hand!

My brother requested Indian food and being one up for a challenge, I took it on.

After a week of pouring through cookbooks and reading websites I selected recipes with ingredients available in the garden that sounded appealing.

The menu included:

Vegetable Samosas

Cilantro & Mint Chutney
Tomato & Onion Relish

Beets with Mint & Yogurt

Yes, it was really that pink! Not high on my must be made again list though.

Raiti
Curried Vegetables
Red Lentil Dal
Naan
Rice

After six hours in the kitchen dinner was ready. Justin was already at the table, even though he knew the table needed it's photo shoot.

Not something I feel compelled to do very often, but certainly worth the effort. Dinner was yummy and we have leftovers for the entire week!  Photo of the day? I think I'm going with the first one since I didn't take a picture of all of the dirty dishes.

Next week I'm making salad.

Nostalgic For Heirloom Tomatoes

I can't help myself. I'm obsessed with planting tomatoes and with photography. This is the month that the collision of the two really begins. All of my tomatoes are taking shape and beginning to turn red.

I couldn't help myself today. A little heirloom photography with a Matt K Lightroom Preset. It just worked for me.

Just wondering, are you sick of seeing my garden?

Picnic Dinner In The Dining Room

Our Sunday night family dinner grew with the addition of our neighbor and our dear friends. We had the garden table extended and covered as the temperature neared 103 degrees. Sweating through a meal from the garden in the garden just wasn't very appealing, so we brought dinner inside.

Shea and I spent most of the afternoon making tapas and sangria, a perfect warm weather meal. I gathered the meal from our garden and rounded up some of my favorite cookbooks. The menu consisted of

Patatas Bravas
Papaya Pear Squash with Onions
Roasted Beets
Bruschetta
Spanish Cucumber Salad
Garlic Hummus
Olive Tapenade
Strawberry Ice Cream
Homemade Bread

I didn't realize until I had the table ready to go that I'd completely skipped taking photos of each dish. We'll have to make it again so it gets it time in my studio!

I did grab the camera in time to capture the two of these boys.

The table photo is my POTD, but now I'm thinking Justin and Ian might be the better choice!

From The Garden SOOC

Straight from the garden to our dinner table -- tomatoes, garlic, onions, and basil. My garden brings me joy, photo opportunities, and now a little sustenance too!

Served on homemade bread after a visit to my studio!

A Visit To My Studio

I discovered the recipes of VeganDad a few months ago. He hasn't let me down yet. Tonight I modified his risotto recipe with ingredients from my garden. I spent a little time with it in my studio before gobbling it up. I haven't eaten risotto in the two and half years since I started eating a vegan diet. It measured up to my memories!

50mm | ISO 400 | f/2.2 | ss 1/160

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I edited the white balance in Lightroom a little more than I would normally, the light in the window was just not right tonight and I was too lazy to find my flash! I'm sure no one can relate :P

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

I want to be a food photographer.

Of the vegan variety of course! Did you notice the beautiful Morel mushrooms? Tonight was my first experience eating them. Yum!

Photographing Dinner

Photographing food is one of my favorite things to do. Notice my new plates? Going for a little square design to add some variety to my food portfolio!

50mm | ISO 640 | f/4.0 | ss 1/40

If you read the exif data, you'll notice an aperture of 4.0. I'm working on getting out of my dependence on apertures wider than 2.0. Giving the back tacos a little bit more opportunity to show themselves.

I used light from a north facing window in my laundry room studio! Notice that annoying line in the background?

My husband is now used to the 10 minutes I need to photograph dinner before I will eat it. Do you play with your food before you eat it? 

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I'm chatting photography at DesignerDigitals tomorrow morning with a freebie to give you! I hope to see you there!