"The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of the human race than the discovery of a star."
~ Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
My first love is photography. My second love is photographing food. I love the way it looks. Let's face it... food is sexy. There is something wonderful about picking out something wildly delicious, and aromatic, bringing it home, and preparing it for with someone you are crazy in love with. A couple years ago, I began hearing about Blood Oranges, and their attributes. Delicious, visually striking, and like all oranges, a great source of calcium, antioxidants.
I wish they were in season, but they aren't and they won't be until this winter. I will have to wait to cook with them, unless I want to use some blood orange juice as the base for a recipe. Personally, I like the taste of the juice, and the soda for that matter, but there is nothing like working with a lovely fresh organic one, purchased fresh from a store just before cooking. I have some recipes in mind, such as Spicy Orange Chicken, and Blood Orange and Pink Peppercorn ice cream. Oh yeah... did I mention my love of pink peppercorns?
Delicious... and equally sexy. ;) Amazing in ice cream!
I think this fall and winter I will be quite busy with food photography, which is good, because not only can lighting be a bit of a challenge, but I also get to get a fair amount of time in practicing my macro photography. I could definitely use some practice with that.
So tell me, do you enjoy doing food photography? If so, what kind? If not... why not? Would you be willing to try a new food, and photograph it for an EMPS assignment? If so, what have you been wanting to try, but haven't gotten around to yet?
All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person's ( or things ) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt."
~Susan Sontag
I love the streetcars in San Francisco, and I need to spend a more time photographing them. They are such wonderful looking machines, that kinda makes me feel like I have stepped back in time whenever one passes by. The whole experience brings about all kinds of wonderful romantic images of men in fedora hats and ladies in gorgeous peplum skirts circa the 1940's. I can imagine all kinds of wonderful Film noir scenarios of great adventure with dashing men of intrigue and femme fatales just waiting to seduce them.. How delicious it all was. With Hollywood constantly remaking films and TV, I would love to see the eras of the 30's and 40's redone.
With the silent movie, The Artist, having won the Academy Award for best film, I suppose there is a good chance that particular time in history could be highlighted more often. It would be so refreshing to not have to see a cell phone, or a Google search do all the legwork. There was a time when one actually had to put thought into things... sigh... I guess I am showing my age here... but I would love to escape to another era sometimes. Oh not to stay mind you, just a little break from the heartbreaking truth of today, and the harshness of having everything so damn available. Sometimes I think my generation was the last great one, because we didn't have such devices doing all our thinking for us. LOL I can remember when the pocket calculater was the hot new must have electronic device.
LOL. Yes, the older I get the more I sound like an old coot. It's okay... so be it. I wouldn't trade growing up the world the way it was for nothing. Although, I imagine that had the world already had the social networking sights it does now, it would have made the world a much different place than the one we live in now. I dunno. Shrug. I know I can sit for hours and listen to folks who lived through those eras, compare then and now. Would I really choose then over now? No, probably not if push came to shove, but oh how I would love to visit sometime, with camera in hand, and perhaps help some big galoot solve a mystery using nothing but my smarts, my cat like instincts, and my feminine wiles.
Yeah... that would work out well! LOL.
So tell me, if you could visit any era, with your camera, for 1 week maximum, which era would you choose to visit, and why?
"There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers by see only a wisp of smoke."
-Vincent Van Gogh
I think I have shared in the past about my fear of fire. I would like to say that since that time I have worked on it, but no, haven't done a thing about it. I am working on my fear of flying, by booking Alan and I on a nifty little plane ride, featuring an areal tour of the San Francisco bay. Alan is still amazed that I did that, but I have come to believe that it makes NO sense sitting here, waiting to get old, and die. I mean, if nothing else has been learned in my 50 years, it's that there is NO guarantees. I could be sitting right here, posting a blog entry, and have a meteor hit me. Or perhaps someone in a 747 takes a poopy, flushes it, and by some stupid random series of events, the poop is inadvertently dropped out the bottom of the plane, landing directly on top of my head. Or I could maybe be hit by a wayward cannonball. Hey, just a few months ago, there was an incident, with a wayward cannonball, that took place here in the Bay Area. No one was hit by it, thank goodness, but it had all the potential for great disaster. I am kinda sure that if I had been living in that neighborhood, that cannonball would have found me.
I really do.
I don't know if I need to address my fear of fire at this point in my life. I have been living with it for 47 years. Although I suppose if I did make the effort to fix it, I could go to my grave in perfect mental health, and those at my funeral could say... "Well, at least she worked on that stupid fear of fire she had, but isn't it ironic she died doing what she loved... making triple decker S'mores?" I think the attendees at my funeral would be both proud of me, and also have an interesting story to share with friends. So that would be a good thing... right? See, I could get over my fear of fire not for myself, but for my friends. Yeah. That sounds like a plan. But on the other hand, whose to say my future demise couldn't come from some other equally interesting event. Like perhaps... dying from... oh say... constipation... which... don't laugh... has been known to happen. If that happened, then my friends could always say, "She had some problems, but she was doing what she loved to do, she was working on her shit."
Hmmmm. I am going to think about thinking about getting over my fear of fire a little bit longer... no reason to act hastily.
"Life beats down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you have one."
~Stella Adler
Not many words tonight, just a deep appreciation for art, and what can be learned from it. The Holocaust Memorial at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, is perhaps one of the most moving art exhibits I have seen in my public art travels. Seeing it made me sad. It made me want to know more about why, or how, humans could bring themselves to commit such an atrocity. It's hard to believe that this was ever a part of human history. A blight that cannot be washed away. All that can be done is to learn from it. Do want each of us can, on both an individual basis and as a clear thinking nation, if there is such a thing.We have to put thought into who we put our trust in.
Sigh.
~Me
Don't forget to go see what my friend JR has posted today. He is an awesome photographer, I have learned a lot about angles and lighting from him.
You save my life with every word you say You shine your light for me to find
the way Just hold me tight and cross your heart to stay Here with me born
to be Every part of you in Half Moon Bay...
Train, Half Moon Bay
Half Moon Bay
Sunday night, on the Real Housewives of New Jersey, they began a new story arc centered around the casts visit to Napa, California, and all the drama that apparently surrounds it. The New Jersey franchise, of the popular Real Housewives "reality" series has been difficult to watch this season, I mean even more so than usual, because it is rapidly moving toward the possible permanent destruction of one or more relationships, that if it were not for the camera, and the willing prying eyes of America, may have otherwise been fixable. I won't go into any detail about that, because if you are a regular viewer you already know what I am talking about, and if you never watch the show you probably wouldn't care. But what I will talk about right here, is the inevitable collateral damage. The unintentional injuries.
In this case it isn't a relationship, but rather an innocent bystander. The town of Half Moon Bay, California. Briefly, the families and friends at the center of the RHONJ decided to make a working trip to Napa, into a bit of a vacation as well, to hopefully get away from the pressures of home, and spend some quality time together. Upon arrival in San Francisco, the families decided to rent RVs and spend 4 days at an RV park near the beach in Half Moon Bay. When they arrive at the park, they are stunned to see that the park isn't actually on the beach, but rather in a parking lot at a distance of maybe 50 ft from the beach.
There was some whining about having to park in the parking lot instead of on the beach itself, and some disappointment at having to BBQ out in the open, rather than on a gourmet stove at a resort. Sigh. They all knew that the trip was supposed to be bit of camping, but they didn't seem to know they would be going... camping. I guess spending 4 days next to one of the most beautiful coastal communities on the West coast, wasn't quite... how do I say this... not their cup of tea. Not when compared to the obvious glories of the Jersey Shore I suppose.
Sigh.
I knew I should just change the channel when Teresa Giudice stepped out of her RV, walked over to great some fellow campers on the other side of the lot, and asked them... "Is there somewhere nicer we could stay around here?" I would have laughed, but it really wasn't very funny to me. One thing I did find amusing was Teresa's mistaken belief that when she stepped off the RV, she would be on an island. An island? She thought the San Francisco peninsula was an island? She was coming to the Bay Area, as part of her REALITY show, and she didn't bother to learn about where she was going?Not even a Google search?
Sigh.
The RHONJ will be spending 4 days in Half Moon Bay, but I won't know until next week if the show will feature anymore of Pillar Point, and the bay. But some of the previews of upcoming episodes are to say the least disheartening. Why is it, when I watch these people behaving like imbeciles, and when I say imbeciles, I mean asshole ignoramuses, in their own New Jersey neighborhoods, I laugh, and cheer on the train wreck, but when they come to my neck of the woods, or shall we say, my shore, I get offended by their stupidity and their unwillingness to just see the beauty in front of them, rather choosing instead to look down their nose at both the scenery in front of them, and their own interpersonal relationships?
Sigh. Go ahead, give it to me straight.
Maybe it's me, maybe I am simple, but do you know where I go to feel better, when nothing is going right? Half Moon Bay, and other spots along the Bay Area coastline. There is something about the natural beauty and the sounds of fog horns that speaks zen to my soul. It just does.
Sigh.
Train, Half Moon Bay...
~Me :(
Now, I am done whining, and ready to go see what JR has posted, come along with me...
"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."
~Mae West
The is a quick post of randomosity. I like to photograph a lot of different things. And I love those wonderful amazing days, when stuff just seems to have been waiting for me and my camera. I absolutely believe I have some spirit putting me in the right place at the right time. Or maybe it's just that when I have my camera with me, I see things I wouldn't see otherwise. I don't know which... but that's okay, whether it's luck, or guidance, I am just going to keep on snapping, It's all good!
Here are some of my favorite photographs taken in places and situations that I hadn't planned for. Please give me some feedback on what you think of them in terms of quality, feel, as in did it make you laugh, or feel indifferent, and what you may have done different.
When the moon is in the seventh house And Jupiter aligns with Mars Then peace will guide the planets And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius The age of Aquarius, Aquarius Aquarius
Harmony and understanding, Sympathy and trust abounding No more falsehoods or derisions Golden living dreams of visions Mystic crystal revelation And the minds true liberation
Aquarius. Aquarius
When the moon is in the seventh house And Jupiter aligns with Mars Then peace will guide the planets And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius The age of Aquarius, Aquarius Aquarius
The pictures posted in this entry aren't the best ones I have ever done, not by a long shot, but when I look at them I always smile. I always feel warm inside. It's not the pictures themselves, it's the circumstances around the photos, and the moment, or possibility hour, of perfect serendipity that allowed me to have this bit of luck. Or was it magic? Maybe it was just written in the stars.
One day, in April of 2007, I was in my therapists office, working on some monumentally painful things in my life. Things that now, in complete retrospect, shouldn't have been given nearly as much power and attention as I was giving them. It was long past time for my having moved on from people and situations I had no control over, but being the sentimental person that I was, I was finding it difficult. Moving on isn't easy for a sentimental person, which is not a legitimate excuse by the way, but I think in my particular case, I couldn't let myself move on because I think I was afraid on some level that if I did so, then I would also have to face the loss of the love that would accompany it.
Therapy is hard work. Heartbreak is devastating, and at times damn embarrassing. My main question was, how could something hurt, and embarrass me as much as this did, without actually killing me? Whose stupid system was this? Really? No shit... I wanted to know!
So, in the middle of a paid hour of self pity, with my eyes red and puffy and otherwise swollen shut from the effort to fix my problems, I glanced outside the window of my therapists office, to see what looked like an old record resting in the window of the apartment building next door. Those particular apartments sat just a couple blocks off the Cal Berkeley campus, and as such, there was always something wonderful and unusual that could be found nearby or in the neighborhood. It's just quirky that way.
I had made it a regular part of my visits to my therapist, to bring along my camera, for those times when I would reach a wall/ If that happened I would take the camera out and snap something. A shadow on the wall. A bird that would sometimes come and rest on the small ledge outside the window. Whatever caught my eye, and could serve as a momentary break from the pain I was in. It always worked to help me focus, and then resume the dialog with the therapist.
I was intrigued by the sight on an old fashioned record in the window. What could it be? Was it something magnificently meaningful, like an album of Jack Kerouc poetry? Maybe it was a full album of The Mupputs singing the best of AC/DC. Or perhaps it was William Shatner singing Rocket Man, by Elton John. I sat the rest of the hour, in a lot less pain, because I was more interested in what the record was, then wallowing another second more in my own useless whining. So, when the hour was up, I snapped off a few photos of the window next door, and the record, so I could find out when I got home, what had saved me from myself that day.
The record was Side 2 of the soundtrack to the movie Hair. LOL. How cool is that? Here I was, in downtown Berkeley, Hippie East Bay, and that record could have been anything, but it wasn't, it was Hair. You know...the play about the counterculture of the 1960's which overall message was one of anti-war, but also about how one should stop taking life so hard, and embrace it. Life is for the living. Sigh, Messages I really needed that day. Things I really needed to deal with.
I won't go into anymore detail about what specifically was hurting me that day, I will just share that it felt very much like the universe was telling me that yes, it was time to move on. And yes, it was ok to do so.
Sometimes, the universe sends you all you need to know... you just have to be willing to listen.
And now, a little music... enjoy!
The Original Motion Picture, Hair, "Age Of Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine"
5TH Dimension... "Age Of Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine"
