Photography Archives - Page 17 of 24

Some Photography Links

March 27, 2010 By Paola 4 Comments

Loving the ShakeItPhoto Iphone app, which turns all your Iphone pics into Polaroids. It seems to make even the most boring pictures seem interesting. Here are some recent shots, around my house and from a walk round Seattle’s Gasworks Park. I really need to sit down and play with it properly to get some cool effects.

Speaking of which, I think I’ve finally plucked up the courage to spring for a real Polaroid camera. The good news is that the Impossible Project is now making genuine Polaroid film, after it was discontinued last year. At $21 for 8 photos though it does seem scarily spendy.

If you’re a Photoshop user, this is pretty amazing. The below gives a sneak peek of a feature that is apparently on the way. Soon we won’t need cameras at all. {via the Daily Dish}

And finally female Etsy photographers have got together to produce a book on Blurb featuring some of their wares. More details and images on sfgirlbybay. You can buy it here, I wish Blurb books weren’t so expensive as it does seem hugely inspiring.

{Images from She’s a Rainbow by kristybee, traci french and cassia beck}

Blossom Watch – Day 3

March 19, 2010 By Paola Leave a Comment

It’s been the most GLORIOUS Spring day here in Seattle and although at first glance it doesn’t look like much has changed.

If you look closely you’ll everything is now tinged with white

And in some corners of the tree things are getting VERY exciting indeed.

In more breathtakingly thrilling news from my garden, the first tulips are out.

IN. THE. MIDDLE. OF. MARCH. Crazy.

Glorious, Eyeball-Searing, Colour

March 17, 2010 By Paola 7 Comments

Tara at Sticky Fingers has had the great idea of setting up an online photo gallery each week. She gives the theme and then everyone links to a photo blogpost on the theme.

This week’s theme was ‘colour’. I didn’t have the time (or the weather conditions) to do it justice this week, but as you can imagine from me, I do have a Flickr set entitled ‘Colour’ for use in emergencies.

Here is a collage of the most colourful pictures I could find in my archives. More where they came from on my Flickr here. And do check out the whole Sticky Fingers parade, for some great bloggers and photography.

Alice Waters’ Chicken Noodle Soup with Italian Additions

March 15, 2010 By Paola 3 Comments

What with crumbles and pot roasts I appear to be on a bit of a traditional cooking kick a the moment. Part of it is because there’s a reason the old classics are classic – we’re talking seriously good food here – but it’s also because I’m increasingly realising what a pleasure it is to share great classic food with the Minx who is experiencing it for the first time. It makes me seriously happy to see her hoovering up things like homemade apple crumble with gusto.

Another of the Minx’s favourites is Chicken Noodle Soup. This has only entered my repertoire fairly recently, but we’ve been making it A LOT as it’s a very easy way to give a kid (and adults) a complete and tasty meal in a bowl, with plenty of leftovers for lunch and supper.

I use as my starting point Alice Waters’ recipe from The Art of Simple Food (one of the best cookbooks I’ve come across in America) which essentially makes the soup in two stages.

Firstly create an intensely-flavoured chicken broth by taking bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (or sometimes I use thighs) and simmering them for 45 mins in store-bought chicken broth (or stock-cube stock), with roughly sliced onions, roughly chopped carrots and a little roughly chopped parsnip. Alice Waters adds celery, I of course do not because cooked celery is the work of the devil. Instead, because I am Italian, I add some roughly chopped cloves of garlic and one or two squooshy old tomatoes from the depths of the fridge.

If you want some more precise quantities then an adaptation of Waters’ recipe is here. Though I seriously would encourage you to buy the book or just improvise using these instructions. I tend to guesstimate based on what I have to hand and how much I want to make. All I would say is be measured in your use of parsnip. Its subtle sweetness is a wonderful addition to the soup, but a little goes a long way.

When the broth has simmered for about 45 minutes, hoik out the meat and skim and strain the broth, discarding the vegetables. Remove the skin and bone from the meat and shred it into small pieces. Put it in a small bowl, cover with a couple of spoonfuls of broth and then cover the bowl. This way the meat remains moist, and yes, it does seem to make a difference.

About twenty minutes before you want to serve your soup, whizz up some more onion, carrot and parsnip in the food processor until finely chopped. I do it in the processor, instead of dicing the vegetables by hand, because a) it’s easier and b) it’s incredible how much vegetable matter the Minx will inhale if it’s chopped so finely she can’t see it. Again Alice Waters adds celery, I don’t but add garlic and go easy on the parsnip.

Simmer the broth with the fresh vegetables for about ten minutes and then add fettuccine or soup noodles and cook them until soft (Alice Waters cooks her noodles separately and then adds them at the end. I have no idea why you would want to do this). When the noodles are ready, stir in the reserved chicken and get ready for some serious comfort food.

Alice Waters suggest sprinkling with chopped dill to finish. I prefer some chopped Italian parsley, some grated Parmesan cheese, and little freshly ground nutmeg, which seems to meld with the parsnip flavour to add an intriguing extra dimension to the dish.

How do you make chicken soup? I think it’s one of those dishes where there’s an infinite number of variations and you’ve probably all been making it longer than I have.

Blackberry & Apple Crumble

March 5, 2010 By Paola 21 Comments

Aka the lazy girl’s pie.

I’m always a little surprised that America, with its obsession with apples and fruit pies of all kinds, seems to be unaware of the humble and quintessentially British fruit crumble. After all it hits exactly the same comfort eating spots that pie does, but is much, MUCH quicker and easier to make.

The Minx and I were casting about for something to bake yesterday evening when I remembered that I already had a bag of stewed apple and blackberry in the freezer, left over from a crumble session last autumn.

Crumble can be made with any sorts of stewed fruits though, either mixed with apples or on their own – plum, rhubarb, apricots, pears and raspberries – are all traditional British faves.

Essentially you need to chop the fruit up into small pieces, add a couple of spoonfuls of water, enough to stop the fruit sticking, and mix with couple of spoonfuls of sugar to taste, how much will depend on the tartness/sweetness/quantity of your fruit. Then cook very gently until the fruit is very soft. Again then cooking time will depend on what fruits you’re using. I like to make a big batch and shove a couple of bags into the freezer.

If I’m just using apples, I like to add a little cinnamon and some raisins; chopped nuts of all types – walnuts, pecans, almonds are also delicious. I’ve also eaten the most incredible crumble which added small cubes of vanilla fudge to stewed apples.

As the Minx and I already had our stewed fruit to hand, all we needed to do was make the crumble topping. I’ve found that about 2 cups of flour to 3/4 cup chilled butter to 2/3 cup sugar works well.

When I say flour though, you can go a bit mad at this stage and experiment with other dried goods. Last night’s crumble was made with 1 cup of flour and half a cup each of ground almonds and rolled porridge oats. Other ground nuts would be good, wholewheat flour is a nice addition and I’ve even thrown it spoonfuls of muesli on occasion. Granola, chopped nuts, crushed cookies and other flours and grains would be interesting to try. Likewise you can also experiment with different types of sugar – last night’s crumble was made with soft brown sugar instead of white.

When you’ve customised your crumble topping ingredients, chop the chilled butter into the flour with a pair of kitchen scissors and start rubbing it in as if you were making pastry. Stop when it reaches the consistency of large breadcrumbs and stir in the sugar. If you’ve experimented with oats or nuts you may need to add some flour to get it to the right consistency. Don’t worry though, quantities are extremely approximate and the important thing is to get the right breadcrumb consistency. Kids love making this by the way – they can literally be very hands on but it’s over before they can get bored.

And that’s all there is to it. Put your stewed fruit in an ovenproof dish, top with the crumble topping, press it down gently with a fork and bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees F/180 C. When it comes out of the oven it won’t look much different, just a little more golden round the edges, but it will be firm and almost crunchy to the bite.

Serve warm or cold with ice cream, cream or, if you want to be really English, CUSTARD. Here are a few crumble ideas including a recipe for homemade custard (most English people would just use Bird’s custard powder or buy it ready made).

UPDATE: It appears that there exists in America something called an Apple Crisp, and looking at recipes, it does seem very similar to apple crumble (though the fruit is cooked at the same time as the topping? – Must try this, seems like even less work.) I thought it seemed strange that there was no equivalent. Having said which I haven’t come across it in Seattle, and we gave some crumble to our babysitter last night and she’d never had anything like it.

Today I Am Mostly…

March 3, 2010 By Paola 7 Comments

…eating breakfast

2% Fage Greek yogurt, strawberries, bananas, almonds for crunch and protein, drizzle of raw Washington honey = breakfast of the gods.

Experimenting with that ‘slightly over-exposed’ feel that other photographers get.

Jennifer Squires Photography

March 2, 2010 By Paola 5 Comments

Just a quickie this morning as I have decided to make progress on, can you believe it, tidying. my. office. (Did you hear that Lou?) There will be an update post tomorrow.

In the meantime ~~you slackers,~~ my lovelies, I would really appreciate any blog improvement suggestions below. I’m trying to make a list at the moment and anything you could add would be enormously helpful.

And I will now leave you with the gorgeous photography of Jennifer Squires. Jennifer is another photographer who achieves that peaceful, tranquil atmosphere with her photography which I aspire to emulate but never seem to be able to achieve. Maybe you need to have a peaceful tranquil mind to get these effects?

Photography is so fascinating, as so much of the photographer’s personality always shines through in the photos. I swear a hundred photographers could take the same camera to the same place in the same light and you’d still get hundred different images. Anyway, you can read a great interview with Jennifer on Art Wall (a fabulous blog about, you’ve guessed it, art walls).

{All photos by Jennifer Squires Photography}

Fancy Hotel of the Week – the Wickanninish Inn

February 24, 2010 By Paola 9 Comments

aka (by the uber-geeky Husband anyway), the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

This is where we were lucky enough to stay last week in Tofino. The Wick is a 4* Relais et Chateaux hotel perched on the most glorious and enormous beach way out on the westernmost tip of Vancouver Island. There is something utterly beguiling and sobering about looking out to sea and knowing that the next stop is Japan or something.

The view from our balcony

We went in February with the intention of hunkering down and ‘storm-watching’, instead, we had the most incredible sunny weather and were truly able to enjoy the beach and the stunning natural surroundings.

Which you can do without ever leaving the bar thanks to the amazing nearly 360 degree views from the restaurant.

The other thing which sets this place apart is the food, which was insanely good, some of the best I’ve eaten in North America.

Everything we had, from different freshly squeezed juices every morning, to the homemade breads, to the wonderful seafood, to spaghetti and meatballs for the Minx was utterly delicious and clearly made with only the freshest and best ingredients. And it was so nice to come back from a grubby afternoon at the beach and drink paradisical cocktails/hot chocolate.

Breakfast! Just the best smoked salmon bagel I’ve ever had in my life

As for the decor, it’s all pretty standard North American ‘lodge’ stuff – all hewn timber and earth-toned textiles (which frankly were looking a little tired round the edges, why not replace them and add some colour next time?) – which, as you know, is not exactly my cup of tea.

However, this was really well done for the genre, with lots of local art and thoughtful touches everywhere – art glass, Native American wood carving, driftwood furniture, a soaring copper fireplace, stone statues of local wildlife and a gorgeous copper screen of swimming salmon.

As an aside, and for those of you who care about such things, the hotel was also super child-friendly, but in a very grown up way. The staff could not have been friendlier and kinder to the Minx, who fell in love with the hotel the minute she found the basket of beach toys they had thoughtfully supplied in the room. Best of all they provide complimentary babysitting, so parents can go and have dinner in the restaurant. Other hotels please take note.

But at the end of the day it was mostly all about this

and this

A Walk Up My Street

February 23, 2010 By Paola 20 Comments

This comes with huge apologies for all those of you struggling with yet more snow in the UK and on the East Coast.

This is what has been happening in that crazy parallel universe we call Seattle, where we’ve been having an unseasonably mild and rainfree winter. This is all happening within a block of my house – you can smell the heady perfume in the streets. Have you ever seen so much insane loveliness in February? More on Flickr.