Arizona

I'm leaving tomorrow (wednesday) for Arizona, so the studio will be closed until June 5th. I will try to answer all e-mails while I am away, but it might take me a day or two to get back to you.

Look for new photos upon my return :)

mmmmm.... cherries

One of my favorite foods of summer



What's yours?

First Sale!

I sold my first print at Etsy! I've been there for just over a week, so I was surprised and excited when I read my e-mail this morning.

Lemon Squash

One of my favorite things from Bali were the Lemon Squashes. A lemon squash is a delightfully refreshing drink made with soda water, lemon juice and a bit of sugar syrup (they are, apparently, quite popular in England and Australia... how did I not know about these before?). Here's my own recipe for a lemon squash that I came up with tonight:

3 tbs Lemon Juice
1 tbs Sugar Syrup
club soda

Fill a high ball glass with ice. Add the lemon juice and sugar syrup and fill with club soda. Enjoy!

Stargazer Lilies

Here are some new shots I recently finished for K Body Creations, a skincare company from Georgia. My studio smelled fantastic and all this pink makes me happy!









Check out more of my commercial photos here!

Now on Etsy

I am now offering some of my travel and nature prints on Etsy. I will be continuously adding new photos, so check back often to see what's new!

Happy Mother's Day

My son got me the best card ever for Mother's Day today. On the outside is a picture of Linus from the Peanuts holding his ever so famous blanket and it says "Are you the best mother ever?". And on the inside it says: "I'd bet my blanket on it"

Those of you who know Quentin, know how attached he is to his blanket. He's eight years old, and has had is blanket (gigi as he calls it) since he was just a few months old. He has slept with it every night for as long as I can remember.

Gigi started out as a beautiful pale blue woven chenille blanket. It was standard crib blanket size and had little fringes on each end. His love affair with gigi started somewhere around 4-6 months old, when I noticed that he would play with the fringes and suck on them to calm himself down or help himself go to sleep. As he would pull on the fringes, it would cause the blanket to pucker in spots. Over the years, it has changed from it's beautiful soft blue to a dull grey, and the entire thing is just one big pucker. It has gone from a crib sized blanket to about 1' x 1' mess of strings and knots. But he still loves his blanket and still cuddles with it at night when he is sleeping.

This is a photo (of a photo) of when he was around 18 months old. You can see it's starting to become a little puckered but it's still in good shape.


And here is Gigi today...


Happy Mother's Day!

Women Farmers, pt 2

Here's a couple shots I did this morning of Tracie from Tracie's Community Farm

Women Farmers

Several months ago, I was contacted by one of the farmers at our market. She is part of a group of women farmers, and they want to put out a calendar featuring portraits of the women on their farms. I thought it was a fabulous idea, and volunteered to help with the photography part.

Felidae

One of my favorite books of all time is a novel called Felidae, by German author Akif Pirinçci. It's murder mystery story, written from the point of view of a cat. While the idea sounds cute and nice, it's actually a very dark and detailed story of murder and religious fundamentalism, with a healthy dose of animal torture thrown in. No, it's not exactly pleasant.

I picked up the book on clearance for $3 quite a few years ago, and ended up loaning it to a friend when I was finished. My friend moved away, and I never did get the book back and of course it went out of print. Three or four years ago, I was searching the internet for a used copy (which I found!), I also discovered there is a sequel. Actually, there were several sequels, but only one that got published in English. I immediately ordered a copy for an outrageous sum of money. I also discovered that there was a MOVIE! It was an animated film released in 1994, but it was never released in North America due to the violence and sex. Apparently the powers that be thought that there would be too much confusion and a whole bunch of kids would be corrupted. I finally, after several years, found myself a copy of the DVD that has been dubbed to English, from a seller on Amazon. It only comes in PAL format, so I had to buy a new DVD player just to watch it. I should be getting those later this week!!



Separated at birth?


The Fred Kitty was very curious when I was outside taking a photo of the book...

Vietnamese Coffee

One fond memory I have from Vietnam is the coffee. Thick, rich and strong and served with the funkiest little filter which sits upon your cup. I recently found Import Food, a great little online store which sells imported foods from Asia. They have a Vietnamese coffee kit which includes the funky little filter, a can of coffee and a can of condensed sweetened milk. I got my box yesterday and promptly made myself a little glass...



Yum!

Shrimp and Scallop Ceviche

One of the best meals I've had while traveling was a bowl of Ecuadorian style Ceviche from the Galapagos Islands. Our guide, Billy, took us to this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, complete with chickens running loose amongst the dining area. Our meal consisted of a big bowl of shrimp, whitefish and octopus, marinated in a bright, citrus based sauce with tomatoes, onions, lots and lots of cilantro, and topped with popcorn (a uniquely Ecuadorian way of serving Ceviche)

Ceviche can be made from many different types of seafood, but it's my understanding that not all fish will result in a good texture. If you want to try fish, a good whitefish like Snapper is recommended. If you haven't made Ceviche before, or are unfamiliar with it, it is a technique of "cooking" seafood in citrus juice rather then with heat. Marinating the seafood in a mix of lemon, lime and orange juice changes the protein structure in the same way as cooking it. You would never know it wasn't cooked in the traditional manner. It's important to start with the freshest seafood you can find.

Shrimp and Scallop Ceviche

1/2 lb fresh shrimp (peeled and deveined)
1/2 lb fresh small scallops
4 small tomatoes, diced and seeded
1 c cilantro leaves, chopped
2-4 jalepeno peppers, chopped
1 red onion diced
1 avocado, chopped
2TB Tomato sauce
salt & pepper
Juice from approx. 10 lemons and limes (enough to cover all of your ingredients)

Add all of the ingredients to a large, non-reactive bowl and fill with citrus juice. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours.

The batch I made took about 8-10 hours to thoroughly cook through, so plan accordingly.

Serve with popcorn and tabasco sauce.