even more strawberries...

White Flower

Galapagos Greeting Cards

I am so excited to officially introduce these cards.

My "Islands of the Galapagos" greeting card series is comprised of 8 photos that were taken during my travels in the Galapagos Islands. The cards feature Sea Lions, Blue Footed Boobies, the Sally Lightfoot Crab, the Galapagos Tortoise, Swallowtailed Gulls, along with both Land and Marine Iguanas. I have wanted to put together a series of cards based on these unique animals for quite some time. My goal is to donate a portion of every sale to the Galapagos Conservancy.







Details on where you can purchase these cards will be listed soon!

More strawberries...

This time, it's ice cream. In the past week I've had fresh strawberries straight from the bowl, strawberries and cream, strawberry shortcake, shortbread topped with strawberry slices and a lemon glaze, and tonight I'm making....

Strawberry Ice Cream

1 1/4c half and half
1/8tsp salt
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
3/4c sugar
3c strawberries, quartered
1 tbs fresh lemon juice

1) Warm the half and half and salt.

2) Whisk together the eggs and 1/2 c sugar, then drizzle into warm milk. Stir continuously with a spatula over a low heat until it is slightly thickened. Be careful not to burn or bring to a boil.

3) Strain your custard mix into a chilled bowl, and refrigerate for 2 hours to 1 day.

4) While custard is chilling, puree strawberries with lemon juice and remaining sugar and stir into chilled custard

5) Add to ice cream maker and mix until ready.

Enjoy!

Is tourism a threat to the Galapagos?

There was an interesting article on the front page of Yahoo today on the Threat of Tourism to the Galapagos Islands

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070618/sc_nm/tourism_galapagos_dc

Strawberries

One of my favorite things...

Celebrating Farmers' Markets

This is a card I designed recently to be sold at my farmers market here in Brattleboro. The card is a digital montage of 35 original images that I've taken at the market here in town and the Coventry Farmers Market in Connecticut.





You can currently order the card at Etsy
or purchase from me directly at my booth at the farmers Market. Soon, you will be able to order cards from my website.

Artist Trading Cards

Inspired by a trading card swap I'm participating in, I've been making art cards like a fiend over the last few days. The first set of art cards I made was based on the "Portrait" mixed media art I recently made which features a series of square format portraits.

Mixed Media Art

I've been feeling a little crafty lately, so I spent my entire day yesterday creating this mixed media art piece. I've entitled it "Portraits", and it is a collection of portraits I have taken during my travels over the last several years. Each of the 24 2"x2" square portraits is glued on in a 3-dimensional manner, and contains a different expressive face. If you are interested the piece is listed for sale at Etsy.

Sedona

I just returned home from spending 5 days in Arizona. The reason for the trip was to attend a conference of soap and candle makers, but since my in-laws live there, I decided to take my son up a few days early and make a mini vacation out of it.
I didn't really take many pictures while I was there, because it was a vacation, and my son doesn't have the patience to stand around while I try to get the perfect shot.

We arrived in Phoenix early in the afternoon, got our rental car, and headed up to Sedona. We stopped at Montezuma's castle for a short visit, which was really cool (awful, high-noon lighting).

The next day we got up early and hiked into Boynton Canyon, a minor vortex area of Sedona. It was a beautiful 5 mile hike. We saw several deer, and a lot of birds and lizards along the way. When we returned back to town, we had lunch at the Coffee Pot (home of 101 different omelettes) and then I took Quentin to Slide Rock State Park
for a swim. The park was packed with people, but the water was cool and exactly what we both needed after the long morning hike. If you are in the Sedona area, it's well worth a visit.

Later in the evening we signed up for a sunset hummer tour of Sedona. The particular tour we signed up for was being touted as the "most extreme 4x4 tour in Arizona" and I believe it. Five days later, and I still have bruises from the seat belts. The views were stunning, though:



The only chance I had to do any real photography was later that night after the sun had gone down. I noticed that it was a full moon, so I grabbed my camera and headed out to the Chapel of the Holy Cross to get a few shots. Quentin was sound asleep in the car, so I had the chance to do some really long exposures. Even though I got a few shots with then stars in the sky, I loved this shot of the chapel rising out of pitch blackness:



After shooting the Chapel, I headed up Schnebly Hill Rd, to a little outlook with views of all of Sedona:



Directly behind me was the moon illuminating the valley: