The First Strawberry

I get far too excited over little things, particularly when those little things relate to something that I have grown in the garden.

Though I bought a strawberry plant when I set up my herb garden a few months back, there had been very little action in the way of flowers or fruit until recently when out of nowhere a single strawberry appeared.  Since I noticed it I have been waiting patiently with my eye on the little bugger, hoping that it wouldn’t be spotted by a possum or some type of insect.

Thankfully, after about 3 weeks of waiting, its colour started to change and it finally reached the right shade of red.  I debated for a little while about what to do with my single home grown strawberry… strawberry tart perhaps?  maybe accompanied by some whipped cream?  dipped in chocolate?

In the end I decided that it was way too small to make a fuss over and just ate it on its own.

The verdict:  Well it wasn’t the sweetest or most delicious strawberry I have tasted… but it was definitely passable (or it would have been if it was a bit bigger – or if there was more than one on the whole plant!).

Now I’m just hanging out for my tomatoes to ripen, and hoping that my herbs can grow as fast as we are eating them!

 

Photos of me by: Kris

Other photos from: my camera

Beach break

Hello again little neglected blog…

It sure has been a while, yet I have thought about blogging almost every day.  There are some big changes happening in my life and unfortunately that sometimes means that certain things like taking photos and cooking things that I am excited to share on my blog fall by the wayside, and are replaced by study, social events and ‘setting up house’.

Still peeling from my first sunburn of the season, we are officially ‘Gold Coasties’ and have been making a bit of effort to enjoy the beauty that is within 5 minutes of our new home.

After an overwhelming week being reminded of the joys of study, anatomy and libraries, it was fabulous to pick up my camera and walk along the beach without a care in the world.

Stingers everywhere didn’t stop us from jumping into the ocean to cool down.

Ah I can’t wait for more days like these… till then though we need to study up (but of course there will be time for a little blogging in between!)

 

Photos from: my camera

Sorry for the weird editing… felt like doing something different.

Here comes the sun & bokeh love

I was very excited to see that the lovely Amanda from Here Comes the Sun was running a competition to win a Lomo camera.

I have wanted one of these babies to play around with for so long (even though I am super lazy with getting film developed, I think they take such beautiful photos with unexpected results).  I also loved the idea of a challenge to see the most creative way to photograph one of her stickers, which was really good for me to try to imagine a photo before I take it, rather than just snapping away without any kind of goal.

After reading Amanda’s beautiful blog, I know that she loves all kinds of pretty things, and photos with a romantic feel, so thought I would do my best to create that kind of vibe in my first photo entry. Using a flower and bottle that I have in our room, and a bit of post-processing, I’m really happy with how this one came out.

My wonderful boyfriend bought me a little present online a few weeks ago, and when it arrived we had a play around to see what we could get to happen using the lights we could see from our balcony.

After a bit of fiddling, a borrowed lens and a lesson from Kris, I figured out how to make ‘good bokeh’, and spent the rest of the night snapping photos with the various shapes that came with the kit.

And perfect for Christmas…

As soon as I figured it out, I knew I wanted to incorporate some ‘heart bokeh’ into another photo of Amanda’s sticker. Unfortunately I couldn’t get exactly the effect that I wanted, but I had heaps of fun trying (and learned a bit about photography along the way).

Before you think I am getting greedy with blog competitions, I was involved in this before I had any idea about the other wonderful prizes I had won (that I can’t wait to share with you all).  I still feel a little ungrateful for even entering another competition, though I think it is nice for the bloggers to get a lot of entries.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Take a look

Especially at this time of year, sometimes we need to be reminded to have a break and take a minute to relax and look up at the sky…

… it’s amazing how much you miss so much when you aren’t watching.

 

Photo from: my camera

 

Behind the Scenes: Food Photography

A few people have expressed interest in hearing about the setup and ‘behind the scenes’ of the food photos from my last post so I will do my best to share everything that I know.

I am by no means a photographer, nor do I know much about photography other than what I have been taught by Kris and have read online. I love to look at photos of food and I think that you can convey so much through a photo, so I have been making an effort to improve my own photography on this blog.

Things that I think are important:

- An excellent subject.

If the dish doesn’t look beautiful, you will not be able to get a photo that looks beautiful. This is not to say that everything has to be perfect, I am a huge fan of the rustic style, intentionally messy and imperfect food, but you do have to pay attention to presentation, particularly to the colours of the dish and to the freshness. No one wants to see a photo of food that has been sitting around for half an hour while you set up your camera gear.

- Good light

Most of the stuff I have read online talks about using only natural light for food photography, and I have to agree that I love the feel of photos taken using natural light.   In saying that, working a full time job doesn’t leave much daylight for photography, so I often need to use a flash (but never point it directly at the food, will always bounce it off a big white wall).

On this day I was home early enough to take some pictures using natural light, and used this big piece of white foam core as a reflector to help lift the shadows on the right side of the dish.  If you have a big sheet of white cardboard, play around and see the difference that it makes to the photo.  I used water glasses to hold up my foam core, but of course an assistant or proper stands could do a better job.

-Props

Since I have started paying more attention to what makes a good food photo, I have fallen in love with beautiful crockery, cutlery and props.  I bought this chopping board knowing that it would be perfect for photos, and have been trying to get pretty teatowels in different colours and picking up other items where I can.  I think I prefer to shoot on a chopping board or piece of wood as you don’t need to worry about reflections as much as if you use a glass or ceramic plate, plus I love the rustic feel and the detail of the grain of the wood.

My top tips is to look at beautiful photos of food, particularly in magazines, and see what it is that makes the food look so appealing and the photo pleasing to the eye.  There are also SO many inspiring food blogs that exist, but my favourites, photography wise would have to be tartelette and mowielicious.  Please share if you have any favourite food blogs, particularly those with phenomenal photography!