I found a great food blog today! Introducing ... The Ulterior Epicure ... and there's even a flickr blog to accompany the food blog too. Prepare yourself for mouthwatering feasts to come once you click on these links is my warning! :)
Happy Friday!
Everyone is amazed to hear we've been finding strawberries on sale so often lately at the market. After all, we're right smack in the middle of a mild winter. But I'm far from complaining since I have a huge fondness for strawberries of all forms ... strawberry jam, strawberry fruit drinks, strawberry romanoff, strawberries with cereal, strawberry crepes, etc. The best things in life are the simplest things, don't you think?
Strawberry talk aside, you must check out these 2 very talented photographers ... Rochelle Haisley and Simply Photo. Here's a picture by Simply Photo:
Stay warm!
There's something you should know! :) I'm not a cook! The fanciest meals I've made include spaghetti (with DelMonte tomatoes), scrambled or sunny-side-up eggs, the simplest of fried rice, and instant grits. And so imagine how excited I was that my second attempt (the first one was a few years ago) at baking pumpkin bread (using Williams-Sonoma's Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Bread mix) turned out well!
Well = nothing burned ... everything's edible! :)
It's amazing how good the pumpkin bread is considering it comes from a ready-made mixture, to which I only had to add a stick of butter, a cup of water, and 2 eggs! Total cooking time is between 50 minutes to an hour. And voila ... delicious!
Homemade pumpkin bread is one of the hundreds of reasons why I love fall so much!
We've always heard ... "never ever ever skip breakfast!" ... right?! So we started our day out this morning with a yummy breakfast at McD's using a few coupons my friend's mom had collected recently. If you, like me, prefer smooth and not-too-strong coffee, then you'll like McD's coffee. It's the best after Dunkin' Donuts' and Panera's! McD's hot cakes & sausages are perennial favorites of mine too! They constantly set the bar for a good old-fashioned breakfast!
Now ... it's time to take a long walk ... better yet ... a good run! But ... alas ... we need to head North soon before the leaves start to all fall off. So I'll have to save the walk for another day. :)
Next to my love of food (spicy ones especially), is my love of food photography! Good thing they go hand-in-hand! First, you take pictures of the scrumptious dish, then you gobble it up! Life is good! :O)
Just found an excellent food photography article on Lou Manna from Shutterbug. Though published in 2004, it's not at all dated and makes great reading!
Lou Manna: Photos Good Enough to Eat
Lynne Eodice, February, 2004, Shutterbug Magazine
New York-based food photographer Lou Manna discusses shooting trends: “The old style of photographing food involved lots of props, edge-to-edge sharpness, dramatic, shadowy light and was shot from a high angle. On the other hand, today’s food photography is about brighter, less-contrasty lighting, shallow depth of field, less food and fewer props.” He’s a great authority on this, as one who’s photographed delectable dishes for over 28 years for publications like Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Wine Enthusiast, and The New York Times, as well as working with such renowned chefs as Michael Lomonaco, Pierre Franey, Emeril Lagasse, and Jacques Torres. His work also appears in over 30 cookbooks, including Dessert Circus, The Four Star Kitchen, and Grilling for Dummies.
Engineering to Photojournalism
He recounts one of his fondest memories at the age of eight, “When I took pictures of a beautiful tree covered with snow with my Brownie camera.” Manna grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he took photography classes, became president of the photo club, and shot pictures for the yearbook at Xaverian Catholic High School. “I liked the whole process of taking pictures,” he recalls. In addition to photography, he studied video, filmmaking, art history, and had a passion for languages.
After high school, Manna attended Stony Brook University, where he majored in electrical engineering and studied photography as a sideline. He became staff photographer and photo editor of Statesman, the school newspaper, as well as facilities manager for the school’s darkroom. “I amassed quite a portfolio from my newspaper pictures,” he says. During his first year of college, he started shooting for local papers like Smithtown News and Three Village Herald. “This is what changed my mind—and my major—to communications.” Although he made “literally $5 per picture,” he got paid for something he loved to do. In those days, he says, he hardly got any sleep as he worked in the darkroom at night, then delivered the resulting prints to various newspapers and took classes by day.
After graduating in 1976, Manna discovered that engineering jobs were difficult to come by, and “the idea of being behind a desk designing circuit boards didn’t appeal to me. I love people.” He took his portfolio around to various publications, and eventually showed his images to the photo editor of The New York Times. According to Manna, he was in the right place at the right time as this newspaper was changing from being a more-literary journal, and they loved his work. “I walked out of there with my first assignment—to photograph a 100-year-old man playing a bagpipe on the beach with his dog by his side.” As time went on, he became what was known as a “personality photographer” at the paper.
One assignment involved taking pictures at a little girl’s funeral. “I had tears in my eyes from grief as I was shooting the photos—I felt the moment,” he recalls. One of these images appeared on the front page of The New York Times. Richard Avedon called the newspaper and commented that it was the best front page shot he had ever seen, and requested a signed print from Manna.
A Delicious Specialty
He “fell into food photography” when his early New York Times assignments took him to the home of food critic and writer Craig Claiborne in the Hamptons. Manna was commuting from his studio in Commack, Long Island, to work in the Hamptons and Manhattan. He was sent to Claiborne’s home to shoot food and to work with influential chefs, like Pierre Franey. As he spoke fluent French (and professes to be a good cook to boot), “I started getting other food-related jobs.”
Altogether, Manna worked for The New York Times for about 15 years. He often contributed to the Sunday magazine, shooting food, people and lifestyles. He also free-lanced and built his own photo business during this time. Today, food photography has become his special niche. His impressive client list includes General Foods, Kraft, Pillsbury, Planters, Corningware, National Yogurt Council, Tabasco, T-Fal and Krinos. He’s also been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel internationally. “I’ve seen palaces, dungeons, wealth and poverty.” (He once co-piloted a small plane to Vermont to photograph Argentine actor Fernando Lamas’ daughter’s wedding.)
Manna has worked from a variety of studio locations, including his current site in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, which has recently undergone extensive remodeling. This studio has a large, state-of-the-art kitchen in which Manna plans to hold client parties, in addition to using it for his food photography.
Digital Visionary
He became involved with digital technology early on, which he attributes to his electrical engineering background in college, and the fact that he’s a self-proclaimed “gadget freak.” At one time, he shot with 35mm, medium and large-format cameras. During the ’80s, he hooked up a TV monitor to his video camera, which was placed next to his still camera, for instant feedback from his clients. Now, he does this digitally.
In 1990, he took classes in Adobe Photoshop. He states, “I was a visionary and saw digital photography as the future of the industry over 10 years ago.” During the early ’90s, he began using the first Kodak DCS digital camera series, and moved on to a Nikon E2 in 1995 (a 1.3-megapixel digital model that cost approximately $13,000). The E2 had “full-lens coverage with a digital chip,” and Manna used it extensively in his work. Nonetheless, he found that the early digital models operated too slowly for his quick style of shooting, “and they didn’t have the quality of current digital models.”
Today, he relies exclusively on Olympus digital cameras, beginning with the E-10 and E-20 models. Both cameras offered video live feed, which enabled him to show clients and chefs images on a television screen, “a more interactive approach to photography.” And now, he’s using the Olympus E-1 digital SLR with its interchangeable lens system. He loves the digital chip on the E-1, and enjoys the ultrasonic cleaning system, “which shakes dust off the camera’s CCD—it’s great to use a camera that cleans itself.” He’s also excited about Olympus’ Global Service Support, which was introduced with the E-1. “I’m thrilled about this, being a world traveler and professional photographer,” he comments.
Tricks of the Trade: Five Tips for Shooting Food Like a Pro
Manna has taught food photography for years to students of the French Culinary Institute and many other professional groups. Thus, he’s produced a brochure as a teaching aid, which includes some of the following tips:
1. Food Prep
Manna (or his stylists) use brushes with light cooking oil to add shine to food or vegetables. Likewise, using a spritzer bottle with glycerine and water on glass surfaces like bottles and glasses adds droplets. “I also use hand-carved, plastic ice cubes when shooting beverages.” Elmer’s Glue is used instead of milk in cereal shots, as it keeps cereal from getting soggy over the course of a photo shoot. To create “ice cream” that won’t melt under hot lights, Manna shares this recipe: confectionary sugar, mashed potatoes, Fleishman’s margarine, and light corn syrup, shaped with an ice cream scooper. If you’re preparing food to be photographed, Manna advises, “Undercooking usually works best for better-looking food. Overcooking dries it out too much for photography.”
2. Lenses
Photographers who want to shoot food are advised to have a variety of lenses in a wide-angle, normal or telephoto range, depending on the desired result. A macro lens—or one with close-focusing capability—is a must, according to Manna. He often shoots with a telephoto lens to get that “in your face” look, to compress distance, and to give a shallow depth of field. He uses a wide-angle lens when he wants deliberate distortion.
3. Lighting
“Whatever you do, don’t use on-camera or direct flash,” Manna points out. “Diffuse light somehow.” Lighting sources can include sunlight, window light, or some type of off-camera flash, such as studio umbrellas, grid spots, or softboxes. He suggests using reflectors, foil, or mirrors to bounce light back on the subject. Manna uses mirrors in varying sizes to bounce light into a reflective surface, such as a small mirror for one pea on up to a large mirror for a group of subjects.
4. Props
These days, fewer props are used for food photography than in the past, says Manna. They tend to be smaller, more lightweight, and in lighter, more pastel shades. Manna sometimes uses food elements as props. When shooting a table setting, he says, silverware and glassware are simpler, with solid or textured napkins. He also uses textured wood or paper backgrounds.
5. Composition
The old trend of food photography involved shooting from a high angle. Not so today, Manna points out. He shoots from low angles, and uses shallow depth of field to throw the background out of focus, which isolates his main subject. As the viewer’s eye is attracted to the brightest object in a photo, Manna purposely places darker colors near the edges of a composition. For visual flow, he arranges his compositions in a circular manner so that the eye stays within the frame.
To see more of Lou Manna’s work, visit http://www.loumanna.com/.
I love weekends! And even more, I love my breakfast on the weekends! It's a leisurely, drawn-out ritual. There's no rush to be anywhere by 9:00AM (hopefully), no deadlines to meet (hopefully), no chores to do (hopefully), and we can really enjoy our coffee & croissants (or juice & cereal, or eggs, or toast, or waffles, or any of our other favorite breakfast food) the way they're meant to be enjoyed. I sip coffee and catch-up on all the fun read (magazines, novels, etc.) while listening to something cool & relaxing (currently, Norah Jones and Keane). :O)
So ... whatever your plans are for the weekends, a slow lingering breakfast to start your day off right is a must! Life's already moving too fast. We shouldn't rush our weekends! And that should begin with our breakfast, shouldn't it?!
You know you're no longer a kid when you see a carnival and all you want to do there is eat! The rides don't thrill you any more, instead you just want to have your Italian sausage sandwich, some curly potato chips (my favorite), and of course hot funnel cakes!
And one more thing, instead of riding on the ferris wheel with your friends, you opt to stand below and ... take pictures of it instead.
But that's OK! As long as you still stop for a carnival in your neighborhood ... life is good!
I love love love cabbage! Anything with cabbage in it, I eat! But my favorite cabbage meal of all is a simple cabbage & vegetables soup (and can be made with or without meat). It's the easiest thing to make and all within 10 minutes. Here's the recipe. You'll love it!
Sarah's Cabbage / Vegetables Soup Recipe
- 3 cans of chicken broth (or more depending on how many servings you need)
- some carrots
- some green onions
- lots of cabbage (and any other veggies you love)
Cut up the vegetables into bite size pieces. Boil chicken broth, and then add vegetables to pot. Simmer until vegetables are at a desired tenderness. Season with salt & pepper to your taste buds. Scoop into your favorite bowls and serve! (This is for 2-4 servings.)
If you prefer a bit more taste to this recipe, you can always cook some chicken or ground pork in the broth before adding the vegetables.
Lunch today was yummy! We were en route from Groton, Connecticut, to Maine, and stopped for for some fresh steamed lobsters at the Fish Shack! Nothing beats a steaming plate of New England lobster, complete with melted butter and corn on the cob!
Btw, Rockport is a beautiful seaside town! Very quaint and very New England! Right outside of Boston.
Fish Shack Restaurant
21 Dock Sq, Rockport, MA
Tel: (978) 546-6667
