Snowy

We had our first real snow this past weekend! It was a nice wet snow that stuck to everything. I woke up in the morning and looked out the window like Ralphie on Christmas morning in A Christmas Story, grabbed my camera and extra lens, bundled up and ran outside. I spent an hour wandering outside taking photos and enjoying how quiet and beautiful it was.

Yours truly.

What's a snowfall without some snowballs?

First E-Session

I was recently honored with the opportunity to take engagement photos of Keith & Paula, two good friends of mine from college. The three of us (and Jon) went into Boston, taking pictures in the Common, the Public Gardens and by the aquarium. We had a fun time, and being friends with my first "clients" made it that much easier.

They wanted a few posed shots first, you know, for the parents.

I took a few candids as we walked around Boston.

They're a super cute couple and we had a fun afternoon together. Thanks K&P!

A

Some photos from the second half of summer...

Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore MD.

Lola.

Destin, FL. I just want to jump into this picture, don't you?

Look at that water!

Doak Campbell Stadium at FSU in Tallahassee, FL.
Cocoa Beach, FL.

Running in Cocoa Beach, FL.

Downtown Disney.

Downtown Disney.

Oh, and while I was in Cocoa Beach...

Jon & I got engaged! Kind of the highlight of my summer life.

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!

I had a wonderful day yesterday, and a bunch of photos to document it. Jon & I woke up early to go to the 5K race he was running.

After the race, we spent some time walking around the town common, which was set up with food and crafters tents, and enjoyed the patriotic atmosphere of the day.


Since we had such a late start to summer, weatherwise, our 4th of July dinner was made up of all of our summertime favorites. Homemade burgers, corn on the cob, watermelon...

...and berries. On top of cheesecake. Not necessarily a summertime favorite, but really, who can pass up homemade cheesecake?

Of course, the perfect end to any 4th of July is a good fireworks display. We plopped ourselves down in the perfect spot.


Gotta love the wide angle lens.

All in all, it was a fantastic holiday. I hope yours was as well!

A

The Only Sun in June

Before the month of June decided to turn into April here in New England, we did have a handful of lovely sunny days, which luckily I took full advantage of. Today's batch of photos will hopefully help you remember what summer is like, at least until the season graces us with its presence once again.

The ocean in Maine is still too cold to swim in, but it still makes for a nice scene. Off the Marginal Way, Ogunquit, Maine.

Don't ask me why, but for some reason I've been cooking like crazy this month. One of my creations was a "light" strawberry tart. I felt like a country mama as it sat next to my window in the kitchen.

I'd mentioned before that I'm fascinated by the time period between the 1950's and 1970's, so I tend to take photos and alter them so that they appear to be taken during that time. When Jon and I went to the Milford Drive-in a few weeks ago, I brought my Diana+ camera with me. But until I get that film developed, I also took this photo with my digital SLR and gave it an older look. How much did I want to join that family in the Thunderbird?!

Apollo Night with the Boston Pops and the Northeast Naval Wind Ensemble. This was a fantastic show and it was super patriotic. Symphony Hall, Boston, MA.

It's hard to take a bad picture of the ocean. 1st St beach, Ocean City, NJ.
-A

Cheesy, Oozy Chicken.

If you decide to stick around to read this blog as I start to post more often, you'll likely start to see a trend - food. I love to cook and I love to take pictures, which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me well. And while this is technically a photo blog, I figure it might be fun to throw in a few recipe ideas with the photos, considering I tend to photograph all my new meal endeavors anyway.

For whatever reason, today at work I was extra hungry. I don't know, it could have been the food blogs I was browsing through, I suppose. I'd previously come across a recipe for chicken cordon bleu at Omnomicon (one of my favorite food blogs) which looked delicious, except for the ham. There aren't too many foods that I won't eat, but ham is - and has always been - one of them. So the question of the day was: what to stuff in my chicken besides ham? I pondered this for awhile until I remembered these frozen stuffed chickens Jon & I ate in college before either of us knew how to cook. They were stuffed with broccoli and cheese, and while packed with fat, were so tasty.

I figured out what kind of cheese was stuffed in those (swiss and american), then using the techniques from the cordon bleu recipe, put together my stuffed chickens.

I sliced the (low sodium) american cheese into rectangles (as in the cordon bleu recipe), placed a rectangle in the center of the (reduced fat) swiss, piled on a bit of broccoli then wrapped it up.

Following the recipe, I wrapped the chicken breasts around the filling and toothpick-pinned the seams together, placing the stuffed chickens seam-side up on my stone.
25 minutes later these babies were cooked to perfection! The cheese oozed out just enough to make it look pretty.
Oh my. It wasn't a terribly hard meal to make, but definitely one to add to my repertoire.

As for the photos (this is a photo blog, after all), I used the Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 macro lens. I do have a dedicated macro, but when I'm photographing while cooking alone, it's a little easier to use this lens. I think the photos came out okay, but to be honest I was far too hungry at this point to really worry about it!

Don't forget to...

The other day I took my sidewalk chalk outside (I'm a big believer that sidewalk chalking is an ageless pastime) and drew some happy little pictures and words and of course, a hopscotch court on the street/sidewalk. Later, when I was driving past on my way to run some errands, two women were walking with a little girl along the sidewalk. When I was stopped at the traffic light, I saw out of my side mirror that the women and girl stopped to play a round of hopscotch. Sitting there in my car, it put a huge smile on my face. I’m thinking of sidewalk chalking more often, in hopes that it puts a smile on someone elses face as well.