I just got word that some photos I took for Boston Green Building back in January are featured in the March issue of Professional Remodeler Magazine!
The best way to experience the photos, as always, is to buy the magazine! The second best is by viewing the digital edition of the magazine. The article with my photos is on pages 28-32.
I helped shoot a music video for Boston post-punk rock band Young Adults a few months ago, and I am thrilled to see what director Pat Breen did with the footage!
Also, keep an eye out for my photos of the band in upcoming press – these guys are on a roll so I’m guessing there will be a lot of it!
If you are lucky enough to be in Austin for SXSW, be sure to check out their show on March 18th at Easy Tiger Patio!
Shooting for Boston Magazine is always fun, but I think this one takes the lead. I got to work with Lego enthusiast Dave Eaton on this creative illustration for an article about raising kids in the city. Interesting fact I learned on the shoot: you NEVER say “Legos.” The plural is still Lego! Read the article here: Navigating the Boston Public Schools System
I am so excited to be a part of this awesome new group of architectural photographers in the Boston area. Take a moment to check out the portfolios of my co-founders at bostonarchitecturalphotography.com!
You can also “like” us on Facebook here: Boston Architectural Photography
Got to see Boston’s most crazy awesome new pop sensation, Kiesza, last night at Machine. More photos are in this facebook album!
I found a box of photos from when I was in high school and college, before I went to NESOP, so I snapped a few pictures with my iPhone to share them! Check out the set here!
This is my favorite picture I have of the cat I grew up with. We got Roo when I was really little. My brother got to pick the cat at the MSPCA and I got to name him, but I had to name him before I saw him. Once I saw him, I wanted to call him Spot, but my parents said Spot was a dog’s name and wouldn’t let me change my mind.
Also, he used to flip out and run away when the doorbell rang. Once, he went in the central heating duct in the basement and wouldn’t come out for days. When he did come out, his tail was all messed up and they had to amputate it. This sounds really gross, but after he didn’t have a tail he was the cutest cat EVER because when he was happy he would wag his stump like an excited puppy!
I had the immense pleasure of shooting with one of Allston’s best bands, Young Adults, today!
Check out the outtakes on Facebook!
With not much to do but relax and make dinner, this vacation has been very productive as far as cooking is concerned. This evening for dinner I made a delicious burger from Marcel Desaulniers’ Burger Meisters, a book that was sitting in my girlfriend’s parents’ pantry, waiting for me to find something wonderful to make. It had a delightful mix of lentils, onions and walnuts that tasted delicious with a curried mayonnaise on a hamburger bun, although I’m sure the recommended ginger-yogurt sauce on a pita would have been quite nice as well. This burger did the dreaded veggie-burger-crumble-in-the-pan, so perhaps in a future incarnation I might add soaked flax seeds or egg white to keep everything together as a burger.
For the photo, I decided to be a little more bold with the lighting than other recent meals. This was a single Canon 430 EX, shooting at full manual power right at the burger from the back-right corner, triggered by a 580 EX II on-camera, which was set to pop the auxilliary flash but not add to the light. For a bit of fill, a napkin was held at camera left in the main picture. Below is a before-sautéeing photo!
After the fiasco that was my attempt to make sourdough bread, I’ll admit I was a bit hesitant to try baking again. Following this recipe, though, I decided to not only make bread, but make Julia Child’s French bread recipe! I love baguettes more than most people should, but I’m seldom happy with a store-bought baguette unless I get it fresh from a small bakery. It’s something about the crusty outside and meaty inside that supermarket bakeries just don’t give me.
If I had read the instructions thoroughly before starting, I might have chosen not to start this bread at 5pm. It took until about midnight to finish all its rising steps, but the end result was certainly worth it! This bread is crispy and meaty and I’m about to use it for breakfast sandwiches! There will be “real” pictures of those sandwiches coming in a not-too-distant post!
Previously, I posted about trying to make sourdough bread completely from scratch. Unfortunately, something went wrong and I am without a loaf of delicious bread.
I followed the instructions perfectly (I think), fed my pet and attended it lovingly, so what went wrong? I’m not quite sure. The workings of our automatic, programmed thermostat is completely beyond me, so the temperature has certainly not been consistent. Instead of being a yeast-approved 68 degrees, it has fluctuated between 50 and 75 degrees in this apartment for the past two weeks. Also, I started with regular unbleached flour instead of the blender-ground wheat berries suggested in my recipe. I was also less than militant about a consistent feeding schedule. All of these things resulted in a dough that didn’t rise, and just stood in its beautiful glass Pyrex bowl, laughing at me.
Even though I spent a week waiting to make this bread, I’m not letting it get my spirits down. The bitter weather outside means a lot more time spent indoors, and the holidays are a great excuse to get a lot of baking done! I’m hoping to make some delicious fruit breads and maybe even a few loaves of challah in the next few weeks, and I’ll keep you posted!
I have never been the biggest fan of sourdough bread, but over the past year I have started trying foods I previously loathed, and for the most part it’s been a surprising process. In fact, since I moved to Boston I have enjoyed such once-detested foods as asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, quinoa, kale, cauliflower and even Brussels sprouts!
Since I am opening my mind to different foods, I have decided to make my own sourdough bread completely from scratch. Sunday night I added two tablespoons of pineapple juice to two tablespoons of flour as per this recipe‘s instructions, and have been keeping it at room temperature and feeding it well since then. I’ve noticed the bubbles telling me I’m at least in the ballpark of growing wild yeast properly, despite starting with unbleached “regular” flour instead of making my own flour from whole wheat berries. I am excited to see if this experiment pans out. I’ll keep you posted!
Today we wrapped day two of shooting Young Adults‘ music video (directed by the creative, patient and awesome-at-choosing-lunch-foods Pat Breen) for their awesome song “Let Us Out” off the album Black Hole.
It was a really great experience for me to capture video with my 5D Mark II for the first time in a controlled environment. I’ve shot for fun, and even at live concerts before, but nothing with this level of production and professionalism. I learned a lot about the power needed to run a lot of really hot lights for a few hours, much different from the occasional really fast pop of 2400 watts that comes out of the strobes used for stills. The most important thing I took from this is the importance of teamwork, respect and asking for help. This video might have happened without as much collaboration, but I think Pat was very smart to ask a bunch of people for their help and input. I can’t wait to see the video when it’s all edited – I’ll be sure to update when it does!
