Trying to like portrait photography

I love photography, but I have never liked taking portraits. Preferring to photograph nature and candid shots of people, I decided to attempt something uncomfortable to me. Last night my youngest daughter came back after weeks away and since there was still daylight left outside, I hung some fabric from the ceiling and used the light coming from the patio to do a mini photo shoot. I know there is more to learn, but maybe there's a place for portraits in my "repertoire".

Y Not Wednesdays?

Y Not Wednesdays? What is it, you ask?! It's an outdoor event at Sandler Center for the Performing Arts. Y Not Wednesdays is full of music, local produce, great food, good drinks, and people with the same goal in mind....A great night on the town. If you get a chance check it out, you won't be disappointed.

This is a poster from last year's series
We took a tour of the Sandler Center and these were mementos left by performers



The Founders Room

The stage with the Ghost Light on

Mike Proffitt

Even though I can't get in the kitchen like I used to

I still try to take my camera with me everywhere just in case I get to catch something. Enjoy!

Mt. Trashmore in Virginia Beach

Leaves from a tree in Downtown Portsmouth

Mt. Trashmore Virginia Beach

My niece in Norfolk

My nephew in Chesapeake

Idle Hands are a Baker's Playground

This weekend was a busy one, not completely planned, but busy nonetheless. On Friday my daughter's friend had a birthday party and I was the cake person. All she wanted was stars and the colors blue and pink. She and my daughter sing in everything at the school so I decided to make a microphone and put some music notes on her cake. She absolutely loved it and gave me a big hug as thanks.

On Saturday I had to take my daughter to a school for her SAT's....gotta be college bound in this day and age. This Saturday it's the ACT, let's make it happen. After work I took a few photos at the Botanical Gardens and you can see a few at the end.

Sunday was an all day kitchen fest. My youngest daughter, who got this itch to throw parties from her mother, decided to have a "Welcome Back Party" for my oldest son. Of course this meant that I was in the kitchen doing most of the cooking. She did help though. I wanted to make a cake and decorate it, but changed my mind and went with cupcakes, which were much easier this time. I had extra icing from the birthday cake so I just colored it and swirled it on top. I showed my daughter how to make the little candies and we just placed them on top of the icing to spell out "Welcome Back Trini".

I had plans on making peach jam since I had extra peaches after making ice cream(more about that next week) so my girlfriend and I stopped at the grocery store so I could pick up a few things and she noticed the strawberries.She asked if there was a way to make banana pudding with strawberries instead. I said yea, but then she remembered the berry tiramisu we had at Macaroni Grill last summer and said she wanted that instead. They used cake instead of ladyfingers, but I knew that I had ladyfingers on my to do list and it hits me...I HAVE to make them today.

I used the recipe in the book below and knocked it out so fast that I wondered why I had never made them before.
This is what they look like after they cooled and with a dusting of powdered sugar.

For this tiramisu I just used some mascarpone, heavy cream, and powder sugar. I split the mixture in half and stirred World's End Sweet Ripe Banana liqueur in one half and Tequila Rose in the other. I layered the mascarpone mixtures, ladyfingers, strawberries, bananas and, in the taller dish, blueberries.

My girlfriend and my neighbor inhaled it like it was the end of the world.

I never knew that jam could take so little effort to pull together. No wonder people can, you know when it's made and what's in it and hey it's rather fun. Now if I could just get some fresh baked bread to make some toast with. I guess I have to go back to the kitchen right?These next few pictures are just some random shots at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens.

The Man in the Tree

I was trying to catch him/her while it was eating, but I couldn't.

Happy Birthday and then some!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. Yes it's getting hot and summer is on it's way and what better way to get it popping than with some homemade mint chocolate ice cream. I had made a white cake for my cousin's and son's birthday cakes and didn't want to throw out the yolks. Hmmmm what to do with 8 yolks sitting in the fridge (insert light bulb here)....ice cream. I had some Andes mint chips in the cupboard, leftover mint sprigs in the fridge and mint extract so let's do this. I adapted one of David Lebovitz's vanilla recipe's to suit my needs.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/recipes/vanilla_icecream.html

This is the link for making it without an ice cream maker
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/07/making_ice_crea_1.html

My recipe ingredients changed to:
1 2/3 cups milk
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 vanilla beans
8 egg yolks
sprigs of mint
3 cups heavy cream
a few drops mint extract
1 cup Andes Mint Chips

Since I don't own an ice cream maker as of yet I had to do the manual labor(labor well worth it) to make my ice cream. If you are a mint ice cream lover this is for you. I love how you see the specks of the vanilla beans in it too.




These are the cake for the birthday kids, the party was held at the skating rink and they had a ball. This cake was a Neopolitan cake and the strawberry gave me trouble. I figured that I could just add some mashed strawberries to a white cake and it would work. NOPE, so I had to run to the store and buy a box mix at the last minute because I was going to make this cake for my son. The chocolate was the the hershey's cake on the bake of the cocoa powder. I airbrushed the color and just bought a bobble head toy as the topper.


This cake was the same chocolate as the above cake and the cupcakes were a white cake from extra batter from my son's cake. The flowers are almond bark and the Bratz plaque was freehanded on fondant.



These next few pics are just me playing around with the settings on my camera and taking pics of randomness.

ENJOY!!!