If you'll permit me...

It's summer and the weather makes me feel disinclined to cook or write or do anything of use.  So today I'll give you a self-indulgent photo post.  These are from a trip I took with the Whole Family back in 2006.  We were on a cruise and spent a day in Barbados, which I found poetic.  Hope you enjoy.  Back soon with food.

Fig. 1. Ragged Point Light.

Fig. 2. Doorways and windows, Ragged Point Light.

Fig. 3. St. James Parish Church.

Fig. 4. Vegetation.

Fig. 5. Cemetery at St. James Parish Church.

Fig. 6. Harbor.

Fig. 7. Beach walking.

Clip Show: August and October

I've been trying to catch up with film processing and scanning - I had amassed a pile of a dozen or so undeveloped rolls and I'm working my way through. Last night I uncovered some very happy shots from August and October. The August roll almost fell victim to an accidental exposure situation (owing to a camera's dead battery) but luckily I salvaged the shots that were already exposed. They were of a lovely afternoon spent lounging on the summer roof, drinking fizzy cocktails and reminiscing about the past while debating the merits of a dozen potential futures. It was one of the more memorable afternoons of last summer, in fact, despite its uneventfulness.
The October photos came from an equally memorable day spent with my sister and my dear German Christine, brunching at the Town Diner and wandering around the Mt. Auburn Cemetery. It seems a little morbid, maybe, to find these cemetery shots as satisfying as I do, but there you go. I've always liked graveyards.

Tuesday clip show

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It was a takeout night tonight, so I haven't got any recipes to share. Instead, here are some photos. I've been spending a good deal of time developing and tweaking photos the last few days, which is always very satisfying. Most enjoyable was the opportunity to take some adorable baby photos (My friends' adorable little girl turned 1 on Sunday).

Regular programming should resume soon. Beginning of the semester is always rough, but this one has been murder.

Clip Show: Old-school photos

My lovely husband bought me a scanner for Christmas. This means that I can finally dive into scanning my old negatives (a project I started back in Summer) at home! It also means that I can take, develop, and scan all my own black and white photos. It's awesome. This means that I've gotten to revisit some delicious old images and I thought I'd share some with you. The image above is one of my favorites ever - a photo of my old friend Anna tentatively dipping her feet in Paradise Pond. The water was very still that day. (Kodak TMY 400, on a Yashica Mat)
Here, the window at Leavitt & Pierce, one of my favorite sights as I walk from the T to the office every day. I love the juxtaposition of toys and the creepy stuffed, dead-looking bird. (Ilford HP5, on my Mamiya 645e)
Wiebke's birthday, 2004. Sparklers were a good idea. (Ilford XP2, Canon EOS300)

December, Day 7: Non-seasonal Clip Show

One of the curious things about shooting film is the delay. The film always comes back a week later and, unless I've shot the whole roll in one go, which doesn't happen often anymore, the beginning is already dated. So, here are a few photos, late, but hopefully you'll enjoy them all the same.






1. Montague Book Mill
2. Trees
3. Footpath
4. Thanksgiving: corn souffle
5. Thanksgiving: pecan pie
6. Chinatown by night
7. My kitchen lantern

More film shots here, if you're bored.

A dozen

Back in October, Dan and I took Lucy on a little road trip out to Northampton (as you know) and, for once, we got to Smith in time to see the last of the golden Valley Light flowing away over the hill. If you've been there in the late afternoon, you know the light I'm talking about - it's as bright and focused as a spotlight, but honey colored and strangely soft at the same time. It's perfect light, flattering to every face, intensifying every color, and warm even on the coldest days.

Another October day found us driving north with my family in search of the Maine coast. You've already seen a few images from this startlingly blue day (and to think it rained for fourteen hours the day before). More bright sun and clear skies made for more intense colors and sharp lines.

And then, on November first, the day after the clocks fell back, we went to the beach with our good friends Seth and Christine. We were there for the waning of the light, the first truly early evening of Fall. More blue, but tempered this time, less flamboyant, as if it knew the cold was coming.

This is just my favorite dozen images from those happy days. There are many more here. I'm embracing color film again after a long break and am oh-so-pleased with the results. 120 film was shot with my trusty brick of a Mamiya and 35mm was shot with my buddy the Canon EOS300.











1. Impression of the Smith College Boathouse. (120 Fuji Reala 100)
2. Chapin House and the Green House, Smith College. (120 Fuji Reala 100)
3. Crabapples (Liz tells me) at Smith. (120 Fuji Reala 100)
4. Boathouse reflection, Smith College. (120 Fuji Reala 100)
5. Whately Diner, interior. (120 Fuji Reala 100)
6. Sandy Lucy, Singing Beach (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
7. Singing Beach, November, Christine in the water (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
8. Lucy and tide patterns, Singing Beach (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
9. Cape Neddick Lobster Pound (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
10. Rocks at Nubble Light (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
11. Nubble Light (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
12. Beachy reflections, Singing Beach (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)

Small Clip Show

Figure 1. Lucy is susceptible to wind.
Figure 2. My baby orchid bloomed!

So many odds and ends... and a wee clip show

Figure 1. They like straight lines in Indiana.

Yesterday I winged my way home to Indiana for a brief, but much-needed visit. Since then, I've been wallowing in puppy-love, eating too much good Mexican food and my mom's mushroom soup (Stay tuned for THAT recipe. It will make you weep.), going to the movies (which is the official pastime of my home town), and sleeping in my old bed. All in all, the perfect first twenty hours home.

Figure 2. The Liberty Hotel. Perfect place to toast your own personal ball-and-chain.

But! Before I came home, there was an anniversary to be celebrated. My dear Brit and I have been married (legally, though not with huge, froufy fanfare) for one year and two days now and it still seems like the best decision we could ever have made. To celebrate on Saturday I did not cook. So I have no nuptially-themed recipe to share. But we did go to Clink at the Liberty Hotel and eat a lot of really delicious food, drink a couple of delicious cocktails, and some really delicious wine. Figure 3. Seared scallops with lobster, mushrooms, parsnips (puree), and dates. Holy. Crap.

This all followed a lovely day spent at the ICA and wandering downtown and snapping photos. You can see the initial results here, with medium format goodness to follow when I'm home and developing again.Figure 4. Boston view from ICA.

For now, though, I'll share with you the recipe for the World's Best Banana Pudding, courtesy of my mom. Again. She's getting accustomed to my frantic, last-minute "Please tell me how you make x dish!" emails and is responding with aplomb. I only hope one day I have the memory for recipes that she does.

(The occasion for this recipe was my sister FINALLY coming back to town after being away for altogether too long. She's always been a sucker for banana pudding and I thought it might be appropriate for some welcome back comfort food. She approved of the end result, as I'm sure you all will, too.)

Banana Pudding (courtesy My Mom)
Figure 5. I used miniature trifle dishes.

• Combine 2 small packages of Instant Jello pudding—French Vanilla Flavor (sometimes hard to find—but def. better than regular vanilla) with 3 cups of milk (I use skim milk!)
• Add 1 can of Eagle brand condensed, sweetened milk and beat with mixer until it starts to thicken.
• After you stop beating and as the pudding thickens add a 9 ounce container of Cool Whip (I use the light variety) Fold this in gently to avoid deflating The Cool whip (the purpose of this is to lighten the pudding).
• Layer Vanilla wafers, sliced bananas, and the pudding mixture to create the finished product. It looks pretty to do in a trifle bowl. I usually crumble some vanilla wafers on top for panache! Do not leave bananas on top—as they will darken when exposed to air.

As ever, I suggest you note the ingredients (and quantities) before going shopping. If, however, you find yourself at home with, oh, I don't know, only one (1) package of French Vanilla Instant Pudding, you can halve the recipe. The proportions are very approximate and really, short of using stale vanilla wafers or rotten bananas, I'm not sure how you could screw this up. I recommend it for hot-weather colds, broken hearts, or warm welcome-backs. Also, as my mom suggests, pot-lucks.

Highlights from today's archiving

Figure One. Hamburg Rathaus by night. Expect many many more photos like this here.
Figure Two. Blurry Christine having cocktails.
Figure Three. Silly (but cool) jumping Dan.

Clip Show: Where I left off

I've embarked on the project of digitizing my black and white negatives from the last five or six years (since I started shooting b/w...). That's a lot of negatives. In any case, I'll post highlights here. Please bear with me as I learn the ropes of scanning and editing (why, hello, Photoshop). Many, many more of these will be appearing over the next few weeks (months, more likely). I'll be posting them here.
Figure One. The Hipster Photo Shoot. Dan and I did a little photo shoot while living in Berlin. He wore a fedora and we set up in the garage of our apartment building, where the architectural details and graffiti are fabulous and it was almost completely dark.
Figure Two. Liz in the wild. Smith Senior Year (2004). We were in pursuit of interesting photos for the Yearbook. There are also many photos of Kelly.
Figure Three. Peeling posters in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin. Also from 2007.