02 Wednesday Mar 2016
Posted in Art, Caribbean, Food, Painting, still life, Travel, Uncategorized
Tags
art, arts, food, painting, St Martin, still life, Susana Weber, texture, travel, vacation, watercolor
Are you done with those yet? The light isn’t right… it’s not going to be right today. Well… alrig__…. Hey!
Avacados – 12×9 watercolor
14 Saturday Jul 2012
Posted in Abstract Macro Photography, Art, Food, Nature, Photography, Uncategorized
Tags
blue, blueberries, breakfast, food, luminance, noise, noise reduction, photography, smoothing
Blueberries for breakfast! What a great idea… yes, let’s plant some bushes just on the edge of the front yard… and we’ll have blueberries for our pancakes or waffles. Yes!! That was the conversation about 20 years ago when the front lawn went in and blueberry picking… and eating… was an anticipated pleasure. It didn’t exactly work out the way we thought.
As the bushes grew and the fruit production increased, so did the chipmunks and birds who enjoyed the harvest of the sweet little fruits!! I even tried bird netting… which the chipmunks could get under… and several times a day during the picking season had to rescue birds caught in the net. So, we rarely got more than 3 or 4 ripe berries at a time. But, early this morning out in the yard throwing the Frisbee with Jack, I realized that there was actually enough ripe fruit hanging for breakfast! I just had to see it as a competitive sport… and beat them to ’em!
Of course, I had to photograph my triumph over the critters and carried them back to the studio before I put them on my cereal. I love the variety of colors and the softness of the tones… and while I was processing the image, it occurred to me to that the blueberries were a perfect example to show the effects of “noise” that occurs when using a sharpening tool in any of the processing programs… and also the way that the Adobe Lightroom “Luminance” tool can correct the “noise”. Noise is the grainy appearance the image has when it’s been sharpened. It actually looks like clumps of color have separated out from the smooth blend of tones you expect to see. The first image here has been over-sharpened to show a lot of noise. The second has the Lightroom Luminance applied at 100 on the scale. When overdone like this, the image starts to look like a painting with all the blending going on. With the right subject it’s kind of cool! Now… breakfast!
Blueberry over-sharpened… noise or a grainy look.
Blueberry over-smoothed with Luminance slider in Adobe Lightroom.
09 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in Food, Uncategorized
Tags
cooking, easy recipe, food, grilling, marinade, recipe, skirt steak
I’m a really lazy summer cook… it’s just too hot and there are so many other interesting things to do in the summer… and there’s not enough propane in the tank to cook… and I’m not really hungry anyway… I got a million excuses not to cook when we’re in one of these heat waves. But…
Jane captured our dinner with her iPad. There’s some chicken in there, too.
My friend Jane came over yesterday with dinner… (that fits nicely with all my excuses ;) and she brought this wonderfully different recipe for skirt steak that I had to share. This was so FAST and SO GOOD! The meat is marinated after it cooks on the grill… so, the marinade can be used as a top dressing for the meat and vegetables or potatoes, too… since it never has raw meat in it. Here’s the recipe.
1/3 Cup soy sauce
1/4 Cup Worcestershire sauce
2 scallions sliced thin
2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar
4 Cloves garlic minced
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
Salt and Pepper
1/4 Cup vegetable oil
12 oz. of skirt steak (more or less)
We had enough for 6 people… and extra marinade to put on grilled asparagus… Asian coleslaw, sliced cucumbers and pasta salad with black beans and corn. So easy and fast on a hot summer day. Mmmm maybe there’s enough for a cold lunch salad today…
Jane, where did you get this recipe? I want to give credit! And… thanks for dinner!!
Yep! Made a great cold steak salad for lunch! I chopped up some of the cucumbers and asparagus, too… and added shaved Parmesan cheese.
12 Monday Mar 2012
Tags
artful food, culture, food, photography, St Martin, texture, travel, vacation
Eggwhite omlette
One cannot live on photographs, editing, uploading, sketching and watercolors alone… so at some point one must prepare or… gather… some food and on the island of St Martin, it is artful indeed. Of course the French boulangeries are the obvious place to find it in its most artful form. In Marigot, Sarafina’s is a favorite just across from the ferry port and outdoor market. Trying to decide what to choose slows the line to a crawl… so better order two of whatever you choose. Even our everyday breakfast fare became something to make special… it only seemed right in the presence of such… artful delights!
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