New Addition to the Studio

The newest addition to the studio’s name is Samantha! She is 10 weeks old, loves milk and running around like crazy…

Sea Shells by the Sea…

Today in the studio, I was inspired by the gray fog to photograph sea shells in black and white. While positioning the shells in the correct spot,  it dawned on me that I haven’tcreated any images in black in white since I was in photography school. Wow, how I yearned for those days of spending hours in the darkroom processing and waiting with anticipation. Today I used the program Photoshop. After processing the images from raw to a tiff format I worked with using the hue/saturation tool along with curves tool to create the same process as the traditional version of the black and white process. While Photoshop will never take the place of the smell, exhaustion and wonder from traditional black and white processing, it does satisfy the soul of a thought-provoking black and white image.                                                                                           

 

 

Orange Gooey Moulton Sugar

Today’s mission; Orange Gooey Moulton Sugar in the various stages of canning apricot jam. Thanks to two wonderful friends, last night we went apricot picking at the Billywhack Ranch in Ventura. Although the sun was setting over the orange groves, the brightly colored orange gems caught our eye as we rounded the corner of the old dirt road. With our bags ready, we climbed and picked from the ground of the very old apricot tree.  I’m still trying to figure out if there were more apricots in my bag or belly!

This morning as I walked groggy through the kitchen one thing caught my attention, the sweet smell of all those delicious apricots. So what to do with 10 pounds of apricots? First; Jam! Second; Tart possibly? Third; chopped in some risotto? I’ll let you know….

My ultimate way of enjoying apricot jam is to lick the warm spoon!

 

 

Red, Red Wine!

 

Cherry Season!

Who can resist the scarlet color of a pulp fresh cherry? I certainly can not! 

Happy National Donut Day

Yum Yum Yum! It’s National Donut day, eat up!

May Flowers

April showers and May flowers… however the weather outside is not very spring like at the current moment. These flower photos were taken while on the Ventura Garden Tour benefiting the Ventura Botanical Gardens that will be opening in the near future.

How can you photograph the smell of lilacs?

Kilcoyne Lilac Farm in Acton California was breath-taking, the smell could make you cry with happiness! Dennis and Elizabeth Kilcoyne have approx. 6 acres of land covered with beautiful lilac bushes from all varieties. The photo shoot was for The California Country Farm Bureau Magazine for next years spring issue. The lilac have an incredibly short season and produce flowers for about 3-4 weeks out of the year.

Sea of Orange~

Munz Ranch in Lancaster California. The poppies were incredible! Perfect weather, no wind and 85 degrees.

Know your Local; Cafe Fiore

What a blast of beautiful Italian warmth; from the entrance to the open style kitchen, the cute patio and smiling face of the hostess. Cafe Fiore was a wonderful treat for lunch and I can’t wait to visit for dinner in the near future. The highly recommended dish, let alone the most delicious Italian dish I have had in a while was the Tortellaci Di Zucca. The sweetness from the Butternut squash filled tortellaci and the savory, earthyness of the tortellaci sautéed in a sage cream sauce with Parmigiano cheese, was incredible. Lets just say there was no leftovers for my poor hubby to enjoy. Visit Cafe Fiore at 66 California St. Ventura 805.653.1266 or their website at: www.fiorerestaurant.net

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