After this project, I must say I have a new appreciation for the effort that goes into taking appealing photos of bread. I have a great cookbook called Frida’s Fiestas written by Frida Kahlo’s stepdaughter (from Diego Rivera) that’s full of colorful photos, recipes and stories about the artist.
As you can imagine, The Day of The Dead is a big portion of this book, so I’ve been really looking forward to featuring one of the recipes from that section for Dead Man’s Bread.
I’ve been working on this recipe for a week now – my first batch of bread was disappointingly heavy and dry – but I was so intent on making this work that I went through a few revolutions of the recipe and came up with a final result that is really delightful. It’s a sweet, filling bread that I think is a great alternative to cupcakes and candy or even pastries. It’s absolutely fabulous with cider, coffee or tea.
I’ve also tried various versions of these photos – some inside, some outside. Some with props, some on white, on cutting boards – you name it. I think at the end of the day the shots of the dough are the most interesting – they look like odd little sculptures. The design on the top is meant to remind of bones – they also look like snakes to me.
One of my go to resources when I start thinking about parties and holiday decorating is Carolyne Roehm’s book A Passion for Parties ($31.50 on Amazon). It came out a couple years back and each year since I’ve marveled especially at her photos of a Dickens Inspired Halloween Party.
Above, she spray painted pumpkins silver and arranged them with white tuile for a really fun effect. Below she gathered vintage silver candelabras, black candlesticks, black bird props, gauze, artificial spiderwebs, Spanish moss and some silk flowers to create a really pretty but spooky look.
I love getting GOOP ~ each Thursday Gwyneth Paltrow sends out interesting bits from her life to thousands of interested readers.
Today Gwyn features a number of cool recipes from Treat Street ~ an “underground” bakery that some of her friends operate. One of the ideas from the favorites are these cool Eyeball Cupcakes. The decoration is the super fun part, but the recipe that Gwyn offers (below) looks really great too. It’s her Granny Helen’s special recipe.
I’ve been wanting to track down and feature some great shots of the set used in the film What Lies Beneath ~ the thriller starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford. The storyline features a great 3500 square foot Nantucket Style Shingle house that was apparently built just for the film.
So last Christmas I got a nifty HD video camera ~ I had planned on going immediately to work producing and creating a catalog of scintillating and fascinating videos for both work and self expression.
So, it’s now late October and here we are! *One video*.
I guess it took quite some to come up with an idea for a clip to break the creative ice – then once I hatched my plan of a series of stories about New England the actual writing of copy, going around and shooting, and doing endless stand-ups took some time.
*Then* I ran into a bit of a wall trying to work out editing on my iMovie and *then* it took a while to figure out how to upload reasonably clear video to YouTube, Vimeo ect.
There’s been a lot of trial and error that’s gone into this particular video – but I’m so happy to actually have something to upload that doesn’t look like it is being broadcast from the moon that I am overlooking the obvious bad hair day, issues with camera work, and not matching up video to narration. These can be worked out in subsequent projects.
I went out yesterday intent on photographing some Fall color here in New England – as well as some Halloween decorations. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t cooperating as well as it could have – it was very stormy but I made it to Essex (on the Connecticut River) and got some shots of some of their doorways and houses.
The cottage above is one of my favorite homes in the area – an antique probably built in the 1800’s it really looks like a mini English estate to me. Yet it’s located right towards the foot of Main Street in Essex. Love the hedges and the large elaborate bird house.
The house below demonstrates how you can indeed decorate for Fall all in white! Love the white pumpkins flanked by white chrysanthemums.
My camera isn’t the best for taking scenery unfortunately, but I thought this shot (above) came out pretty well. It’s the tracks for the Essex Steam Train.
For me, Halloween is about merriment mixed with a little bit of debauchery. But so many decorations these days seem to veer onto the page of gore and misery that for me a lot of modern decorations have lost their appeal. That’s why vintage Halloween seems so alluring. The characters are usually having a great time just being a little bit weird without having to torture anything. I found this really cute photo stream of Flickr of decorations from around the country that feature just that. Vintagy fun looks without chainsaws or exploding heads. Here are a few of my fav’s from the group.
