áudiam vocem laudis, et enárrem univérsa mirabília tua
It’s definitely springtime in New Orleans. For the next three months at least. And I so do not have the time to do it justice… here are some photos in my learning phase… springtime in New Orleans, Japanese Magnolias, from my camera…. I pray my photos are better in time. If you don’t have a few years… Well, check back when you do. And I pray that you do, long before then!
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It’s one thing to get into photography, and I’ve been ‘into it’ for about 2 months now, so obviously I’m a complete expert. But it’s quite another thing to get into Photoshop.
So, I took the plunge with a free trial and a book on the matter and, Behold!
Before…
…and After!
They look exactly the same! Except for the fact that the ‘before’ looks better.
I remember when I got into music and naively decided to make my living as a musician because I loved to play, and wanted to work toward some goals there. I did in time. But it took hours, and hours a day. Day after day. Month after month. Year after year. And even in Seminary I was playing for 4 – 6 Masses per weekend, several at the Seminary during the week, plus rehearsals, concerts, weddings, a few dance classes and recording sessions… Bar Mitzvahs, club openings and raves (not really on the last ones.) And then suddenly it all ended at Ordination. I had a new life, and was now a Priest, not a Musician.
But that’s another story, which I’ve been meaning to write.
Point being, I guess I had best practice the virtue of patience, and keep plugging away little by little. Day after day.
It’s back to the drawing board.
Sometimes it’s all about the tomatoes.
Tomatoes and onions… And of course you have to peel a devein a few pounds of shrimp.
I really question this whole process of blanching, seeding and dicing tomatoes sometimes, and really want to use a can of Cento or something. Nonetheless! Blanch the tomotoes…
The skins peel right off…
Then dice them. After peeling the shrimp and peeling seeding and dicing the tomatoes, the hard work here is done.
Into a large dutch oven it all goes…
A few more ingredients at the standby: a bay leaf, some paprika, cayenne, a bit of tomato paste will do the trick. A pinch of sugar never hurts when it’s not the height of tomato season.
See, this all cooks down, the tomatoes dissolve and some carmelization starts to happen. (Did someone say Carmel?)
After it cooks down, which does not take an eternity, the tomato paste goes in with the peppers. The pepper and the paprika that is. Isn’t paprika a pepper?
Then some shrimp stock, here we’re using three cups.
After that cooks down, not quite a half hour, the shrimp go in. They release enough liquid that it’s quite alright to let the mixture get toward the thick side before adding them in.
The light also changed a bit, since it started pouring down rain outside.
But inside, everything was looking just fine.
We photographers really have to stay on our toes for photo ops. So when the fog rolled in, I knew I had to hit the streets.
I can’t believe Time-Life and National Geographic haven’t called or e-mailed yet. What’s up with that?
This cake is awesome. I’m looking forward to making it again.
The tiny kitchen’s been good to me, and I’m really going to miss the place as I move on.
This was a sweet potato soup, helping keep some simplicity in the fore of the diet. I’ll have to work on the food styling.
And a friend recently showed me this creche set, which is exactly like the one that we grew up with. (Talk about bringing back some memories.) Sadly our’s did not survive, it was fairly delicate for two young boys. But seeing this one is amazing. Made in Germany, 1933.
It had to happen. I bought a macro lens.
And all I had around was some peppermint.
One day when I take better photos, I know everyone who stops by here will appreciate it. Until then, not a lot of people stop by here anyway… So it’s a great place to learn!