Must Love Tomatoes. Cooking Past Tropical Storm Irene.

Hello From Vermont!

The amount of transformation which has occurred since the the hours of flooding that devastated so many communities, is impressive. It’s not like anything I’ve seen anywhere else in the world – if I go by the National news. The people of Vermont are hard-core!

I’m a New Yorker. NOT from the city, but from the Finger Lakes region, where we grew-up with farms in our backyard. I’m sure it’s why I’ve gravitated towards helping out my local Vermont farms since Irene’s flood waters devastated many in my area.

Once the fields are cleaned up and the efforts to restore their top-soil begins, which my understanding will be some time and extremely costly – many are going to be “in-the-hole” financially. Unlike Spring floods, which may bring nutrients into the soil just in time for planting, a late season flood to this magnitude does the opposite. It strips the land of the nutrient rich top-soil and replaces it with potentially toxic mud that requires by law, an extensive period of time before it can even be used again.

How Can We Help?

It’s tomato season! Whether it’s tomatoes or other seasonal produce, if it was harvested before the flood and/or fortunate to be above the high water mark, it’s ripe for the buying. Checking in with your local farmer or organic gardner and purchasing what is available is an easy way to get money into their pockets and help them move forward to preparing their fields for the next growing season.

Tomato Soup!

Right now in Central Vermont, we are overgrown with the most beautiful tomatoes. Whether it be sauce or soup, grab as many as you can and get cooking. Do you can? Great, get canning!! My work has not allowed me to dive into canning this season, though Suzanne from Kingsbury Market and Garden, where I bought a MASSIVE bag of tomatoes of every variety I’ve ever experienced, has teased me with a future lesson. I can hardly wait.

Made Fresh from Kingsbury Market Vermont Tomatoes 2011

The above “snap-shot” was my first EVER batch of garden fresh tomato soup. It was killer easy to make, and a welcomed rest from editing a collection of photos from earlier. Photography is my way of life, but secretly wonder what it would be like to be culinary wizard! For my first go…. YUM!!! I was proud of myself. Ooo… this is a creamy version made with local Vermont heavy cream!! Oh yah!

I have one more batch to go. My little mission is to buy the tomatoes to help the farm, but then, make the soup to feed our Norwich University students and or staff who are surely lacking in some home-cooking these days.

If I can do it, surely you can too!

Localicious and for a Good Cause = Buy Caramel!

So stewing up tomatoes isn’t really your thing, or you are a hungry meat-eater and veggies are not high on your list of ingrediants. Well, I don’t think I’ve met a single person who does not LOVE caramel. I urge you to save September 7th and make an internet date to buy the most yummy caramel from Fat Toad Farm.

Fat Toad Farm is a family run goat farm down the road from me in Brookfield, Vermont. They did sustain damage from the storm, however back to making their nationally recognized caramel. They are having a one day online fundraiser to help their local farmers who lost everything in the flooding. This is another way to help and receive something “sweet!”

Cooking up a Storm in Vermont!

Irene threw a wrench into may people’s lives in many ways. Everyone has their way to help rebuild and recover. Locally sourced cooking that could help farmers get by and feed our neighbors who’ve lost everything, including their pots and pans – feels good! Hope you will join me and get “stewing!”

iPhone Photography. Clouds. Vermont Landscape.

“EEEK!!!”

That would be my reaction when I am looking out my window or driving around Central Vermont (or really anywhere with a great “sky-scape” perspective of the world above.) Today has been one of those days where the sky “spoke” to you, if you listened.

The clouds where not just beautiful, cool and expressive. They were SPECTACULAR! I mean S.P.E.C.T.A.C.U.L.A.R., and then add a few explanation points!

The first photo from the day was on my iPhone4; I was coming home after a few errands, and drove RIGHT past the entrance to my road because I knew if I just went up the road a little bit further… I could get THIS photo!

When I pulled over to take the shot, had no idea I had an audience, you know, when you have that feeling someone is watching you, turned around, and two kids sitting on a rock where like, “huh???” I waved. Hopped back into the car. Practiced my three-point-turn, and back to the house so I could take THIS photo with the Canon 7D/70-200mm at f13/320s.

It was terribly difficult to keep my head out of the clouds ALL day. The best views were to the West and it continued to build and build. I had to fight the urge to bail on work and literally just drive around taking cloud and sky photos. The struggles of living in Central Vermont. Like I’ve said before, “hate me,” but you too could live here! At least visit!

So, I “struggled” through my day, teased and tormented by the beautiful world above me, when it was time to take a short drive to my friend’s house. Little side note: I am an awesome “chick-sitter.” Before your imagination runs nutty on that one, my friends have chickens and I’m looking after then while out of town.

At any-rate, I could not resist. I faught the urge to shoot till after all the young chickens were safe and sound in their home, went out into the middle of Warren Common Road and with my iPhone, took THIS…

To be frank, though I am happy with this little photo, it still does little justice to the visual experience in-person. Generally speaking, the sky is always beautiful in these parts of Vermont, but it’s not everyday where the clouds just scream,”LOOK AT ME,” like they did today. I do feel a little bit behind on my work-list, but that will be there tomorrow, today’s clouds are already gone…

iPhone Photography. Perfect Sunday Afternoons in Vermont.

Those already reading may have figured by now I am a silly over my iPhone4 and the creative images one can create. They would also know I am rather passionate about supporting all things local and Vermont. The next thing they should know is all perfect Sunday afternoons should end with a nice glass of red wine!

Before I made it to the glass of wine and my spiffy shot of the sky above reflecting in it, I was munching away on a lovely pint of blueberries picked a few towns south of Warren. The bottle of Izze soda pop seemed quite fitting in my warm studio. An impromptu trip into the town of Waitsfield easily lured me to the local Creamee stand and one of the BEST maple creamees in all over Central Vermont!

It’s been one FINE afternoon!

All three photos shot with the Camera+ application and a final finish in the Instagram app. I’ve got my own little iphone work flow – mini version of my everyday, but loads of fun! I find the real craft is figuring how to shoot it in Camera + first with an idea of what crazy app/filter I will use afterwards. I imagine what I want the final picture to look like before I actually take it, with exception to my iPhone cloud photos, which I do not do anything to except add a border.

Happy shooting!

I Love iPhone Photography and Central Vermont Clouds.

The scene out my front door never gets old! Taking pictures with my iPhone never gets old either. All images taken right outside my home, and with that iPhone! Wish I could convince my students how creative they really can be with just there little camera phone. They get stuck thinking a big fancy camera is necessary to take a beautiful picture for their own pleasure.

Sure, as a professional you must have professional tools to do the job. However, to be a creative person who enjoys creating beautiful images – you only need your mind’s eye and imagination. From there you do the best with what you’ve got. That’s how I got my own start in this field. I did not set out to be a professional photographer like many of my colleagues, who took out loans, went in debt, etc. to have the equipment.

That simply was never an option. The only option was learning to be a photographer with whatever I had available to take an image with. In the early days that began with a Kodak Instamatic 100, and a Kodak Trimlite Instamatic 38! Anyone else out there remember those?!?  It gets better, I won a Kodak Fisher Price 110 Camera at the New York State Fair back in the ’80s!! I’ll never forget the house-hold choirs my mother made me do to earn development of those pictures.

The camera that really helped photography find me was my Canon G9! I was traveling about the globe and all I really had room for was something small that shot a high quality image with manual controls. Man, I miss that little camera. I use to describe it as a “pug.” You know, like the big dog in a little dog’s body. The Canon G9 and it’s predecessors are like having a DSLR stuffed into a point shoots small body.

Sometimes size does matter when you need to pack your life into a knapsack and one carry-on. However, I will end on saying that as a professional who is responsible for photographing once-in-a-lifetime events like a college graduation or wedding – I’ll never underestimate the value in having my professional “rig” to count on. It’s heavy. Makes my shoulders and back wish I had a standing appointment with a massage therapist. It’s reliable. It’s super durable (fell down a hill just the other day and the camera held up better than my phone!)

As a professional, I never leave home without the big camera and all it’s gadgets. As an artist, I love creating images and really don’t care how, as long as I can!

Crazy about Instagram, my iPhone, and Vermont Maple Creamees!

Love. Love. LOVE!!!

To know me is to know my favorite camera is my iPhone4 and I am not ashamed to admit to eating more than one Vermont-made Maple Creamee a day (sometimes more…)

A couple weeks back my co-worker in the Communications Department of Norwich University dialed me into Instagram and a whole lot of love baby! I mean L.O.V.E!!!

Maple Creamee + iPhone (Camera+ application to take original photo) + Instagram application for iPhone = Three really yummy photos!