I’ve been running into so many beautiful and wonderful videos/short films lately that I decided yesterday afternoon to declare an impromptu theme week here on Rough Hewn. (Plus, it gives me a few days more to finish editing photos from the beach…) I know for me, watching things like this light up my own curiosity and I’m hoping they also light a flame under my ass and I’ll go out and make some work. Maybe the same for you, no?
My post the other day about people showing me what they do and what they love got me thinking about what I would want to show & tell right now. Many of you might know that I have been working as a photo intern for Seattle Magazine for the past five (!) months and I’m often telling people I am busy on certain days or have photo shoots, but they never get to see the full extent of what I do during that time. It kind of sounds fake when I’m saying it to them. So here’s a play by play into last weekend’s assignment in the lovely neighborhood of Eastlake!
Usually what happens first is I get an assignment and shot list from my editors – phone numbers and addresses of places to photograph. This is the legwork part – cold calling. Bleh. But this method is 100% better than catching a business off-guard, willy nilly – most everyone I have ever talked to has opened their business up with open arms, so generous with their time, space….and food! Then the fun part begins – exploring!
I don’t know what it was about this particular assignment, but it made it’s way into my heart a little. The conversations and people I met in the area were so inviting, laidback, and welcoming – eager to promote not only their business and the area – but the businesses of their friends down the block. I was momentarily welcomed into the Eastlake club – the community.
I find that each time I push passed the “hassle” of calling, of meeting strangers, not having the weekend to myself, and the inevitable wall that comes up when you are about to do something you really care about – and get out there and shoot - I am more and more confirmed that this is what I love doing. God blesses me with joy and confirmation in my work. He gets me out of my bubble and into the way of people that are dynamic, interesting, and talented.
Now it’s just a waiting game of two or so months until I find out which six photos they chose from the hundreds that were taken! We shall see. We shall see.
Last weekend, my sister let me take a bit of bounty from the garden she planted with her three friends. I got some broccoli and an onion. Lots of basil for pesto and I snuck a few apples from one of the trees. But it was the dill and a few plums that really had me inspired! The next day I was eager to photograph them.
Looking at the pictures now, especially the one above, I can’t help but feel like dill is kind of a lonely herb. The last kid picked for the team. Forgotten. Maybe I relate to it a little in that way. Or maybe it’s just how I shot it – isolated and in a little pile – but I can’t help but feel like I want to cheer it up. Let it know that it has always been my favorite herb. And I’m not just saying that! {I had a bit of a panic when I lived in Brooklyn and couldn’t find it anywhere. For days I wondered whether tuna would ever be the same….or….potatoes, oh potatoes. I know I wasn’t looking very hard, but ultimately I discovered Whole Foods and things eventually returned to normal. But Oh! did I cherish that bottle of dill! }
I would also let it know that like any perfect food it’s smell has the power to take me back in time to meals my grandmother made. Lovely Norwegian food – simple (always with potatoes!), unpretentious, satisfying, and always colored with a bit of dill. Plus, I always feel like I’m being a good Norwegian every time I shake a little dill on my food. Like I’m doing my part. Expressing a little Norge pride.
These plums take me back as well – to the same chef, my Beste – they had plum trees outside their home in Seattle and they would inevitably have more than they bargained for. Thankfully, she would use them to make this wonderful plum sauce/pudding/compote, similar to applesauce but with plums. Pour a little cream over it while it was hot and you were in business! So good. I’ll try to find the recipe and post in here in the future.
I guess when it’s all said and done, in the process of taking these photos I realized that it wasn’t a coincidence that I happened to choose these foods to photograph. Both are deeply tied to memories of my grandmother’s Norwegian cooking – recipes I know she has only in her head. Recipes and memories I would love to learn from her, maybe even write them down, photograph the process. So that if I am ever a mother, they too, can have similar memories tied to dill…and plums.
Lately I’ve been craving a road trip. Travel. The open road.
Finishing Don Miller’s book, Through Painted Deserts last week only confirmed it that much more. He said something that has been rattling around my brain for the last few weeks:
“We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting, and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn’t it? It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out. I want to repeat one word for you: Leave. Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn’t it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don’t worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed.”(from the author’s note)
And I guess that’s what I’m wanting right now. The type of change that only comes with experiencing new places. New sights, smells, tastes…allowing yourself to be the stranger – opening yourself up to the unfamiliar, unaware of where you are going and even more unaware of who you will be on the other side of it. I’ve told myself I want to be braver. Take more risks. And travel just seems like an exhilarating way of doing it. Plus, I find driving relaxes me. You make a good mixed tape (yes, still), pop it in, hit the road – perfect time to think, pray, listen, sing obnoxiously loud, and ultimately get away from the common, the everyday.
Unfortunately, with a gallon of gas costing the same as a trip to starbucks(!) and my 1989 Ford Tempo flashing lights on the dash that I have never seen before – reading about the road from the likes of Kerouac, Guevera, and Pirsig will have to suffice, for now.
That is…until October, when the new PBS series, Spain…On the Road again. premieres! Mario Batali, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Bittman, and Claudia Bassols – it’s a foodie/travel/realitytv junky’s dream! Whatever your opinions of Batali – sausage fingers and crocs aside – he’s put together what looks like a really fun and beautiful show. I especially love seeing the “real” relaxed and playful side of all of these personalities – Gwyneth shortens words like I do! (“Batals!?!”). Take a look at the trailer – if each show is half as fun as this trailer (sing it Willie!), I might be able to stave off the travel bug a little longer, living vicariously through their adventures road tripping around Spain. I say, ¡tráigalo en!
In an effort to express and explore my growing love and interest in food photography I have decided to start shooting foods – one letter at a time! So far I have three. Check my future progress here.
{p.s. There is quite a mixed bag of food photography out there (some amazing, some booooring) – my current inspirations come from Matt Armendariz, Laurie Frankel, Béatrice Peltre, Heidi Swanson, and of course Mr. Bello. Take looksee – but maybe when your belly is full.}
{Photo Styling} It’s one of those things that has slowly been creeping up on me. Standing behind me. Looking over my shoulder. Waiting quietly. Breathing….heavily. So I tried a few things out.
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