When I was a kid I loved to read. I'd lie in my bed all morning and read. I really loved to read, it gave me an opportunity to live in another world. What I remember particularly well is the time when I read Harry Potter. At that time the books were still rather unknown (at least in Switzerland), and I'd have to wait at least another year until the next book came out. I think I devoured the first book when I was 10 years old, and on my 11th birthday I really wished to get a letter from Hogwarts. I mean, I knew that it was just a story, but I still was a bit disappointed when it did not arrive. You see, on one hand I really wanted to leave my class at school, I had no friends there, but also I wanted to be told I was special.
This need to feel special, it never served me well. I started many things, playing the violin, singing, volleyball, dancing, etc, just to find that thing I'm talented at. I thought I'd just find something I'd be good at naturally. I thought I would not have to work for it.
Still today, I really struggle to continue doing something I'm not good at from the start. And I came to realize that if I ever have kids, I'll never talk about talent in front of them. Talent alone doesn't get you anywhere. It's the work you put into it that counts.
One thing that I am trying to improve is my photography. I recently bought myself a Holga, a cheap toy camera, that makes me think long about the shot I want to make (Getting the film developed is quite expensive here). But I need to dig deeper, practise more. If you have any tips or ressources I would love the hear them. But I also just need to get out and shoot. Just do it should be my new mantra. Just do it. (if you have any assignments for me, please give them to me)
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| Marx and Engels in Berlin |
For this weeks Food Matters project installment, I made something simple. Since I did not change much, I'll just link to the recipe at the end of the post. I followed the basic recipe, but substituted lentil du puy for the black beans and used salad greens instead of kale because that is what I had on hand. I served it in taco shells with a simple avocado cucumber salsa, made with a little onion, avocado, about the same amount cucumber, a few sliced radishes, salt and lemon juice. The original recipe can be found over at good things grow: Beans 'n Greens Burritos. Check out what the other participants came up with this week over here.
I stayed pretty close to the recipe too and found it to be really great. So cool that you bought a toy camera. Developing film is not cheap so it really forces us to think about a shot and take one good one rather than multiple ones that we can pick from. I have a Fisheye and I love it coz it takes fun looking pictures and a Polaroid which is very special to me! :)
ReplyDeleteI am thinking about buying a fisheye lens for my camera, too. The pictures looks so fun.
DeleteI used lentils too - in my meatloaf hehe.
ReplyDeleteI am also still very new to taking pictures especially food. I try to take pictures of something that interests me and preferably doesn't move (lol) while I am trying to figure out an interesting angle. I thikn practice is the big thing. Right now I am looking around my garden and will take pictures of blossoms in macro or try to capture the bugs or bees :-) The one thing I am struggling with is the lighting. I have a baby = not much time. I often don't have more than 5min to plate my dish and take a picture. Often inside. Dim light. You get the picture. I wish they had a food photography class here in Calgary. I will be very interested to read more about your photography and how you are evolving. Jen
I think there is some great information out there on how to take pictures of food even indoors with dim light. Deb from SmittenKitchen has a section on how she takes her pictures and I think she has to rely on artificial light, too.
Deletehttp://smittenkitchen.com/2007/11/our-approach-to-food-photos/