Sunday, April 25, 2010

Boring meals and bad photos

I can be a bit obsessive. For instance, when I start on a project that interests me, I have a hard time tearing myself away from it and going to sleep. When I was a child, this translated into reading in bed under the covers with a flashlight. (Didn't everyone do that?) And then the next morning telling my mom that I felt awful and my stomach hurt and my head ached. She'd let me stay home from school, and once she and my dad were gone, I'd grab that book and spend the day in bed finishing it.

Nowadays this obsessive tendency manifests as an inability to turn out exciting meals. I rely on my old standbys - a scrambled egg, a roast chicken, open a can of salmon and make salmon salad - a bit of celery, some onion, a squeeze of lemon. No more capers left in the fridge. Oh well...at least I've got bread in the freezer, and the lettuce is still recognizable. It will do.

I've never been a food photographer. I marvel at the way so many of you make me want to jump through the screen, fork in hand, and start digging in. This is a special talent which I do not possess. Instead, I am primarily a people photographer, interested in travel, photography and writing. And that, my dear readers, is where I've been for the last...almost month. I've been re-doing my photo website. Because good has never been good enough. So I've been at work on my images, creating a new look to the site, and making it feel more the way I want it. It's been exhausting. I fall into bed at weird hours, my neck aching from sitting in front of my computer for so long. All of this has been inspired by a photography workshop I took in March in Santa Fe.

But at long last, I can say that I am happy with the results. Yesssss!!! If you are interested in visiting the site, here's the link: wanderingeye-photo.

I should mention that my sister is having one of those "big" birthdays in June, and I have decided to put together a slide show for her. Photos of her when she was a child, all the way through the present tense, adding appropriate music. Another big project, but not quite as big as redoing my website. I will try to visit everyone's blog, but if I don't get to yours, please understand. I will be back. Promise!

In the meantime, I have posted a lousy photo of a pretty good stir-fry I threw together recently. It was some crazy hour of the nite when I photographed it and couldn't stand the yellow color of everything. So I did something, and right now I can't remember what it was. The result? Pink peppers. Yuck! At least the stir fry tasted good.

2 comments:

Penny said...

Toni, I know the feeling. I have been wondering how I can make my pictures better too. Photoshop doesn't always to the trick. Keep at it. Your blog is great.

Toni said...

Penny - You're right - Photoshop doesn't always do the trick. The photo for this post is living proof of that!

I'm OK with not being a great food photographer, actually. I love to cook and eat, but my photography is geared more to people.