A Black and White World

Here's a small collection of my black-and-white photos that have been stored on my hard drive for a while (Not the ones I was talking in my last post- I'll do those on Election Day). You'll recognize some of them from posts a while back:)
So the question is, what should I do with them? Print them and put them in a photo album? Hang them on my wall?

They don't all go together. Some are more "film noir" than others. The first picture of a crow reminds me of Hitchcock. (Except that The Birds was done in color so we could appreciate the blood. So charming.)

fall

I was going to post all the black-and-whites I've collected in the last month, but all that stuff about political rallies is going to have to wait. Although I will say I CANNOT wait until this coming Tuesday. I might go somewhere with my mom or I might just stay home and park myself in front of the TV like my younger brother used to do when Olympic ice skating was on.

It's kind of sad that it's the end of October, but I'm the kind of person who is always wanting the next season to come. (The fog outside my window reminds my of Thanksgiving...) Thankfully Halloween weekend is pretty quiet in my neighborhood. I'll admit that Louis wanted to dress up like a zombie this year and chase people down the street, and Gabe wanted to spray people with the garden hose, but those plans were quickly killed. We stopped celebrating Halloween years ago, but we still hand out candy because we have curtain-less windows framing our door. Since we like to leave the other window blinds open, our house is basically one large stage when the sun sets. The idea of people standing on our doorstep repeatedly ringing our doorbell because they see us inside ignoring them isn't that appealing. Plus, I like seeing the little neighbor kids in costumes:)
If you are under five and cute I will give you candy. If you are a teenager with a pillowcase full of chocolate, you will be receiving a political bumper sticker and a complementary pin. (How else am I supposed to get rid of the rest of this junk before Tuesday??)

Anyway, here are some photos of fall foliage and a random house that needed to be photographed:

lovely memories

This is my desktop wallpaper at the moment:
This was taken with a point-and-shoot over a year and a half ago. You're probably wondering why these pictures keep resurfacing various places....I just love them so. I'll never forget being in the desert during a rainstorm. (The above picture was taken after it passed over.) If the ground under the mini's wheels hadn't started to sink in I could have stayed out there for much longer:) It would have been a lot of fun to run out there- Oregon landscapes are so beautiful.

Here are a few more older photos for good measure, since I'd rather be looking at pretty photos of landscapes than homework:

some family shots

Slowly, I've been learning to use my camera better. I've been making myself focus on the technical aspect, and I'm starting to be happier with the results. Since it was Gabe's (first picture on the right) 11th birthday yesterday, and the cousins were visiting- I was determined to get a picture of each kid. (I'm not going to post all of them on here.) And I did it.
Mission accomplished.
I may post a few more on the blog after I clean out my camera's memory card:)

Life has become really busy this week...hopefully I can post again soon!

photos from last fall and carrot pear cupcakes

Some of the photos I took last fall with my point-and-shoot still remain my favorites. A new season means a new sort of light, a new set of colors. It's like getting a new watercolor palette.

 food photography at 9:00 in the evening...no natural light pictures, sorry!

I found the perfect carrot cake recipe yesterday and baked up a small storm last night. I substituted a cup of finely chopped semi hard pear in place of the apple mixture. I frosted some of the cupcakes with cream cheese icing, and I topped the rest with a mixture of oats, cinnamon and sugar.

Carrot Cupcakes:

2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

4 large eggs

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

1 cup (240 ml) safflower, corn, or canola oil

2 cups (210 grams) finely grated raw carrots

1 cup grated apple (approximately 2 large)

1/2 cup (55 grams) pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped

1 cup (100 grams) raisins or currants

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature

3 cups (330 grams) confectioners' (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Place paper liners in 20 muffin cups.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon.

In another large bowl whisk the eggs, sugar, and oil until slightly thickened. Fold in the flour mixture until incorporated. With a large rubber spatula fold in the grated carrots, grated apple, chopped nuts, and raisins. Evenly divide the batter between the 20 muffin cups and bake about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake

comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack. Pipe or with a knife or small metal spatula spread the cream cheese frosting on top of each cupcake. Cover and refrigerate the cupcakes until serving time.

Frosting: In the bowl of your electric, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until very smooth and creamy. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until fully incorporated and smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Makes 20 cupcakes.

from joy of baking

weekend

So the apples we picked Friday turned out to be unripe, but my mom still made some fabulous apple sauce Saturday. Since it was dry and sunny I brought out the watercolors out and painted with Jerome and the neighbor kids I was babysitting.

orchard

Friday I went to a local orchard with my mom, Gabe, Susanna, and Jerome. There's a festival that happens here, but I can't get very many good pictures while it's going on.There are dozens of kids in the hay maze, and dozens of cars in the parking lot- which are all fine, but I prefer to come the day before so I can get a good shot of Jerome by himself. Here are a few frames of lovely fall-ishness: