Bonne Nuit, Paris

After another lovely, sun filled day in Paris, I took myself to dinner at Fish la Boissonnerie, a well recommended spot near St Germain that is open on Sunday evenings.  I enjoyed a wonderful meal starting with green bean, fig and feta salad, followed by line caught sea bass with black rice, and a little something sweet and salty for dessert, as well as lovely conversation with the bartender and fellow patrons (who happened to be from Naples, Fl and Alexandria, Va of all places).  Fish did not disappoint, and neither did the after dinner stroll along the Pont Neuf.

Looking Good Enough to Eat

Last week, I finished my master classes at LSP with Food and Product.  Split into two distinct sections with separate instructors, we spent Monday and Tuesday photographing food (and getting very hungry in the process!).  We all took turns playing the different roles you would find on set during a food shoot, the client and creative director working together to come up with a vision, the photographer and his/her assistants working with a food stylist to execute that vision.  By far, the hardest task (in my opinion at least) is that of the food stylist.  Finding the best tomatoes, taking the perfect "bite" out of a cupcake, arranging edamame beans and placing chop sticks just so. Rather than bore you with the details (it can take hours to get one shot just right), I will just share the images we produced, bon appetit!

Our first task was to shoot an image for a magazine cover, you can see the negative space at the top for the masthead, I was the food stylist, picking the "best" tomatoes and arranging them just so.  Fun fact, blue tack is a food stylists best friend. 

This was a page for a cookbook, I was the client and decided on the square format and over all look.  And yes, we got to eat the cupcakes after the shot.  And yes, they were delicious. 

Our "double page spread" for a cooking magazine, I was the creative director (thankfully, not the food stylist!)

   

This was our  "blog post" and is designed to tell a story or walk the reader through the recipe.  I was the photographer on this one.  Photographing fish is fun (and I'm not just saying that because I like alliteration...).

While it is a bit painstaking, I really, really enjoyed my tiny dip into the pool of food photography.  I am lucky to have many talented cooks in my circle of friends and family and I look forward to many opportunities to keep practicing!

Sadly though, right after this class, this was the only food around me to practice photographing:

No, I didn't run out of funds, rather I seem to have fallen victim to a stomach virus (I swear I didn't eat the sushi after the photo was taken!) and am slowly (very slowly) becoming reacquainted with food.

Before I know it I will be packing my suitcases (already?) and saying farewell to my little Finborough Rd flat and saying Bonjour to an apartment in Paris, where I will spend September.  No shortage of food to photograph there!

Can I take your picture?

A portrait photographer depends upon another person to complete his picture. The subject imagined, which in a sense is me, must be discovered in someone else willing to take part in a fiction he cannot possibly know about. - Richard Avedon

I spent the week before our adventure to Scotland back at LSP studying Portrait Photography.  In a way, it was sort of a combination of what I learned in Studio Lighting and Photojournalism, with a lot of new tricks up its sleeve.

This was my fourth course at LSP, meaning I have been making the journey from SW10 to Soho for over a month now, and faces that have become familiar have also become friends.  It is comforting to walk through those doors and step into the lift up to the sixth floor (which is really the seventh to us from the states) and know that I will likely bump into a former instructor, ready with a hug and a smile, or a classmate, excited to see that we will be taking another course together.  It is very strange that I will be starting my last day time class there tomorrow.  It has been a wonderful anchor on the first part of my adventure.

So, armed with the confidence of knowing my way around as well as more than a few of my fellow photo-enthusiasts, I stepped into the class I was most looking forward to, Portrait Photography.  I love taking portraits, I love showing someone the photo I just took of them (even though it is kind of a no-no to let the sitter see the back of your camera) and watching their eyes light up and the expression on their face that says "oh, wow, I don't look half bad."  The problem is, most people I know (myself included!) do not like having their picture taken!  Thank goodness for dogs and babies...and, apparently, sea birds (Pelicans, I'm looking at you, hams, every last one of you).

Once again, as with Studio Lighting, I had the dreaded realization that, if I was going to be practicing on my classmates, they were going to be practicing on me.  Cue hair and make-up (lets just say I'd let that slip a bit during my photojournalism week, when I was also rather ill).  Did I mention London was having a heat wave?  I know most of the States is burning up with heat indexes in DC over 100, and it was "only" in the 90s here (I'm starting to get the hang of the celsius to fahrenheit conversion), but there is a serious lack of Air Conditioning here.  Not just in my flat, where, blessedly, it stays relatively cool thanks to being a basement level and it came equipped with a large oscillating fan (which were apparently in very short supply), but many a restaurant and, even, at times, our classroom (remember folks, its on the 7th floor, heat rises...it was uncomfortable).  So needless to say, the test portraits of me are not what I'd call "keepers."

My classmate and frequent assignment partner, Alice, was a different story and some of our shoots turned out quite well.  Thank you Alice for being such a lovely and fun subject!

One of our assignments was to take 36 portraits of the same subject.  In a row.  36.  We were encouraged to approach a stranger but were perfectly welcome to use a friend or family member as our subject.  While I am getting a bit bolder, I still decided to go with the friend option, knowing that I was meeting my friend Scott that evening for a pub quiz (our team of "Yanks" came in third, not too shabby considering there was more than one question about cricket...).  As luck would have it, he brought along a co-worker, Ella, who was willing to let me snap-snap-snap away, technically fulfilling the assignment with both a stranger and a friend (Scott thought he was off the hook, ha!).  Here's a very small sample:

 

 

It is a very good thing that I came through with some clutch answers during the quiz, because having someone constantly snapping pictures of you is incredibly annoying.  But the point of this type of assignment (yes, there's a point or two) is that often if you are commissioned to take a portrait, you will not have much time with the subject, you likely won't know the subject personally (and again, not much time to build a connection or rapport), and you may not have much control over the environment.  And also to illustrate (again!) that if you walk away with one great shot out of 36, you have done your job well.  Thank you Ella and Scott!

Building on that, our final assignment for this course was to spend two hours with a model on Friday morning, trying to capture a number of emotions: anxiety, happiness, dreaming, in love, sadness, shattered (which means exhausted here), disappointed, surprised, furious.  If you take  gander at stock images and use any of these as key words, you will get a lot of lovely but somewhat cheesy photos.  Our goal was to capture these images without being too obvious (ie, a really wide eyed, mouth agape with hands on either side to show "surprised").  It just so happened that my darling mom arrived on Thursday (if you missed how that happened, in the span of four days, give this post a read), and my instructor suggested that she be my model - after telling her that my mom does not particularly like having her photo taken she answered, even better!

Once my mom realized, to her slight horror, that this would be a bit more involved than me snapping nine photos of her making faces that she thought corresponded to the emotions, she settled in for a grueling morning of having her picture taken over and over and over again.  I promised her I wouldn't put too many up, so here are a few of our favorites.

  

After a week off spent traveling around the UK with my model momma, I head back to Oxford Street tomorrow for my last full-time class, Food & Product.  After that I have a couple of evening courses, but it is winding down.  I've fallen back in love with photography over the last six weeks - taking photos, analyzing, enjoying them - and rarely leave my flat without my camera (friends and family: you've been warned).  [Santa, if you're reading this, I've been pretty good this year, and a 5D Mark III would look lovely under the tree...!]

For any of my former Alliance colleagues who are reading the blog, I took all of these with the 50mm lens I bought using your sweet going away gift (a gift card to B&H, they know me well!).

A (sick) Day in the Life

I spent this week out on the streets of Soho and the South Bank practicing street photography and photojournalism.  It was a great class, and one that I was really looking forward to, but just as I was surprised by how much I enjoyed working in the studio last week, I was equally surprised by how anxious I was trying to take stealth street photographs! I did get a few interesting shots in Soho (always a hotbed of interesting people and scenes!) on the first day of class, and found myself getting a bit more comfortable with it as the week progressed.

On Wednesdays, we have the day off from class to do an assignment on our own.  This week, our assignment was to document our day in a photo essay, applying the basic structural elements we studied, like establishing shots, detail shots, relationship and portrait shots, while turning the camera on ourself.  I went to bed Tuesday unclear about what my day would look like, but woke up with the horrible realization it was not going to look like much because I was sick.  As in fever, sore throat, can't believe I have to get out of bed and go to Boots (the pharmacy), oh-dear-me I wore sweatpants in London, sick.  I'd like to blame it entirely on some germs picked up on the Tube, but it's probably a combination of public transport, not enough vitamins/exercise and possibly a dose of too much fun.  Needless to say, my photo essay was pretty boring...

  

I managed to make it to class Thursday and Friday despite the bug, and we ended the class with a field trip to Borough Market. Since I already managed to take loads of foodie photos there in June, this time I focused on "street portraits" of the vendors.  One thing that I have learned through this whole course is that if you spend a whole day shooting and you come away with one or two shots you really like, it was a successful day.  For as instantaneous as digital photography is, it requires an incredible amount of patience!  Thankfully, a market like Borough gives you plenty of good excuses to chat with the vendors and ask if they wouldn't mind you poking around with your camera.  Some people posed, others went right about with their work as if I wasn't there.

 

After being out and about so much with class, I am firmly rooted in the flat today in an effort to kick this bug once and for all.  Thankfully, I kept my Netflix streaming account active, have plenty of tea and honey, and despite the actual heat wave that has hit London (it's nearly 90 today, though they have been calling it a heatwave once the temps reached 80...) my little garden flat is relatively cool.  I feel confident that I will be in fine form to celebrate Bastille Day tomorrow and take on Portraiture on Monday!

Lights, Camera, Action!

It is high time for a photography school update (lest you think all I do is go to concerts and watch tennis).  After getting the fundamentals and becoming comfortable shooting in Manual mode in the first week of my course (end enjoying a week off immediately following), I have moved on to more specialized, week-long sessions, ranging from studio lighting to photojournalism/street photography to portraits to food and product.  Last week, I completed my Studio Lighting course, and as you might imagine, fitting even the basics of working with professional lighting into one week was intense!

We worked through concepts like Rembrandt lighting and paramount lighting, using different types of light formers (standard reflectors, beauty dishes, soft boxes, snoods, oh my!) and different combinations of key, hair and background lighting.   To start, my classmates and I rotated being the Photographer, the Assistant and the Model (I absolutely cringed every time I had to be the "model" - I signed up to be behind the camera, not in front of it!).  But by the end of the week, we were working with actual models  - though I must say, I think my classmates made excellent models!

Rembrandt lighting with Faye

Hair Lighting with Nathalie

One of the best things about this class was the way it helped me identify and develop my aesthetic or style as a photographer.  I went into the class knowing I liked natural-looking, often monochrome or pastel looking, portraits (Mario Testino's book of portraits of Princess Diana and Richard Avedon's portraits are among my favorites), and this class not only solidified that these are the kind of pictures I want to take, but also taught me how to begin to achieve this style.

"I usually try to make my images look like they just exist, like no effort was put into it." - Mario Testino

I also had a lot of fun experimenting with other styles along the way, including this shoot with my classmate Ian. I wanted a somewhat "film noir" lighting set up, achieved with a standard reflector on a boom stand, held by our amazing co-instructor G (those things are NOT light).

On Thursday and Friday, we brought in the "real" models: Cliff and Soraya.  With Cliff, we were instructed to pair up and replicate an image from Rankin's Portraits.  My lovely classmate Nathalie and I both zero-ed in on this image of Forest Whitaker and did our best to recreate it with actor / model Cliff:

After trying to recreate the image, we each got a few minutes with Cliff to do some "freestyle" shots, learning to communicate with the model to get the shots we wanted.  As you can (hopefully) see, Cliff was great to work with!

 

On Friday, we met Soraya, an aspiring West End musical theater actress.  Having packed an entire suitcase full of outfit options, she was a little horrified when I asked her to stay in the t-shirt she arrived wearing, but once I explained the set-up she was game.

 

Just like Cliff, Soraya was fabulous to work with.  I was pleased and honored that both models seemed very happy with the images I shot, requesting copies to use in their future endeavors.

After spending last week in the studio, hammering out technical details and getting the lighting "just right," I have done a total 180, and am now taking my photojournalism and street photography course.  Given that I prefer a natural/ambient lighting aesthetic, I am hopeful that I will be able to apply some of the  lighting concepts I learned last week to my efforts this week!

© 2013, Capital Citizenne

Strolling Along the South Bank

After getting sucked into the black hole that is watching Wimbledon for the past few days, my camera and I headed to the other side of the Thames for a day of people watching, photographing and eating on the South Bank. First stop of the day was Borough Market.  I've always enjoyed visiting London's many wonderful and eclectic markets, from Portobello Road to Camden Town, but had never made the trip to Borough.  My dear friend and fellow recent-Londoner Scott alerted me to the area as he is going to be calling it home very soon, and a classmate of mine in photography school -- who happens to be a very clever food blogger  -- gave me the great and helpful tip to visit the market on Thursday to beat (some of) the crowds.

While the markets I mentioned earlier are an eclectic mix of antiques, handcrafts, arts and food, Borough Market is primarily about the food.  Stall after glorious stall of food, featuring everything from English cheeses and charcuterie to more varieties of mushrooms than I have ever seen, cases of savory pies, and loads of fresh breads, seafood, produce and the most incredible looking meringues!

    

 

I smartly decided to eschew the leftovers in my fridge in favor of a market lunch, and after a few laps, I decided on a duck confit sandwich, topped off with a very dainty "scoop" of salted caramel goat's milk ice cream.  Not really a fan of goat cheese myself (cue the shocked cries of "but goat cheese is sooo good, I love it" - I've tried it a million times, you can have all of mine) I was offered a sample, and it.was.good.  So good!

After the market, I made my way back to the Tate Modern.  The TM is a pretty divisive museum, much like modern art itself, you either like it or you don't.  After an Art History class that focused on the art of the 1960s, that put the artistic movements in the historical and political context of the times, I became something of a fan, and especially a fan of the Tate Modern.  The space is a converted industrial park and showcases works by the likes of Mondrian, Flavin, Ellsworth Kelly and a fantastic collection of William Eggleston photographs.  I also get a kick out of eavesdropping on other visitors, hearing a lot of "why is this art, I could do that" or just giggles of bewilderment.

a felt sculpture by Robert Morris

One of the biggest luxuries I have afforded myself this trip is time; I don't have to do the whole museum in one visit, because I can come back (did I mention they are free, thanks London!). So after spending an hour wandering the fourth floor, I called it a day (to be honest, the museum was also quickly filling up with school children and getting very crowded!).

Rather than cross the river via Millenium Bridge or Blackfriars, I chose to walk the Thames Path down to Westminster, taking in the sights and sounds of the South Bank along the way.  It's a vibrant river front with loads of street performers and people everywhere you look.

 

And just as it started to drizzle I was back over the river and on my way home.

© 2013, Capital Citizenne

Tasting London

For quite a long time, London's food scene got a bad rap, but times have certainly changed.  London -- not unlike D.C. -- is buzzing with fabulous restaurants popping up all over the city.  Today, I ventured to Regent's Park to sample offerings from 40 of the city's best restaurants, in addition to a number of specialty food producers, at the annual Taste of London. Not knowing exactly where to start, I started at the most logical of locations, the "world of beer" where I purchased a pint of ale and studied the program and map, plotting my course.  Of course, I changed my mind a million times once I was actually face to face with the food, settling on a delicious risotto, a trio of seafood sliders and a spicy ox cheek doughnut.  As you can see, I also used the day to practice some of the photography techniques and lessons I learned last week -- taking photos in manual mode takes some patience and some getting used to, but I am enjoying it!

Acquerello risotto with 8 year-aged organic parmesan from Babbo

A trio of seafood sliders from The Angler

Spicy ox cheek doughnut with apricot jam from the Duck and Waffle

Everything I tried was delicious, and I would have eaten more but I ran out of "Crowns" (the currency of Taste) at the same time I ran out of room in my stomach, though I also sampled a bite of black pudding as well as some delicious English cheeses that made their way back to my flat!

Tomorrow, I am planning to set my alarm clock for the wee hours of the morning in hopes of joining fellow tennis fans in The Queue at Wimbledon (wish me luck, apparently all of tomorrow's show court tickets have already been accounted for by fans camping out since early this morning!)

Wednesday Wind Up

A quick recap (mostly photos) of what I've been up to this past week. As you may recall, I was at  loss for what to do once I arrived.  Then I remembered one of the things that I love most about London - the walks.  So I have been taking lots of long walks around my neighborhood, including Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park and Battersea Park.

On Friday I took a trip to the National Portrait Gallery to see George Catlin's Native American Portraits (of particular interest as I just read David McCullough's The Greater Journey).

Followed by tea in the Gallery's restaurant, situated on the top floor with stunning views

From that view, I spied a lovely looking rooftop spot nearby, and since the sun was shining for the first time since my arrival, I made my way to the Trafalgar Hotel's Vista - it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

After attending Trooping the Colour on Saturday, I went to the Royal Albert Hall to see Swan Lake that evening.  The Hall is stunning and the performance was wonderful.

After a week of playing tourist, it was time to get started at school.  I am taking courses at the London School of Photography, and after only two days, I am really enjoying it and getting used to using my camera in fully manual mode (no more automatic!)

On Tuesday, I was learning to play with shutter speeds to freeze movement - many thanks to my model Ducky for his/her assistance in splashing about (if you want to see the detail of the water drops, click on the photo and zoom in).

And finally, below is one of my homework assignments - I promise I am not actually standing in the middle of traffic!

After about a week and half, there have been good days, not-so-good days, rainy days, and clearly some sunny ones  too.  I have stopped having massive anxiety every time I cross the street (do I look left, then right? Right, then left? why is there never a cross walk - zebra crossing - where it should be!?! Are those cars going to stop?) and become reacquainted with the Tube  - I must say, it is so nice to be in a city with a first rate (first world) transportation system.  Granted, I may get flattened by one of those buses or cabs, but compared to DC, they are practically luxe.