Second Photo Published

I can happily share the news that I had a second photo of mine published in a magazine. It’s in Issue 26 of the Photography for Beginners magazine, page 8. And the title would be ‘Young Swan’… (they’ve changed it in the magazine to Your Swan).

Young Swan

There it is with some specifications on the exposure used.

And with this news I would also like to tell all my readers/followers that I am going to have a little break now from posting on here. I have decided for a career change; I am now studying to become a teaching assistant and in parallel with that also to gain a qualification in teaching English as a foreign language. I have decided on this because I believe going into education is something that suits very well women who are also mothers, who have a family to look after. This said, I am not abandoning my passion for photography/food photography, I am just taking this time to sit back a bit and gather knowledge, new material, to grow by not neglecting anything that is important in my life… I will still be around, posting here and then, just less often then I used to. Also, I bought this book on food photography & food styling by the amazing Helene Dujardin, promoter of natural light photography, which I’ve started reading and I find greatly inspirational… So, I’ll be back -hopefully with improved photography skills.

All the best to everyone!

Transylvanian Tales: Kings and Queens

In Transylvania, a lot of people grow their own pultry: chicken, geese, ducks, turkeys. Here’s a fine example of a rooster and its ‘first’ hen.

King of the Henyard

Queen of the Henyard

Puff-ball

You might already be aware that I like flowers, plants, nature, and with it taking pictures of these all. I love taking a simple subject, that is in this case a dandelion(s)/puff-ball(s) in our front garden, and get a shot of it that brings it out in focus, makes something ordinary be the star of the show through the eyes of the photographer/me & appealing also to others who view it.

Life in the Suburbs (Dyptich)

Transylvanian Tales: A Szekler Household

Complete with fruit trees in the frontyard and wooden draw well.

In Énlaka/Énlakán

Cabbage & Chorizo Soup

I found the recipe for this soup in a woman’s magazine. I decided to prepare it because it had a short list of ingredients (I do believe a lot of the times less is more), because it was a soup (I love soups), and because since living in the UK, I hardly ever use cabbage in cooking for some reason (cabbage/sour cabbage is very commonly used in Transylvanian cooking -i.e. stuffed cabbage).

It’s easy to prepare and trust me, it’s very very tasty. Unlike it instructs in the recipe, once I browned the chorizo slices in the frying pan, I poured most of the oil from it (but not all!) into a bowl, and then mixed the somewhat oily chorizo into the soup (before spooning the soup in bowls).

Here it is:

Find the recipe here.

Transylvanian Tales: Trio

Jalousie/Zsalugáter

Roast Apple & Rhubarb Crumble (My First!)

As I might have already mentioned it, I’m not much of a baker/dessert maker. The main reason for that is mostly because I’m not into sweets/anything sweet, but more savoury things. Ok, every once in a while I do get the sweet tooth too/craving, but it’s not very often. Until now I was also pretty sure that if I do make the effort and bake something, there would be nobody here (at home) to eat it. So why waste?! Well, things have changed a bit lately. My 2 years+ daughter is VERY much into sweet things for a while now, especially chocolate, and my husband is showing rather obvious signs that he’d appreciate a dessert here and then too. Towards the end of last week he came home from work with 3-4 gigantic stalks of rhubarb, which he received from one his work collleagues…. So, on Sunday I prepared (with the help of my daughter), my first ever crumble! It didn’t come out great (there could’ve been a thicker layer of fruit), but we had fun making it, and it didn’t taste too bad either. Well not for a first anyway. Here it is then:

And my daughter’s version:

Find the recipe here!

Transylvanian Tales: Abandoned

Unfortunately you see quite a few of these up there, in those old Szekler villages.

RED

When I get the chance and find a good subject around the house, I like to experiment with still life. This is what I did with this tulip, the single tulip that grew in our front garden and which my daughter then tore… for me (had to love her for that). I wanted to emphasise the beautiful, deep red colour of its petals, so I put the flower in a little glass container (left over from an infusion sticks set), next to a window with white net curtain on (good for diffusing the light), and experimented with positioning, angles. I deliberately overexposed shots, also to bring out the red…, but used spot metering to expose correctly for the tulip’s head.  Hope you like the results. Which one do you consider best? Comments are welcome.

RED I

RED II

RED III

Transylvanian Tales: House with a Porchway

Typical Szekler House in Énlaka/Tipikus székely ház Énlakán

Note the blue colour and the traditional (commonly brown wood) porchway.