Sunday, February 26, 2012

Otto Pizza

Pizza perfection.
On an unseasonably warm (in any other year) Presidents' Day, A and I headed to Harvard Square to see Safe House (loved it!) and check out Otto Pizza. It's been in Harvard Square for a year but it was hard to break our Cambridge One pre-movie pizza habit for a newcomer. When I found out Otto was owned by the same people who opened the universally-raved-about pizzeria by the same name in Portland the year after I left, though, I knew I had to go. One look at their menu and I was completely sold.
New. Favorite. Pizza. 
The place was pretty much empty when we arrived, but it filled up right after we grabbed a spot at the windowfront counter.
Where dreams are fulfilled
We ordered a pie with Mashed Potato, Bacon, and Scallion on one half (the topping combination that sold A on the venture immediately) and Spicy Pulled Pork with Mango on the other. Two delicious iced teas rounded out the meal.
Mashed Potato, Bacon, and Scallion
Spicy Pulled Pork with Mango
A refreshing (Arnold) Palmer
Look at that bubble! I love pizza crust bubbles. 
If you make it outside the store with your pizza, this nifty screen will keep the bottom of your pizza from getting soggy and greasy
We will probably be back to Otto every time we hit Harvard Square from now on (the fact that they sell slices is pretty deadly). Next time you're in Harvard Square, you have to go!
Gratuitous pizza shots

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Places I love: St. Lucia

Where my mind goes in February
February has been a bit of a blah month this year in terms of personal inspiration. I'm going to burst through my bloggers' block with memories of a trip I took to St. Lucia one cold winter a few years ago with my dear friend Katie. We were living in Maine and decided that we needed a trip somewhere, anywhere sunny. Someone Katie knew had been to St. Lucia for a honeymoon and couldn't recommend it more highly. We decided that two single girls could have a lot of fun on a honeymooners' island-- if everyone else is hunkered down in an all-inclusive resort, more fun adventures would be open for us! It really is a jewel of an island and I want to support the amazing people of St. Lucia by sending more tourist dollars their way! Just imagine what being there is like if I could capture images like these with my 2002 vintage no frills point and shoot.

The walkway at our hotel
Dennery-- we went to the most amazing fish festival here
Gorgeous ruins of a fort on the water
I love the textures in dried coral!
Rodney Bay, our home away from home
Spectacular sunsets. Whenever I get the chance to photograph a sunset over water I take it!
The waterfront resort on Rodney Bay where we pretended to be guests every day
Our reward for a hike through the jungle
Inspiring color palette in Anse La Raye-- I loved this village!
More amazing colors and textures at the old fort

Friday, February 3, 2012

Instaphotographers

iPhone 4, Shakeitphoto

Wired ran a great article in December on Instagram and its effect on photography. One of Instagram's founders believes that Instagram helps the masses develop better photographic eyes because we can now create instantly the effects that old school film photographers (like my grandmother) achieved with different combinations of film and processing techniques:

In old analog cameras, many such filter “effects” were a chemical byproduct of the film, so photographers became expert at understanding the unique powers of each. Fujifilm’s Velvia film, with its high saturation and strong contrast, attracts photographers looking to capture the vibrancy of nature, Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom notes.
But casual photographers rarely developed this type of eye, because they just wanted to point and shoot. What Instagram is doing—along with the myriad other photo apps that have recently emerged—is giving newbies a way to develop deeper visual literacy.I will always have deep respect for artists whose medium is photography, and there is an undeniable difference in the quality of images that come out of high end film and digital cameras compared to a point and shoot or phone camera image. However, I am really enjoying the ability to make images that I think are interesting (in composition, or lighting, or color) with my phone's camera. Clive Thompson:
Critics sniff that filters are mere retro-chic nostalgia. That’s partly true, but it misses the creative urge here—and how filters affect what gets photographed. Scroll randomly through Instagram feeds and you’ll see the expected cat pictures and look-at-me headshots. But there are also tons of still lifes and landscapes, filtered into poetry: A vacant pair of blood-red subway seats that seem weirdly alarming, the corroded metal clock on an old oven as a meditation on time. When I was a kid in the ’70s, you only got that sort of composition in National Geographic. Now it’s omnipresent.
In the future I hope to be able to afford a DSLR to improve the resolution and focus of my photographs, but I like to think that I'm making the greatest leaps in photographic skill now with my trusty iPhone and filter apps like Instagram.

{Hat tip to Jake's Mag for linking to the article today}

iPhone 4, Instagram
iPhone 4, Shakeitphoto
iPhone 4, Instagram

Thursday, February 2, 2012

New Favorite Breakfast of All Time

Ripe avocado spread on toasted rustic bread with cracked pepper.

That is all.