Beginnings

Byron Bay, Australia

We're moving on Sunday! We signed the lease on March 1 and this has been the longest month of all time (longer than December as a child, and that's saying something). A and I are headed just a half mile away from our current place (and still in Cambridge, of course), but we are so so excited for the change for many reasons. While I wait out the last interminable days, here are some lucky gems that I managed to capture in my younger days of taking pictures. Even if I develop my skills in the way that I want to (and eventually get a big girl camera) I'll always be proud of these. To beginnings!

sense a pattern?

What can I say, ocean as muse is not original but it's amazing all the same.

I've always been obsessed with backlighting.

Southland New Zealand, in case you have an immediate "I want to go to there" urge. 

One short. 

NZ again. 

I love fishing boats of all colors, but these are amazing. 

Perfect Golden Hour light and graying sky. 

Red shingles slay me. 

Spring!

It's been a weird winter for sure.

Cardullo's

Dangerous Territory

After eating our fill of amazing pizza at Otto, A and I made our way down to Cardullo's for some pre-movie candy (some of which {cough} may have made it into the theater in my purse). Cardullo's sells all kinds of gourmet foods, both local and imported...

Preserves

Love vanilla in my caramel

Dynamite sodas

I need to dream up a baking project worthy of these

... but my favorite section is the imported candy aisle! I've noticed grocery stores in urban areas carrying more and more Euro candy brands like Kinder and Ritter Sport in the past few years, but I love Cardullos for having my favorites, especially good marzipan, a family obsession...

Hands down the best marzipan I've ever had

...and REAL Cadbury! When I studied in New Zealand there was a Cadbury factory in my city, so many days we'd awake to the smell of chocolate mingling with the aroma from the coffee factory in town. Much better than your average New England factory smells! Cadbury sold in the US is actually made by Hershey (not my favorite chocolate) and really does taste different than the stuff I loved in NZ. At the Cadbury factory in Dunedin they told us that American chocolate was only required to contain 10% cocoa solids compared with over 20% for UK and NZ manufacturers, and it really shows in the creaminess and flavor. Cardullos stocks the good stuff. Check it out next time you're in the Square!

Non-American Candy!

Real Cadbury, made in the UK

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

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

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

New Favorite Breakfast of All Time

Ripe avocado spread on toasted rustic bread with cracked pepper.

That is all.