I took the theme of Try Something New to heart and really wanted to experience something out of the ordinary, so for a truly extraordinary culinary adventure I chose to visit the Bedford Village Inn for dinner tonight.

See more luscious food from the BVI in a recent wedding that I photographed.

This past Saturday I got to visit Planet Marshmallow on Hanover Street for the first time. Well, technically my first time there was at the Hippo de Mayo Taco Tour….. me and about 1400 of my closest friends. But my actual first time checking it out as a relaxed customer eager to get my dessert on was this weekend, actually for a Mother’s Day treat.

We sat down and were handed our menus….. whole menu of desserts. Really cool things like make-your-own-smores, and homemade marshmallow samplers, ice cream concoctions, cakes and pies. Coulda died.  We ordered the Peanut Butter Pie and the Hot Fudge Sundae. Both of which were amazing and chock-full of high quality ingredients which I could really taste in every layer.  Here are a few snapshots that I took right from our table…. beautiful light that evening!

I may or may not have polished off my sundae, and then devoured the remaining half of my husband’s peanut butter pie. He apparently became “full.” Not sure what that means??  I for one think Planet Marshmallow is a fantastic, fun addition to the Downtown Manchester scene, and I can’t wait to stop by another time and try some more beautiful desserts!

Welcome to another round of our monthly blog theme, brought to you by some of New Hampshire’s custom portrait photographers. In April we explored an Earth Day theme, and this month we take a look at Mother’s Day for our theme.

I enjoyed Mother’s Day yesterday since we weren’t able to do it on Sunday. I got to spend the afternoon by myself, went to Chipotle for lunch, then to the movies to see Dark Shadows…… and lastly enjoyed an early dinner with Dave at Firefly, and dessert at Planet Marshmallow! It was a very nice day. When we got home I even had some time to get a few pictures of Parker which I’ve been trying to do for a week now, since his 3rd birthday was just last week. Trying to be a good photographer momma and do a little session for him.

Next, visit Thea at Authentic Eye and see what she has in store for Mother’s Day!

The 2012 Hippo de Mayo Taco Challenge was a great success, with a huge turnout, 30+ tacos to enjoy, faster lines, and we even squeaked by with some good weather. Thousands of people came to downtown Manchester with cash in their pockets to indulge in $2 tacos of all kinds.  I was thrilled this year to be asked by The Hippo to photograph the event, and capture all those delicious tacos. Pretty much the best job ever? You bet.

36 DeLux received a runner-up nod from the Taco Judges for their chocolately dessert taco.

Planet Marshmallow was a newcomer this year to downtown,  but knocked it out the park with their ice cream dessert taco, and reportedly the longest lines of the night, and securing the Judges’ Choice win and $1000 for the charity of their choice, Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center.  These kids were working so hard, trying to keep that line moving.

One of my favorite stops is El Rincon Zacatecano. These ladies are always so hospitable, so friendly, and so casual that you feel like you’re at your mom’s house when you go. I always feel completely taken care of and appreciated when I go there, part of a big happy family. It was one of my last stops of the night and I was honestly so tired I was going to skip it, but I knew I just HAD to stop by, with just about 30 minutes left in the evening.  I enjoyed one of their delicious tacos pastor and was impressed as always at the completely homemade taste of it, with thoughtful touches of fresh lime and radishes.  It tastes like love. ♥  Upon leaving, I shyly asked them if there was anything that they’d like me to take a picture of before I went, and one of the ladies beamed and said, “Us!” and pulled the entire staff together. Such a lovely, hardworking and happy group of women and I’m proud to have taken their photo that night.

Two of the tacos had a buffalo theme…. but they couldn’t have been more different. Red Arrow Diner (of Triple D fame) featured a BBQ Buffalo Pulled Pork Taco (with blue cheese dressing!), while The Wild Rover shook it up with their Fried Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese taco. Both were excellent.

Firefly featured the only build-your-own taco bar of the night, with their Bacon Cheeseburger Taco. You had me at bacon!

Hooked and Ignite also had an impressive line for some of the evening with their Hooked on Taco.

Big thanks to The Hippo for noticing my work, and appreciating my all-encompassing love for all things taco and Mexican, street food, and celebrating local restaurants.  All of my favorite worlds collide in gigs like this so I have to say Muchas Gracias!

For more of my images from the Taco Tour, check out my 2011 Hippo de Mayo post.  And be sure to check out more photos from Planet Marshmallow too.

Welcome to spring! It looks like spring has finally, truly arrived in New Hampshire and I couldn’t be more pleased.  As you recall, a group of custom portrait photographers throughout New Hampshire have gotten together for a monthly themed blog circle. Previous themes this year included A Day in the Life, What Love Looks Like, and A Favorite Recipe…..this month, the blog theme for April is Earth Day.  You can visit the next  photographer in the circle by following the link at the bottom of this post.

I am a firm believer that Earth Day is not one day a year, but every day. We all have so many opportunities each day to make changes, use fewer resources, dispose of things a little differently, and leave the much-talked-about smaller footprint.  We don’t do everything right here in the Follansbee household, but we do a few things very well. My favorite earth-friendly practice is reduce-reuse-recycling. I have been a hardcore recycler for as long as I can remember. Here in Goffstown,  for years now we’ve had single-stream recycling in 65-gallon bins that included plastics #1-7 (not bad for a small town!). I swear, so often I complain to my mother that so much of my day is taken up with processing trash, breaking down boxes and containers, separating stuff endlessly. Not a complaint, but it seriously does take up a huge chunk of my day. There you have it, my totally unglamorous life spent separating trash.  Many weeks our recycling bin is overflowing to the point where we have to use our neighbor’s bin. We recycle everything. I also keep separate areas for plastic bags (even though I take and use reusable bags to the store, they still accumulate endlessly), and also batteries, both of which require separate and different disposals.  We dispose of all our food scraps in our woods which reduces the weight of our garbage by about 50%, I would seriously estimate. When you have 3 and 5 year olds, you waste a lot of food, sadly, that has no place in the landfill. When you take out the recyling, and the food scraps, it leaves very little in the actual trash that has any weight (except when you have cat litter…..)

My other happy little way to make Earth Day every day is simply my enjoyment and respect for our little piece of land (which brings me to the photography portion of this post. I wasn’t going to show you pics of my recycling bin). We have always tried to be a  good steward of our property and I’ve enjoyed gardening for the 10 years that we’ve lived here.  I learned macro photography before I ever learned much of anything else, and it’s still something that I enjoy now when I have time (which never happens).  So here’s a little peek into my yard at this time of year.

Ferns at this time of year look like aliens being birthed, shown below.

For more Earth Day goodness, head over to Bow, NH and visit Jenn Bakos Photography!

April in Manchester means Eats Week!  I always look forward to checking out the participating restaurants and their menus. There were so many to choose from this year!  It becomes difficult when you have to coordinate your tastes with someone else, so between my husband and I (who often have very different ideas about what we want) the only place we could agree upon was Fratello’s this year.  We had only one opportunity to head out this week, so big thanks goes to his mother for babysitting, and removing our shackles for a couple of hours today.

My Eats Week menu was: Caesar salad, Chicken Capri, and dessert that night was a tiramisu cake.

For my portrait clients, I offer a variety of products, including prints, canvas, albums, and high resolution digital files. While they can  be purchased individually, the best value is to purchase your entire gallery of images in my Digital Collection.  In this package, the files are presented beautifully in a custom-designed CD case. I take great pride in designing the case in a way that reflects the tastes of the client, the theme of the session, or otherwise in a way that personalizes the experience. Wedding packages that include the digital negatives also receive this presentation.  This is just one of the  many ways that I offer my clients unique and high quality items for their session images.

Shown here are a few examples of cases that I’ve designed in the past.

Nestled into the Keeping Room at the Bedford Village Inn, I photographed the wedding of Janet and Jim, while 20 of their closest family and friends looked on. This was no ordinary second marriage….. this was a re-marriage.  To each other, after decades apart. True story!  Their two children from their original marriage, Dan and Rachel, are now grown with families of their own so it was one big happy family reunion.

After the ceremony, the amazing BVI luncheon menu started with Gathered Field Greens salad with Dried Fruits, Toasted Pecans, Red Onion & Maple Vinaigrette.

Choice of entree included Slow Roasted Angus Sirloin Steak with Port Wine Reduction, or the  Foraged Mushroom Orecchiette Pasta tossed with Roasted Foraged Mushrooms, Spinach & Caramelized Onions in a White Wine Cream, Topped with Parmesan & Truffled Bread Crumbs (It was fantastic).

And for dessert–wedding cake, of course!  This 4-layer lemon flavored  beauty with a two-toned purple floral arrangement on top was created by Jacques Pastries.

Congratulations to Janet & Jim, and thank you so much for letting me be a part of your special day.

After a long, gray winter, it is a sight for sore eyes when the colorful, fruity, pastel beauties from the spring and Easter menus start emerging from the Black Forest Cafe.  This time around my assignment was to create beautiful marketing photos to showcase the new goodies, but also a new challenge: to create a couple of images to be featured on the cover of the upcoming Spectrum Monthly magazine, showcasing chef & co-owner Bruce Walters along with one of his current seasonal creations: the strawberry velvet cake.

I use all of our shots for our website, e-newsletter and in social media. Her series of shots of our function space that we have used in multiple venues has had a direct, positive impact on the number of requests for information for this space. Each food photo that I use in a newsletter or on Facebook has a direct increase in sales/traffic.

I am 100% satisfied with Erika’s work, as well as her professionalism on site.”

Martha Walters, Co-owner
The Black Forest Café
Amherst, NH