I had a lot of fun in my studio taking these images after watching a creativeLive workshop of commercial Photographer Jeremy Cowart called Experimental Portraiture. He is amazing with his creativity and interesting ideas of making photographic images in the commercial world.

This particular technique that I used was to shoot the image with my Canon Digital through the view finder of my Bronica medium format film camera, giving the image a feel of film, note the third image with the Bronica focusing lines which I removed in post production.
You also have the ability to add to the image by placing anything on the focusing screen that you want, ie maiden hair fern leaves.

I just love the look and feel of these images, and the creativeLive team are just so fantastic with the photographers and artists that they present, which are available for purchase to watch the live shows.
Highly recommended by me, check them out on creativelive.com.

mums coffee set

mums coffee set

mums coffee set

frozen lemon halves

What a great way to have your lemons available all year round by freezing them!  They defrost well albeit a little mushy, but this makes them softer and easier to juice.

You can freeze them whole , sliced or really however you want them.  Just put them in the microwave for a short time then use for juicing, grating zest etc.

Nothing better than placing a quarter of a frozen lemon into a G&T and enjoying the ice chill of the lemon  (no dilution of the gin from ice cubes),  then when the lemon softens squeeze in the gorgeous juice.  Yummo, come on summer.

lemon juice cubes

preserved lemons

Lemons are in season and I have friends and family whose trees are bursting this year with fruit. I found out this fact when a friend  said to me the other day that she has lemons on her tree and would I like some?

Lemons are one of my favourite fruits, so I obviously said “great, I love them”! When I caught up with her this week she handed me a laundry basket completely full to the brim with lemons!!!!!!! What do I do with that many lemons? There would have to be 70 of them.

So here is my quest, I want to not waste one of these lemons. So I’m going to try to come up with as many ideas/recipes until I’ve used them all.

The first thing I always think of when I have lemons is preserving them ( occasionally I’ll think of margaritas! ). I have many recipes for them, but I chose this one from Jamie Oliver’s book “Jamie does Spain etc”.

                           JAMIE OLIVERS PRESERVED LEMONS

                                              10 small lemons

                                           200g coarse sea salt

                                         2 fresh bay leaves ( I used dry)

                                             7 black peppercorns

                                              2 sticks of cinnamon.

Sterilise a 1 litre jar and lid ( place a freshly washed and dry jar in a oven set at 100 C for about 30 mins ). Place the rubber  seal in boiling water, cool everything completely. Don’t touch the inside of the jar or lid.

Now for the lemons, squeeze 5 lemons and put juice to the side. Cut a deep cross at the top of each lemon about 3/4 down, making sure lemons stayed joined.  Pack a teaspoon of salt into each lemon then push the lemons back together.

Pop them into the jar, layering them up with the rest of the salt, the bay leaves, the cinnamon sticks and the peppercorns. Pour in the juice and then top up with water. Put on the lid and seal tightly, leave for a month in a cool dark spot, giving the jar a gentle shake every few days.

Deseed and cut finely and use with salads, rice dishes, stews, tagines etc. Your imagination is your only limit to its many uses.

Thanks Jamie.

They were off to a festival at the local temple, we stopped and I took a few images, not wanting to disturb their moment.

I have to say that the Balinese are the most generous and lovely people; they are so fantastic to photograph. Whenever I asked to take a photograph I always was allowed and usually with a smile.

off to the festival

festival in bali

festival food

entering the balinese temple

balinese girls

I did  get this shot though!

balloon bike

bintang beer

coconut juice

The Balinese are great at drinks, their cocktails are quiet fantastic. We had a few to taste over our holiday, my personal favourite being the Mojito (just perfect in the heat).

We also had our fair share of mocktails and just plain juices, all wonderful. But beware the yellowish Absolut Vodka available at many roadside shops! Its only for motorbike consumption.

coconut juice

coconut lady

mojito

campari smooth

pina colada

petrol infused Absolut