Ben & Kathy - Final Edits!

Some final edits from Ben and Kathy's shoot at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens here in Gainesville.  They did a great job handling the hot, humid, rainy, bright sunny weather.  Ah... summer in Florida...

Maggie & Todd Engagement Shoot

At long last, here are a selection of processed shots from Maggie and Todd's engagement shoot in St Augustine!

Thanks for a great day, guys!  Can't wait for the wedding next month :)

BBA Challenge - Focaccia!

I can't believe this worked.  


For Bake-A-Palooza Spring (er, summer) 2010 I decided to make a bread.  At previous BAPs, we stuck to sweets, until last spring when I broke out the Herbed Savory Cheesecake from Cookwise, which turned out to be a huge hit.  As I've been working through the Bread Baker's Apprentice, I decided it would be good to give the focaccia a try.  I'm really only somewhere in the Cs, but I wanted to do something savory but cinnamon rolls were next on the list... so I just picked something that sounded good :)

This bread was surprisingly easy, and I do think the fact that I was able to use the weekend to work the dough was definitely advantageous... not to mention the fact that the entire State of Florida is a giant proofing box right now (90+F and 100% humidity).  The dough rose beautifully.  


I started the poolish on Friday evening, letting it sit for about 3 hours before I covered it with a damp towel and aluminum foil and refrigerated it.  I pulled it out to get back to room temperature after Saturday morning's shoot with Ben & Kathy.  After it reached a reasonable temperature and all of the ingredients were combined by hand (i.e., with my bare hands - no utensils or mixers involved!), I did a series of three foldings and risings on the marble countertop in the kitchen.  This dough did not take any kneading at all.  


The herbed oil was made from fresh rosemary, oregano, thyme, and basil that I have growing here at the house. I followed the instructions and did two sessions of dimpling and oiling before putting it into the oven, which was heated to a ridiculous 500F.


When it came out, it was just beautiful and smelled great.  I was so excited that I finally achieved the correct crumb that I had to point it out to half of the attendees.  :)  It was a favorite at Bake-A-Palooza, even if it did turn my kitchen into a furnace.  In June.  In Florida.  Oy.

Ben & Kathy at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens

Things have been busy!


Here is a peek at Ben & Kathy's shoot at Kanapaha last weekend.  The weather did not cooperate, unfortunately... we tried to avoid the afternoon heat and rains, but we got rained on anyway.  And then it was crazy humid.  B & K were great sports, though.  They put up with some severely tropical weather to get these shots!!!


I ordered Photoshop and Lightroom to use on my fancy new iMac on May 18... and they still haven't arrived.  It's really getting frustrating that it is taking so long, not to mention the fact that I have photos from three or four shoots from the last few weeks that I have to work on!  Rumor has it that they have shipped... hopefully they'll arrive soon.  I just can't take it anymore.  So, all the shots posted here since the middle of May have been Straight Outta Camera without any processing/adjustment.  Please excuse them for being dark/light/crooked/etc. as a result :)

Armadillos

Good old Dasypus novemcinctus.  They totally didn't care that I was stalking them with my giant camera...

Maggie & Todd Engagement Shoot- Sneak Peak

Here are a couple from Maggie & Todd's engagement shoot over the weekend at St. Augustine and Anastasia State Park.  I have only taken a quick pass over a few photos so far (read: converted from RAW to jpeg)... I'll be getting the new 27" super-awesome iMac next week, so I'll wait to process the shots with the new machine.

Can't wait for the wedding in July!

Citizens Co-op Farm Bike Tour

Well, I guess it's been a while.  Things have been busy at Prioria, and I've been putting in 9, 10, 11 hour days almost every work day for three or four weeks in a row now, so a lot has fallen behind in my non-Prioria life :)

At long last, here are a couple shots from the Farm Bike Tour organized by Citizens Co-op here in Gainesville.  We paid a small fee and then had a guided bike tour of something like 10 local farms of a variety of types.  There was the ethnobotany grad student garden at UF (my favorite of the day), some community gardens, an enormous patch of land that used to be primarily blueberry fields now trying to clear out some of the overgrowth, a small commune-style garden (my second favorite - they had an accordion player!), a couple of home gardens (one with chickens!) and a garden maintained by the students of a local middle school.

The total ride was about 14.5 miles and took all afternoon.  Fortunately, most of the places we stopped had some refreshments for us, including such wonderful treats as minty fresh lemonade and fresh sugar snap peas.  At each garden, someone explained goals, methods, and plants to us and gave us the opportunity to ask questions. The day ended with a celebration at what is soon to be the home of the newly-established Citizens Co-op.  Fortunately, it is within walking distance of my home and work, so I'm thrilled to have it downtown.

All in all, it was a lovely afternoon.  We even got some free shirts for doing the bike ride, and Bo seems to be wearing his quite a bit these days (which is fine, I think it looks great on him!).

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It's May and therefore time for the second annual Eat Local Challenge!  Check out Hogtown Homegrown for more info!!!