International Women's Day in Chiapas, Mexico.

Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, so I wanted to share this image I took a few years ago during a Women’s Day demonstration in Chiapas, Mexico.

I love bread and have to have it with most of my meals, but I never thought I would have the time or patience to make fresh bread. That changed recently when I discovered the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking. The title sounds too good to be true, but it really does only require about five minutes of actual work. The secret is that you mix a batch of dough in advance (it only takes a few minutes) and keep it in the fridge. On baking day you grab a hunk a dough, quickly form it into a loaf, and then let it sit for about 40 minutes while you preheat the oven. When the oven is hot, you slide the bread in and about 30 minutes later you’ve got hot, delicious, freshly baked bread. It’s awesome and if you like bread I definitely recommend the book. You can also use the dough for pizzas, flat breads, cinnamon buns, and all kinds of other recipes.

The authors also have a new edition coming out this month called Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free, so you may want to watch out for that.

Vintage waffle maker from the Goodwill.

I was browsing at the Goodwill the other day and found this wonderful looking vintage waffle maker. It was half-price day as well, so it only cost me a couple bucks, and it still works fine. I also found the vintage radio that you see in the photo, and a few nice vinyl records that day, so I was glad everything was half price. The cookie jar in the photo is not from the Goodwill and has been in my family since I was kid.

This morning I decided to try my hand at making waffles and was pretty happy with the results of my first attempt. They’re a little undercooked, but hey, it was my first time with a waffle iron from the Goodwill I used the recipe for Quick and Easy Waffles in the cook book How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (highly recommended by the way), and the next time I will try his more advanced Overnight Waffles recipe.

Waffles and bacon.

So I took a close-up photo of one of the speakers and faded the edges to black. On top that background image I placed a black layer with opacity of about 70 per cent to make text more legible and to isolate the images from the background, while still allowing some of the wood grain to show though. I also made some behind the scenes changes to the image galleries and altered the design a bit. They now run on SlideShowPro with ThumbGrid.

I’m really happy with the new look, and I hope everything is working all right. If any visitors discover any problems with the site, or have any feedback on the design, please feel free to contact me.

Sorry, no blue water in this image. It was shot in colour with my Canon G10, but I really like it in black and white. I’m a big fan of Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, and some of my favourite images are from a series of his called Seascapes. The image above was inspired by the work of Sugimoto, who gained notoriety recently when one of his photos was used on the cover of U2’s latest album No Line on the Horizon. I discovered his work in a book store a few years ago, and ever since then I’ve been wanting to produce a similar image of Lake Huron. I tried a few times in the past, but the weather and light never cooperated. So I felt lucky to get this shot on a hazy morning during my last visit to Sarnia.

At first glance, I will admit that the image may seem a bit plain, even dull. In all honesty, this was also my first reaction to some of Sugimoto’s images. However, the longer I looked at his photos the more I started to like them. The minimalist compositions with vast empty skies and boundless water have a real Zen quality to them. I could imagine myself staring into them and getting lost in the space between the water and the sky. Great for meditating or doing yoga (note to self: start meditating and doing more yoga) and I think I captured some of that feeling in the photo above. I’m hoping to make a large print of it soon, but I’m not too sure how the G10 files will hold up.

The images below were shot a couple of days later. They are more dramatic then the one above, but they still contain some of that simplicity and serenity that I was looking for. I’m kind of torn between the colour and black and white, and I like them both. What do you think? Please feel free to share your comments.

It’s Canada Day today, so I thought I’d share a photo I made a couple years ago. I tried to reproduce our beautiful Canadian flag, au naturel, on a sunny, fall day using maple leaves and rock.