streaming lights in boston ...

i took a walk last night with a few friends and snapped some shots of two of boston's major thoroughfares, storrow drive from the bu cross-bridge and mass pike from atop the king's garage.

while waiting for mike to show up ... messing around with f-stops, this is f/11 @ 34mm, 30sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev


a few shots of storrow drive east bound, with john hancock waay in the back.

f/16 @ 27mm, 30sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev


f/22 @ 50mm, 20sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev


the citgo sign above fenway isn't an easy shot anymore, they replaced the bulbs with led's ... which requires a relatively fast shutter speed to capture the sign properly, but that won't capture anything else. will need to go back and take possibly a multi-shot set of it, one capturing the sign, and then long exposures capturing everything else and see if hdr will merge it even with the off-steps in settings.

f/22 @ 23mm, 55sec-exposure, iso200, 1/3ev

moist delicious chocolate cake ...

so last weekend as part of the doorknob throwdown i made my dishes, but also made myself one of my favorite chocolate cakes. the original recipe is a chocolate cake with chocolate/coffee frosting. while delicious, i prefer non-chocolate frostings, so i concocted a coconut butter cream frosting instead.

here's the recipe (modified from ina garten's chocolate cake recipe):

• 1 3/4c flour
• 2c sugar
• 1c cocoa powder
  
• 2tsp baking soda
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1tsp salt
• 1c buttermilk
• 1/2c veggie oil
• 3 eggs
• 2tsp vanilla extract
• 1c deep dark rich french roast brewed hot coffee

sift dry ingredients and combine and set mixer on low. in a seperate bowl, combine all wet ingredients (except coffee). add wet into dry ingredients and once combined, slowly add in coffee. 350degree oven for about 30-35 mins. let cool.

frosting:

• 3 sticks of room temperature butter
• 1.5tsp vanilla extract
• 1c confectioners sugar
• 1.5tbsp cocunut syrup
  
• 1/3 cup coconut milk

in a mixer, mix butter on low, add in vanilla, coconut syrup and half sugar and allow to blend. slowly add in coconut milk and remaining sugar alternating between the two.

somehow i managed to not snap any pictures this past weekend of the cake i ate, but i did also make these as cupcakes previously and topped them with coconut:

start to finish ...

from the store to the table ... check out the monthly submission to the kitchen doorknobs food blog. a trip to the farmer's market and the finished product ...

... jalapeno corn bread with pulled pork
... bbq pulled pork tacos with homemade salsa, cucumber salad and spicy black beans























... see flickr set for originals and full set ...

snaps of the sea ...

time, rocks and a single lonely sailboat.

f/5 @24mm, 1/100sec-exposure, iso640, 0/6ev sharpened.


f/14 @ 40mm, 1/800sec-exposure, iso1000, -1ev, de-saturated and sharpened


f/9 @ 50mm, 1/320sec-exposure, iso640, 0/6ev, colorized

i am a little nuts ...

i might start a new blog, just based on nuts, but for the time being here's a start. i found these nuts on the street, a whole slew of them, so i picked myself up about 5 of them. they sit on my desk and people can come in and build things or play with my nuts. i figured i'd take a picture of them today ...

one other thing, not sure why i'm getting vignetting today, i think my circular filter that i'm too lazy to take off the lens is screwing around with with the picture and cranked up the blues ... bakka.

f/2.8 @ 50mm, 1/3sec-exposure, iso200, -2/3ev; minor color correction in ps.


(btw ... i have an hdr comp that will add later to this post once i get home and can process on my macbook) - addendum ... tried photo merge to hdr on the macbook, and did not like the results. seems i will need to re-shoot without any filters applied (i.e. stop being lazy), the filter further increases the vignetting as the images are merged.

signs of the marathon ...

niketown store, newbury street the other day ... signs of the towns you'd see along the boston marathon route

f/3.2 @ 44mm, 1/40sec-exposure, iso640, 0/6ev; de-saturated in ps to b&w

looks like popcorn ...

taken with my sony dsc-t9, great little camera thats highly portable ...

f/8 @ 6.3mm, 1/500-econd exposure, is080, 0/10ev for both shots.

a trip to maine ...

the drive up to maine from boston is only about 50 mins, or maybe from my house that is. a great drive, along the coast there's always something to stop and enjoy.

f/8 @ 38mm, 1/250-second exposure, iso640, 0/6ev


f/9 @ 18mm, 1/320-second exposure, iso500, 0/6ev

i thought i knew kung fu ...

i didn't take this picture, it amuses me so i thought i would post it. yeah, hiya! (taken with iphong, yes iphong). i wanna be soo damn asian.

across the bridge ...

coming back into boston from the seaport district on a sunny morning ...

f/6.3 @ 18mm, 1/160-second exposure, iso250, 1/3ev

boston, cold winter night ...

pictures from a walk home one cold boston night ...

charles mgh t-station ... f/10 @ 18mm, 6-sec exposure, iso800, 1ev


liberty hotel ... f/2.8 @ 18mm, 1/8-sec exposure, iso800, 1/3ev


one of my favorite shots ... charles river overlooking storrow drive, north station, and zakim bridge ... streak in the sky is airplane taking off from logan airport ... f/8 @ 24mm, 8-second exposure, iso800, 1/3ev

bread pudding is good ...

tried out a new bread pudding recipe last week. nothing too complicated.

stale raisin bread (or raisin croissants) torn into a pan ... 9x9 pan here.

wet ingredients include: (3) large eggs, (5) large egg yolks, 5 cups of half and half (or cream and milk mixture), cinnamon, vanilla extract, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar (light)

mix in some golden raisins and brushed pecans into the the torn bread. pour in the wet ingredients above. bake in 350 oven inside a water bath covered for 45 mins, uncover and bake for another 40-45 mins.

serve warm or at room temperature with some creme englais and pure vanilla bean ice cream. i decided to bake with some ripe in season peaches on top (added them with 20 mins remaining to bake at the end).

f/2.8 @ 50mm, 5/8 sec shutter, iso250, +4/3ev

blueberry lemon cupcakes ...

had a batch of lemon cupcakes (per carter's request) and had frozen blueberries as well as strawberries, here's the concoction. simple recipe, use your favorite cake recipe add lemon zest and juice, find on web, buy a box ... top with blueberries, strawberries, sugar/brown sugar, corn starch to thicken.

f/4 @ 50mm, 1/4 sec shutter, +2ev, iso400; same properties for 2nd image except at 35mm. which one is preferable?

rainy drive home ...

testing out how to stabilize/mount the tripod in the mini and get snaps while driving home yesterday (08:08:08). figured it was a wet, gross drive home from work, might get some interesting shots. need to figure out shutter speed settings to minimize camera shake as well as maintain inside focus.

red deliciousness ...

summer favorite, red ripe bowl of cherries. 3-frame hdr image, color adjusted in ps to bring saturation levels down.

sunset at epcot ...

when i pulled this photo up recently, i thought to myself, this looks like a photshopped image, placement of a sun setting in the background. it is in fact the actual image that was taken, i guess it was just the right place at the right time.

clouds in the sky ...

i'm a big fan of taking pictures out of airplane windows of the clouds below ... i think this was a trip down to florida, will need to start a new label set for just clouds

it's not just a sign ...

nikon d40x at 55m, f/5.6, iso200, 0/6ev, flash. click on image to see full-resolution image and detail in entirety.

and then it snowed ...

snowy day outside, two frame stitched pano from january 2008.

los angeles is always nice ...

there's always something to do in la, but this visit in particular we made it to the top of griffith park to the observatory just in time for a sunset.















click here to see full-sized images and other shots from the set.