Before & After: Central Park

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, I have a quick comparison of the photo of Central Park before and after editing. This photo was pretty strong straight out of camera and only required a punch of contrast to add drama and some toning to set the mood.

Adventures: Central Park

The below pictures are from a recent walk through Central Park. I have been particularly inspired lately by the photography of Carl Zoch (see my current favourites here and here), and tried to channel a similar style and mood in my images.

Dinner: Orzo Salad

I truly enjoy cooking. But, since moving to New York, I have cooked myself dinner an embarrassingly few amount of times. There are always excuses for not going grocery shopping and surprisingly few decent grocery stores in my neighbourhood. Not to mention all the convenient opportunities to pick up pre-made food on my commute home. And all the socializing that occurs over dinner and drinks.

All the aforementioned excuses aside, I am resolving to cook more often and to improve the quality of my food photography in the process. This week's dinner is one of my sister's favourite dishes to make: Cold Orzo Salad. To be honest, I did not really use a recipe for this meal, nor did I measure out all the ingredients, so everything is to taste. But really, there is no way to go wrong in preparing this dish.

Photos: Nature, Brooklyn, NY

It's easy to forget about the beauty of nature when you're living in New York. Although, there is Central Park and a number of other stunning parks throughout the city, nature isn't something that I encounter in my daily life. I was recently reminded of the natural beauty of plants and flowers on a trip to Brooklyn. These pictures were taken along the Williamsburg waterfront.

Events: Fashion's Night Out, New York

Every so often, I experience a magical moment that reminds me of why I love New York City so much. As mentioned in my last post, my most recent New York moment was Fashion's Night Out on September 8th. Below is a series of photos that document the magic of FNO.

Portrait: Marta

I started sorting through my pictures from last week's Fashions Night Out in New York and I came across this stunner of my friend, Marta. This photo was taken in a very brightly lit and very white Calvin Klein store on Madison Ave. Straight out of camera this image looked dull and underexposed, but all it took was a little work in photoshop to get the light, contrast and tones right.

There are way more pictures from Fashions Night Out that I will hopefully have a chance to process shortly, including a number of celebrity sightings. Happy Friday!

Food: Sweet Revenge, New York

Last week, I met my friend, at Sweet Revenge for lunch. Sweet Revenge is a cupcake cafe that specializes in pairing their cupcakes with beer and wine. Unfortunately, I had to get back to work right after lunch, so I didn't have a chance to sample their alcohol and dessert pairings. You may recall the owner of Sweet Revenge from last year's Chase Bank commercials, and from various other media appearances.

Both Brittney and I were very impressed with our meals, having ordered the Bacho & Verde (Bacon, Avocado, Granny Smith Apples & Mesclun Greens in a Wrap) and the Jardin Burger (Spicy Mushroom, Black Bean, Green Pepper & Jalapeno Vegetarian Burger with Avocado Ranch Sauce and Rustic Baked Idaho Fries) respectively.

For dessert, we couldn't resist trying two different cupcakes (from L-R):
Cafe Mocha - Espresso Swirled Mexican Vanilla Cake with Mocha Buttercream
Dirty - Valrhona Cake with Dark Chocolate Truffle

Sweet Revenge: 62 Carmine St., West Village, NY

 

Portrait: Self

And on continues my love affair with film photography...


The film effect was achieved using Camera RAW and Photoshop and the photo was taken in Central Park.

Smorgasburg: Williamsburg, NY

Every Saturday in Williamsburg, Smorgasburg is held in a parking lot along the waterfront. Smorgasburg is a food fair, organized by the Brooklyn Flea, that attracts local restaurants and bakeries.  We ended up choosing an eclectic dessert of mochi and chocolate-covered frozen bananas. The mochi was from Sweet Fusion and tasted unlike any mochi I had ever bought at the grocery store. The frozen banana was very refreshing in the heat and is a dessert that I will definitely attempt to make in the future.

I have become enamored with the work of several film photographers lately (like Becky Earl and Red Leaf Studios), and decided to process these pictures in a style that is reminiscent of film photography.

Happy Friday!

Hope you all enjoy your weekend! I'll be back next week with much more content and the continuation of my Snapshots series (seen here and here), once I have my MacBook back from being repaired.

The below picture was taken on the High Line Park in New York during yesterday's shoot. If you haven't been, you definitely need to check it out as soon as you get the chance!

Portraits: Brittney

Today I have a few quick shots of my friend Brittney, taken on an excursion to the High Line Park earlier this summer.

Photos: Snapshots of Summer, Part II

A continuation of yesterday's post...

Photos: Snapshots of Summer, Part I

Given that Labour Day marks the end of summer, I thought it fitting to sum up my summer in a series of photos. In retrospect, I had quite a few adventures this summer, in more than a handful of states and countries, all of which required this post be broken up into a series of posts.

Food: Calexico, Brooklyn NY

One of my absolute favourite lunch spots near my office in SoHo is the Calexico Cart. Unfortunately, the cart was recently in an accident and is currently out of commission. Consequently, in order to fulfill my craving for a delicious gourmet Mexican burrito, I took the trip out to their restaurant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with my boyfriend on Saturday.

Despite running into some weekend subway construction issues, we finally arrived at the Greenpoint restaurant and were anything but disappointed. The menu was far more extensive at the restaurant than at the cart, and included a wide assortment of craft beers. We opted for the growler of "El Barrio Brown Ale" from one of the local Brooklyn breweries, Sixpoint.

Calexico: 645 Manhattan Ave., Brooklyn, New York

Travel: Dublin

The final stop on my Eurotrip was to Dublin, Ireland. Dublin will always hold a special place in my heart, as I studied abroad there for a semester a few years ago and fell in love with the city. Unfortunately, my camera was very low on batteries, so the photos are limited and show just a few highlights of our day.

Other highlights from the day in Dublin included people watching in St. Stephen's Green, window-shopping on Grafton Street and a pint, dinner and music at The Porter House in Temple Bar.

(I'm doing my travel posts in reverse chronological order. I apologize for any confusion.)