The Bug’s paradise, rainbow tones, Homemade “Pizza rustica”

Post number 9 intro: Small but important improvements.

Hey guys! First of all, Thank you so much for visiting my blog, I really like to work on it… as I imagined, it is a valid way to improve my photography and also have some fun in the kitchen as well as for knowing new people. I want you to notice that on the right side of the page I added some features to make easier the navigation experience on the blog, such as the “follow me” button (very convenient to be automatically updated on posts via email… in other words: click on it! 🙂), also there is an “Archive” section (helps to organize better all the articles), a “Recent posts” section: which presents the last 3 posts I’ve published. Then there is the number of total visits, the possibility to do research by terms and the category cloud. All this in order make much lighter and faster navigating between the different posts. At the same time I’ll appreciate if you have any advice to still improve. For the rest, perhaps I will start to publish shorter posts but more frequently…. At least, there is the intention… let’s see what happens!

Places: The bug’s paradise

So “eccomi” (the italian way to say here I am!). As I said before during last post, this spring was particularly rainy, besides, good weather sadly came only during weekdays… So I though it could be a good idea, for this post, to use some pictures I did last year during this period (some were took in Italy, others during a trip to Sweden). These are some pretty shots you probably didn’t see before, specially if you and I are not facebook contacts (I posted some on my profile last year).

These pictures were took in different moments and places, but all they have in common that “bug’s point of view” that make them so close and particular; and as you will see in most of them, I wasn’t the only one enjoying “paradise” with all those flowers, colors and fragrances (I even got stung!).

I used my macro lens (a 100 mm f 2.8 from Canon). I really love to shoot with it since the quality of the images it generates (mostly because it is a fixed focal length lens, very bright). The more I use it, the more I’m glad to have invested some money in this lens.

Colours: rainbow tones

In spring it is difficult to remain in a uniform range of hues. It’s literally an explosion of colors. A rainbow that spreads in front of our eyes.

Flavors: Homemade “Pizza rustica”

A couple of months ago I took some pictures while my mother was preparing a typical italian dish called: “pizza rustica” or “pizza piena“. It consist in some kind of “focaccia bread“, but filled with several fresh ingredients, mainly eggs, mozzarella cheese and pork sausage. It’s a typical meal for easter time, specifically in southern Italy (where my parents are from)… also the recipe can change a little bit depending on the specific region and the family tradition. So as you can note I’m a little late with publishing, but that’s ok right? 🙂 It is very tasty and perfect as main dish, an appetizer or even to take to a picnic, maybe with the company of a glass of wine.

Other stuffs: Daily life around the world

This time just a link to one of my favorite photographic sources (The Big Picture from Boston.com). This time they show us a daily life gallery, plenty of beautiful pictures and micro-stories from all around the world. Enjoy it:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/05/daily_life_may_2012.html

Water drops over flowers; the colors of spring; Chocolate truffle cake.

Places: Minoprio Foundation Gardens.

Spring has finally arrived. Here in northen Italy we dealed with a very dry weather during the winter, fortunately last two week were mostly rainy, otherwise we would have to deal with a severe drought, specially for the crops… at least that was what I heard on the news.

Meanwhile I took my gear last sunday (well covered in plastic of course) to do some shots of tulips at Minoprio Foundation Gardens (I wrote about that place on my last post, in Italian). The good thing was: there wasn’t so many people around (actually nobody). The greatest thing: shooting the water drops over the flowers, I really love the effect. The bad part: it rained all day long, so I haven’t had 10 minutes free of rain… otherwise I would have done my pictures with more calm… I wasn’t able even to use the tripod… Anyway, these are some of those shots I did there, using my beloved 100 mm Canon macro lens.

Colors:

So many!!!  were are on Spring right??? in addition, these days I made a chocolate cake, so this pixelated rainbow has for sure many brown tones.

Flavors: Home made Chocolate truffle cake

My Friend Rebeca sent me recently some Venezuelan chocolate and a book plenty of chocolate recipes… What could I do with all that chocolate, that kind of book and my gear on my hands? 🙂 This Chocolate Truffle cake (so simple and so good)

Other stuffs: Meet The Inspiration Grid.

From their site: “The Inspiration Grid is a daily-updated gallery, an ever-expanding collection of images to inspire designers, artists and photographers”. One of my favorite links.