I am not one who makes believes, I know the leaves are green...

Blog Post: Week of April 15th

For lack of anything else, I have decided to post a melange of photos. I do believe these are the first photos I have posted on this blog using my 50 prime, though I have certainly posted a number of photos on Facebook. Using my 50 is drastically different than using my 18-55, and I much prefer it to the latter.I feel as though I have a lot more control over how my photos turn out as the f stop range dramatically greater, thus I have greater control over the depth of field, which is arguably second to composition in the success of a photo.

Over the Spring Break and for the past few weeks, I have been experimenting with the 50 continuously, mostly outside of school. I have been trying to figure out how to compensate successfully for a wide aperture using differing shutter speeds (demonstrated in the fifth photo, will describe below). I also have been trying to experiment with how changing the aperture, white balance, shutter, etc etc. will change the look of the photo. I mostly played around with such at the beach with my Daddy and my sister (fourth photo). Finally, I have been trying to master manual focus. Admittedly, I often just rely on auto focus because it's easy and pretty risk-free; however, if I want photos to turn out exactly as I envision them, I fully understand that manual focus is imperative (which is annoying but oh well).

I hate cats, but they're kinda cool to photograph, I guess.

Simone, Cherie's sister, is incredibly photogenic. No wonder Cherie posts so many photos of this girl.

This is my friend, Buddy the crab. I think he's dead, but I love him all the same.

I used manual focus on this one and it turned out acceptably. I really like that crab. He's a magnificent subject, I'm kind of depressed that I didn't do him justice. This sort of rude, but reasonable man told my sister and me that we couldn't take photos so near to the dock. So I caught this one and had to leave in a jiffy.

I call this one "The Lonelies" lol artsy.

For this photo, I set a pretty high aperture, creating a pretty deep depth of field, in order to try to focus on both my father and the single tree atop the hill. I do not this that this photo was nearly as effective as I would've liked it to have as I was trying to manually focus, which I suck at. I also increased the shutter and decreased the ISO to try and create higher contrast and a darker atmosphere in the photo (it was an incredibly bright day). 

I fully accept the accusation that the bokeh in this one is slightly overwhelming.

For this one, I lowered the aperture, thus creating a shallower depth of field. I did such because I was at the pond and thought that it would be perfect for a light-oriented photo that highlights bokeh. AKA, I basically just really wanted a ton bokeh in a photo and this was the perfect opportunity. To compensate for the wider aperture, I upped the shutter and the ISO settings to create a surprisingly dark and grey photo considering the amount of light reflection on the pond.

A tourist in the waking world, never quite awake...

Photo # 12
Week of February the 25th

I'm not quite sure if I have to do a blog post this week considering I did one last week, but here I am. This is my blog post.

I am a black hole right now.
What happens goes in through my eyes, my ears,
and somehow ends up
somewhere else
entirely.
But it's not
my brain
or
my heart.

Like,
What am I even saying right now?
I'm a wee bit emotionally
drained.

It is probably due to the weather. Without snow, the winter is nothing. Without the sun, I am nothing. I am suffering with Seasonal Affective Disorder. It is SAD. (LOL, see what I did there?)

According to the NIH, SAD is due to the reduced amount of natural light. It affects at least half a million people every winter. Symptoms (that I have experienced) include but are not limited to:

-Feelings of emptiness, apathy
-Feelings of hopelessness
-Lethargy
-Overeating
-Irritability

Isn't it strange that the weather should cause such drastic changes in the human body? Just goes to show that we, as human beings, have an undeniable connection to nature. Why are we destroying it, I don't know.

Anyhow, other than "light therapy," which to me seems quite ineffective for the healing process for such a depression, the only cure is for the sun to come out again. Only then will I feel myself again. The summer not only does wonders for my skin (I do get quite the golden-brown during the summer daze), but I always come back to school feeling rejuvenated.

Perhaps my unhappiness could stem from my Third Quarter Blues, but I'm positive that looking out of my window in the morning and seeing gray contributes considerably. 

So, naturally, as I do whenever I am feeling overworked or stressed or depressed, I decided to bake. I made Gluten-Free Caramel Cinnamon Buns, and they turned out really well, surprisingly! They are pictured above. That photo was taken before I slathered on a healthy helping of cream cheese glaze. You can see the caramel sheen on them, though, can't you? Yumm.

As you can tell, I have definitely been overeating due to my SADness. No regrets, because these things are ridiculously good.

Do I really have Seasonal Affective Disorder? Or does the fact that I am mentally overworked at school leave me emotionally drained everywhere else? Is it the fact that I feel like no matter how hard I try, I won't get the feedback that I so desire? Or is this feeling stemming from my general unhappiness at the weather?

It is just a cycle that just keeps
building on itself.
And everything just gets bigger,
every feeling of sadness
is intensified
until all that's left
is emptiness.

Luckily, I have Cinnamon Buns to make everything better, eh?

If love can heal a broken heart, then it has to be the cure.

Video # 4
Week of February 18th

I never posted this on my blog. It's my group's 60 second film that we created while the British kids were here. We had no British kids in our video, but I think it is great all the same.

For this project, like most, I was cinematographer (as I hate being in photos or film). It was a new experience, in a way, as we used lighting to our advantage. So, instead of just using the light that we were given in a certain shot, we carried around a very hot light and manipulated it to make our shots more dynamic. I also used a tripod, which I rarely have the patience to use...Mostly because I do not film very often...Basically, I only film in Mr. Mayo's class.

Anyway. I am altogether quite proud of the shots I was able to get, though some of them are shaky. The premise of our story was pretty original and I think that we pulled it off pretty beautifully, if I do say so myself.

While in the editing room, however, we came across a couple of obstacles. After we had titled all of our clips (there were 49 of them, I believe), we put them all in order in the timeline. Everything seemed almost done until we realized that we could not put transitions between the clips, and we had zero time left. Max, John and Ian came in after school to fix the issue and finish the editing process. I am very grateful because they pulled it off wonderfully (probably a lot better than I could have, tbh). 

Do enjoy!

The future's calling and I'm going to answer...

This was one of the very first photos I took with my D40. Also, I know my sister looks at this blog, who knows why. So here's to you, Julia.

Photo # 11

Week of February the 4th

Currently, my primary concern is making Silver Chips Print (or Online) Photo Staff. My sister (pictured above) was photo editor for Silver Chips Online in her time, probably about 5 years ago. She's ancient, I know. In any case, I suppose there will always be a considerable amount of competition amongst siblings. Well, not even competition. As a younger sister, I just feel the need to not fall beneath my sister's shadow, the need to keep my ship of accomplishments level with hers. 

It may seem as though the driving, underlying, motive for my applying to Silver Chips is my frivolous need to measure up to my sister- but that is untrue. I just think being on Silver Chips, an award-winning school newspaper, may give me an edge when applying to colleges....

I hope you didn't believe that, for it is only partially true. I think it is self-evident that those applying for Silver Chips are genuinely interested in pursuing a pass-time, passion, perhaps future in an area for which Silver Chips serves an an opportunity. In my case, the pass-time is photography. I am no Tolu Omokehinde or Emma Howells or Peter Berger etc. but photography is certainly a worthwhile hobby that I would like to continue during high school.

I am almost done with my coversheet and it is almost midnight, so I bid you goodnight. Wish me luck in my endeavor! My next blog post will most likely concern my success or defeat. Stay tuned!

This Old Routine

Video # 3
Blog Post: Week of January 21st

Assignment: Independent Video Assignment, documenting MD

For this project, I worked with Andrea. We wanted to capture what our typical day was like, so the first half is at school and the second half is at her house/around her neighborhood. We both edited it.

To be quite honest, this is not one of my prouder moments in terms of the independent video assignments. I did not want to use wevideo again (as they have added their logo to all of the videos made on their site), so Andrea and I had to edit on iMovie, but we didn't have very much time together, so the editing is rather choppy. Also, a lot of the shots are quite shaky as I do not have a tripod. I would really like a tripod.

Enjoy!

This was shot with a Nikon D5100, 50mm f/1.8.

I like to eat, eat, eat.

Yes, I ate the entire fish. No regrets. #CleanPlateClub

Photo # 10
Blog Post: Week of December 31st

            Renee Heiss’ article, Flavorful Food, details the chemistry of natural and artificial compounds that contribute to the flavors found in the foods that we eat every day.  The article directly asks answers the question of “Why do foods taste the way they do?”, “Why do people have different reactions to the same food?” and “How does chemistry relate to flavors (artificial and natural)?”  Then, it goes into more detail and asks “What are Esters and where do we find them (in foods and everyday items)?”

Heiss explains that there are four factors that contribute to a food’s flavor- its texture, its color, its temperature and its aroma.  Different chemical compounds create flavors in foods; for example, chocolate is a mixture of 300 flavor compounds. Flavor chemists use a variety of chemical compounds to create artificial flavors.  By extracting the juice of an orange by removing the water in the juice, for example, flavor chemists can create an orange flavor/concentrate used in the drink mix, Tang. 

Furthermore, the article discusses esters, which are chemical compounds that create artificial aromas, formed by the chemical reaction of an alcohol and a carboxylic acid (OH).  For example, combining ethanol (an alcohol), botanic acid creates ethyl butanoate (the ester), which eventuates with a pineapple odor.

The purpose of the article as a whole was to inform readers about the foods we eat and why they taste the way they do, natural or artificial.  Most people don’t understand the chemistry behind the flavors in the foods that we eat, such as simple fruits.  The article also educates readers about the use of chemistry of artificial flavorings and aromas.  People take flavors for granted, without understanding the chemistry.

Personally, from this article, I learned a lot about the flavor profiles of the foods I use and eat every day.  I pride myself as an amateur baker/pastry chef, so understanding the chemistry of flavorful foods doesn’t change my perspective of food, but rather makes me feel better educated and self-satisfied that I understand what I am doing when I add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to a cupcake batter. 

I learned that the aroma of foods is just as important as the actual flavor of the food.  The aroma travels from a channel between the throat and the nose which strengthens the flavor of food.  I also learned that artificial and natural flavors are both chemical compounds, though most people assume that only artificial flavors are chemicals.  Artificial flavors are actually derived from chemical compounds found in plants, fruits and animals.  In addition, I learned that artificial flavors come in different forms.  So, limonene used in lemon-lime candies is different from the mix of chemical compounds in lemon-lime drinks, such as Sprite (which I drink quite often) because limonene is not soluable in water.  I also learned that when ethanol (the alcohol found in alcoholic drinks) is combined with an acid, such as the ones we learned about in class like heptanoic acid, it creates and completely new flavor and aroma.  These esters are used in both foods and the hand soaps, lotions, and perfumes that we use every day.

After reading this article, I am left with a few questions. For example, other than the natural components from an orange for example, what compounds/chemicals (unnatural or natural) are used to create artificial flavors, such as those used in Tang or in Sprite?  Also, are there chemical reactions to create different textures in a food (the article discusses both flavor and aroma)?  

First Position Review

Blog Post: Documentary Review

First Position (2011), directed by Bess Kargman, is an emotionally compelling observational documentary that sheds a new light on the youth ballet industry. Kargman manages to create a dramatic and almost inspiring story by following six young aspiring ballet dancers competing in the Youth America Grand Prix in hopes of winning scholarship money. The film shows the strains and overwhelming time commitments that young dancers and their families endure in order to pursue their dream. 

The real appeal of the documentary, to me, was the amount of depth in each different young dancer. The literary aspects of the film really got my attention. All of the different dancers, with various different life stories and point of views made the movie’s charm. Aran Bell, an American army brat, manages to dance even though he lives in Naples with his family. He travels everyday to train, maintaining an innocent friendship with an Israeli dancer, Gaya Yemini. In contrast, Joan Samora left his country, Columbia, and lives alone, with few contacts in New York while he trains. Miko Fogarty, a young girl with an overbearing dance mom, has had to completely change her lifestyle (diet, school and all) to train.

As with most dance competitions, the dancers wear extravagant and expensive costumes and make-u to appeal to the judges (dramatic aspects). The most climatic parts of the movie take place on the stage. The documentary, in other aspects, is very simple. The cinematography is nothing special and the sound effects are mostly diegetic sound.

I would recommend this movie to anyone with free time on their hands, it is not one to go out of your way for. The human interest stories of the young ballet dancers are moving, especially that of Joan Samora (it doesn’t hurt that he’s handsome). The dances are interesting, and by the end, I found myself really routing for all six dancers to win awards at the Grand Prix.

Chocolat

(I will post photos later.)

Blog post: Week of December 10th 

Photo # 9

I have quite a lot of homework this weekend, so naturally, I'm very stressed out. As when I am normally stressed out, I kind of separated myself from the stress and decided to bake instead! 

I have been baking for years, beginning serious baking probably when I was about seven years old. My mother has Celiac-disease which is an allergy to gluten (most commonly found in breads, cakes, pastas etc). If my mother were to eat any source of gluten, her small intestine lining/villi would deteriorate and end in a lot of pain- so gluten (wheat, barley, etc.) was out.

Eating in our family became pretty hard for a while. We had always eaten waffles or pancakes for breakfast on Sundays, pasta on Mondays, and who doesn't love a sandwich for lunch everyday? My mother, a born sweet-tooth, missed baked goods more than anything. We were able to find various mixes for waffles, brownies, we replaced whole grain pastas with corn and egg pastas- but it wasn't enough.

My mom complained daily about her mother's classic Christmas cookies, her mother's moist chocolate cakes, her mother's pies, her mother's this and that. My dad can't bake, my sister didn't want to, so the job was left to me. I took quickly to baking and I continue to bake to this day, mainly gluten-free items, of course!

Last weekend, I made an orange-coconut cake with coconut pudding filling and citrus-vanilla Swiss-meringue frosting (toasted coconut on the top, of course!). This weekend I decided to make cake truffles! My mom is out tonight, so she hasn't had them yet, but I think they're delicious! 

They are dark chocolate cake, mixed with chocolate-orange buttercream. They are topped with chocolate ganache and toasted almonds. This recipe literally made about 50 cake truffles!

Now, your normal all-purpose flour is simply a super cheap little bag of unbleached wheat flour; however, this flour does everything in baking! Gluten is a protein (most abundant in wheat flours) which binds doughs and creates stick and sponginess. In other words, one couldn't just replace all-purpose flour with brown rice flour because it doesn't have enough protein to bind anything together. If you simply replaced flour that way, the result would be a crumbly, dry mess.  

My basic gluten-free flour is the following (made just enough for this cake recipe!):

1 cup brown rice flour (one could use sorghum flour, garfava/chickpea flour, corn flour or white rice flour, but I prefer brown rice and sorghum)

1/2 cup tapioca flour/starch

1/2 potato starch

I adapted and made all of the following recipes my own from what I have learned over the years.

TO MAKE THE CAKE:

Ingredients:

2 cups GF flour

1 tsp. xanthan gum (one could use guar gum, I use Bob's Red Mill xanthan gum most often)

2 cups sugar (this seems like a lot, but usually cakes often have around the same amount of sugar as flour...plus, it's cake, what's wrong with sugar?)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder (I used a mix of Droste's and Valhrona cocoa powder- they're super high quality and, I think, they make a big difference in the depth of flavor- not to sound pretentious. If you only have Hershey's, that would be fine too!)
2¼ tsp. baking soda
1½ tsp. baking powder
1½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. Egg Replacer (Ener-G brand. I know, I know. Why add Egg Replacer if there are 3 eggs in it already? Well, it helps bind and leaven the cake. With gluten-free baked goods, one has to make up for A LOT.)
6 tbsp. vegetable oil (one could use butter, but I find oil really moistens a cake up and makes it feel a bit lighter)
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, just add a T of cider vinegar or 2 T of lemon juice to a cup of whole milk)
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. brewed coffee (this is optional; however, it really helps deepen the chocolate flavor)

3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (I use Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla. Again, it's not necessary, but it definitely makes a difference! I really really recommend this vanilla, it's perfection in a bottle. I usually find it at Williams-Sonoma.)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  

Grease and flour the edges of 3 8-inch baking pans.  (Optional: add a round of parchment paper. I don't do this for cake truffles because it doesn't really matter if the cake sticks at all. If you're making just this cake and you're trying to impress, parchment paper is the way to go.)

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, xanthan gum, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and Egg Replacer.  

Add the vegetable oil and sugar into a bowl and mix together until combined. (If used using butter, cream together the sugar and butter until white). Add coffee, and vanilla to the bowl and mix on low speed until well blended and completely incorporated. 

Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour (you would think that ending with flour wouldn't make a difference, but it does, trust me).

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans about 15 minutes, then put them into a large bowl and beginning mashing! Use a fork or potato masher to mash the cake into crumbs. 

Add the buttercream to the cake crumbs and mix together until homogeneous. Roll this mixture into small balls and refrigerate on a wire rack while you make the ganache.

Dip the cake balls into the ganache and place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper. Refrigerate.

TO MAKE THE FROSTING:

I use this simple vanilla buttecream cream for almost EVERY cake or cupcake I ever make. It's super fast, super fluffy and my mom just loves it (as do I). There are a lot of different variations for this recipe, so I will list the one I used for this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter (A stick of butter, y'all! -Paula Deen)

1½ cups confectioner's sugar

½ cup whipping cream (most recipes use milk, but whipping cream makes the frosting super light! It makes such a difference.)

½ tsp. vanilla 

Beat the butter until white and fluffy (using the whisk attachment, not the paddle). Add the confectioner's sugar in ½ cup increments. Beat until smooth and fluffy.

Slowly add the whipping cream until the buttercream doubles in volume. Finally, add the vanilla. Easy as pie!

For this recipe, I used this variation:

Omit the vanilla. Add two ounces of unsweetened chocolate, melted (Usually, I use Ghirardelli chocolate, but I had none left. Baker's chocolate worked just fine.) Also, add 2 T. grated orange zest (making sure not to grate the white part of the peel.

TO MAKE THE GANACHE:

Ingredients:

6 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, chopped

½ cup heavy cream
½ cup milk (Whole milk is my personal favorite, of course.)

1 T. butter

Heat the heavy cream and milk over medium high heat until boiling. Immediately take the pan off of the heat once boiled and pour it over the chopped chocolate. Mix together until smooth and mix in the butter.