Homemade Pizza Party!

Now I am a much better blog follower than I am creator/author. Fact.

I do see myself improving and benefitting from my cyberspace creation. So forward and onward.

One of my favourite blogs is WhiteOnRiceCouple.com - maybe one of the cutest couples that blog and they like me love photography and food hence I follow, admire, and aspire to be like them. So yesterday they did a post on their commissioned promo video for Jeff Hertberg and Zoe Francois's new book, Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five minutes a Day and there are beautiful photographs of an artsy fartsy pizza gathering amongst friends.

This inspired me to share photographs from the little pizza party that I hosted in the summer.

So at a Sunday beach picnic we decided to have a pizza party at my aunt's house (I was house-sitting) the very following day (the Monday) and before I knew it - AAHHH - people were coming to eat pizza by me!!!

A few things we did that worked and I recommend:

• I mixed dough in the morning before I headed off to work (which allowed the yeasty dough to rise while I slaved away at the daily grind). I cannot recall what recipe I used - so sorry - and I didn't want to lie to you so no recipe in this post.
• I asked everyone to bring toppings. This works because usually people can gather odds and ends from their refrigerator (at last minute notice) and as a result your pizza party has an eclectic mix of toppers. We got everything from feta cheese to pesto to picnic ham to olives to balsamic vinegar.
• Another thing that worked was making your guests do hard labour - get them to the top the pizzas - duh!! We divided up the dough so that everyone could get creative and construct their own masterpieces. This however had an unexpected catch - their masterpiece had to be shared amongst the party.
• Since we only had one pizza stone (and it was on the BBQ - impressive no?) the speed of producing toasty, melty, yummy pizzas was extremely slightly hindered. This handicap was rectified by simply sharing. One pizza went on and when cooked to perfection it was cut up and placed in the centre of the table for everyone to have a nibble. So basically it was one course of pizza goodness after another.

My favourite topping for that evening - a cracked egg!! yummy!!!

Now these photos are nothing to brag about - they are dark, the ISO is high but you got to give me points - I didn't do the dishes :)

The day there was no Blackberry Messenger

On Wednesday, 12th October 2011 - a pretty good day in the year - Blackberry messenger took a snooze!

It was slightly inconvenient and people had to resort back to archaic texting and the dreaded phonecalls :P

People vocalized their frustrations on Facebook and cursed the world. Ultimately a day without free instant messaging sucks but it is definitely NOT the end of the world.

Below are two videos that suit this momentous, not-really-a-big-deal, sans-BBM day!

Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk in Barbados

About two weeks ago I went on my second official photo walk. The walk was organized by the BPS (Barbados Photographic Society) and was part of the Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk. 

Consett Bay

Approximately fifty people attended the walk and we all meet up at Codrington College. This way no one would get lost on the drive down to Consett Bay where the walk commenced at 5:30am sharp (crazy person hour). To get there on time I had to rise out of a very deep slumber at 4:00am on a Saturday morning - pretty sure I am going to think long and hard before doing that again.

Once my mind and body were alert-ish, and I arrived safely at Consett Bay with fellow photo-takers, I got into the photo-taking mood. On the walk we visited 2 bays/beaches and one cliffside on the East Coast (Atlantic Ocean side of Barbados). Beautiful!!

Photo compliments Google.com and the magic of Photoshop

Despite the beautiful rugged scenery I wasn't too enthused to take photos of the sea and bays. Now I am not 100% why but I figure it was one or a mix of the following reasons:

• waking up on the wrong side of the bed (highly doubt this - because I found enough time in the morning to make eggs and brew coffee before heading off)
• not having the right equipment to shoot landscapes
• the weather was not ideal for landscapes shots (it was a hazy morning)
• not remembering how to do bracketing (taking 3 images at different exposures - correct, over, and under exposed photos - so that you can combine them to create on immaculate High Dynamic Range (HDR) photograph).
• or that landscapes just aren't my thing

However I did enjoy finding the quirky objects that might have been over-looked details of our surroundings. I photographed two signs that were displayed in an area that appeared to be the common area for the fisherfolk to drink and socialize. Take a read of the above and below signs - priceless!

Grandmaster Earl Bobsy Watson (a damn good name for a security dog)

Below are some other photos of the day!

Photo-taking friends :)

The cliffside we visited - but my sea is over exposed and the cliffside under exposed :( boo

Another quirky-ish shot - an improvement from my first attempt at photographing weeds.

After the walk I returned to Codrington College to take photographs of the lily pond - you will see those photos soon!

First Photowalk with the BPS

So I know I keep bigging up the Barbados Photographic Society - but I just got to. My first photo walk was about 3 weeks ago and we went to Bulkeley Sugar Factory - all organized by the BPS. It was refreshing to be in other photographers company - other people with tripods and camera bags - I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now this isn't a working sugar factory as far as I know. It is in fact very run down but the lack of human activity has resulted in a mossy, moldy, rusty, overgrown property full of interesting texture and colours. The early wake up call allowed us to photograph around sunrise - so we got good morning, warm light.

I took a whole bunch of photos but while going through all of the ones I edited - I noticed that not only did I focus on different textures (rust, moss, bricks, vines, etc.) I got a lot of photographs of doors and windows. When I am taking photos I am realising that I am drawn to symmetry and architectural features - I like lines whether round, straight, or curved.

So here are some windows and doors - who would have thought that a factory would have such an array!! :)

Conquered my first photo walk and 4am wake up call - that called for a photo of myself!! Thank you self timer.

Since this walk I have done another photowalk along the east coast of Barbados. Those photos are soon to come - just need to be edited.