Southern Fried French

A French Viking Ship, Pretty in Pink

Oh la, the joys of small town life!  I expect village events here are a bit the same as in small towns everywhere:  full of enthusiasm, creativity, and a bit of kitsch. 

And so it was they held the annual Téléthon here in the village this week. This is a national charity event , and in the small villages volunteers don matching yellow windbreakers and funny hats and march around to all the residents in the commune to collect for benevolent causes.  Since it’s illegal to knock on doors and ask for money in France, they offer bags of cookies, which we all help make.  

Then there is the float, which leads the parade of door-knockers.  Normally it’s a homemade paper maché affair, perched on a trailer and pulled by a tractor on loan from a farmer.  We had a giant witch one year, and last year it was a misshapen green dragon, which nevertheless had a kind of lumpy charm.

But this year, an even bolder theme:  A viking ship!  The head of the social committee asked our Dutch neighbor Gerard to help the committee build it.  Sure, Gerard said, we’ll need some rebar for the structure, we can make it in a flash.  Mais non--someone had donated a load of bamboo, so the plan was to tie the bamboo together to make the boat. 

“But it will wobble if there’s no structural support,” he protested, “and the ties for all that bamboo will cost a fortune!”   But the French are not happy to take advice, nor to waste a chance to recycle something free.  Gerard’s predictions came true, however, and in the end they had to insert some boards to keep the listing bateau afloat, so to speak.  By this time the crew was too exhausted with the project to add the chicken wire and paper maché, so they wrapped the whole bamboo boat skeleton in plastic shrink-wrap, which they then, inexplicably, painted pink.

I have a tradition of serving breakfast to the dragon-slayers, or vikings as the case may be, and this year they arrived with viking hats sporting some serious looking horns, though their chapeaux had a tendency to slip down over their faces at a drunken tilt.  After being fortified with coffee and muffins, the sailors were off to conquer the seas.  All for a good cause, and good fun too.

I wish all of you good fun and happiness as well, over the holidays. Joyueses fêtes!

In the COMMENTS:  Lots of folks seem to be using iPads/iPhones as their camera, as Gordon suggested in his guest post, including Mariella, and Katie of the blog French Cravings. Debbie, thanks for the nice comments, and Mickey, you're never too old to 'snap'!

Favorite Reads:  BIG book news this week.  My lovely step-daughter Kelly Watts has published a book!  It's an exciting adventure story, and a true one:  She and her husband Paul set out to sail around the world (with no sailing experience, mind you), and ended up adopting a 2-month old baby on a Pacific island, half-way there.  If you've ever had a dream, you'll want to read this lively tale of how they made their dream real.  It's called 'Sailing to Jessica' and it's available on Amazon in both print and Kindle  format (if you load it onto an iPad, you'll get lots of photos/maps of their journey.  The print book has links to her website with photos and more).  It's also available on Nook or at itunes.  Visit her website for a preview.

Give It Your Best Shot

Today I'm so pleased to bring you a very special guest post.  My great friend Gordon Beall is an architectural photographer extraordinaire in Washington DC that I've worked with too many years to count, in my job as a regional editor. Though you may not know him, you've likely seen his work: Gordon shoots for all the big home and garden magazines.  Working with him has taught me so much about photography, about good design, about new ways of seeing.  For this post I asked him to share his tips about his personal photography, the fun and arty stuff he does on his own time.

Choosing a Camera

As a professional photographer I am often asked to recommend cameras but frankly I don't spend that much time trying to keep up with it all. Not enough time! And they are always changing. The fact is that all of the major manufacturers make fine cameras so the important thing for any one individual is to find one that fits your needs (pocket vs SLR for example) by simply comparing a few, looking for things like how it fits your hand, how easy is it to figure out the controls, its weight, etc. Also, in this age of zooms, what is the range of the zoom. There could be a lot of factors which influence your choice, so it really is up to you to make the decision. But one word of advice, unless you are a very serious photographer, I would not spend a whole lot of money on a camera at any one time because they can become obsolete very quickly. 

Finally, one dictum worth remembering is that the best camera is always the one you have in your hand. Which brings me to this: my iPhone has become my all time favorite travel and walk around camera. I have many times in the past gone on vacation and not even taken a camera. But now, with my iPhone, I always have it with me ready to go. And it is soooo easy to use! I see something interesting to photograph any time any place, and it's there. So, without being too silly here, I can often say that the iPhone is the best camera, because I always have it. By the way, (and I don't work for Apple!) the 4S is a major improvement over the earlier iPhones, and is worth having for the camera alone. The only thing that I don't like about shooting with the iPhone is how difficult it is to see the screen outside on a bright day, but that is always the case with a camera that does not have a viewfinder.  

One last thing I would like to say about using the iPhone, and which for me makes it so fun and satisfying to use, are the photo apps that you can load on it. I am particularly enamored of one called Hipstamatic which sells on iTunes for all of $1.99. After purchasing the app you can make "in app" purchases of additional software for generally $.99. It's possible to spend as much as $15 (or so) if you buy lots of these "lenses" and "films", but if you do go and blow the wad on this you will have an amazing assortment of really wonderful effects from numerous combinations of these virtual lenses and films. It is really fun to use and I am constantly surprised by how this app can transform your photos into something wonderful. I can't say enough good things about it. If you love shooting black and white as I do, and would like to do so with an iPhone this app is a must. Enough said.  PHOTOS: at the top, Gordon's shot of the eastern shore of the Chesapeke Bay has it all:  extraordinary light, good composition,  emotion. Above right, a shot taken at Balleure with his iphone and Hipstamatic.  

Composing the Photo

As an architectural photographer, my favorite advice comes from Washington DC photographer Robert Lautman.  Sadly he is no longer with us but he said that architectural photography is simply "Knowing where to stand, and when to stand there."  This is great advice and applies to other types of photography as well.  In other words, you want to find your best angle,  the best light, then look at the subject and determine where you need to be to show it off to best advantage. Of course a lot of the time, on vacation, you don't have the opportunity to do that, but it's always worth keeping those words in your mind.

Some more advice I can give you is this: when composing a photo pay just as much attention to what is on the edges of the photo as you do to what is in the middle of the photo. Everything in the frame has an effect on the quality of the image, and what is on the outer edges of the photo is just as important as what is in the center. This is especially true of portraits, photos of your family and friends. One of the most frequent mistakes of amateur photographers is to compose so that a person's head is in the center of the shot, surrounded by large amounts of uninteresting and unimportant areas. Tighten your shots up, keep your eyes on the edges of the photos, don't stick everything in the center, shoot some off center stuff and shoot some verticals too. Take a look at your past pictures and see if you are guilty of the head in the center problem, and if so, make some adjustments, your photos will improve I am sure.

Finally, probably the most important factor in making a great looking photo is, of all things, the quality of the light. Hard to believe, but true true true! (I'm kidding with you of course).  But really, nothing can make a so-so photo great as having great light. Of course it doesn't happen all the time if you are shooting outside, but it's worth mentioning the obvious. Morning and late afternoon/evening light is the best, noon is the worst. Light coming from the side onto your subject will usually be the best. Light from behind you the worst. Side light highlights shapes and gives shadow - don't be afraid of shadows! Shadows give form to objects. Light from behind you flattens things and makes them less interesting. Back light can be beautiful too, but is trickier to handle properly.

One last thought or two. When we shot film you could really run up a tab fast by shooting a lot. But no longer. Now if you make a mistake it costs nothing. So shoot a lot! Try different angles or unusual angles if you think the subject is worthy. Don't just take one, take several. The only thing it costs you is some extra editing time, but you may suddenly find that that 4th shot is the best one, so it's worth it. Also shoot the highest resolution you can, do not set the camera on low res. This means you should carry a few extra cards, but they take up practically no room and they are cheap. And getting cheaper all the time. And don't forget a spare battery!

Merci mon ami!  

 If you want to see Gordon's portfolio on his website, click here.   His 'people' shots may give you some portrait ideas.

At left, a picture of Gordon I took on a shoot in Charleston. And by the way, when he was here this past summer (we were shooting a garden for Traditional Home), I asked him to do a portrait of me, a headshot I could use for contributor photos. It illustrates some of the things he discussed about portraits.  You can see it on this blog on the 'Meet Lynn McBride' page (the lower photo on that page).

Big BOOK NEWS this week: Karen Chase's Bonjour 40: A Paris travel Log: (40 years. 40 days. 40 seconds.)  is now out in the PRINT edition (paperback).  You can read her November guest post here, or a preview of the book on her own blog here.

FAVORITE READS:  Since we talked about cats last week, I've come across 2 books about cats that look hysterical, I'm ordering both for myself and  for gifts. How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You makes me wonder, do they know my cat?  Goodreads ranks it as one of their top humor books of the year. Then there is I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats, a title every cat owner can relate to, by the author of the 'Sally Forth' comic strip.  Perfect gifts for the cat-obcessed.

"J'ai Sommeil": The Life of a French Cat

Is it possible to get as comfortable as a cat?  I don't think so. Though they sometimes pick the funniest places to sleep.  Here are some French felines I've snapped, including ours, in the yawning stage, in dream mode, or simply out cold.  PHOTO:  Welcome mat-cat, spotted in northern Burgundy.

This relaxed cat slept right by our table during the entire meal, at a restaurant in the Var.

"And you woke me up WHY?"  A nest among le linge.

In Italy, we watched all the hotel guests step right over this cat, who never even opened an eye.

Fangs:  Under no circumstances should you disturb this cat.

Our rescue cat Domino, sleeping in Ron's desk chair at the chat-eau.  But wait, don't empty that trash can!  Our neighbor's cat Meepia, also known as The Guest Cat, has snuck in once again. (She is sometimes also called Cupcake, in memory of the day this rotunde gourmand cleared several of them off of our kitchen counter).

These cats are definately headed for un petit dodo (that's French for cat nap).

 

In the COMMENTS:  Funny, two readers mentioned Shaker Lemon Pie, which I had never heard of.  And yes Suzanne, we'd love the recipe!  Linda, how do we get on the list for one of those Christmas boxes? And going back to the fall roses, Paula I will make note of those varieties, as a few of those beetles have made it over to our garden too!

Christmas shopping tip:  My friend Chris over at European Market has great presents, all carefully chosen from his travels in Europe.  Like the gorgeous stadium blanket featured in Traditional Homes ’20 Gifts for Him’ gift guide this month.  Check out European Market here.

Favorite Reads:  Big book news this week:  One of our readers, Josh Chalmers, has published a children's book, and it's a very special one you'll want to know about.  It's called Change the World Before Bedtime , and it's about kids around the globe exploring ways to be generous and help their neighbors, friends, and the less fortunate.  I'll be getting a copy for my grandkids. Felicitations, Josh.