Bentō for Life: October 2009

31 October 2009

Photography Online

Over the summer, my interest in photography and photographic blogs/websites grew exponentially, which eventually lead to me creating a 'photo-only' twitter account for myself (my normal twitter account was getting way to overcrowded).

As ridiculous as this may seem, it actually turned out to be a really good idea, because while I almost never post anything on it, I use it to get instant updates on deals at B&H and other such sites as well as daily examples of great photography — either through the people I follow posting their own work or any number of photographic 're-posting' sites/blogs, whose sole existence to to re-post images they have found else where to just give more people access to beautiful images that they probably would never see.

Of these photo re-posting sites/blogs, one of my favourites is probably the Amazing Pictures twitter feed, which is simply a twitter feed that is run by a photographer who just posts links to... amazing images (surprise there). What really separates this feed from hundreds out there is the the person running it doesn't constrain hierself to one genre but instead posts thing from all manner of topics, meaning it never gets boring.

However, there is another site that is definitely worth mentioning as well, and that is EarthShots.org. This site is a daily photo contest dedicated to the beauty that surrounds us on our planet. Basically, everyday the visitors to the site submit images and at the end of the day, one is chosen as the 'Photo of the Day.' The incredible thing about this is that they have such a huge amount of repeat/new visitors everyday that the photos they choose are never mediocre but instead are always stunning.

For my requisite weekly photo essay, this week I have decided to post 5 images selected from each of the sites. The first five from AmazingPics and the second five from EarthShots. As usual, the credit is listed below the picture.

AmazingPics
Found at: Discovery News

Found at: Instant Shift.com

Found at: The Sacramento Bee

Found at: Webdesigner Depot

Found at: The Boston Globe

Earthshots

Tiger Stripes — Credit: Tad Bowman

Surfers Dream — Credit: Corey Wilson

Whrrrr — Credit: Kiran Ghade

Neversink Pit — Credit: Brian Masney

End of the Road — Credit: Dean Zulich

Zone Zero

During my photography class, I was required to check out a large variety of photographic textbooks, publications, databases, and websites. While this could sometime be pedantic, the one great thing about this was that it really gave me an appreciation for a variety of shooting styles and motifs in photography. More over, it really re-enforced the fact that, like many art forms, photography is fairly subjective and what you may consider fabulous, could be seen as absolute shit by the next person.

One of the most fascinating websites that I had look at was a site called Zone Zero. The website, an online repository for photography, is named after the Zone System popularized by famous landscape photographer Ansel Adams. Its name, though, is also a metaphor for the transition from analog (film) to digital photography and thus tries to present images that are beautiful and important not because of how they were taken, but why.

Acknowledging subjectivity and inspiration, I choose the following three portfolios from Zone Zero, one nude, one landscape, and one of street photography because I think they show a good range of style. Also I think that all of as works are very interesting and beautiful.
*For the full portfolio, click on the name of the artist*

Gisele Gomes - Nude

credit: Flotando (Floating)

Adrían Markis - Landscape

credit: Lago Negro (Black Lake)

Stephen Harrison - Street Photography

credit: Untitled

27 October 2009

Experimental Gastronomy

If you had told me the phrase experimental gastronomy about a year ago I would have looked at you with bewilderment and confusion. If you had told me the phrase experimental gastronomy about six months ago, I would have looked at you with disdain and (probably) haughty-ness. Needless to say, the subject of experimental gastronomy is a recent and please-tread-lightly subject both in and out of the food world.

In the strictest sense, experimental gastronomy simply means being different/experimenting with food. These can range from being as docile as throwing some chilies into a chocolate ganache to as extreme as distilling the essence of pineapples into a liquid and then injecting them into vines to make grapes that taste tropical. As can be imagined, some of these experiments are more successful than others but all, at least on some level are interesting.

While most references to experimental gastronomy refer only to the act of cooking itself, I have recently stumbled across some pretty exciting 'experimental' designs in both restaurants service and design, which I felt could be justifiably included with little explanation. However, in order to not make this post ridiculously long, I have split up each section into its own post, which can be accessed by the links provided.

Enjoy:

Molecular Gastronomy

Experimental Service

Experimental Design

26 October 2009

Experimental Gastronomy (in Food)

Molecular gastronomy is a type of cooking which is all about reinventing food through science. One of my first introductions into pure 'molecular gastronomy' was through a Daring Cooks challenge in which the participants had to create powdered forms of foods like apple, tomato, carrot, and lemon. My reaction to the form of food was a bipolarity of emotions in which I was fascinated by and dismissed the concept as pretentious bullshit. Since then, I have discovered many new forms of molecular gastronomy, many of which are interesting and innovative, but the overarching haze of elitism has never moved that far away.

Probably what I found the most exciting example of molecular gastronomy was a post on parfaits by the webzine Luxirare. The zines creator Ji, said that she was interested taking the simple concept of the yougurt parfait and making it more provocative. I really like this post and this blog in general because it is very well enticingly laid out and the photography is incredible.

Experimental Service (in Restaurants)

Experimental Service might bring to mind the image of a small robot whizzing around with an insurmountable number of plates or the waitstaff abuse you and you pay for it (see Dick's Last Resort), depending on the size and breadth of your imagination. However, both of these are quite far from the restaurant I have in mind.

The establishment is a tiny gem hidden away in the back streets of Tokyo called Aronia de Takazawa. It contains only two tables and has no michelin stars, but don't let that fool for a second into thinking it is anything less than on of the most magnificent culinary experiences you would ever have.

The restaurant, managed by Akiko Takazawa with food prepared by Yoshiaki Takazawa, is the picture of the Japanese minimalist aesthetic. The whole restaurant, which could see around twenty people is instead limited to under ten. The reason for this is that the food 'experience' is modeled after the tea ceremony, in which form, presentation, and procedure are sacrosanct and the host plays a critical role. A meal at the Aronia de Takazawa features between ten and eleven courses, all hand crafted my Takazawa and can be as simple as plate of vegetables grown by the chef's uncle and grandfather or a complex as a vegetable terrine made out of tiny cubes of vegetable, each marinated in its own unique sauce and assembled into a rectangle the size of a zippo light and takes Takazawa an entire day to make.
(If you are interested in a review of an entire meal, check out this article where I got most of my information)

This kind of service does not come cheap though, and will cost upwards of $260 per person in addition to a reservation a few weeks in advance and don't expect to get a table all for your lonesome. However, you can try to simulate the experience for much cheaper via this video found on the restaurant's website. Also, look on the bright side this is much easier than getting a table on similarly priced Michelin restaurants such as The French Laundry, which you have to reserve more than a year in advance)

Experimental Design (in Restaurants)

Experimental Design in a restaurant does not mean anything that you are thinking about. Seriously. In the Ogori (おごり) Cafe, the name of the restaurant, when you arrive you immediately order something upon arrival. This is where the 'experimental' bit comes in; you rarely get what you order. Instead you get what the person before you ordered. And the person after you gets what you ordered. And so on and so forth.

Personally, I think that this concept for a restaurant's design is one of the most innovative things I have ever heard about. The reason why is surmised in something Cabel Sasser (whose blog I found this wonder on) wrote about his experience there: "It forced one to "let go", just for a brief moment, of the total control we're so used to exerting through commerce. It led you to taste something new, that you might not normally have ordered. It was a delight."

Unfortunately I don't think this will ever work anywhere I live (too many people worried about weight or allergies or being picky eaters but until then I get to Japan and visit the Ogori Cafe for myself, I will be content wanting water, making a sandwich, and replying ありがとございます (thank you) to no one in particular.

17 October 2009

Flikr Friends

Last summer, about the time that I started this blog, I created a free Flikr account so that I could post high quality photos to this blog without having to worry about a loss in resolution. This was something that I thought I would use now and again but never very seriously. However, as with many things that I started last summer, it has become immeasurably useful not only as a photographic repository, but also as somewhat of a portfolio.

One of the great things about Flikr is the ability to 'follow' various photographer's and artist's accounts. What this does is keeps you up to date with their current work. However, I also happen to personally know a lot of people who use Flikr as a posting medium for their work and so I follow them for that reason as well.

Anyways, for this week's 'weekly' photo essay, I decided to showoff some of my friend's work. of photos from 5 different people I follow. The pictures vary in subject matter and style, but all I think are very well done and show the personality of the photographer. If you would like to see more a specific photographer, simply click on their name.

1. mwolfish- Melissa Wolfish

2. harrislapiroff - Harris Lapiroff

3. smabrams521 -

4. munchkinmaayan -

5. tyrian3791 - Becky

10 October 2009

Images From Other Blogs

For my photo class, I am required to blog various assignments every week (these are identified by the Sourcebook tag) in order to ensure that I am always working with/thinking about photography. This weeks task was to review the blogs of my peers and then lift twenty images from their blogs and repost them.

There are various ways that I could go about this, but what I have chosen to do is look through all the blogs, chose twenty of them and post one picture from each. This, I felt, would lead to a more varied and interesting post.

The location (blog) of the original picture is listed below — feel free to peruse them at you own leisure as all of them are very interesting.

Blog Credit: Eli Steltenpohl