Photography – Page 14 – MikeHawkey.com

Occasionally when I have time to kill and am online, the ‘things’ photographer in me enjoys viewing ‘Whats in my Bag’ posts. You-tube is full of them, as are general online blogs (Japan Camera Hunter being a great one).

On those lazy image days (e.g. today), I though I’d share my ‘bag’. As I have several cameras and image taking devices, I’ll span them out over various posts now and then. For me, I don’t have a specific, all-time set up. It depends on the day, the mood and what (if anything) I have planned to shoot.

With the absolute standardising of smart devices on the market/that people carry today, my ‘Lite edition’ may well be similar to so many photographers and non-photographers alike. For this ‘Edition’ I leave the bag behind – its comparatively cumbersome and gets in my way. All I need is a pocket. I think I have spoken before about choosing to not use a smartphone anymore, but, I do still have my iPod touch. Certainly not the most amazing camera around, but for the ultra slim size, and ability to edit and post on the run, its my favourite choice when I don’t feel like carrying much. Linked with my leather card holder, and trusty Victorinox Tinker, it’s ultra light, and good to go.

Although nothing to do with camera’s, I almost always have my Swiss Army Knife on me. The ‘toolkit in your pocket’ comes in handy more than one would think, and being Victorinox, is a well crafted and reliable tool.

Thats all for today. Next time I feature ‘Whats in my Bag’, I might even have a bag!

Today for Auckland Anniversary a strong breeze, turning to a stronger wind hit the Shore today. Out came a few kites, but with the swirling wind, down they came also. Series below shot on Olympus E-500.

And down…

A day servicing and cleaning vehicles = little time to take any photos. Played around with Sony’s stitch panorama at relatively close-up positions. Chillies getting near harvest time now!

Archive shot for today. The beautiful Rangitoto Island on a crisp, cool and colourful evening.

As mid-last week may have suggested, its been a mini harvest time here at the mikehawkey.com household. Tomatoes are ripening in abundance, pumpkins (and now melons!) are getting bigger and chillies are starting to change red.

We have had so many tomatoes this season that it was time to look at options as to what we can do with them. Something I have not tried before, but was keen to give a go was sun-dried tomatoes. As with many places in the world, New Zealand is not really ideal for true sun-dried tomatoes, so we borrowed our friends dehydrator to give it a whirl.

Unsure if it was going to work or not, I unfortunately didn’t take any process photos. Maybe next time. Searching high and low for a recipe that had the tomatoes finishing in oil (most for health reasons suggest drying and storing in the freezer), I settled on the general instructional from Mary Ann Esposito, which adds into a process a quick dip in simmering vinegar to act as a preserving and bacteria limiting agent.

In basic form my process was:

Clean and chop tomatoes in half long ways
place in dehydrator with enough clearance around them.
Set to ‘medium’ heat and dehydrate for 8-10 hours (the fat ones took a bit longer)
bring red whine vinegar to the boil, drop dried tomatoes in the simmering vinegar for up to one minute,
dry on paper towel and pace into sterilised jar. Add some salt, peppercorns and top off with olive oil until all tomatoes are covered.

I ended up storing them in the fridge, which of course has set the olive oil, but not to worry, if I pull them out the day I wish to use they will return to liquid state quick enough. I had enough over to place in a small container also. Yum!

Next up is drying a range of herbs to be used in cooking.

“If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.”
― Maurice Maeterlinck, The Life of the Bee

Early spring I planted some coriander. Always a nice addition to many meals, it started life off a little sad and under-watered due to surprisingly quick drainage in one of my new garden areas. Then, the coriander itself was quick to pass its tasty leaf stage and shoot straight to the flowering. Never mind – its given me either an abundance of seeds to eat, or more likely dry and plant next season!