RASPBERRIES AND CREAM ICE

I was inspired to make this whilst looking through the August 2008 Sainsbury's Magazine. Nigel Slater, ice cream and raspberries - perfect.

Unfortunately, I had a problem with this recipe. If you eat this straight from the freezer the cream ice and raspberries are frozen solid. If you thaw it for a while, the cream ice melts and reverts back to its original consistency and the raspberries remain frozen.

We served ours semi-melted and had lots of extra raspberries with it.

Serves: 6

You will need: a 10 x 16cm loaf tin, 9cm deep, the base and sides lined with clingfilm.

75g caster sugar, 3 large eggs (separated), a few drops of vanilla extract or a knife-point of vanilla seeds, 275ml double cream, 250g raspberries.

1. Add the sugar to the egg yolks and beat until thick and pale. Stir in the vanilla. Whist the cream until thick, but still able to slide a little when the bowl is moved from side to side. You don't want it to be stiff. Fold the cream into the egg yolk and sugar.
2. Crush the berries with a fork. Just mash them lightly.
3. In a clean bowl and with a clean whisk, beat the egg whites until stiff. fold them tenderly into the mixture, followed by the crushed raspberries. Pour into the lined tin. Tap gently to level the mixture then cover loosely with clingfilm and place in the freezer for a good 4-5 hours until frozen.
4. To serve, slice with a heavy, sharp knife into thick pieces.

Note: this recipe contains raw eggs.

Adrianne Koteen: Burma

Photograph © Adrianne Koteen-All Rights Reserved
Adrianne Koteen attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico City, and it's there that I had the good fortune of reviewing her portfolio.

She's a freelance photographer, educator and arts consultant based in San Francisco, and her biography reveals that she works internationally with a variety of non-profits, museums, and individual clients. Adrienne is also the program coordinator for Fotovision, a Bay Area based non-profit whose mission is to advance social documentary photography though education, dialogue and community. Her photography has taken her to six continents, and her work has been used in numerous non-profit settings, including an Imagining Ourselves exhibit at the United Nations.

While reviewing Adrienne's portfolio at the workshop, I stopped at the above photograph of a Burmese monk looking over lake Taungthamanthe from the U Bein bridge in Amarapura. I thought it was an exceptionally beautiful photograph, worthy of being entered in photography contests, and if I were a judge, of winning. At the very least, I think this photograph could be used as an ideal double-spread for articles on Burma, particularly because of its composition...the right hand expanse is perfect for titles and preambles to the main text.

I foresee an extremely bright future for Adrienne in social documentary photography, as well as in travel editorial photography, should she choose to pursue her career in these fields.

Advance Peek: To Cambodia With Love

To Cambodia With Love: A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur is a one-of-a-kind guide for the passionate traveler published by Things Asian Press in San Francisco.

The photographs are by Tewfic El-Sawy (aka The Travel Photographer) and is edited and with contributions by Andy Brouwer. I'm pleased with the choice of the photograph of the Royal Apsaras on the cover; it was made in Angkor Wat and this one in particular is of one of the dancers adjusting the headgear of another before the photo shoot.

The book is 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches; paperback; color & b/w images and will be available for order in winter of 2008.

When it comes to Cambodia, no one knows it better than the contributors to To Cambodia With Love. Sharing their own stories in their own words, they will introduce you to some of the country’s most memorable experiences.

I will announce its publication date on TTP as soon as I know it, and hope you'll buy it! It promises to be a blockbuster.

Rant: The New Yorker

The New Yorker magazine has stirred a hornet's nest for what it calls a satirical cartoonish cover that shows Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama dressed in a Taliban-like garment, and his wife Michelle — dressed in camouflage, combat boots and an assault rifle strapped over her shoulder — standing in the Oval Office. To add insult to injury, artist Barry Blitt added a portrait of Osama bin Laden on the wall, and the American flag burning in the fireplace. This cover is tasteless, repugnant and offensive on all levels.

I read that The New Yorker's editor says that the cover is satirizing rumors about Obama — including rumors that he's Muslim and anti-American, and defended its choice, "saying its readership is sophisticated enough to get the joke."

This is so out-of-touch (and dismissive of our intelligence) that it beggars belief as to how these people at The New Yorker think. I hope readers will find the so-called "joke" so unfunny that they cancel their subscriptions, and demand their money back. That'll be really funny.

POV: Lightroom Or...?

Image © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
The photographer Georges Mann has written an article tackling the "Can Lightroom 2 replace Photoshop CS3?" question on the O'Reilly Digital Media blog. This of course is a question that triggers endless debates, Byzantine arguments and lots of harumphs from both sides of the aisle..sort of like the Canon vs Nikon debate.

I believe that Lightroom 2 does all I need and more, and I'm glad that I've opted to go for it instead of spending my life's savings on CS3 (or on its endless stream of successors).

In a nutshell, Mann's 6th prediction in the article is precisely my view. I'd be less cautious in my verbiage than he is, but we all have our own writing style.

"6. Photo Journalists & Travel photographers - there are exceptions but most of these photographers deal with reality, so Lightroom should be enough for editing out bad shots, improving bad exposures and generally applying a personal look to their images. Lightroom can also help them present their images to their clients and put galleries on the internet."

Exactly! As a documentary and travel ethnographic photographer, I'm into reality ( I seldom crop, for instance), not fantasy...and I'm not a pixel-pusher, so CS3 is a software program that I don't need.

I occasionally listen to the arcane discussions by CS3 (or its other versions) users, who extol the minutiae of layers, adjustments, and other tools, that just make me roll my eyes to the heavens and yawn!

Via Imaging Insider.