Blueberry Jam

Summer Time is jam making time. For a few years I make my own jams now. One of my favorite is blueberry jam flavored with fresh grated ginger and fresh sage leaves. The ginger adds a nice fresh taste to the jam while the sage leaves are emphasizing the herbal notes of the blueberry well.




© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009


Ingredients:
1000 g blueberries
1000 g 1:1 Gelling Sugar
30 medium sized sage leaves
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
4 tablespoons lime juice

Note on Gelling Sugar: I'm using a commercial gelling sugar which contains the neccessary acidifier, pectin, gelling ingredients. It is foolproof. And I'm just too lazy to do this completely from scratch.

You can half the ingredients if you like and actually I often made this with just 500 g blueberries, because they can be expensive.



Directions:

1. In a large pot mix blueberries and Gelling Sugar. Add lime juice and the freshly grated ginger. Prick the berries with a fork, but don't mash them. Let stand this mixture for 1 hour, mixing from time to time and pricking more berries if needed. The sugar will not dissolved completely during that time.
   
2. Meanwhile sterilze your jars. I fill them onece or twice with boiling water and pour out the boiling water immediately before I fill in the jam. This would 1500 mL of jam. So have enough jars at hand and prepared.
   
3. Add the fresh sage leaves to the blueberries and bring to a boil stirring all the time. Let cook for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Then remove from heat and remove sage leaves.
   
4. Fill into prepared twist off preserving jars and close jars. Let stand for 1 minute and then turn up side down. Let stand for 10 minutes and turn over again. Let cool completely.
   

present and past
Because blueberry jam is one of my favorite jams, you won't be surprised that I have already photographed the jam in the past. The photo at the beginning was done very recently. I browsed through my older shots and this one was done in 2007.



© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009

Strawberry Mousse

This strawberry mousse is an easy summerly dessert for strawberry lovers. Serve the mousse with a simple strawberry sauce and garnish it with some mint leaves. In the directions I'm a bit vague on the gelatin. There are different gelatins available. So just follow the package directions.



© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009

Ingredients:
300g strawberries (hulled)
140g powdered sugar
200g yogurt (10% fat)
6 sheets unflavored gelatin (or gelatin for 0.5 liter fluid)
2 Tablespoons water
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
peel of 1/2 lemon (grated)
250 mL whipping cream

Directions:

1. Prepare gelatin according to package directions.
   
2. Put strawberries in a blender and add lemon peel, lemon juice and powdered sugar. Blend until smooth. Fold in yogurt by hand until mixed well.
   
3. Dissolve the prepared gelatin in 2 tablespoons warm water. Mix gelatin into the strawberry mixture by hand until well blended. Put into the refrigerator.
   
4. Whip whipping cream.
   
5. When the strawberry mixture is starting to set and has the same consistency as the whipping cream, fold in the whipping cream carefully.
   
6. Put the mousse into the refrigerator and let set for about 4 hours until mousse is ready to serve.
   

Serve it with a simple strawberry sauce. To make the sauce puree fresh strawberries. Sweeten the puree with powdered sugar to your liking. Add some lemon juice for a fresh note.

Grilled Lamb Cutlets

I like to grill because carcoal is giving a certain flavor. Maybe not neccessarily to the food, but sure the smell of it fills the air in summer. Grilled lamb cutlets have the advantage, that they are smaller in size than any other meat. So you can eat more of them or eat different things. The mediterranean marinade is adding a wonderful flavore to the lamb. You will always have some marinade left. I drizzle some of the grilled cutlets.



© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009

Ingredients:
1 - 2 garlic cloves
2 rosemary sprigs
4 thyme sprigs
1 chilli pepper
olive oil
salt and pepper
10 Lamb cutlets

Note on amounts: you can take a bit more or less of the herbs, if you like. The amount of chilli peppers depends on how hot they are and how hot you like it. I used a medium sized chilli.

Directions:

1. Chop the leaves of the herbs as small as you like them. Half the chilli lenghtwise and remove the seeds. Cut the chilli into small pieces. slice the garlic cloves or just cut them lengthwise.
   
2. Mix everything with about 100 mL olive oil. Add the cultes and cover them with olive oil mixture. Put the cutlest in a bowl (or suited container), add the mixture and enough oilive oil to cover the cutlets. Use a conatiner as samll as possible.
   
3. Let the cutlets marinade for a few hours or over night.
   
4. Pre-heat the grill.
   
5. Remove cutlets from marinade and let marinade drip off. Put them on the hot grill and grill them a few minutes on each side. Depending on how thick they are, it will take about 3 to 4 minutes from each side.
   
6. Serve the cutlets hot with salt and pepper. If you like you can drizzle some of the oil marinade over them.
   

The breakfast shot

© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009

The final shot
I did the shooting "Breakfast with strawberry jams" a while ago. Above you see the final shot of this series. The idea behind this was to give a certain feeling of a sunday morning. You know breakfast table is ready, everyone has it own favorites, one likes coffee, the other one orange juice. One likes this jam, the other that. And in the midst of the breakfast table there is a chaotic mix of everything. And did you notice, that also for the table ware everyone has a favorite one. So, I wanted to create a a "typical" breakfast scenery, most of us will know, but giving focus on food. So, only jams are used (with exception of the egg).

This kind of photo can be very busy looking. So, I reduced the busyness. The dominating background color is blue (table ware, napkin, backdrop). I used only red jams. So I just have a few "repeated" colors, which are dominating

At next I repeated elements, although they are a bit different. You see the crumbs of bread below the right plate are repeated by eggs shell crumbs on left side. Basil leaves are repeated by strawberry leaf on far right. Toast is repeated by bread roll. A sliced strawberry in upper right is repeated by strawberry with bite off. You will find many of the repetitions. So there is no single / stand alone element. Everything has a counterpart.

I used the bird's eye view to remove "perspective". Perspective would have been to dynamic here for me. And the graphical layout is balancing the differences in the elements even more. And so did lighting. Around the scenery I placed several bounces to get a balanced light.

And so the photo doesn't look too overcrowded. Everyone finds something familiar or well known in this photo (except for those of you who don't have or like sunday breakfast). What might have otherwise been too busy are becoming more of little details, which makes the photo interesting, Yes, this photo was arranged.





© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009


The Layout & compositional idea
Above is a photo of the basic composition. For this composition I used lines and circles. The main lines are already there. Plates line in a diagonal position. And the vertical line of cup and glass. A problem from the startd: the plate in upper right is dominating over the plate in lower left. I started with this simple setting and developed the idea from here on.

Lines: diagonal line of plates and its counterpart made by basket and bowl with strawberries (with glass and jar in between). A strong vertical line of cup and glass slightly off center only to keep balance. And my favorite line: a horizontal wave line from sugar bowl on left, over salt shaker, egg, jar, spoon in jar, glass, again jar and the strawberry leaf on right. The spoons and knives are all using the diagonal orientation. These lines build a mesh, a structure for the elements.

Circles: the major element is in this composition the circle or dot.

The problem: the dominating plate in upper right. To break this, I used partner elements for the other plate: a colorful blue napkin. And the egg, which has no obvious counterpart in the photo. If you take a look at the pre-shot. The dominance is no longer there.

But such a photo needs something, you like to look at. Little details. I wanted hidden details, you have to explore. And every time you come back you should discover something new. You may wonder, if there is something not arranged: no. Every single detail is where I want it to be. And I checked it over and over again. Should the plate slightly cover the napkin? Should the spoons at the cup and the egg spoon have exactly the same direction? This kind of image is like a puzzle and the arrangement needs much much more time than the shooting. So, with so much time put into the arrangement, you will do shoot more than just one.





© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009


Outtake
The glass is such a lovely and strong element, that I wanted to use it. This is maybe a strange composition, because I have the glass almost dead center. This composition is anchored by the glass, everything else is placed around. It is in the center of every line in this photo: a horizontal line from one jar to the other, in the strong ascending diagonal line from lower left to upper right, and in the line from cup to bowl. And with that I have switched the focus to the orange juice, which is the dominating element here. And the brightness let fade out the blue to almost white. I used the blow out effect to reduce the meaning of the plate in upper right. And I used less fill light to get some shadows.





© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009


Another view on it
In this outtake I do not only change to the potrait format, but I get closer to focus on the jam jars. The spoons are used to get the viewer's attention directed into the jars. Plates in front and back are cropped hard to make them less important. The strawberries are used as a reference of what the jams are made of. Main viweieng line is from the bowl in lower left over the two jars into the background.


If you like this, you may like this one too:

It is not just Black & White

Very recently I have discovered my liking for black and white photography. In the digital area I have paid not as much attention to it as I should have, because it is great. It is giving you certain liberties and compositional freedom you don't always have with color photography. The obvious absence of color let you concentrate on the different values and tonality. And it makes lighting - the play with light and shadows - a more central part of the composition. In return it opens up new ideas, which one could use in color photography too.

It started a few weeks ago while visiting an exhibition on czech photographers here in Bonn where I live. One of the photographers featured was Josef Sudek and one of his still lifes reminded me of a still life I have seen years ago. Actually I don't know the if the photo I have had in mind was photographed by Sudek or not, but I was interested again to try it. So my first attempt was just a simple glass of water



© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009

Not much of a food photograph, although water is the most important food, I like that you can play with light and try some more extreme lighting ideas you don't use that often in color food photography like hard light and strong shadows. On the other hand it is challenging to not create only blown out highlights or shadows lacking details and defintion.



© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009

The idea of this 2nd photo is based on a photograph by Ansel Adams (Still Life, 1932) I found in his book 'Examples - the making of 40 photographs'. I used the egg slicer idea as the staring for my try. I used it for food still, whereas the photography by Adams is an arrangement of more or less 'unrelated' things as I see it. I like and agree very much to his remarks on this specific photograph and ideas about lighting, especially concerning the use of natural light.



© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009

Black & White photographs are often percepted as vintage or retro style. In this photo I have used a 'modern' but ordinary sieve to avoid the idea of retro style here. Black & White is a different approach in photography but not necessarily vintage. It could be as modern or vintage as any other kind of photography. The missing of color is giving here more attention to the lines and shapes created by the shadows. And details like the little reflection of the sieve in the pot get more important.

These are the first three tries in photographing in black and white. All three are related somewhat to food photography and I will try to explore the idea of photographing food in balck & white more in the future. It is different, it is challenging, it gives you experience in using light, and it is fun.

Let there be Light!

Photographs are pictures painted with Light. Although a platidue and not even an inventive one, is it true. Fact. No doubt about it. For the common food photography you need at least some light.

And as sure as we need light to photograph as controvers lighting is discussed. Start a conversation about lighting and it wouldn't surprsie me that you have a heated debate soon. But what is the controvery in lighting all about? Often it is the light source. Do you use (1) natural light or artificial light. If you use artificial light, do you use (2) continous light or (3) flash light and of cause the required equipment. Are there differences between these light sources? Sure, there are. Is one light source better than the other? No. Would you really like to judge the quality of the different light sources for usability or quality in food photography? I wouldn't, because I wouldn't like to judge the quality of oil based colors vs. water colors in still life painting. The light is the tool we use to realize our ideas in food photography. And depending on your ideas and what you want to achive you will choose the light source.

Is it worthwhile to discuss light and lighting? Yes. Each light source has its own quality, advantages, limitations, techniques. Like a painter has to learn how to use oil or water colors, the photographer has to learn how to use the different light sources and what one personal can do with it. In the end it is the photographer imaginativeness that makes the photo. To know how to use light is essential for the realization.

As important lighting equipment and technique for lighting in food photography is, it is just one side of the medal. For me personal more important is to get a feeling for light and lighting, to "see" light, how it works, what effects it creates and how different it is. There are many good books covering the techniques and how to use the equipment, which will help you to understand technical background and to improve you technical skills. To develop your own style and to improve your imaginative skills, you have to practice. During the day, light is always around, so take a closer look at it. Light in the morning is different from that at noon, it is different on a cloudy day from that on a bright sunny day. Light inside a room through a curtain is different from that outside. Try to use these different qualities. Take a look at your favorite photos and try to analyse them. How was it done. Where is the main light source. What about shadows and fill lights.

Experiment, practice, learn by try and error. Take a look at more photos and learn from them. Like for any other hobby it is experience and practice that will help you. To talk about it has helped me to understand how lighting works for me and I could profit from experiences others have made. And most important I learn from the mistakes I made and will make. Thanks to all who have given me pointers, there opinion and to my hardest critics.

To end this personal opinion thread two photos from my own experiments on lighting.



© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009


© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009


If ou like this post you may also like "Find your Light"

Bavarian Veal Sausage Salad "to go"

With spring and summer coming soon, it is high time for trips and picnics. A salad is always great to take with you for a snack, but do you like to take bowls, plates and silverware too? A neat way to pack a rustic salad is to serve it in a hollowed out bread roll. You can eat the package and don't need anything else. Wrap it in paper or put it is a paper bag and ready you are.
BavarianVeal Sausage (Weißwurst) Salad is a rustic salad, which would go well with a beer. For the bread roll you can take any suited rustic bread roll. If you like it more salty, you can take a pretzel too for it.


© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009



Ingredients:

3-4 Bavarian Veal Sausages (Weißwürste)
10 or more radishes
1 tbsp Sweet Mustard
2 tbsp walnut oil (or any other type of nut oil)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
chives (as much as you like)
salt and pepper to taste
4 large bread rolls or more smaller ones


Directions:

1. Peel the sausages, quarter them lenghtwise and cut them into bite size pieces.
2. Wash and clean radishes and cut them into quarters or or slices.
3. Make a vinegraitte from oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper
4. Cut chives into small rings and add to vinegraitte
5. Mix sausges, radishes and vibnegraitte to make the salad.
6. Cut the upper third of the bread rolls (this will make the lid). Hollow out the lower two third part of the bread rolls.
7. Divide the salad onto the bread rolls. Press a little, if required. Put on the bread roll lid and wrap it tightly in paper or cling film.

© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2009