Glasnevin Tower

Kitsnaps: Botanic Gardens Hailstorm

Last Friday Young Indiana and I went out to the Botanic Gardens and got caught in a rain-and-hailstorm. It was great fun, actually, and involved a lot of running from one hiding place to another, playing keep-safe games and dancing. I had my camera, having intended to pursue my self-directed photography ‘classes’ some more, although I haven’t advanced much beyond practicing shallow-depth photography. On one hand that’s fine, because as it happens I Really Love shallow depth photography and I’m chuffed I’ve re-learned how to do it reliably. On the…

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re-learning photography

I’ve said before that there’s an alternate universe pretty close to this one where I’m a professional photographer instead of writer. Back in the day I was good enough to get a scholarship for photography, but I only pursued it half-heartedly, and after a while digital cameras started doing all the work for me and I forgot what I’d learned. I do manual photography as a kind of crap shoot (ahahah) anymore, without any real sense of how the light or depth of field is going to work. I can…

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Kitsnacks: Russian Tea Cakes

RUSSIAN TEA CAKES (traditional Kenai Russian ladies’ recipe) 1 c softened (not melted) butter 1/2 c sifted powdered sugar 1 tsp vanilla 2 1/2 c flour 1/4 tsp salt 3/4 c finely chopped walnuts Allow the butter to soften to room temperature–do not melt. Sift the powdered sugar & measure. Stir them together using a spoon–do not use a mixer. Stir in the vanilla. Sift and measure the flour, then re-sift with the salt. Stir in the chopped walnuts. Stir the flour mix into the butter mix. The resulting dough…

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Kitsnaps: Old Man Orangutan

I love both of these pictures individually, but I think together they’re just about perfect. :)