This wraps up our year of the One Word Project, film shooting based on a theme. Its been so exciting and challenging at times to shoot film again, but I remember every time I get a roll developed why I truly love film photography! There’s a rawness, clarity and richness that shines through each careful shot. When shooting film one is definitely more intentional with each shot. This has been a great push for me to continue to develop my skill and don’t worry, there will be more film shooting coming your way!

This One Word Project is titled “self.” Its been a while since I last posted, but its been a busy summer to say the least and I have to say this theme of “self” (that Shelly chose by the way) totally stumped me! All I could think was ‘how am I going to photograph myself? My camera doesn’t have a timer.” So I got creative.

I figured the best way to solve this creative dilemma was to use a mirror and I have a great antique one that worked perfect.

I think the ironic part about this shoot is that generally when photographing, I’m really careful about shooting mirrors, windows, etc to make sure you can’t see me in the reflection. In this shoot is was hard to make sure I was in the reflection.

Here’s a where’s waldo shot for you. Can you find me? Thanks for the challenge Shelly! Now everyone go check out Shelly’s version of “Self!” http://blog.shellygoodmanphotography.com/2013/08/11/one-word-project-self/

This One Word project film shoot was really fun because I actually shot my roll while in St. Louis visiting Shelly a couple weekends ago! Shelly Goodman, in case you forgot, is my college roommate and best bud, who also happens to be a sweet photographer who started this One Word Photography project that I jumped in on a year ago. So remember to check out her site for her version of the One Word Project as well. http://blog.shellygoodmanphotography.com/2013/05/12/one-word-project-rhythm/

The Word for this shoot was Rhythm, one of my favorite principles of design! While in St. Louis, Shelly takes us on awesome tours of pretty much anything we can find that we haven’t seen and happens to be free. She mentioned visiting this beautiful cathedral in St. Louis and the portion of my heart that beats a love of architecture and architecture history caused me to jump at the chance to visit a classically designed, grandios, and well appointed space on this side of the pond! So I grabbed my film camera and Shelly grabbed my iphone camera, Matt grabbed his iphone video camera and we had a great artistic afternoon adventure.

I have to say this lovely structure didn’t disappoint. Classically designed cathedrals also happen to be spaces filled with repeated elements creating a sense of beautiful Rhythm throughout the space. With my love for architectural photography and film this was the perfect opportunity.

From the exterior stone buttresses, to the interior marble columns, to the lifted arches, to the endless rows of pews, to the illuminated devotional candles, to the glimmering mosaic tiles Rhythm is an essential design element in these cathedrals. Rhythm guides your eye to the altar. It breaks down the massive space to a human scale. It layers the space both on a vertical and horizontal plane. Rhythm brings consistency and continuity from the exterior all the way inside.

Thanks Shelly for the great creative day and touring! Now go check out Shelly’s Rhythm photos http://blog.shellygoodmanphotography.com/2013/05/12/one-word-project-rhythm/

An Update:
I know its been a while, so thanks to all you faithful ones who keep checking back to see what’s new. Fall is flying by for me…just got back from a sweet road trip to Dallas for a friend’s wedding. Long drive, but saw lots of friends and family, which totally made it worth it!

I’m working on getting some handmade items up on etsy right now. They’ll hopefully be debuting within the next couple weeks, just in time for the holidays. That’s all I’ll say for now, but I’ll be dropping plenty of photos and links here on the blog soon so stay tuned!

That’s an update about me, so let’s get to it. As promised here is another type of squash and a tasty way to prepare it:

Acorn squash is in season and really abundant in your local grocery this time of year. This means you can generally get it pretty cheap. I love these tasty little guys because they are super easy to prepare, they taste like Fall, are a great alternative starch to potatoes, and they have a pretty long countertop lifetime (meaning you can buy one and leave it on your counter for a decent amount of time before it spoils).

So, how do I prepare this Fall starch? Here we go…(major precursor to a super simple recipe)
This recipe is super Kid-Friendly. Its a sweet way to prepare this squash…My advice is to make sure that your kids see you add the brown sugar, maple syrup, or honey and maybe they’ll be more inclined to dig in rather than frowning at a new veggie!

Ingredients:
1 medium sized acorn squash
1 to 2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons brown sugar, or maple syrup, or honey (take your pick)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Oh so careful cut the squash in half length wise (from top to bottom). This is a really hard squash so watch your fingers and use a large, sharp knife. Scoop out the center portion of the seeds and gooey stuff.
*Side Note: You can save the seeds and prepare the just like pumpkin seeds in the oven and they make a great snack.

2. Place both halves of squash in a rimmed casserole dish with the dark skin side down, so it makes 2 little bowls. Fill the bottom on the baking dish with about a half inch of water.

3. In each half of the squash bowls place 3/4 to 1 tablespoon of butter, 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of whatever sweet you’ve chosen and a dash of salt and pepper.

4. Bake in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the orange inside of the squash is very tender. If all the water in the bottom of the dish evaporates make sure to add more. Remove from the oven carefully as to not slosh the hot water.

6. You can serve the squash at this point and let each person combine the squash with the butter, sweet, and spices or you can use a fork and combine the orange part of the squash with the tasty stuff before you serve. Just a side note, don’t eat the green skin. Enjoy!

*For picky eaters I recommend mixing the squash and the tasty stuff before you serve and if necessary throw in a little more sweet and cinnamon.

*Recipe serves: 2 to 4 people depending on if you want to serve a squash bowl to each person and how large the squash itself is.

*Recipe Source: Madison Sommerfield