Ploafmaster General

Yeah, so my recently mentioned image experiment? Ready to move to the next phase. More news as soon as I have it, but let's just say something tangible may be coming soon.

If you pay attention to the culture of photography, you'll have noticed the sustained, steep decline in sales/usage of digital point-and-shoot cameras. Flickr's Camera Finder reveals that the top 5 cameras for its users over the past year are found in smartphones, not stand-alone devices. The top 3 are various iPhones stretching back to the 4S. Apple didn't just disrupt the mobile phone market; they made waves in the camera industry as well.

The quality of Apple's iPhone cameras seems to come from three major pieces: great physical components (many of which are custom), powerful image processing chips, and excellent software to make the most of the previous two. But the iPhone 6 highlighted some limitations: the camera can only shrink so much while maintaining image quality, so we get a wart on the back of a device that's too thin to accommodate the camera and all its pieces. Physics wins again.

We've seen Apple address challenges like this in other areas, however. They developed a new method for milling aluminum for their device cases. Apple even claims to have created a new alloy of 18k gold with increased hardness for their new watch. I'm sure that Apple (and every other device maker with half a brain) is throwing a lot of hardware engineers at battery technology, but my great hope is that we hear about some breakthrough in optical engineering out of Cupertino in the next few years. I don't see a lot of incentive for Nikon or Canon to figure out how to cram a higher quality camera into a shallower depth. Couple Apple's recent work in materials science with their excellent software and we may be a few short years away from something truly incredible.

At least I'm hopin'.

Apropos of...maybe something (maybe something I posted yesterday, in fact), I've been screwing around with Adobe Illustrator - an unwieldy monster of software that can be intimidating to the folks who are paid to use it. I am not so paid, nor do I have any training in this area, but having heard about the "image tracing" process, I decided to jump in and see what I could do. I'm probably wasting loads of time, and it's frequently frustrating, but there's enough motivation to keep me going. When I get truly stuck, a little Google search typically helps out.

The whole thing makes me wish that more jobs allowed for this type of noodling around. Sure, you've probably heard about 3M and other companies that allow for personal project time. Do many of those personal projects involve butting your head up against a new tool or process, whether not there's a potential product on the other side?

Take this old photo as a sign of something coming soon. I first saw it nearly 4 years ago, and I've been working on something related to it that may finally see the light of day.

Richmond, you're livin' good.

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Hyperlapses aren't new, but most of the ones I see follow people on airplanes or in cars. So I figured I'd use the app to speed up a delightful but slow printing process from the fine folks at Studio Two Three.

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It was my great privilege to have Ardent Craft Ales as a client recently. I'm a big fan of their beer and have eagerly awaited the opening of their licensed brewery, so I jumped at the opportunity to photograph the finished space for them in an official capacity. It's quite the comfortable taproom and beer garden, but then I'm biased. Check it out for yourself in all its cherry and walnut glory.

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I had a blast this past Saturday helping out a friend who started making and selling hats. Two more friends joined us as model and assistant, respectively, so that made for a light-hearted and fun atmosphere.

Because of a recent short term sale on the app, I snagged Flixel's Cinemagraph Pro. I love photogrpahy and video, so cinemagraphs have fascinated me since I first saw them on IWDRM a couple of years ago. The app is pretty easy to use and does what it says on the tin, so I threw together a quick test as you can see above.

Hopefully I'll get to use this for some interesting cinemagraphs of Maddie in the coming weeks.

If I wanted to open a brewery I could, theoretically, learn to brew at home, practice, improve, etc. Making a business of my hobby requires lots of regulation and process, but I could, at least, start my path at home. But what if I wanted to develop my own gin? Or bourbon? I’m not legally allowed to make bourbon at home, even for personal consumption.

What if owning a still of a limited size for personal use was legal? I’d be more than happy to pay a modest registration fee if that’s what it would take. Localities could have fire code around the location and use of stills for safety reasons. I just think it’s a shame that I can learn the process of brewing in a relatively affordable, hands-on way, but to become any kind of reasonable distiller you have to go elsewhere or know somebody.

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Just screwing around with some video today.

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Today I had the privelege of touring the site of Ardent Craft Ales, a brewery opening later this year in the Scott's Addition neighborhood of Richmond, VA. We're in the middle of a continuing craft beer boom, but the guys from Ardent have been fine-tuning their work for years in a rented garage up in Church Hill. Generous sampling on brew days has had me eager for these guys to get off the ground, and soon we'll all be able to exchange cash for suds in what I think will be one of this city's great breweries.

Interesting conversation happening on Twitter this morning around Richmond's never-that-successful-yet-comfortable-neighborhood-spot Popkin Tavern. It is, apparently, shutting down soon, to be replaced by a new venture from a celebrity chef. Taber Bain, a Jackson Ward resident (and very funny dude on Twitter), lamented the impending loss of a more affordable watering hole within close walking distance, and sparked some commentary that got me thinking:

I think we see two conflicting forces at work here, and I believe they'll have to reconcile if a recently revitalizing neighborhood is to thrive in the long term. On one hand, we have yet another signal that Richmond is a dining destination. And it's near (but not technically in) Jackson Ward again. I don't really care about the celebrity factor so much, but it's good for our city when somebody noteworthy thinks it's a worthwhile investment to open up shop with his main brand.

On the other hand, who are all these upscale restaurants in the Jackson Ward/"gallery district" area serving? Are they for largly upper-middle-class white folks coming in from the suburbs or wealthier city neighborhoods? Are they for young professional residents of the surrounding area? Are they for the long term residents of Jackson Ward that have lived there since before it became a "revitalizing" neighborhood? Not everybody in Jackson Ward can afford to grab a beer at Comfort or Bistro 27. Heck, I'm sure there are folks in Jackson Ward who would consider Popkin Tavern pricey.

The practical side of me sees a clear reason for restaurants of all sorts moving in to Jackson Ward and vicinity: it's still gotta be cheap real estate compared to hotter spots like Shockoe Slip or Carytown. But every upscale restaurant that stakes its claim has an impact on property value. If we fill a district with upscale dining, can a more casual, neighborhood-centric spot move in, let alone survive? And what about the residents? Will their rents increase, pricing them out of the neighborhood they chose (or not) before trendy restaurants moved in?

Some of this sounds similar to well-worn conversations around gentrification and its effects on a neighborhood's character, and I'm not trying to retread any of that. What I'm trying to reconcile, in my mind, is how we welcome new business that's good for the city as a whole while also providing spots for people of a particular locale. I'm left wondering: what's keeping a casual neighborhood restaurant from opening/staying open in Jackson Ward (or the surrounding area)?

I'm neither a neighborhood historian nor Jackson Ward resident, so I'm sure there are things for which I'm not accounting and perhaps some restaurants I'm overlooking. I'd love to be corrected and at least continue discussing this tension in the dining scene.

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It doesn't take much browsing through my portfolio or Flickr stream to see that my sister-in-law Elizabeth is a frequent collaborator. She's not a professional model and I don't have access to a hair or makeup artist, but she's worked well with me because she a) loves to have her picture taken, b) possesses an expressive face, and c) takes direction really well.

When she was visiting over the holidays she brought with her what was essentially her Halloween costume: a semi-formal get-up intended to look like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. We had a bunch of fun with it, shooting at my favorite bar and with my studio lights at home. You can take a look at this set on Flickr as well.

Whenever I encounter folks more than a few years younger than me, I feel old. It's the usual reasons - ignorance of music, shows, or other cultural ephemera that defined a part of my own life. "What do you mean you heard [insert song title here] on a classic rock station!?" The absolute worst example to date was trying to explain the concept of a newspaper comic strip to my 8-year-old nephew after giving him his first Calvin and Hobbes book as a gift.

I figured it was a given that having a child of my own would only exacerbate the situation. Each passing day would provide an avalanche of reminders that I was aging, accelerating once she entered school and developed a peer group that determined what was cool and interesting.

Maddie's infancy has, so far, had the opposite effect on me. Within myself I'm reduced to a state of ignorance several times a day. Why is she crying? What's funny to her about the tone of my voice? Can she recognize my moods yet? Externally, when I spend time with my daughter I fall in to patterns of absurd songs, made-up words, silly faces, and spontaneous laughter. I don't know what could make me feel younger.

Another Cycle

The downstairs restaurant space under the Stuart Court Apartments has provided a home for innumerable restaurants since I arrived in Richmond back in the autumn of 1999. Nobody would laugh at you much if you suggested that the spot was cursed, much like some other locations that have, in the past, rotated through their fair share of owners and/or dining establishments. But curses break, and now Elephant Thai has stuck around at Cary and Harrison for some time. Garnett's has a comfortable hold on the corner of Park and Meadow.

I'm not sure that My Noodle & Bar is the solution to this basement dining room's short attention span.

Noodling

My Noodle has been open for a couple of weeks as of this writing, and my dinner tonight tasted like they're still working on their product. I started with an appetizer called "Thai sun dried beef" that was actually dried by some non-breaded deep frying. It wasn't bad, but improved quite a bit after dipping in some nondescript, slightly spicy sauce.

My main course was chicken and galangal (a relative of ginger) soup that included a coconut broth and rice noodles. This dish was an odd duck. On one hand, the chicken looked/felt/tasted as if it had simply been chopped then roasted or stir-fried, then dropped into the bowl of soup after the fact. Same story with the broccoli. Neither had much flavor. The noodles themselves were perhaps a bit more al dente than I expected, but not enough to be a problem. The broth - while sweet and tasty coating the other components of the dish, was overwhelmingly sweet after a few spoonfuls.

Vais-je revenir?

I think it's exam week at VCU as I write this, so parking close to Stuart Circle is still kinda tricky on a week night. Tricky enough that I've passed up trying out My Noodle a few times already. I think I'll hold off on a return trip until the semester is over, but I do want to go back. Maybe soups aren't their thing. Perhaps I should ask about their favorite dishes (though my soup was listed as a "chef's special" already). Next time.

I'm NOT quitting my day job, but I'm trying to get a little more serious about my photography.

I've been taking pictures with great enthusiasm for years now, and over these years I've recognized both an apptitude and affinity for photographing people and food. That's probably because people and food are my favorite things. I've been able to turn the latter into a little food column for RVANews, but never really did much with the former.

I want to take on more work for hire, so I've reorganized this website to emphasize my photographic work and keep my side projects from becoming a distraction. Primarily I'd love to take portraits for creative and professional folks, but I don't have too many clearly-set boundaries. Take a look at my People portfolio to see the sort of stuff I do. If you want a portrait along those lines, I'm your guy.

I'd also love to photograph more food, whether it's a restaurant menu, cocktails, local food and beverage producers, etc. Food photography is most of my paid experience, and I still enjoy it. Check out my Consumable portfolio for a sample.

If any of this fits your needs and you're interested, drop me a line. I'd love to hear from you, meet with you, and work with you.

I was visiting the website of a local confectionery when I noticed something strange at the top of the page. You see that? It's not just an ad, but it's about type 2 diabetes - the kind you can get from eating too many sweet things.

Why on earth would a bakery want, or even allow an ad that seems to cast its products in a bad light? The problem seems obvious at first; the ads are context-based. That means some keywords on the site matched up with some ads in the service's system and there you have it. Sugary food gets us diabeetus. But most site owners would prefer to keep certain ads from their pages because of undesireable associations such as, I don't know, their products might give you a disease.

Then I noticed something else. That URL in the location bar isn't for the shop in question. It's for a mobile website service, DudaMobile. This is the real problem with our scenario.

DudaMobile makes money in one of two ways: either you subscribe with a monthly fee (discounted if you pay annually), or sell ad space at the top of your website. I don't think every website faces such comically mismatched ads, but it's the price of "free" in this case.

Early this morning, my little girl Madeline was born, and she's wonderful. If you're in to the whole family site kinda thing, don't forget to check out warshaws.net - it's where Valerie and I will be posting absurd quantities of photos, writing about the development of our family, and other related what-not.

Ever since I first heard that Mel Oza was opening a new place in Carytown I was excited. He's the man behind the food at Lehja - one of the few good reasons to drive out to Short Pump - and I've talked about his vittles before. Now he's opened Curry Craft at 2915 W. Cary Street and, having eaten there last night, I think I can save time and fuel when I want Oza's take on Indian cuisine.

I don't know their hours (not posted on the door or the website yet). I don't think they're open for lunch. And they won't have their ABC license until this Thursday (4/25), but just do yourself a favor and go try some stuff out. I know this week is Richmond Restaurant Week, but spare a night for a new joint if you can.

Oh yeah, of course I'm going to tell you about what I ate. Valerie and I did two appetizers, a couple orders of garlic naan, and a shared entrée, and we took some leftovers home. Valerie started with their soup of the day which was a creamy tomato and coconut soup. It was a little on the spicy side for her, but she still loved the flavor (and so did I). I think there was something sweet in there other than coconut, but I couldn't place it. I just wanted to soak it up with some naan all night, or pour it over almost any other food as a sauce. Really, it was fantastic soup. I started with Tellicherry Chicken Rotti, a well-spiced collection of chicken pieces with cherry tomatoes and diced mango. The chicken was juicy and tender, and the blend of spices was strong but not overpowering. Really good stuff.

The main course we shared was called Chicken Ananas "Udaigiri". Along with the same spiced rice I've enjoyed at Lehja, the dish was delicious chunks of poultry in a coconut curry sauce with sweet pieces of pineapple. Val and I both loved the heck out of this dish and were happy to take home what was left. I look forward to checking out more of their menu in the future. Next time I'll get an entrée of my own so I can eat something a bit hotter (like the duck vin d'alho).

It's a new place, so I'm sure folks will find things that need improvement (though everything was fine, service included, when Valerie and I were there). Just cut them some slack while they settle in, and help give this place a good start. It's delicious, and I want it to stick around.

Valerie and I are having a baby! I created another site exclusively for family stuff so Val and I could both post thoughts, photos, and whatever else on there.

Tonight marks my first run of at-home color film development. The photo above was on a roll of film developed using the kit pictured in the photograph.

I did all of this with a used, analog heating circulator and a giant plastic tub of water - all for the sake of a constant temperature around 102º F. Constancy is important for even developing, and I'm pleased-as-punch with the results. I can't wait to shoot some more color, and I certainly can't wait to tackle some post-processing on the remaining images from these first two rolls.

I got a thing I put together starting this week about one of my favorite bands. Go check it out.

Trying a restaurant for the first time on the Saturday night after Valentine's Day isn't the best idea; many restaurants produce special menus, and the crowds may have different expectations. But the quality and execution should still represent the business, correct?

Valerie and I received a late confirmation of visiting friends and made a quick effort to find a place for dinner. The nature of this weekend meant that our favorite choices (and usual back-ups) were already booked, so I suggested calling Deco. I wasn't hopeful they'd have a table for 4 on a Saturday evening, what with their recent win of the 2013 Elby Award for "Best New Restaurant", but we had no trouble. So it was that tonight was my first experience at Deco.

It's a neat little space. It looks like a shoe box from the outside and it's simple on the inside. But the interior is helped quite a bit by some pretty and effective light fixtures, and while the dining room is cozy it never felt cramped.

I started checking out the menu while Valerie and I waited on our friends to arrive, and noticed two things. First of all, much of tonight's menu was different from what I saw on the website. This shouldn't shock, but it's not just the specific items so much as the sections and pricing. Then I saw "San Valentine" across the top of the page and realized that, while it wasn't a pre-fixe menu, it's probably a special set of dishes running from this past Thursday through this weekend. They certainly seemed to carry a holiday premium with prices well above the online menu (I'm talking most main dishes over $20 while they're almost all under $20 on the website). So yeah, see paragraph one. This wasn't likely the usual fare. But some of Richmond's best restaurants change up their menus frequently to little or no detriment, right?

Well I've gotta say that the food at Deco was just...okay. I had the risotto del giorno which, tonight, included clams, mussels and shrimp mixed into the rice with a healthy dose of marinara stirred through. I wouldn't get it again. It wasn't bad, but it was just on the right side of keeping it at the table. I may be growing snobby about what passes for a good restaurant, but I don't send food back unless there’s something truly problematic about it. "Bland and mineral-y" is a disappointment, but not the same as delivering incorrect or undercooked food.

Valerie's pasta with a "filet ragu" tasted much better, but I feel like the only reasons they used beef tenderloin in that dish were to both justify the higher price and catch the eye of folks who reflexively drool over filet mignon. A different cut might have added more flavor for a lower food cost, but "sirloin ragu" doesn't have quite the same ring to most diners, does it? Valerie just wanted pasta with meat sauce, so ultimately it was fine. I wish I'd ordered it. I didn't finish my entrée, and I was planning to skip dessert, but I always fall victim to cannoli. Deco's cannoli were pretty good, I have to say.

Between our companions' meals and our shared appetizers, we saw a few other unremarkable dishes. Their "crab meatballs" were basically miniature crab cakes (including that pale orange-y dipping sauce), and the fried calamari (because of course...) was passable with its included marinara. If Deco's typical menu is close enough to what's on their website, it's also fairly unremarkable. That's not automatically bad, but I'll have to try it myself to see what the fuss is about.

I was disappointed with my main course, but I'm more disappointed by the restaurant - not because it's particularly bad, but because it's not particularly good. Not tonight, at least. It doesn't have to be the best restaurant in town. But par-for-the-course, upscale-casual Italian food isn't something we're lacking in this town or any other the size of Richmond. What is it about Deco that secured it's "Best New Restaurant" award? How did Deco win the award over Belmont Food Shop? Or Heritage? Or Peter Chang's China Cafe?

Look, I'm not saying people shouldn't eat here. I just tend to spend a lot of words explaining why something bothers me (I am descended from lawyers). I want to give Deco a fair shake, so I plan to return soon and try a few more dishes. Hopefully next time I'll be eating my words along with the food.