Studio Photography : Eric T., cellist

At the beginning of the month I asked cellist and fellow CUPA student Eric to come into the studio and model for me. Although we had only spoken a few times, I was hoping he wouldn't be too creeped out by my proposed exchange of his time, face, and instrument for free headshots. Lucky for both of us, he accepted my offer, and came to the studio dressed in black and ready to have some fun!

I really enjoy photographing musicians and their instruments, separately and together. Some of you may remember some of the shots from my final project in VIS 212 Introductory Photography (black and white film), which I took last semester. Many of those photos can be viewed online here.

Eric and I ended up doing mostly color digital that day, although I did take a few stunning film shots (which I'm still in the process of printing - stay tuned!). We tried to explore time and motion with long shutter speeds, unusual vantage points and strange poses with the instrument, and we weren't afraid to get a little kitschy!

Haven't had time to mess with any of these yet, so what you're looking at is straight from the camera - completely unedited! (Isn't studio lighting the best?!) *Although it seems uploading to Blogger does mess with photo quality...

First shot of the day, a candid snapped haphazardly as Eric was tuning; ended up being one of our favorites.

We even got a visit from Patouche, the studio cat, who wanted his share of the spotlight!

Yoga cello!

Unconventional.

Classic.

Dark and mysterious.

Want to hear Eric play? Check him out on YouTube! (And don't miss the awesome four-handed cello duet video!)

Studio Photography [first two classes]

As you may or may not already know, I am taking a studio photography class this semester at Studio Vermès. It's a professional studio space in the 4e arrondissement (right by Bastille) that the pros can rent, and the owner (Philippe) also teaches both beginning and advanced classes there. They get a lot of American students, especially through Sarah Lawrence College's study abroad program, so between that and Philippe's assistant Nathalie (who is Guatemalan), we speak a fun mix of English, French, and Spanish.

Working in a studio is really exciting - you have so much more control over the pictures that you take, between flashes, lights, backdrops, and other gadgets. It really helps you understand why in French, to "take a photo" is "faire une photo" - literally, "to make a photo."

Here are photos that were taken of me in the last two class periods, using Philippe's digital camera (I also took my own using my b&w film camera, which I have yet to develop).

The first was an exercise in silhouettes (that's me in the top hat):

The second was an exercise in flash with long exposures - and my own creepy concept. That's me in the photo, with the hands of another student:

Happy Halloween!

Lebanese Food: Au Taverne du Nil

Life for a vegetarian in France can sometimes be rough. Luckily, there's more to Parisian cuisine than meaty, fatty traditional French staples. For example, Paris boasts a large population of Lebanese residents, and hence, some deliciously authentic Lebanese cuisine!

We had asked our CUPA methodology (who is Lebanese) where he gets his fix, and recommended Au Taverne du Nil on the Île-St-Louis (home of Notre Dame cathedral, too!). Despite the somewhat confusing name (the Nile is not, nor has it ever been in Lebanon), the restaurant delivered on its promise to be the "Best Lebanese Dining in Paris" (or so proclaimed many positive reviews on various Yelp-like sites).

I had never had Lebanese food before (or at least not explicitly titled as such), but I found the menu to be very Mediterranean: many items would just have easily been found on a menu at a Greek or Israeli restaurant. But hey, no complaints here!

Instead of troubling ourselves over the many, many appealing options on the menu, we asked our server to bring us what he thought was best. The assortment of entrées (remember, this is France, where "entrée" refers to the first course - not the main course!) all happened to be vegetarian, so I really got to enjoy myself!

Pictured here (clockwise from front left) : tabouleh, moussaka, hummus, baba ganoush,and stuffed grape leaves.

Not pictured: warm fava beans [they arrived a bit later]

After scarfing down this spread, it took all my willpower to resist digging into my vegetarian plate, which arrived well in advance of the meaty platter the table's omnivores had ordered.

Green beans, another eggplant-y thing, more baba ganoush, more hummus, a spinakopita-type thing, another savory cheese pastry, and a falafel ball sitting on tahini in the middle!

As we finished eating, a belly-dancer jumped out and eventually coaxed two of our group to get up and dance with her. Not me - I was too full of delicious food to even consider ruining it by attempting to gyrate in any way!

The best I ever had...

(gelato, that is!)

Alright, you're probably going to think I'm a bit gourmande (a glutton who loves to eat; not to be confused with gourmet, which is someone who loves haute cuisine) when I say that the next stop we made after our divine coffee at La Caféothèque was at a gelato shop.

Pozzetto is in the 4e arrondissement, and is "simply the best gelato in Paris," according to none other than Monsieur Lebovitz. And I have to agree.

I'm a big fan of all things mint-flavored (my mother once had to talk me out of a bottle of peppermint body lotion - she said I would smell like toothpaste and no boys would like me), especially ice cream/gelato/anything sugary and frozen. Messieurs Ben & Jerry have done quite well by me in the past with their Mint Chocolate Chunk - after all, the ice cream is white (not unnatural green dye), and it loaded with huge rectangles of dark chocolate. And let's not forget Mint Chocolate Cookie - the blessed lovechild of mint chocolate chip and cookies 'n' cream.

[By the way, you can get Ben & Jerry's in Paris very easily - they have stand-alone shops, stands, and it's found in some snack shops, too.]

But Pozzetto outdid even my favorite ice cream making men from Vermont. This gelato was flecked with dark green-brown somethings - I realized that these were in fact pieces of actual mint leaves.

My other flavor pick was pistachio, which Pozzetto does just right. The dull green color means they used REAL pistachios, not syrup and dye. What's more, according to David [Lebovitz], Pozzetto uses "Sicilian Bronte pistachios." I don't know exactly what that means, but I'm guessing based on the taste that it is indeed something quite special.

I also appreciated the fact that Pozzetto gave decent portion sizes; often in France even deux boules (two scoops) seems pitifully small to this ice cream lover!

I'll have to go back and try all the other flavors very soon...

~

We wandered with our gelato cones into Le Marais (which I've already for its unrivaled falafel) and came upon this place: a wine cellar/bar/book store. Alcohol and literature - what's a college student not to love? La Belle Hortense came with the seal of approval of a creepy toothless bouquiniste (bookseller) that we met on the banks of the Seine, but has nevertheless been added to our list...