Special feature: photos by Jac!
I’ve been using a Panasonic TZ3 ever since August last year. What did I do with my old camera, the Canon Ixus V? I gave it to Jac! She does use it from time to time (when she actually remembers she has a camera now!).
Jac volunteered to be in charge of cooking breakfast on her family’s weekend away. She really does enjoy cooking breakfast on the weekends, when she has the time. Here are the photos she took of breakfast on her weekend away, which she was happy for me to share with you guys.
Her pancakes with maple syrup and bacon went down a treat on Saturday morning. She made her own pancake batter – they are more crepe-style than flapjack or hotcake style). You may notice the glass of tomato juice next to the plate in the photo – tomato juice is Jac’s favourite juice. On the table are wedges of fresh lemon, for anyone who preferred to eat their pancakes with sugar and lemon. I hear there was cream as well – pancakes with maple syrup, bacon and cream sound fantastic to me. You’d definitely need to go for a big walk or a run afterwards.
Sunday breakfast: a big fry-up. After my recent post about the “mini” fry-up in which Jac used egg rings to contain the size/spread of the eggs in the pan, a few people asked me about the rings and what they look like. Ours are basically circular metal rings, nothing complicated. You can now buy rings in fancier shapes than just circles or squares, and some made from silicon rather than old-fashioned metal like ours. Ours can be tricky to lift up as they are rings without any sort of handle, but you can now buy ones with a handle too! Just do a Google search for “egg rings”. I also found this explanation which may help (and notice at the end, a list of write-ups about other egg equipment. At the holiday house they rented, Jac found twelve square egg rings in one of the kitchen drawers. I realise it’s odd calling something square a ring! She thought it would be fun to try them out when she fried the breakfast eggs in the electric fry pan.
This is probably a better view of the eggs. I think Jac was thinking like a good food pornographer when she took this shot!
Along with the square eggs, Jac had cooked bacon, chipolatas, mushrooms, tomatoes and toast. In the photo, on the table you may be able to see the sauces: tomato (red squeeze bottle with green top), smokey barbecue (brown squeeze bottle) and “hot chilli sauce”. I’m sure it’s sriracha; Jac calls it her “hot chilli sauce”. She’s been eating it with everything lately, and I’m not surprised it found its way to the breakfast table when she was on holidays. She packed up condiments and supplies galore to ensure there’d be plenty to cook and eat and enjoy that weekend. Nothing worse than making lunch or something and thinking “I wish I’d brought that dijon mustard. I know we have that jar sitting at home in the fridge. Damn, it would be tasty on this sandwich right now.”
Here’s Jac’s plate.
Jac’s comments on being a food pornographer (paraphrased): It was hard taking photos while trying to cook at the same time. It was also hard to take photos before everyone swooped in on the food. And when I’d sat down with my own plate I didn’t want to spend too much time photographing it, because I wanted to eat my food hot! But I thought TFP and the readers (that’s you guys!) would find the square eggs interesting.
TFP’s comments on Jac being a food pornographer: Jac’s comments capture the very issues I deal with all the time as TFP. For me, in the first instance when I sit with a plate of food before me, getting a good photograph for my blog is far more important than eating the food hot. It’s not like my food is stone-cold by the time I eat it, but I have learned to enjoy my food less-than-piping-hot. That may well be a blessing in disguise as I once I start eating it is usually so enthusiastically that I burn my tongue if the food’s really hot. I’ve learned to keep my hands very steady while taking photos quickly so that my fellow diners don’t have to wait long to start eating. She was right about the square eggs; I thought they looked pretty cool. I’m all for interestingly-shaped and cutesy food as long as it tastes good. And lastly, I’m glad that in my life other people tend to do most of the cooking, which frees me up to do the photographing and eating. Thank you, all the cooks in my life!
Looking at the photos Jac’s taken with my old camera, I find it really interesting to see how different her photos look to mine (prior to 26 August 2007 I took all photos at this blog with the Ixus V). We’re both amateur photographers who don’t go for complicated photography – point-and-shoot’s our thing – yet I think we each view and represent the world differently through the camera lens. I think Jac’s photos are definitely more “her” and mine are definitely more “me”. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions there! :)
We’ll return to TFP’s (my) photos in the next post. :)
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Jac’s photos are good , but yours are great, I look forward everyday to your posts. I love food and your pics and descrips are really entertaining. Tell Jac I also have been putting sriracha sauce on everything from eggs, potato soup to pizza, its addicting.
I agree, photos are very personal.
I love the square eggs, they belong in a Seussville!
That’s so nice Jac took photos for TFP! The square eggs look like they’d be fun for stacking, it’d be like the egg version of the game Jenga.
Just recently I saw a duck shaped ring for cooking eggs and this post made me think, why not just buy a cookie cutter and use that instead! I think it wouldn’t be too hard to pierce a hold in it and make a handle too.
-Cindy
P.S. Coincidentally, my life has been so egg-filled in the last couple of days – big breakfasts, western sandwiches & custard tarts!
After I discovered your blog I was inspired to photograph food, it isn’t easy! Lots of out of focus shots as I hold camera over a dish without looking into view screen, food too steamy doesn’t photograph well, noodles not always attractively arranged, flash to bright, no flash and the food looks dull, nope, not easy at all! I think out of six photos taken, only one may be good enough to share with others. I’m always taken by the fact that your photos are perfection, do you carry a light source everywhere you go or are you just using the camera’s flash?
mc,
I will tell her :). Glad you enjoy the site, hopefully I can keep entertaining you.
Denisse,
I was thinking it would be cool to make a bacon and square fried egg sandwich cutting the bread down so it fitted the dimensions of the egg, with plenty of tomato or barbecue sauce. Yum.
Cindy,
I love eggs for breakfast and I love custard tarts! I love a quick Chinese-style omelette (egg beaten with soy sauce and white pepper)
as a snack or for breaky. It satisfies my need for protein and savoury.
AZ,
I take a number of photos and will choose the best ones for the site. I don’t use flash at all. I used to use the flash when I had my previous camera (Canon Ixus V). All posts after the 26th August 2007 have been taken with my current camera (Panasonic TZ3) have been taken without the flash. I find the flash is too bright and the food looks too washed out and not true to life. When I look back at my older photos, I realise how much better the food looks in the current non-flash photos. If I have a choice of where to sit when dining out I will gravitate towards a table with better lighting, but it is not always possible. Sometimes it’s just too dark and so on those occasions I don’t take any photos (or I try, but the photos are just not good enough to post on the blog). I don’t use any kind of special lighting source or tripod or any other equipment – it’s just me holding the camera. I prefer not to look too “professional” with too much gear so I won’t freak out restaurateurs. If you are trying to get in close for the “food porny” shots, use your camera’s macro setting, which may help with the blurriness. Hmmmm, maybe I should write a post about this topic…
I like the square eggs! We love fried egg sandwiches at our house. They would be perfect for that…
DimKnit,
Oh yes. A fresh fried egg sandwich is fantastic.