Oh, wow!  I just had the most amazing treat. They’re from a company called Un Petit Morceau and they’re called Bouboulettes.  They’re not exactly like anything else.

What exactly is a “bouboulette?”  OK, they’re sort of like the love-child of a shortbread cookie and a petit-four.  Maybe a great-uncle is a Madeleine and a step great-aunt might be a raspberry Aebleskiver.  They’re beautifully-decorated little squares of yum.

They’re the size and shape of petit-fours, but they’re incredibly delicate and ethereal.  One nibble and they kind of crumble into your mouth.  At the center of each is a tiny gob of something wonderful.

…

The flavors –four of them — are very hip/creative but subtle.   Which is my favorite?  Hmmm.  Let’s see…

There’s the lemon basil, whose scent reaches you ahead of the cookie, but is actually very nuanced.  There’s the lavender-plum with Earl Grey tea – so much fun to see the flecks of tea in the cookie.  The chocolate-cherry chipotle was delish, although I couldn’t detect the chipotle notes.  But I think my fave is the ginger-rosemary, which for some odd reason reminded me of what an apricot rugelach might have been if it had been a debutante and gone to finishing school instead of growing up barefoot on the streets.

 They’re as special as a really fine bakery-shop pastry, but their small size lets you treat them like cookies.  They also seem very adaptable.  They seemed to go great with a short glass of very cold milk, and then later, they were superb with a cup of tea.  I suspect that they might not object to keeping company with a dry red wine, but I’ll leave that to the oenophiles.

How often do you come across an entirely new category of confections?  They’re beautiful and decadent but seem so light and airy that they don’t make you feel guilty.  “Bouboulette,” by the way, is a French term of endearment meaning “little fatty.”    A very cute, fat little bird (pigeon??) graces the description.

They are the creation of Nana Visitor (yes, that Nana Visitor – the actress best known for playing Kira Nerys on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine).  Although Un Petit Morceau is located in New Mexico, they arrived in Connecticut in the middle of August in perfect shape.

Come over here, my little Bouboulette; sit next to me, baby.  I think we’re going to get along just fine.

Check out Un Petit Morceau here: http://www.unpetitmorceau.com/

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So, does she not look exactly like a 1940s movie star? To me, she’s a ringer for Katherine Hepburn. Such classic beauty…

I don’t know which I enjoy shooting more: young kids, dogs, or teens. Young kids are fun because I just let them play and ignore me, and they’re perfectly happy to do that. Same with dogs. Teens are amazing because they have such a story to tell. I usually like to get what are known as “environmental portraits,” otherwise known as outdoor shots. This session was scheduled for a rainy day — in fact, the first day of a major northeast coast hurricane-like storm — so we were limited to studio work. As it turns out, this was a perfect environment for this particular model.

I have more from this shoot up at the website, so take a look.  Then pick your favorite Hepburn film to watch this evening.  I think I’ll do “African Queen.”

… but I’ve been eating this:

and this:

… so I’m feeling like this:

gotta start eating like this:

Again, I like both shots. The one on black is dramatic, detailed, striking, and bold. The one on the beige works surprisingly well, too: softer, quieter, gentler. It all depends on your mood, and how each one speaks to you.

It’s been a long — very long — winter, and I’m eager for warmer weather.  On the other hand, the recent snows have turned my attention to the indoor flowers I enjoy.  This paperwhite lilly was given to me as bulbs when I did holiday portraits shots at Designs by Lee in Stamford, CT.  They have the most amazing fragrance!  I don’t know much about flowers, but I call these the “smelly lillies.”  Each time I walk by, the scent gives me a promise of spring.

Often, when I create a photograph, I try out different approaches or styles.  Usually I have one look in mind, or find that I recognize immediately the style that I like best for that image.  But sometimes I find that I like several different approaches and can’t decide which is the definitive look for that image.  This is one case where I like various versions of the image.

Here’s one variation, done in spepia:

Here it is in black and white:

And here’s one last approach, a softer version:

For all the fun I had playing with this image, it almost didn’t get created.  I had been planning to work with this flower in my studio set-up, with controlled lighting and a black background.  (See next post for the result of that.)  I was reaching for the lilly, where it sat on my kitchen counter in front of the window.  I paused, and noticed how I loved the juxtiposition of the flower against the snowy background.  I considered taking a photo, but I thought the lack of contrast –white flower against an almost-all white background — would make for a poor image.

Just for kicks, I took a quick photo, not really setting it up much.  Well… I did use a tripod, and play with different angles… alright, I worked on it some, but not excessively.  And, you know what?  In some ways, I like this image better than the studio shot that follows.  It has context; it has a story to tell.  The snowy background adds something to the image, and makes it more than just a photo of a flower.  To me, this image epitomizes the feeling of late-winter.  It really named itself:  Waiting for Spring.