Environmental Photographer of the Year
This year The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management’s Environmental Photographer of the Year competition received over 1,400 international entries for the categories Changing Climates, World of Difference, Quality of Life, The Natural World, and Under 21. A selection of the images is currently being shown at the Apothecary Gallery in Hammersmith, London.
This shot is The Wind Collector by Donnie Mackay of Scotland.
“The Wind Collector says everything about individual expression in wild natural landscapes and is a good metaphor for small scale, human-sized electricity generation and waste gathering in the Hebrides, where there is great discussion about industrialising the environment through wind farming.”
See more at dontpaniconline.com
More difficult to build or pronounce?
From BBC Good Food
It was around this time last year, during the chilly run up to Christmas, that I first learned about croquenbouche. Sometimes spelled croquembouche, which comes from the French words croque en bouche meaning ‘crunch in the mouth,’ it’s a type of French cake. Like an art or engineering project, croquembouche is a paper cone covered with fluffy cream-filled choux pastries or macarons. The pastry balls are artfully affixed with caramel syrup and then drizzled with streamers of melted chocolate or caramel and sprinkled with almonds, flowers or other decorations. Croquenbouche is absolutely gravity-defying — as the supporting cone in the center is completely covered, it appears to be standing under its own power. Perhaps because they favor Christmas trees, I’d always assumed that they were holiday fare, but they are traditional at French weddings and are becoming increasingly popular in America. And for good reasons; they’re stunning and delicious.
From Flickr
From Martha Stewart Weddings
Crazy McNuptials
From www.metro.co.uk
We love quirky, different weddings. Chinese lion dancers, a honky tonk officiant, grooms in lederhosen… But this is one wedding that we aren’t really so sure about…the McWedding.
According to Reuters:
“Fast food giant McDonald’s Corp is finding a new role for itself in Hong Kong — as a wedding planner.
McDonald’s, whose Golden Arches emblem is identified as an American cultural symbol, will offer a new “McWedding” service for couples in Hong Kong next year, local media reported.
McDonald’s will offer “McWeddings” at three restaurants in Hong Kong, and will also host anniversary events, according to the Chinese-language Oriental Daily.
“Traditional weddings use cherries for the newlyweds to eat together and kiss. We will have French fries for them to kiss,” the English-language newspaper South China Morning Post quoted Helen Cheung at McDonald’s as saying.
“People said they’d dated here (McDonald’s restaurants), or met here, and wanted to get married here … We see this as a business chance,” said Cheung, McDonald’s director of corporate communications and relations in Hong Kong.
McDonald’s started to accept reservation last week, Oriental Daily reported, adding at least one Hong Kong couple planned to take the chance as they often dated at McDonald’s before they were engaged recently.
No price tag is mentioned in local media reports for the new “McWedding” service.
The traditional big Chinese wedding plan has become a growing burden for many young Hong Kongers.
A table for 10 persons at a five-star hotel restaurant in Hong Kong can easily cost more than HK$10,000 ($1,300) and traditional Hong Kong families usually like to host a dozen or more tables.”
A quick Google search reveals this isn’t exactly a new idea…there are tons of articles and photos of couples who made Ronald a part of their special day. Strange.
The Eggman
Some photos from a story I photographed for Edible Austin Magazine. The Eggman refers to Jeremiah Cunningham, a super-welcoming businessman turned farmer who now owns and runs Coyote Creek Farms which supplies eggs to Whole Foods Market. 
From the Edible Austin article:
Born in 1936 and raised in rural Texas, Cunningham never lost his love of the country and farm animals. An Austin businessman for 25 years, he moved to the farm in 1996 seeking a more peaceful, affordable, semiretired lifestyle. “I got chickens as soon as I got here,” he says. “Fresh eggs are about one of the best foods on the planet.”
But working the land this time around required a new skill set for Cunningham, a towering man with a gentle face and burly, weatherworn hands. “When I first got here, the good news was that there’d been no chemicals put on the land for about fifteen years, so it wasn’t polluted. It’s just that nothing had been done . . . at all,” he says. To improve the soil, he applies compost tea regularly, and relies on the plants to do their job. “The roots of our grasses go down two, three, four, five feet. These roots bring up minerals that are good and rich.”
Real Life Superheroes
Ran across this thoughtful and unique social commentary told through photos. The project, called Superheroes, is the child of Dulce Pinzón. It consists of 20 color photographs of Mexican and Latino immigrants dressed in the costumes of popular American and Mexican superheroes. Along with each photo is a mini biography and a sentence explaining how much money each person sends back to their families overseas. Even though some of the photos aren’t well staged or perfectly executed, or perhaps because of that, the series is pretty powerful.
Top 20 Bridesmaid Dresses for Fall 2010
Aisle Dash has made their picks for the top 20 bridesmaids’ dresses for fall 2010. While leafing through the photos, I noticed a couple of things. While the styles are varied enough to jive perfectly with any type of wedding (Check out What’s Your Wedding Style? to see where you are on the wedding spectrum), the colors are mostly muted, natural tones. If you’re looking for something more vibrant, it’d pay to google the dress and click around on some of the dress sites that allow you to change the colors of the dresses and accents in real time online. 
I also noticed Cynthia Rowley made an appearance on the list. This designer had never been on my radar until, in the same sitting, I saw her cocktail length, ribboned bridesmaid dress and some strangely high-fashion band-aids she’d designed. Odd.
Dog Photos Done Well
Animal photography is tough. Dogs squirm and roll. Cats run and hide. But Dutch photographer Maarten Wetsema seems to have figured out how to placate pooches long enough to get some really neat shots. Guess it could have something to do with the models…
Daan and Jacob are Wetsema’s go-to canine subjects, perhaps because they appear to love lounging around. Check out their shoot and 3 other collections on Wetsema’s website.
From your farm to your wedding table
On a recent weekend morning I caught a bit of a new show on KUT, Austin’s NPR station. Splendid Table was profiling a couple who decided to grow all the food for their wedding.
As an avid farmer’s market shopper, I love anything that goes straight from the farm to the table.
But I also realize what a huge undertaking it is to cultivate crops, especially depending on a variety of crops to flourish well enough to feed everyone at the most important event of your life…while you have all sorts of other wedding planning going on. 
Wow. Although the meal didn’t go exactly as planned, the couple definitely triumphed in the end. Listen to the plan unfold here or check out the rundown on the Splendid Table website.
Coincidentally… Also featured on the same show was a review of Round Rock Donuts by the Roadfood.com duo, Jane and Michael Stern. Very cool. From Splendid Table: “If you’ve made your way through the Austin, Texas airport, you’ve certainly been introduced to Round Rock Donuts. Well, according to Jane and Michael, its fine to pick them up as your heading out of Texas, but they are well worth a trip of their own to get them hot, at their source. Lightweight and gossamer, they melt in your mouth when they are still warm. The bakery also makes that Texas Hill Country specialty, kolaches. Don’t miss the hot jalapeno cheese with sausage kolache, a perfect bite of spice with a warm sweet crust.” To listen to the whole review, click here. Way to represent Round Rock!
All photos taken at the downtown farmer’s market in Austin.
Here comes the bride…down the size 8 shoe aisle
According to the Associated Press:
TJ Maxx Marriage. Bill Pugliano / AP for TJ Maxx
Drew Ellis and Lisa Satayut exchanged vows Saturday at the TJ Maxx in Mt. Pleasant, about 70 miles northwest of Flint. The couple chose to wed at the retailer because the bride calls it her ‘happy place.’
A widened aisle, vine covered arch, and white chairs with red bows highlighted the traditional ceremony that included string music, display-dodging cameramen — and curious shoppers who stopped bargain hunting long enough to watch.
The Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant says Satayut dreamed of marrying Ellis, a sports writer for the newspaper, in the store’s size 8 shoe aisle.
The bride wore a strapless white chiffon gown, with long black gloves and bright green gladiator-style sandals.
No honeymoon is planned.
The Biggest Star in LA
Like the Eiffel Tower is to Paris…the Empire State Building is to New York city…Big Ben is to London…so is the “Hollywood” sign to Los Angeles. When the sign was built in 1923 it originally read “Hollywoodland” and was dotted with 4,000 lightbulbs. The lesser-known last four letters were removed in 1949. Over time the icon fell into disrepair, as it had only been designed to last one and a half years. So in 1978 the letters were replaced with steel replicas that are each 45 feet high. Despite seeing all sorts of portrayals posted online while googling all these facts, I’ve never seen the icon portrayed quite like this…
Check out photographer Ted Van Cleave’s website for more unique views of the Hollywood sign.
