Modern Oak Kitchen in Boston
dF Kitchen in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts.
Shoot Date: August 9th, 2023
Client: Purekitchen Imperia (Cabinet Builder) & Boston Building Resources (Kitchen Designer, Linda Lesyna)
Day 6 of 7 in Boston Photography Trip 2023
Standing in this space had a warmth and comfort that I hadn’t expected when I first saw the preview images in an email long before this shoot.
The bright glow of late afternoon gave way to a soft inner beauty after sunset and I had a wonderful evening photographing and touring this home while relaxing with the home owner.
He pointed out a view he loved from the deck looking back into the kitchen through the patio doors, so we sat in the grass and talked about his journey of landscaping the grounds as we waited for the reflections to fade so I could capture the view inside in the final image.
Perhaps the most impressive element of the kitchen is how closely matched the wood tones are across multiple sources. The red oak floors are from a tree the homeowner downed when he first purchased the home many years ago. The rift cut white oak cabinet veneers pair with it seamlessly, and the crown trim is expertly colored matched, creating a wonderful harmony that looks like it all could have come from a single source.
I’d like to return for some night photos, as I’m sure the space has a particularly lovely softness under its own illumination.
Shot: August 9th, 2023
Garlic Miso Ramen with Bacon
Photo Project: Nicholas’s Recipe Book - An ongoing project of adding photos of dishes I cook all the time to my recipe catalog.
She had a simple request.
“Ramen, with bacon.”
And while I was beat from a long day, we all know I could never really keep it just that simple.
A trip to Cherry Grove Farm for the finest, smokiest bacon, and Maruichi Princeton for all my nippon provisions, and I was set.
I still haven’t gotten around to making ramen 100% from scratch, but one doesn’t always need to with just wonderful options around. Especially when you’re tired and beat.
This time around, we went with Myojo Nooldles’ Garlic Miso, which was a new flavor for us to try, and it was excellent.
Bacon was semi-slow baked in the Breville smart oven air fryer thing for about 30 minutes at 300f. Regina’s slice was a little juicer than mine, because I foolishly left my slice in while finishing up her bowl and moving on to mine (pictured). I drizzled the rendered bacon fat over the top of each bowl.
Broth was my house chicken-veg stock simmered with a nice strip of Kombu and some dried shiitakes. I would have added katusbushi, but turns out I didn’t have any. Looks like I’ll be going back to Maruichi soon.
I saw a jar of menma at the store and grabbed, only to discover later that I actually picked up pickled turnips (Momoya Zasai), which turned out to be absolutely fantastic, and will be topping many of bowl of ramen to come.
I hadn’t planned on adding the spinach or mushrooms when I first started cooking, but as you well know by now, I always manage to find flow once I begin cooking, and I get whipped up in a frenzy. So I sautéed a shiitake in mushrooms and whilted the spinach in a bit of sesame oil.
Regina told me I didn’t need to add an egg (almost always required when we make ramen, but we left it off this time to save a little effort and because Regina wouldn’t likely finish her bowl anyway, what with a little creature in her belly smashing her stomach), so I left it off. But later while eating the bowl, she said “but is it really ramen with no egg?”
These are the great mysteries of life to ponder.
Photo kit used:
Profoto B10+
OCF Grid 20º
Profoto Connect Trigger
Manfrotto Air Cushioned Light Stand
Canon 6D
Canon 50mm f1.8
Like what you see here?
View my food photography portfolio.
Hire me to shoot some food. I can drive, train, or fly to you, or I can cook your recipe at home.
Squash Soup : The Soul of Autumn
Photo Project: Nicholas’s Recipe Book - An ongoing project of adding photos of dishes I cook all the time to my recipe catalog.
Little makes the heart sing like the rich flavors of fall we look forward to every year.
This first soup of the season came as Regina and I walked through the bounty at Cherry Grove Organic Farm and our eyes fell on the butternut squash. Butternut is honestly not my top squash, that honor goes to Red Kuri, followed by Kabocha - but Red Kuri is notoriously hard to find, and Kabocha is less popular than butternut. But it’s undeniable that for most, Butternut is the definitive fall squash.
Fortunately, I still had some Kabocha left over in the fridge from making tempura the other day (something I really should have photographed and shared, but that was before I got excited about this current series), so in that went. The final tally was actually 2 Butternuts, 3/4 a Kabocha, and the one lonely carrot I had bouncing around in the back of the fridge.
This recipe was mostly based on Daniel Gritzer’s “Classic Butternut Squash Soup” recipe on Serious Eats, my perennial source for in depth cooking guidance.
My major deviations being using 2 different kinds of squash (as mentioned above), 4 different alliums (yellow onion, shallot, leek, garlic), and adding pumpkin seeds to the tadka - which harkens back to an incredibly fond memory I have of getting a cup of squash soup from the little cafe at Blue Hill at Stone Barns on a misty fall day. It was really a peak experience and something I’ll likely remember forever.
I also didn’t have any thyme on hand, which I think the soup suffered from. It needs a bit more complexity. I might had a little hondashi next time, as well, but then I might be verging into this other Gritzer Squash Soup recipe.
Oh, and I obviously skipped the creme topping thing, but maybe I should give that a try, might be a more important element than I give it credit for.
I sent the above photo to a friend (who hasn’t seen much of my photography since I had mentioned to her I was planning to make the soup. Her response was “IS THAT YOUR ACTUAL BOWL OF IT?!?!?” which, y’know, always feels nice to hear someone is blown away by the photo.
Here’s a rough recipe for you, the way I write my own recipes down. You’ll noticed that a lot of the steps are implied, and it’s just the broad strokes.
Roast Squash (but how? whole, half, sliced, cubed? Who knows. Whatever I’m in the mood for.)
Sweat alliums in butter
Add squash to alliums, stock, herbs. Simmer
Remove herbs, blend
Brown butter, fry sage and pepitas
And that’s about as much as I’d actually write down for a recipe. Super high context, not a lot of help to someone else wanting to recreate the dish exactly like I did.
I have one recipe in a notebook that doesn’t even have a title. But when I read it I know it’s an onion gravy for bangers & mash. Little joys.
On this subject of food, I’m getting pretty hungry as I write this at 5:30pm. Tonight I’ll be making Cod Katsu Curry. Don’t worry, I’ll snap that one for you, too.
Photo kit used:
Profoto B10+
OCF Grid 20º
Profoto Connect Trigger
Manfrotto Air Cushioned Light Stand
Canon 6D
Canon 50mm f1.8
Like what you see here?
View my food photography portfolio.
Hire me to shoot some food. I can drive, train, or fly to you, or I can cook your recipe at home.
Vlog: Boston 6 Day Shoot Prep
What starts as an overview of an upcoming (now past) photo trip opens up into discussion on the folly seeking perfection in one’s work, overworking and overreaching, other projects I’ve been working on, and directions I’m looking to pursue going forward, including intentions to expand my photo clients & subjects to include landscape architecture and lighting design.
If you click over to watch this on YouTube, there are chapter marks so you can hop to what’s of most interest to you.
If you do watch this, I’d love for you to leave a little comment on it and tell me what you enjoyed.
Thanks, as always, for the precious gift of your time and attention.
Ambist - Boston Night Walk - Charlestown Navy Yard, North End, Harborwalk, and Greenway
Amblist is my long-format video walking/movement visual project. Lately they’ve been hybrid photo walks, and I intend to make some short-form photo walks videos with the same source material on a separate YouTube channel.
Tonight's walk starts at Flagship Wharf, a building in Boston's Charlestown Navy Yard where I'd just wrapped up a photoshoot (of a fancy kitchen). It's a little windy, but my tiny wind breaks on the mics seems to do a great job of calming it. You get to hear the rigging clanking on the ships in the harbor in the distance, which is a fun little thing to hear. I pass some face sculptures as I meander my way toward downtown Boston. When I was walking here a few hours earlier, before sunset, the place was buzzing with people, probably the most I'd seen walking around anywhere in my time in Boston. I imagine it's a tourist attraction. Late in the evening, not so busy.
The route, as logged via the workout on my Apple Watch. I love this thing.
Next I stumble across Lot Lab, an art space with three pretty installations. "Knotical Waves" by Massiel Grullón creates a little path to wander. Sam Field's "Stay", which hung high on the wall, was fun to see but a little dark for the camera to pick up. I realize after doing some research that I missed the last pice by Ghana Amer, which is the copper planters you see to the left as I walk out of the space, which spell out "caring" if you look at them from above.
I start to walk on the Boston Harborwalk for a moment, but end up just taking the Charlestown Bridge since I was headed back the way I came earlier. Looking at a map of it now, I could have enjoyed a walk through Paul Revere Park, which would have been nice. I did, however, come across some the locks which entranced me with their mechanical beauty. I get caught up in taking some photos here for a moment. There's also a moment of taking in a scene of The Zakim Bridge. Just after that my eye is caught by a pedestrian plaza at Lovejoy Wharf. This kind of landscape architecture has been of interest to me lately, particularly when it come to lighting design. The building beyond is designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, but I can't determine if this bit of the Harborwalk was done by them, too.
Just after that a scene catches my eye and I stop to take some photos. The juxtaposition of rugged brick and smooth metal makes a pleasing contrast. Next my eye is caught by a nicely illuminated shaircase in a distant building - this turned out to be the Eliot Innovation School, the oldest continuously operating school in the United States.
Next up is an intersection where the walk light takes so long to changes that it seams broken. I realized at the end that it did finally change, after we all gave up and crossed anyway. North End is a fun warren of small streets and private alleys, where I stop to snap a few more pictures when the odd one catches my eye.
Just after this I hear someone calling "Hey" from the other side of a dumpster, and I wonder if they're talking to me. Turns out they are, and two young women in a car ask if I'm doing a Twitch stream of my walk, haha. I guide her through subscribing to the channel, but she may have been a little too toasted to remember the exchange. If that's you and you're watching right now, leave a comment, haha. A few minutes later I come across an altercation in a street where an insecure white man is being really aggressive to a group of young men, maybe late teens. While I would have liked to diffuse it or help, I decided to just avoid it and keep going. I think we can still hear him shouting for several more minutes as I get away from the area, unless someone else is also shouting about something. After that I came across a park with some really beautiful spot lighting on the benches. My kind of scene for sure. So I snap a few photos there. Next stop is walk along the greenway where I discovered a water fountain with fun lighting, and I stop for a moment to take my shoes off and address a little owie developing on my foot from the extensive walking I've been doing all week (I'm releasing this video first, although it's one of the last walks I did in my week in Boston).
All of this activity I logged walking around Boston, and breaking all of my exercise records, had helped me to get serious about my health and wellness. So I’m enjoying sharing these screenshots from the workouts.
Unfortunately the video ends shortly after when my phone's hard drive is full. I’d hit up against this limit the night before and tried to offload as much as I could. It seems to be the video buffer that was full, because they next day the phone was till showing 200gigs of capacity, which gave me enough runway to shoot this 1.5 hour walk.
Now that I’m back home I’m trying to quickly offload and process this and every other video I have on there to clear up some space so this doesn't happen to me in the future. I really wanted to get down to the Seaport District on this walk, but had to give that dream up because of the capacity issue. The phone makes some pretty impressive video, all things considered, but not being able to switch about memory cards and batteries is a pretty significant detractor. It also struggles with very large files, so my walks where I went for over an hour without cutting are kinda stuck in purgatory on the phone until I can figure out some way to get them off of there that won’t fail in transit (air drop and wire transfers have yet to succeed). I did have the idea to try and break them up into chunks, but that’s a story for another time.
Some watchers like to know the weather in the video, and fortunately that’s logged here.
Anyway, thanks so much for watching, and of course if you’re here, for reading.
Scenes from Providence, Rhode Island
A collection packed with images showing my affinity for chiaroscuro and soft cinematic lighting.
Vacations invigorate the senses. Seeing new and novel scenes excites creativity. I hadn’t expected it when I chose to tag along with Regina to a conference in Providence. I assumed I’d take a few images here and there, as I normally do. But once I got there it was like my eyes were opened to something new and exciting. Everywhere I looked there was an excellent photo waiting. Not every trip away from home presents as much, but maybe it was about being somewhere with no agenda, no rules or purpose for being there, that freed me up to see - or maybe I just got lucky and there was fabulous light everywhere. Who can know?
One thing I noticed about the images I shot there is the high concentration of images that fit my affinity for chiaroscuro or otherwise have a soft, cinematic feel. There’s also an overwhelming number of vertical, portrait orientation images. It could well be that I was railing against my typical commissioned work of ultra-wide, ultra-bright, ultra-crisp real estate photography. But even years after I shot these photos, many of them still resonate with me as some of my favorites - maybe not as individual images, but the collection has an atmosphere and feeling to it that I’m totally in love with.
It’s something I’m striving to return to more and more with my personal work, and perhaps I’ll even push more of my professional work in this direction.
Coffee
An excessive amount of coffee drinking throughout the city, and everywhere else I’ve been, has lead to a significant collection of coffee imagery.
I’ve photographed a staggering number of cups of coffee, most of them while building out Nooklyn’s Neighborhood Guides. We all drank a ton of coffee then (and still do), and shooting every nice coffee shop was among our top priorities - because wouldn’t you want to know where the best coffee is when moving to a new neighborhood? I most certainly would.
At the time, espresso was my order of choice, and I felt like I was on a holy quest to find the absolute best shot in the city. And that journey did turn up many wonderful shots, but I couldn’t say absolutely where the best are, since it’s been many years now.
Latte art is lovely to photograph, but I actually don’t like drinking much milk. Lattes, Cappuccinos, and the like are just way too much milk for my lactose intolerant belly. I still got tons of those photos, though, either from something the shop made just for me to shoot, a companion I had with me ordered one, or I just ordered one to photograph and gave it away.
These days, I mostly drink black coffee, the lighter roast and more delicate and nuanced the better. I really enjoy coffee that verges on tea. I also tend to get macchiatos while I’m out and about, and I went on a tear getting macchiatos at every coffee shop I visited in Seattle, which was a fun little adventure.
Locations Pictured:
Brooklyn, New York
New York, New York (Manhattan)
Kingston, New York
San Francisco
I’ll need to hunt down my Seattle photos and add those, too.
Aroi Thai
Delicious Thai cuisine in a beautiful old house.
Aroi Thai
Rhinebeck, New York
July 18, 2019
Aroi is a delicious Thai restaurant in what appears to be a repurposed old house. I really love restaurants like this, where there’s a cozy feeling of being in someone’s dining room. The light and windows, in particular, are excellent. The garden is lovely, too, but for now we’re going to take a look at some great window light in the interior.
Lately in my photography I’ve been very drawn to this low key, underexposed look. I think part of it is railing against the super bright photos I used to take, but an even bigger part of it is my love for twilight and nighttime - and this brings a bit of that feeling even during the day.
I do love a very bright sun-lit space, but there’s something magical about the calm contemplativeness of a shadowy space.
If you also find yourself drawn to scenes like this, you should absolutely read In Praise of Shadows by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. It’s a fantastic book about the beauty of darkness.
Gunk Haus
Beers, Brats, Birthdays.
All it took was a single head-turning glimpse of this place as we drove by to tell us it was a place worth visiting. You can see the deck from below and there was no question there was a beautiful view to be had. Still, it took several years since that first look for us to make our way back and finally to dine at Gunk Haus. I asked my brother what he wanted to do for his birthday this year, and he made the call that it was time to see what they were about.
Views & Atmosphere
Perched on a hilly corner of Highland, NY, Gunk Haus looks out over sprawling apple orchards with views of a Shawangunk and Catskill mountain ranges in the distance. There’s a cozy tavern atmosphere inside, and a lovely and spacious open deck.
The Grub
Hungarian Goulash - Braised Pork Shoulder, Horseradish Sour Cream, Herb Spaetzle
German Short Ribs - Sauerbraten-Style Marinade, Red Cabbage, Mashed Potatoes
Underberg - After a good meal!
Pretzel & Obatzda - Camembert, Gorgonzola, Mother’s Milk Stout (Keegan Ales)
Architecture & Design
Sentimental
Patsy's Pizzeria
For all the times I’ve been here, and the fact that this is one of my favorite pizza places in the city, and I don’t even have a photo of a slice.
A practice in curation - Phoenicia Diner
A review of images shot at phoenicia diner pre-pandemic. But there are no people in them, so you might not even know it. In this set I mention some inspiration from photographer Arnaud Montagard and his series of diner americana imagery while I talk about curating the collection down a single image I decided to share on Instagram.
Cooking Video - Japanese rice and veggies!
I enjoyed the Ragu video so much I thought I’d give it another try. This time around I cooked up some fine Japanese rice in my favorite fancy pants rice cooker, and partnered it with some fresh kale and some leftovers from the freezer. It was a lovely rainy day, so you’ll hear a good bit of rain at the start, but it tapers off as we go along.
The wooden rice spatula that I soak in water is Yakusugi, meaning it is made from a cedar tree on Yakushima that’s over 1000 years old. If you soak it in water long enough the rice won’t even stick to it. I didn’t soak it long enough for that to happen here - so I just ate the rice that stuck to it. I got it several months ago and it smells absolutely wonderful. Even the drawer that it’s in and the cabinet that that drawer is in have this incredible cedar scent now. It’s pretty remarkable. I got it from The Rice Factory, linked below, but it was a limited offer, so you’d probably have to hunt one down.
Toyama Tenkomori Japanese Short Grain Rice (it’s delicious):
https://the-rice-factory.square.site/product/toyama-tenkomori/7?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=6
Cooked in Zojirushi NP-NVC10 Induction Pressure Rice Cooker (it’s awesome). It uses some crazy combo of induction and pressure cooking to try at cook rice to the most magical fluffiness. It's actually trying to mimic what it's like cooking in a stone pot over a fire in a traditional japanese kamado stove.
https://www.zojirushi.com/app/product/npnwc
Kale Recipe:
Just do what you see on screen. I made it up on the spot.
The other dishes were leftovers:
Dal Tadka, sometimes I follow this recipe, sometimes I wing it:
https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/restaurant-style-dal-tadka/
Gumbo z’Herbs from John Currence’s Pickles, Pigs, and Whiskey:
https://chefjohncurrence.com/pickles-pigs-whiskey/
Camera:
Canon 6D (mk1)
Microphone: Rode Video Micro
Tripod: I used my flimsy little Benro travel tripod for this one because I didn’t want to go get my big tripod. 3 Legged Thing Ball Head
Cooking Video - Ragu!
I’ve found that when it comes to making videos, the less post production I give myself to do, the more likely I am to actually finish the project. So I shot this incredibly simple, no-nonsense cooking video as a little trial run for that, and I’m pretty happy with how it came out.
I did, however, let it sit for several months before I got around to putting it together and uploading it. But I’ve got a baby, so I’m going to use that as my excuse.
But the best part is that after uploading this video, I got inspired to make another one, and that one is significantly better, and coming up soon!
Editing tip: Pick a single photo
It's really easy to think every photo you took in a session is great for its own merits - but the're something really liberating about deciding "This one is the best. This is the on worth keeping." and letting all the others go. I practice that in this video by only showcasing a single image from the set.
reunion cafe - williamsburg
After months at home getting restless and not having many photo projects, I dived into the archive to edit some images I had sitting around. In this session, we'll talk about some photos I took at Reunion, an Israeli cafe in Williamsburg, Brooklyn that I really like. We were staying at a friend's house just up the street while in town for some client work and had a few extra days before the shoot started. It was our very first time taking our baby out anywhere, so there are some fond memories here, which we get to in the last image.
Watch the video above to see my review of these photos.
Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters
This coffee shop just popped into my head out of nowhere almost 4 years later. Maybe it’s a sign. Maybe I’m just tired.
Wrecking Ball Coffee Coasters
Cow Hollow, San Francisco, CA
June 22, 2016
I visited this place years ago, but it just popped into my head inexplicably as I sat in bed just before midnight.
I’ve been at home for over a week.
I don’t clearly remember the last time I left the house.
Regina said I need to get out, and recommended I go work at a coffee shop or something.
And at first I was like “meh, it’s fine.”
But we all know she’s got a tendency to be right.
She knows me.
Later at night, as I sat in bed, I started thinking about going out the next day to work at a coffee shop. As I was thinking about it, for some reason this place popped into my head. I don’t know why. I visited dozens of coffee shops when I was in San Francisco, and this one didn’t really leave that much of an impression on me - or so I though.
I did like the location, it was down in a cozy patch of Cow Hallow that felt a bit slower paced than other parts of the city. I think it was also the last coffee shop I went to while I was there, so that could have factored in.
A church steeple in Cow Hallow, a block or so from the coffee shop.
Sitting at the table outside and enjoying a fine espresso (I do remember it being particularly good) does sound very nice, given that today was cold and rainy, with the rain turning to ice coating all the tree branches (something I do find beautiful, but it is at odds with enjoying a cup of coffee al fresco).
I’d go again.
Maybe I should start looking at flights to California. That’s a good winter pass-time.
McBlade Runner
At the corner of Delaney and Essex sits the cyberpunk future of fast food.
Metal mesh panels in geometric shapes float just off the building, glowing at the edges.
Just behind the glowing panels is a row of teak-laminated slats that wrap the building, adding some subtle complexity to the visual field.
One wonders if influence may have come from FF7’s city of Midgar or a sci-fi space station.
I found this place after a busy day of photographing real estate around Brooklyn. I had a little time to pass before Regina was done with her business in the city, so I decided to spend it by going to Cocoron for some soba noodles. I popped out of the subway right here at Delaney & Essex to find this crazy looking McDonalds before me, and I’ve got to say, I commend them on their bold architectural choice.
I may not start eating Mcburgers or whatever they’re called, but I do hope to see this trend of experimental design elsewhere.
Also, the Regal cinema across the street also looks bonkers and futuristic, so maybe there’s something about the Lower East Side that is inspiring this cyperpunk futurism.
I tried to find out who designed in, but a bit of googling turned up no obvious answers.
P.S. - Full disclosure: I have recently had the fried chicken tenders at McDs, and they’re surprisingly good. So if desperate times mean the golden arches is the only good around, there’s still hope.
P.P.S. - Oh yeah, they’re called Big Macs, right? I’m still going to leave McBurgers in the post.
P.P.P.S - This is, I believe, the first post I’ve composed entirely on my phone. I did so in bed while I really should be going to sleep. Let me know how it turns out.
La Petite Adresse, Montreal, QC, Canada
Feb 26, 2019
Brunch
Canada
February
Chakchouka méditerranéenne
poivrons et tomates confits et son oeuf
Crew Collective & Cafe - Montreal, QC, Canada
Feb 26th, 2019
Coffee.
Co Working.
Classical Architecture.
Here’s a little writeup eater did about the place.
Regina and I stopped by here for morning coffee, as it was the closest place to our Airbnb, and I knew it would make for some great photos based on what I’d seen.
Also, as I recall, the single origin espresso here was among the best I’ve ever had. In my entire life. I’m pretty sure the beans were from Dispatch, but I don’t recall which. This is the kind of information gap I’m looking to remedy by journaling consistently.
