"Tree in Amber Light" - Settings: ISO 100, f/1.8, 1/160 sec, 50mm lens

Well… this was another late-night forced to get creative shot… though there’s a few things I really like about it.   First, the subject matter makes me happy.  This tree is a little piece of art I got on a Father’s Day weekend several years ago in Woodstock.  I had just gone through a bad breakup and I had just moved into my very first apartment living ALONE!  I was blue – but excited about my apartment, so my mom took me shopping for cute things to spruce up the place.  We found this great little home decor and gift shop in Woodstock and we bought a bunch of adorable things.  The owner of the store was so nice and he threw this little tree in for free with the rest of my purchases.  I still have all those things we bought from that shop, hanging up in our apartment now and it all brings me back to that day shopping with my mom – and how she took care of me and wanted to cheer me up.

As for the photo, I just held the little tree from the top with my left hand in front of our cloth lampshade.  I thought it would look cool to have the silhouette of the tree with light coming from behind through the stones.  I also thought the color of the lampshade was a nice compliment to the amber color of the stones themselves.  I really like how the texture of the lampshade looks – especially through the big stone on the bottom (sort of warped and magnified).  I also like how in the background, the reflection of the lampshade in the mirror on the wall echoes the amber color as well – but I like how it’s blurred – so it’s just really an additional accent of that same color without being a distraction.  It almost looks like another lamp in the distance.

Now I’m going to go make dinner.  I’m making an Andrew Weil recipe because I’m trying to be healthy after all that heavy food we ate over the weekend!  Tuna en papillote (in little parchment paper envelopes)… I marinated the tuna in soy, ginger, lime juice and chopped jalepeno (seeds removed).  The recipe called for cilantro as well – but Adam hates it so I left it out.  Then you put the tuna in the parchment envelopes on top of a little bed of chopped spinach, thin-sliced red onion, orange rind zest, red peppers sliced thin and a little grated ginger…  and serve with a lemon slice.  I’m also going to serve some brown rice alongside. I hope it’s good because I’m hungry!!!