Summer's Cooking

Nothing new but always gorgeous: grilled corn, and rosemary burgers + roasted red & gold beets with thyme infused oil and black basil.  Fresh summer cooking.

Ina is Mine-a

Looking forward to digging into Ina's Back to Basics which I received from from a friend as a birthday gift...signed.  SO impressed shoppers can purchase her books and have them personally addressed and signed by the super star (in my world anyway).

Equally in love with her sleek barn home she features throughout the book: simple, refined rawness.  *drool*

Also simple and refined, but hopefully not so raw is her Mustard-Roasted Fish.  Dinner soon.

Travel: Hard Bound

Just finished editing and uploading my book "PARIS 2 ROME." It's mainly image based, but with excerpts from blog posts as well as a daily travel log. You can preview the book and its contents by clicking my blurb.com badge.

PARIS2ROME WES...

By L. MATTHEW TROTTER

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Duck, Duck, Food

Took the gun up again this year for a second year of opening day duck hunting.  Not that I hadn't done this sort of thing before but that its significance has changed.  Sure I've prepared many a bird from the store and called it a meal, but the process of claiming it and making it my own is what drove me to do it again this year.

I only shot at one duck - early, maybe 9:30 - and that was it.  I spent the rest of the time relaxing in what peace the marsh offers when the background is filled with muffled gunshot.

I didn't miss any opportunities to document the event - something I'd grown up around but never considered for its interesting moments of accessible beauty.  And so often overlooked.  But I plan to carry that sense of beauty into the duck meal I share with friends tomorrow.  Can't wait.

Amazon Adventure

Been working on an Amazon.com webstore at work for nearly a month now. It's been a bit slow coming together as I had to research the outfit and then work on it's inventory and products. It's been an adventure - if not just completely frustrating but today I had an "Ah-ha!" moment with the program and I feel as though I now really get it. As a reward (not sure if for me or the site) I spent some time today jazzing it up with this graphic I created:

Then also spent a minute filling in some of the other site information. Definitely some work to do yet, but I like where its headed. Check it out in its entirety here. And check back because it'll be updated lots in the next coming weeks.

Autumn-ness

Okay, so I staged these leafs but on a whim. I loved every element - the colors, the scratched paint and the rusty screw heads. Almost inspired me to make some leaf prints.

Fall is nearly here, isn't it?

1, 2, 3...

Lots of good "otherwise trash" at threepotatofour. Interesting finds - mostly vintage - and imaginative photo styling. Check it out, if not for a little nostalgic inspiration.

Pollenated Matchbox

This little matchbox (from Sweden that I love) was sitting beneath a vase of sunflowers on my dining table and received a little pollen treatment.
...the yellow scatter being ever so nice.

Model Trees

Read about Emma Livingston's Tree Portraits in Dwell Magazine. Each photo draws on the individual characteristics of the solo subject thereby giving it some sense of personality. Plus they have a raw, dirty street-sensibility that I just love.

Travel Series

63 Blur. 20 X20. 2009.

Roman Underground. 16X20. 2009.

Milan Rising. 20 X20. 2009

I've been working on a series of Travel photos from the June trip to Europe. Above is a sampling of the images which I had printed at ookiimage. The obvious theme is travel, but more specifically the unexpected beauty of transportation and the constant movement associated with it. Plus, I couldn't overlook the food so there's a little of that in there as well.

Scare Bear

Intrigued first by the images, but mainly by the process of re-inventing these inside-out creatures.

Metals Portfolio Book On its Way

PRESERVE/DISMA...

SENIOR PORTFOLIO 2009

By L. MATTHEW W. TRO...

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