Kieran

Espresso Pouring

Espresso pouring This is probably getting a bit boring, but I’m going to talk about my new flash and lens again. I can’t help playing with new toys, even though most of my time has been spent scooping ice cream in the shops! Once I get my head around how to use the system to its full potential, I should be able to get some very cool photos.

Espresso pouringIt’s such a handy thing to have photographs of the various tasty treats that we sell, and a benefit of taking pictures myself is that I love the subject! Now I just need to get a little more professional about it.

One of the most exciting things about a flash system is that you can take high speed close-up photos, and I managed a few of espresso. It’s a bit awkward to get the lens into a position to take the shot, but I think these turned out pretty well…

For anyone who is interested in flashes and lighting, there is a fantastic blog called Strobist that has a wealth of information…

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Yes, it is love…

Vanilla cone melting As per the last post, my new lens will be very useful indeed. I also managed to work out the flash system without any trouble at all. It’s actually super-easy. The first cool thing about it is that the flashes are remote, so you can move them at will to get the effect that you want. The second thing is that you can use the command unit, which fits to the camera, to increase or decrease the amount of flash between the units so you can get the lighting balance right.

Chocolate drippingIn the photo above, I took the shot in the courtyard of our shop. There was enough light without any flash for the ice cream, but the backdrop was coming out too dark. So I took one of the flashes with a soft filter on it and lit the logo.

In the photo on the right, I simply dripped chocolate from a spoon onto a blue plate. The effect comes from shining the flash across the plate from the bottom left, and I used the second flash, with less intensity, on the bottom right to remove most of the shadows…

It’s going to be too busy, coming into the season, to play much with this. I’ll be scooping ice cream. Maybe it’s for the best. I could spend weeks fooling around!

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New Toys

Fuscia Trying to take photos of ice cream and ingredients without a macro lens has been quite frustrating, so I talked my brother into letting me spend some ice cream money on my Nikon D80. After all, there is the possibility of an ice cream book, and one would want it to look well.

BumblebeeAfter much research, I decided on a Nikkor 105mm micro lens as well as Nikon’s close-up R1C1 flash system.

I have to say I’m already in love with the lens. I unpacked the lens and took it straight into the garden. The fuscia above and the bumblebee are the result.

I can’t wait to work out the flash system and try it out on food!

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Chocolaterie de l’Opera

Chocolaterie De L'Opera For those in the catering business, there is a new chocolate company out there, started by Olivier de Loisy, a son in the family that started Valrhona. Chocolaterie de l’Opera is priced slightly lower than Valrhona, and they have a range of single estate chocolates for catering only.

Cocoa Nibs

The chocolate is very good, although my brother and I both think that Valrhona still edges it in terms of clarity of flavour. It’s definitely worth a taste, though, if you’re looking for chocolate for your kitchen.

One of their most interesting offerings is toasted cocoa nibs (right). We could definitely find a use for those!

The distributor in Ireland is La Rousse Foods.

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Staffing Shortage in Dingle

Help wanted 

It often is hard to find good staff in Dingle, but this year things are verging on the ridiculous. Our shop manager, Russell, is leaving us, and we’re going into the season short four people in our Dingle shop. We have ads in and notices up, and we are getting very few replies indeed.

Staff shortages are a Dingle phenomenon, at least when it comes to the service industry, and the situation has become more difficult in recent times. We have loads of interest every time we hire in Killarney, but take a walk through Dingle, and you will see a parade of help-wanted signs in shop and restaurant windows. If it wasn’t for the influx of foreign nationals, I think Dingle would have to shut down.

What to do? It’s always been possible to pick up a few college students, but that doesn’t help much come October, when we still need staff and students are back in school. We need a core of permanent employees.

It would seem that people like myself and my brother, who think that living in Dingle and working in an ice cream shop is about as cool as it gets, are very rare indeed…

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New Shop in Cork

The Blue Olive, Cork There is a great new gourmet shop in Cork called the Blue Olive that’s definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area. It’s run by the personable Ken and stocks interesting wines, cheeses, ready meals, and lots of tasty snacks (including our ice cream!)

The addess is Marble Hill, Boreenmanna Road, Cork.

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Election 2007 – Michael McDowell, Ta¡naiste

Michael McDowell This evening, Sean met Michael McDowell at his constituency office in Dublin, where the Justice Minister had returned after a long day on the campaign trail. Mr. McDowell kindly made time for a photo.

Here’s the fact file:

I think this will be the final one in the series, as tomorrow there is no campaigning… Best of luck to all the candidates, and my apologies to all the ones we missed! 

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