SNAKSHOT

Thanks for the memory stick. Here's a quick little dinner gallery of thumbnails I threw together from images that have been occupying my flash drive. Usually I pick a single image from my digital photo album and run it; being especially low on IT resources these days I figured I'd maximize efforts and post everything I had stored on the tiny drive! Hope you like.

I discovered these shots by surprise, much like digging into the pocket of last season's jacket and discovering a $20 bill. They sure are handy, those memory sticks. Mine was torn off its keychain long ago, lost its protective cap, stepped on and taped up with hockey tape, dropped in water and left out to dry. Yet it still functions. Meanwhile Site Meter continues to flounder and my laptop is still in the shop recovering from essential repair involving a serious directory error.

The good news is that in a couple of hours, I'll have my iBook back in my hands. My site meter, still AWOL, should be back at about the same time, fingers crossed, making both events Saturday morning crises that were looked at Monday and solved by Thursday. Knock on wood.

SNAKSHOT

It's time for your close-up, fishie.

If you like eating warm meals, the snakshot life may not be for you: My more photogenic dinners make for gruelling drawn-out photo sessions and you don't get to munch until work is done. Hot lights, fickle AA batteries... this line of work is not all glamour, no matter what you may have heard. If I'm lucky I've got a splash of unoaked Chardonnay or Tocai Friuliano to keep me going. Once the posedown stops, I've built myself up a mean appetite and, fortunately, something worthy of snacking on until the next attractive catch swims by.

This trout plate looked so good that I ran it twice: sumptuous at close range, and looking delicious in this previous aerial shot I snapped. It's a wrap.

Four, three, two... and then there was one

People groan when they see me with a camera. With all the candid shots I have of wine being drunk by people I know, it's no wonder I end up drinking alone!









Research for my blog can be lonely work.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The above image of me conducting a solo wine investigation at a bar in Montmartre coincidentally includes a bar drink [Thanks to Scratch Colin at See, Sip, Taste, Hear for pointing this out -- keep separating the poison ivy from the parsley, Colin]. This photo was taken just after I had swooped down to a table recently abandoned by locals. My forensic research was to find out more about why people would pass over the amazingly affordable French wine -- delicious and indigenous -- and opt for a canned bar drink instead. These locals had left behind clues for me: Prints of the Centre Pompidou made from poorly exposed negatives. A half-empty glass of rye and Coke with a twist. One swizzle stick, quickly cast aside and still moist with tiny droplets. Conclusion: These Parisians fled after suddenly realizing that they could've been taking well-developed pictures of each other drinking great French wine and saving money while doing it.)