Cooking with Allison

Allison Duffy is a long time friend and former work associate from the Anyplace Wild Television days when we were both living in the Mid-Coast.  These days Allison is the mother of two great little boys, a master canner, model, TV personality and an amazing chef.  We recently worked together on a project for Down East Books on making Whoopie Pies at home with your kids.  That book is due out this Spring.  Whenever I get to work with Allison I know it will be fun.  The other day she called and said she was making and canning Marmalade.  Yum!  I grabbed my gear and headed over to her place for a morning of documenting the process involved in actually making and then canning the marmalade.  It was a bit of a process but Allison made it look easy and when it was all done the final marmalade was so tasty.  Thanks for the call Allison.  See you next time in the kitchen.

Picture of the day

Today I was in Cape Elizabeth photographing a bathroom that had just had it tile shower remodeled.  I was on assignment for the contractor.  After I had wrapped things up with the shoot, I was packing up my camera gear and noticed Sam was doing some work on a window in the master bedroom.   It was one of those perfect picture moments and I just snapped away until he was done.  

Inside the B&M Baked Bean factory

For as long as I have lived in Maine I have been fascinated by the building that houses the B&M Baked Bean factory.  Driving North or South along I-295 through Portland it is hard to miss the iconic smoke stack and large main building that sits right along the shore of Casco Bay in East Portland.  The building complex sits by itself and juts out into the water just across from the Eastern Prom Path and is often a awash with beautiful evening light at sunset.  It is one of those factory buildings from a bygone era that luckily has not had it's jobs shipped off to a foreign land.  The latest generation of workers still produce the famous B&M Baked Beans using the same recipe and techniques that have been in place for decades.  Two years ago I was fortunate enough to land an editorial assignment to photograph the factory for Port City Life Magazine, now Maine The Magazine.  I was elated to finally get a chance to view the factory and see a Portland landmark  that very few people outside of the workers have seen.  There is a quiet beauty inside these large factory buildings that I am attracted to and always speaks to my cameras.  I spent a good part of the day there and received the full top to bottom tour and had the pleasure of meeting the latest generation of workers.  Photographing the factory and seeing it as an industrial landscape was fantastic.  The faces of the workers, some third generation, really left the biggest and warmest impression on me.  Highlights from this shoot can be seen here.  

Waiting for the snow

While the Mid Atlantic states have been getting pounded with feet of snow, up here in Maine we have seen very little snow this Winter.  It has been clear and cold and from a weather standpoint, very uneventful.  I know most of my community enjoys settling in for a number of big storms, digging out and then getting out to play in the snow.  I had planned on skiing at least one day at all of the major ski areas in the state this year.  But being a bit of a snow snob have only gotten one powder day in this season.  With little snow on the ground we have been blessed with bountiful sunshine.  The other night I was out and about and caught the Eastland Park Hotel facade lit up by the setting sun.  It was gorgeous and the first time I had seen that quality of light hitting the hotel. After a few minutes of shooting the sun had dropped from view and I was glad to be in the right place with some great images in the camera.

A Tony's kinda day

Eating healthy is pretty much a way of life around here.  My wife Kathrina refers to me as the "portion control king". I am fine with title because I am confident in my ways knowing that we really do not need to eat a ton to be nourished.  But some days it is perfectly normal to say... I need a donut or two, maybe even three and now! Thankfully one of the best donut shops in the state is located less then a mile from my home office. Today was definitely a Tony's donut kinda day!