A Friday Favorite

     
     I'd like to take a minute on this fine Friday afternoon and set aside a moment to highlight one of the simple pleasures in life. Cupcakes. No, it's not a deeply personal subject. And it has absolutely nothing to do with my art or creative life whatsoever. But some of the sweetness of life is just stopping to notice the good things. I may make a regular habit of doing this on future fridays, I'm not sure. But for now, I'm going to stop and give the stage to one of my favorite sweet parts of the sweet life. 


     The inspiration for this personal observation is that I've just made one of the great discoveries of my life: a quality gourmet bakery. While I realize the thrill of this discovery could easily be lost on many people, I would like to take a moment to celebrate it anyway. Polka Dot Bake Shop in Charlotte, NC is one of those amazing, unassuming, little gems that's just doing everything right. Being the cupcake aficionado that I am, I feel perfectly qualified to hold them up to the highest standards of cupcakey excellence. And let me tell you my friends, they pass with flying colors. They feature flavors like Pumpkin Turtle, Salted Caramel, Chai Latte, and Mexican Hot Chocolate. But the one that takes the cake (pardon the pun) is one of their featured Saturday flavors, the Honey Almond. I've never been much for the flavors of either honey or almond. So it was a complete shock to my peanut butter and chocolate loving system when I first tasted this little piece of perfection. It's this perfectly light and fluffy almond cupcake with honey almond cream cheese icing, crushed almond praline, and sliced almonds. So simple. Yet amazingly balanced and just beautiful. It is officially my single favorite dessert to date.


     And while I'm shouting the wonders of the Polka Dot Bake Shop from the highest mountain (or at least my blog), I'd be completely remiss to not mention the muffins. Oh, the muffins! They have a Sweet Potato muffin with a cream cheese center that could make some men cry. And again, I have to say I've never been a great lover of sweet potatoes. But somehow, they've done it again. They've taken flavors that have never been particularly appealing to me and created something so perfect that I am completely swayed. There is no room for improvement as far as I can see. My family was so impressed by these muffins that we had them overnighted to my cousin out in Utah for her birthday because we knew how much she would love them. She is a lover of all things sweet potato, and I don't think she's ever met a muffin she didn't like. So, I figured these would probably be a pretty big hit with her. She said when she opened them they were just as fresh as if they'd just come out of the oven that morning. She loved them so much she stopped and took a moment while enjoying them and her chai latte to take a picture of how beautiful her little meal was, so we could enjoy it together from a distance. That is one special muffin in my opinion.


     I didn't intend to write a restaurant review as much as I just wanted to say how great this little cupcake discovery was, but credit should be given when it is deserved. Many people and businesses go through everyday doing just the bare minimum, taking no pride in their work, or endeavoring to create anything special. I think it's nice to find a place, a simple bakery, that is inspired, responsible, and takes pride in what they do. If you live anywhere in the area, I highly recommend a visit to see them for yourself. But I also know from personal experience that their baked goods stay fresh for several days and handle being shipped very very well. And believe me, it's well worth it. Check them out at www.polkadotbakeshop.com. And take a look around your area to see what local, small businesses are doing an excellent job, and creating something wonderful. It's important to support these businesses and make sure we have them as part of our communities. My favorite is a cupcake bakery, but it could be anything. It's all about people putting their hearts into what they're doing, and doing it with excellence. I think that's an art, all on it's own. And in my case, Cupcake Art is my new Friday favorite. What's yours?

Sherrin's Bridal Portrait

   Last week my sweet cousin Sherrin married the love of her life, Tim, in Charlotte, NC in a beautiful afternoon garden wedding. They had a long hard road to get to where they could walk down that aisle, but when they finally did, it was just perfect. As a wedding photographer, I've been to a lot of weddings, to say the least. And I've seen a lot of brides walking down the aisle. But I don't think I've ever seen a groom looking at his bride the way that my new cousin Tim looked at Sherrin. He was almost glowing. I'm taking a break from wedding photography this year, so I didn't shoot the wedding. One of my dearest friends, Adam Coker at Authentic Exposure, did an amazing job with his team shooting the entire wedding weekend. Check him out at www.authenticexposure.com. I did get to spend some great time together with Sherrin doing a bridal portrait as a wedding gift for them. The shoot was split into two different segments. The first, in the blue ridge mountains in Asheville, NC, and the second on Baker's Mountain at our beloved Camp Joy. I can't say how happy I am that Sherrin and Tim are finally married, and that the wedding went so wonderfully. They're going to be living in Germany, which is hard for our whole family, but we've adjusted to it and are really happy for them. We're just going to have to find a new normal, and work a lot harder at skypeing and emailing to help span the distance. It's so hard being separated from the ones we love. In my heart I want to pull everyone close and have them all in arm's reach. But I also love them enough to want them to have wings to fly. It's a hard and confusing thing this love stuff. I guess the most important part is that the love we have between us in our family is strong. And those roots run deep. So whether we're separated by miles and oceans, or if we get the rare occassion to all be under the same roof, our love for one another is unchanged. And the depth of the pain from being apart is just a reflection of the depth of love between us and the ones we miss.
   So, I wanted to share some of the bridal portraits of our beautiful Sherrin. We had a great time, as always, shooting them, and she couldn't have looked prettier. This professional break from photography has been really good for me so far, and I think it's accomplishing what I'd hoped it would. This bridal shoot was a good experiment in that it really showed me that I have missed photography and that those creative juices run deep. I felt more excited and eager to shoot than I have in a long time, and that felt pretty great. I'm sure a good part of that was that it was Sherrin I was shooting, but I know that a lot of it was just the creativity of setting up and taking the shots. On a side note, Sherrin and Tim have spent the majority of their courtship traveling back and forth between America and Germany. And because traveling has been such a big part of her life, she wanted to reflect that in some of the portraits by having her suitcase in some of the shots. I say that just to explain that it had a purpose, and wasn't some random prop. Although I think it worked out looking pretty cool. As always, I'm very open and eager for feedback and/or suggestions. I love hearing other people's, and artists', perspectives and suggestions so I can see it from a different angle than my own. You can click on the individual photos to view a slightly larger version. Thanks for checking them out.