Great Food Photos

Back in February 2010, I started a blog featuring other food photographers. I was tired of reading the same old questions. Questions about cameras, f-stops, pixels, settings…etc. I wanted to read about the photographer’s thoughts and process. What a photographer was thinking about when she/he took an image. So I started Great Food Photos and immediately emailed all my favorite photographers. Though the blog has been its own thing for 9+ years, I decided to combine it with this blog and so here we are.

I’ve been pretty lucky for the past 9+ years. I was able to connect with many of my photography heroes and was surprised by how open they were with me.

You can check out all the interviews below! Also be sure to subscribe to my blog for any future interviews. Thanks!

A
Ashley E. Rodriguez Abby Powell Thompson Anais And Dax Anna Williams Andrea Gentl Aran Goyoaga

B
Beth Kirby Brian Ferry Bonnie Tsang

C
Connie Thadewaldt Chris Ford

D
Ditte Isager David Hagerman Dylan Ho

E
Elizabeth Cecil

G
Greg DuPree

H
Hong-An Tran

J
James Ransom Jenna Park Jennifer Causey Justin Sullivan & Josh Weisberg Julie Marie Craig

K
Kelly Brisson Khue Ly Kim+Phil Kimberley Hasselbrink

M
Marie Pierre Morel Marta Greber Melina Hammer Maja Danica Pecanic Molly Wizenberg Molly Yeh Marina Aurora Michael A. Muller Meeta Khurana Wolff Mallory Elise Melissa Camero Ainslie Michael Graydon

N
Nick Solares Nicole Frazen Nik Sharma

P
Peter Bagi Pigamitha Dimar

R
Roger Stowell

S
Stephanie Shih Stuart Ovenden

T
Tara O'Brady Tara Sgroi Teri Lyn Fisher Tom Smith Tomo Kohsaka

V
Valentina Solfrini Valery Rizzo

Y
Yossy Arefi

North Adams

WOW! I was not expecting to find awesome barbeque in western Massachusetts but I did! More on that later but yeah, I’m still dreaming about the brisket.

We finally took our MASS MoCA trip at the end of April. It’s been on my to-go list for quite a while and I definitely needed the time off from NYC. I love Mass MoCA, it’s 200,000 square feet of art and barely a soul around. Maybe because we went on a Monday? It just felt like we were alone…and was free to roam the entire museum.

My favorites were James Turrell’s Perfectly Clear and all of Sol LeWitt. I have seen Sol LeWitt at Dia: Beacon but not at this scale. We were treated to 3 whole floors of his work and it was just amazing.

Trenton Hancock

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Ahhhhhhhhh………A-OK Berkshire Barbeque. Another reason to love MASS MoCA, great barbeque. A-OK sits at one of the entrances to the museum. It’s a tiny shack but you can bring your food into the brewery across the driveway. I was super looking forward to this meal, not just for the meat, but also the bread. The owner bakes her own baguette and I strongly recommend getting one. It was crispy, crusty, and soft. Oh the brisket ($13 for half a pound) was amazing. Flavorful, soft, and peppery. It’s up there next to Hometown BBQ as one of my favorites. Another great bite was the mac n’cheese! I ended up dipping the baguette into the cheese. YUM!

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We stayed at Tourists for two nights and really loved it. It was beautiful, cool, and quiet. My favorite part was napping on the window nook daybed after a long drive on our first day. The check-in/out and common space were lovely as well.

Although the food was a hit and miss. We ordered a pizza, salad, potatoes with miso aioli, and a pasta on our first night. The salad was kind of weird and we ended up not eating it. The potatoes were great and the pasta (red sauce with 'nduja and ramps) was fine. The pizza…hmm….I wanted to like it. The crust was nice but there was too much cheese and a little too salty.

But dinner on our second night was great. We had the cheeseburger (delicious), crispy chicken over a bed of barley (it was some time of grain) risotto, and a beet and fennel salad.

For breakfast we shared a rye waffle (SO GOOD!) with sweet ricotta, maple syrup, and sour cherry compote on the side.

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On our way home we stopped at The Clark Art Institute. You can get a combo ticket that gets you into both MASS MoCA and The Clark for $6 less. We didn’t spend too much time at The Clark but we definitely want to come back later in the year to see their Ida O’Keefe exhibition and to hike up to Stone Hill (right behind The Clark).

It Does Not Spark Joy Anymore

As always I waited till the last…very last day to write a blog. I need to change.

I’m sure y’all are pretty tired of hearing “spark joy” by now but I do find it useful. I have moved beyond using the phrase to help me tidy up my apartment though. I’m now using it with my social media life, my photography, and the things I consume..

Does fried chicken spark joy? The answer is always yes.

So last week while I was on the elliptical (so I can eat more fried chicken), I was listening to the Taste Podcast with Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis from Bestia and Bavel as guests. Do you also listen to podcasts while working out? Anyways, at one point during the interview Genevieve Gergis said she had quit Instagram. Very much like me, she found herself checking Instagram in the morning. Literally the first thing she did every morning. She said looking at Instagram is like consuming empty calories. It didn’t give her anything in return so she deleted the app. I didn’t go as far as deleting the app but I am trying to look at it less. It does not spark joy for me anymore. I realized earlier that I need the likes. I would post images and tag them so that I would get likes. I couldn’t do it anymore. I wanted to enjoy Instagram for the reason it was created. The same reason why posting on flickr was fun back in the day. I want to share my ideas, my vision, and what I find to be beautiful just for the pure joy of it. No more adding 20…50 hashtags.

Why don’t y’all give me a follow? https://www.instagram.com/donny_tsang/

You know what’s been really sparking joy for me? Making pizza. I’ll save that topic for the March entry.

It's February And It's Going To Be Okay

So I’m about a month late into talking about my 2019 goals. Not resolutions but goals. Goals are things to improve myself on a daily….monthly basis. Which hopefully will become something permanent. I’ve been trying to go to the gym at least 3 times a week, that’s one goal. Another goal is to blog more (HELLO!) which I kind of failed already by waiting till February.

And then there are 2 goals that are related. 1 goal is to read more and spend less time on the phone. Another goal is to stop using Amazon to buy books. Let me tell you. Few months ago after seeing Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris, hosts of Still Processing, interviewed author Samin Nosrat about her new Netflix special Salt Fat Acid Heat, my girlfriend and I quickly wanted to get her book. As we were walking home, down 10th Street in the West Village, we came upon Three Lives & Company. We decided to go in to buy the book instead of using Amazon. Wow wow. We had the MOST wonderful experience at a book store. The owner was a fan of Samin and we ended up chatting with him about Samin and her book. After that brief encounter, I decided to stop using Amazon and begin to support local bookstores.

The human connection is so powerful. We definitely live in a world where people are losing that by being on social media. Social media was created so that we could connect with other people but instead it’s doing the opposite.

Anyways, I just finished “Fashion Climbing“ Bill Cunningham’s memoir and currently reading “Number One Chinese Restaurant” by Lillian Li.

Bill Cunningham’s book is very inspiring. He wrote about his childhood when his mom wouldn’t allow him to express himself through his clothing choices. And when he was struggling as a hat maker in New York City and no one gave him any attention. Every obstacle he faced, he found a way to turn it into an opportunity with 100% optimism.

When I get stuck, I get stuck. I should start seeing everything as an opportunity and be optimistic about it.