I love Top Chef, the television show. I love making pictures of chefs and of course their food!
In the last few weeks I've had the opportunity to photograph Chef Brian Dukes and Chef de Cuisine, Adams Hayne at The Blue Marlin Restaurant in Columbia, smack dab in the middle of the Vista. They are the first photos you see and Chef Laurence Gottlieb at Hamptons on the corner of Main St and Hampton Avenue in Sumter. Yes, that is a real chicken that Chef Laurence is holding. All of these chefs are true artists. I highly recommend a visit to both restaurants if you love great food.
If you are searching for great catering for your wedding, rehearsal dinner or just having a great event and need some great food, you should check out Carolina Cuisine, www.carolinacuisinesc.com.
I got a chance to sample some of their food at the Bollywood /PAALS fundraiser at the Windermere Country Club. The event was to raise money for PAALS (Palmetto Animal Assisted Life Services) who train and provide dogs for individuals with varying disabilities. Carolina Cuisine stepped up with some great Indian inspired dishes that tasted as great as they looked.
On occasion I do some work for the Charleston Silver Lady, www.charlestonsilverlady.com, Dawn Evers Corley. She is the expert on everything silver and her knowledge of antiques is amazing. Whenever I get to shoot some of her latest collections it's like being asked to photograph museum pieces, except they are not under glass or behind ropes and I can hold them. It's quite a treat.
Some of the latest things she had asked me to shoot where wedding antiques. In the large photo you'll see pieces that might have been given as a gift to the bride. From a silver fruit basket, to ornate silver flatware and in the upper right of the image a silver basket that held the wedding bouquet, wrapped of course in cypress grass. All of these items date in the 1800's and some even before. But what I found truly beautiful was the tiny silver vial in the shape of an ear of corn. This was tied to the wedding bouquet and the bride would catch the tears from her wedding day in it.
If your looking for that unique gift for that special bride, something that can be passed down through the generations, check out the Charleston Silver lady. She has a shop in Lexington, S.C. open by appointment only. It's a beautiful trip into the past.
I'm lucky to have some really great friends.
One of them is Stan, who refuses to tell me what he shoots on the golf course and I think it might be in the 70's, who had some extra Masters practice round golf passes that he wasn't going to be able to use. So he called me up to see if I might like to have them. YES!, I shouted into the phone and I think Stan's hearing might have finally returned this week, but I was very excited.
Even if you don't like golf, and I actually do-but am a terrible player, the Augusta National Golf Club course is beautiful. For golfers it is holy ground. The grass is perfect, the trees are perfect, it is in a word, perfect.
On practice days, the days before the tournament, you can bring in cameras and ask for autographs. So I brought my cameras but was only allowed to bring in one, the other, Augusta said, was too big. I was sad, but happy to have at least one allowed in and me and my husband Dale headed out to the course.
Here are some pictures of the course, including Australian golfer John Senden putting, former Master's champions, Bernhard Langer and Ben Crenshaw, who was laughing about the pencils having erasers. Lunch is very inexpensive at Augusta and everything has the Masters's logo on it. The last photo is of 18 year-old Byeong-Hun An of Korea signing autographs. He is a high school senior. This is his first Masters's appearance and he is the youngest winner of the U.S. Amateur championship, beating out Clemson's Ben Martin--who is also at this year's Masters. Hope you enjoy.
