Coco de Mer – Seychelles Family Recipe

Since my last collaboration with Once Upon A Table Melbourne for the Lost in Jerusalem dinner event, I’ve been anxiously waiting for the OUAT team to contact me again for future collaborations and one day they did! Hallelujah.

This time it is called Coco de Mer – Seychelles Family Recipe.

On Sat 18 Oct 2014, Once Upon A Table Melbourne event transported their guests to the exotic sights, smells and tastes of the Seychelles Islands. The hosts Alain, Eva and their parents Christine and Serge generously opened their home and shared their family memories and recipes alongside with the talented Once Upon A Table team Vittoria, Bridget, Sophie, Sarah N, Sarah L and family. Big thanks to our sponsors The Collection Fine Wine, Pino Fine Produce, Royal Hamam Crockery, Kwencher Premium Beer.

Seychelles is an island nation, located in the indian ocean close to Madagascar. To fit the theme, OUAT team hung fishing nets, shells and scattered coconuts, surfboards, orchids and sand to create the island atmosphere.

Upon arrivals, the guests were served with Coco De Mer colada with fresh pineapple and grapefruit cocktail. The entree was fragrant seafood bisque with lobster and tarragon, followed by mouth-watering main dishes of Tender silverside and eggplant curry & whole bbq-ed red snapper with ginger, garlic and chilli wrapped in banana leaf.

Dessert was the coconut, lime and lemongrass pudding with biscuit crumb, passionfruit curd, white chocolate mousse, ginger crisp and dehydrated pineapple.

The night was simply perfect.

 

Lost in Jerusalem – Secret Supper Dinner in Melbourne

My first ever collaboration with the talented team of Once Upon A Table for their Lost In Jerusalem secret dinner in Melbourne. It was such a fun and enjoyable collaboration, and I can tell you that there were A LOT of delicious food that night.

The secret home location for the secret supper dinner was the modern apartment of Ahmad and Jen in South Yarra. Ahmed is Palestinean and his father was born in Jerusalem which made them the perfect host for this event. Stylists Bridget and Aurora worked their magic to transform Ahmad and Jen’s modern 2 bed apartment into an exotic Jerusalem tea house and awesome feasting rooftop terrace. Below are some of the film photos that I took and you can head onto Once Upon A Table’s Blog for more photos.

I would like to thank Ahmed, Jen, Angie Ma, Vittoria Chiarilli, Sophie, Bridget and the rest of OUAT’s team, including Vitti’s young daughters for the awesome event and delicious food.

Orpheus

This blogpost is long overdue. A couple of months ago, I collaborated with K is for Kani for a quick photoshoot to showcase one of her favorite designer’s dress. I’ve been slacking and never had a chance to show these photos on here.

Photos are shot with a mix of Portra 400 and Fuji 400H. More photos can be found here at K is for Kani’s Blog.

For those who are interested, Connie is wearing Alice McCall Maxi Dress: Orpheus.

Study Room

I finally bought myself a proper study desk after contemplating which one to choose. I went with stationary trestle study desk from Freedom Furniture, which was on special last weekend. Here’s a glimpse of how it looks in my study.

Jesse’s trying to help me with my editing.

 

Fort Nepean

Took a day trip exploring the Fort Nepean – Mornington Peninsula yesterday. It was the former defensive facility occupying part of Point Nepean,Victoria. We had to park our car at the parking area and walked approx. 2km one way to the engine house. It was pouring earlier in the day and then the wind was freakishly strong that we struggled to walk a straight line. 

To this date, this place is called “Victoria’s Gibraltar”, and here are some photos taken after the rain.

Jesse “Pinkman” Boston Terrier

I’ve been very busy lately with moving out of my old rental place & moving into my new home. Also, I’ve been kept busy with the newest addition to my family member – Jesse. I’ve always wanted a dog and finally now that I have my own place I’m able to own one.

Here’s a little bit about Jesse. She’s named after Jesse Pinkman (One of the main characters in the TV series Breaking Bad). Jesse is a Boston Terrier and I adopted her when she’s 7 months old. By the time I’m writing this blog, she’s approx. 11 months now. Time does flies. Anyway, here are some photos I have taken of her at her best behaviour.

 

The Adriani Family

Christina and I acquainted when we both attended a food photography workshop, but we found out we actually had some mutual friends.

Her parents and sister were visiting Melbourne at the time so she asked if I could do a casual family portraits for them. She mentioned it’s a rare occasion that her whole families were at the same place at the same period of time, so I hope these photos captured those happy moments that hopefully someday they’ll treasure with nostalgia.

Spring is here!

Okay, I didn’t do much on the weekend aside from house hunting again and again. Someday I’m going to find my dream home.

I was supposed to be shooting a couple session last weekend, but due to a little hiccup we had to postpone it. This couple is getting married at the end of November and guess who their wedding photographer is (Hint: your reading his blog right now).

Our rendezvous was at the State Library in the CBD, and as usual while waiting I took some snapshots of the surroundings.

And lastly, I’ll leave you with a photo of the flower bouquet that the guy gave the girl.

Winter Photowalk in the CBD

I’ve been really swamped with work and some personal stuff, so the blog has been abandoned for a while now.

I shot through a roll of Fuji400H one weekend and I finally get the scans back. This is not scanned by my usual lab, but by a mate from Sydney who owns an amazing film scanner. Man, everytime I shoot film I always feel so impressed how the colours and tones just come out perfectly.

Anyway, the photos were about some kinda protests that happened that weekend in front of the Melbourne State Library. Hope you guys like them.

Food Styling & Photography

Okay, I have to admit that I have a soft spot for food photography. Second to portraiture, food photography is probably the only other genre that I feel comfortable with. Most of my food photos were taken in a restaurant with no proper styling and lighting and I got really frustrated editing those photos when I got home.

I recently found out that Billy Law – the talented guy behind A Table For Two – was coming to Melbourne to conduct a food photography workshop. I hesitated at first because I’ve never been to a food workshop before and feel slightly awkward but I took the plunge and registered it eventually, and it was possibly one of the best decisions I have ever made. From the workshop I got to know some talented photographers & food bloggers and on top of it all I got to learn more about food styling by Billy himself.

Here are some of my favorite photos taken from the workshop. Note: I got to eat almost all of these food.