Fruit Flies Don't Bother Me

Today we are going on a little excursion, but a mere mile from our home. We will visit a wonderful "plein air" fruit market full of all kinds of deliciousness. We won't let a tiny little fruit fly get in the way of our fun.

Nestled under gigantic sheltering trees, and adjacent to a fabulous old stone building which serves DELICIOUS BBQ, is our favorite open air market. Southern hospitality. Fresh fruit. Crisp fresh veggies. And that is just the beginning, they also sell homemade jams, jellies and FRESH SALSA.

No way is a little Fruit Fly, pesky thing that it is, stopping our FUN.  Best to share a secret with you, my purpose to come to the market is two fold.  

One: we needed to purchase a HUGE, yummy watermelon and cantaloupe to take to a party this evening. Two: I received a fantastic SURPRISE PRESENT while visiting family in Utah. My sister, a gifted photographer specializing in Wild Life Animals, with all her generosity of spirit , wanted me to OWN a CAMERA that would challenge me in ways I could never dream of.  It was a present beyond comprehension and expectation. I owe her such a BIG THANK YOU. She is offering me new worlds to explore!!! She is quite the taskmaster, giving me ten months to "get under control" this amazing, INCREDIBLE CAMERA. This all bubbles down to DAILY PRACTICE.  So today's practice is shooting pictures at the plein air market. (Yes, I asked permission, even though the owner of the adjacent BBQ restaurant sneaked up on me, scaring me to death and asked why I was snooping around!!!!!! "Whoa, Bill"  I squeaked out, "I am practicing my photo taking, my sister "made me do it" and I was intrigued by the TEXTURE of your stiff dirty, drying mops adjacent to your fabulous stone wall. "  He smiled and walked away. Okay, first lesson, when in doubt ASK PERMISSION!!!

My new camera presents a BIG BIGGER BIGGEST learning curve for me, no more fast Sony Shots. Please be patient when photos are loopy, out of focus or wacky!  Blame it on me trying to figure out an F stop from Aperture; Raw from Regular; Auto focus (love that) to full Manual. But from now on baby, all photos on my Blogs will be with the Big Boy/ mmm rather Big MAMA.  ( Well still madly in LOVE with my i Phone, so those will be included.)

Great textures in baskets and these were the few that were empty.  

Better still are baskets bulging full of lusciousness rather than empty. When I return to market have to purchase a few of these gorgeous orbs of color and flavor. Any one tried these before?

Experiment here: fading away the background image( a good excuse because I didn't get the settings correct.) I wanted to focus on the fresh peaches the owner had just piled on. Made my mouth water!

When I get better at macro shots you will be able to see the baby soft fuzz on these peaches.

Overheard conversation while taking pictures: a beautiful white haired woman at least in her 80's, plucky, happy, energetic and smart as a whip was the guardian/cashier of the market. She and another white haired gentleman were discussing the tomatoes. She said,"My mother used to bake homemade bread, slather it with butter and THICK sliced sun ripened tomatoes. Nothing better."  To which the customer replied,"My mother used to bake homemade bread, slather it with butter and thick sliced  ONIONS. Nothing better."

In my younger years, raising a family, I WORSHIPED everything that Martha Stewart wrote, printed or published. There wasn't a book I didn't own. Loved all of the lovely food photos. Seeing these gorgeous HEIRLOOM tomatoes brought back memories of Martha Stewart cooking days. I never did raise her chickens that laid pastel colored eggs!

I close with the least successful of the photos, but the one I tried the hardest to take. The textures were fascinating and I wasn't too sure what to focus on, so I deliberately blurred out the sides to take your eye to the mangoes...my favorite fruit.

This posting would be complete if I could show you a HOMEMADE peach cobbler, an onion and tomato sandwich, or a glass of bubbly with muscadine grapes.  But we did split open the watermelon and cantaloupe and they were FANTASTICALLY SWEET!!! Which reminds me I forgot my favorite photo of all...

I call it The NON CONFORMIST!